BUILD YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
GAC EXPERT ZOË KIRK-ROBINSON IS READY TO GET YOUR ADVENTURE GOING WITH HER +6 TOME OF TIPS
QUICKSTART FOR A QUICKSTART
“Incentive kindly included a Quickstart file to save time. It’s called QS.ADV, and it’s an excellent set of starter commands, codes and messages that gives you the basics for most adventures. Load it up when you begin, and it will save you a lot of time.”
KEEP A SCROLL HANDY
“Good adventures take many sessions, and you’ll forget what you used Marker 7 for when you’re knee-deep into your coding. Keep notes on what each marker is checking for, which room your objects will be used in, what your verbs/nouns are, and everything else. It saves hours.”
RE-USE NOUNS AND VERBS
“You only have 256 verbs, nouns and adverbs available, so remember to re-use everything you can. This saves memory and allows you to use synonyms because you can add several words as the name, verb or noun number. For example, a switch set as noun 1 can also be a toggle or a lever.”
AWESOME ADVERBS
“Do you have different types of swords available? Or different coloured potions? Save memory by using size and colour adverbs alongside a generic noun. This way, all those coloured potion adverbs can be re-used for a series of coloured levers at another point in your game without reducing your memory overheads.”
MULTIPLE MESSAGES
“Any command can print multiple messages. This allows a long response to commands and also lets you change details inside examine results. Set a generalised message followed by a specific one, and you can create in-depth results that make your adventures come alive.”
SAVE, SAVE AND SAVE
“I once lost six weeks of game coding because I accidentally deleted a vital piece of code over my latest adventure. Ouch! Since then, I have used multiple numbered save files, and I save every hour. Learn from my mistake; don’t lose your games.”