Gaming Culture: What ever happened with Text Adventure Games ? (Interactive Fiction)

[@GaminGHD]

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[@cryptojonny6837]

I actually have ideas for a text adventure game but not sure what site to go on to create one.

[@mr.k3329]

Ahhh but there is one game which survived the test of time and did not succumb to the fate of all those who came before it. A game known as Gemstone IV. The current and longest lasting game of it's kind. Over 40 years in age.

[@jarvispecl3761]

I'm writing a survival text based game on python. It has a proper inventory, hunger system, construction and crafting systems, as well as exploration, gathering and hunting. As of right now, it has five inventory slots, but I plan on increasing.

[@Pamven]

How's it going?

[@jarvispecl3761]

@@Pamven I haven't worked on it for a while. Would help if I could keep focus for 2 seconds lol

[@Pamven]

^^ You have our support! 😁

[@criss_cross0014]

Please give us an update

[@lanesvm]

Linkk

[@KoindraYT]

Earlier this year I made a text based street fighter where it was just combos. It was pretty fun with friends but I lost every match I have played.

[@robodragonn9506]

That sounds great is there somewhere i can play it

[@mistervoolish7178]

I have been thinking about doing that in the one im trying to make.

[@hanschristiaanhylkema]

A good video but for me the most important thing isn't mentioned. In todays games you see every game 100% as it is imagined by the developers but with games with limited graphics you use your own imagination to create the parts of the game world that aren't shown. Because you had to use your OWN imagination a lot, your own ideas became part of the game so, in a way the game's story would mix with your own ideas and that made playing through an old adventure game sometimes more of a personal experience. Also, old adventure games could be very hard because there was often only 1 single way to tackle a problem and you couldn't read a walkthough on the internet. That difficulty factor made it common for myself to play single player games with others, just because you sometimes needed an extra brain to solve a difficult puzzle. I think the lack of internet back in the days made people realise there was no way to progress in a game unless you invested in it or got a friend to help solve a puzzle. I think those two facts made these games feel more like a challenge and an actual adventure.

[@itscrescentmoon]

Hans Hylkema i just played one and i felt so connected to the people in the story and every text line created a image in my head

[@FeelingShred]

@Hans Recently I played Rogue and Angband for the first time ever and felt exactly like that, your imagination fill in the blanks. Every monster encounter is terrifying, because you could die at any moment. Tried playing with graphical tiles but it's not the same feeling, got back to ASCII

[@hanschristiaanhylkema]

@@itscrescentmoon oh cool, that sounds like a very nice immersive experience.

[@zemxxi2765]

One thing I've noticed with a lot of old text adventure games (I've accessed them through abandonware sites) is that a lot of them were actually very minimalistic in their descriptiveness. They didn't give much for your imagination to really use. You are told the room that you are in and the exits present as well as any objects of interest. But there is no "writing" outside of that. They play a lot like the original Colossal Cave Adventure which was kind of barebones in its descriptions most of the time. I'm sure this was due to disk space limitation and the desire to cut costs by limiting a game to one disk/one side. But that extra descriptive writing and prose could have given you the feeling that you are actually there, not just playing a game that just tells you "There is a large waterfall here." and not giving us a sense of the waterfall's grandness. But I suspect that a lot of the creators of the game were programmers first and storytellers second.

[@5Aenglish]

I love Text Adventure games even though i play a lot of different games with great graphics on consoles etc. However i've found a great way to revive to some people this genre and to demonstrate another way these games might be not just fun and imagination boost, but also a profit - educational profit... Meaning - learning languages is great through gaming! And the best are with lots of texts... So.... I've made several videos and want to continue developing this project, so if any of you could recommend great text based adventure games for this project - would be awesome! 😊

[@cherubin7th]

I wonder if we could use AI to make the input text more flexible.

[@LowSpecLinuxLaptop]

Those old computers had crappy memory , graphics, sound. But the old Inficom games had great content

[@VampireJack10]

They weren't crappy at the time my friend.

[@phoenixzappa7366]

I read some reviews. Some of them are frowned on

[@PiroKUSS]

@@phoenixzappa7366 And those frowned upon games were still liked by many other people. Your point?

[@arcweave6449]

I know this video is 6 years old now, but this is exactly what Arcweave wants to bring back! The good old days of text adventures, but without the complicated (and mind-numbing) code haha.

[@yvettechevalier7089]

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

[@VampireJack10]

Some of my happiest memories are from back in the 80s typing away on Gremlins on the ZX Spectrum, with the rubber keys. I loved text based adventure games back then, especially using PAW to make my own. Reason I'm actually here is that I was hoping to find a modern day version so I can see if I can still come up with the goods on a PC.

[@7thangelad586]

Cool video. I loved the text adventure games of the 80’s. As a child in the mid-80’s I learned typing and one syllable words from the games on my dad’s IBM PC. Thanks for the memories!

[@싸넬동지-7성담배]

Try Stories Untold on Steam

[@FeelingShred]

A bunch of bored engineers in the late 70's created what eventually became Rogue, and the rest is history :) Life before the internet. We would be so bored out of our minds that we would force ourselves to actually do things.

[@knovella1397]

We are fans of text based interactive fiction too. Here is our attempt to bring it back to the new gen. You play along with Sherlock Holmes and solve the classic mysteries.

[@StefaNonsense]

Whilst most of my experience with these sort of command typing mechanics are relegated to MUDs and the odd old school dungeon crawler, I do know a thing or two about the modern incarnation of the Interafctive Fiction concept, namely Interactive Storytelling or Narrative. The main difference being - as mentioned in the video as well - the modern approach usually adds in graphics and a role-playing element. One of the best examples of the (sub)genre - that I am aware of - is called King of Dragon Pass which I have reviewed and suggest to anyone interested in reading and running a medieval fantasy style clan ;) kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXbUeqZmbreffcU

[@scottmantooth8785]

*we still have the old TI 99 4a cassette tape games...only managed to complete one of them and that was the relatively easy ones...the others were insanely difficult from the very beginning*

[@gamingtonight1526]

If Infocom had continued, parsers would be so good now, it would benefit the whole gaming industry!

[@EverlessRetroGames]

Hi :-) Good video. I'm working on a text adventure myself, set in a fantasy setting. The time of text adventures is not over and these games are slowly becoming fashionable again. The game I'm working on is called "The Legend of Elderhollow". Updates about the game appear on my channel from time to time. Best regards.

[@Kaylovsky]

In the past year, I've learned to love the classic text adventures.

[@luvslogistics1725]

Growing up, I lived online in text-based games

[@thetaaaa]

Okay say what you will, I still enjoy a lot of these games. Anchorhead holds up super fucking well and it's one of my all-time favourite games, being a genuinely tense and exciting Lovecraftian horror mystery. And the tribute to it, Cragne Manor, an extremely strange and unique game in which each room was coded by a different person and they all got to independently design their own puzzles, came out in 2018. I love Cragne Manor and would absolutely recommend it, but only if you've already played Anchorhead and have a pretty good grasp of the TA genre, since the game itself is strange and disjointed and feels a bit like you're running around collecting puzzle pieces with no clue how they could ever fit together. Worth it though

[@nikhaney9699]

Hey retro gamers, there is a cool little underground text-based game floating around the web. It's the kind of game programmers play at work while on their coffee breaks. It's a little known secret only the hardcore strategists know about. To play, just Google "CodeElf Grid". (there is also a mini adventure game there called Golden Sword)

[@elijahthomas6976]

There is a pretty good app like this called Wizards Choice its really cool. You get stats and stats upgrades that dictate which choices you can make and the story is actually really good and doesn't feel overbearing.

[@heisedren7811]

Elijah Thomas Check out Choice Of Games! They focus on interactive fiction just like that! :)

[@MarshalTennerWinter]

Interactive Fiction has a substantial fan base and community. It's not "relegated to MUDs". There are multiple competitions, meet-ups, workshops, etc. People need to do some research before assuming the erroneous.

[@stevenaguilera9202]

Can you point me in the direction of those communities ?

[@theparijat1000]

Ifdb tads and textadventure.co.uk and also twine

[@alandunaway3000]

also forum.adrift.co

[@deckrect]

This is true. However we're have serious problems now. With a new world of possibilities, we cannot just sit and keep making parser games as we used to. There are more powerful tools we should explore. Also, the Interactive Fiction community is taken by programmers. They are constantly inventing new tricks and routines for emulating things, but there are very few designing compelling games and telling good stories.

[@MarshalTennerWinter]

@@stevenaguilera9202 It's not my job to teach you how to use the internet.

[@chrismcdade8283]

My first computer game adventure was on a Kaypro II, back in 1983. Adventure 550 was the name of the game and I loved it! I drew exquisite maps to assist me in my quest and it made me happy. Then there was Zork! It had an improved user interface which recognized complete (almost) sentences. The best thing about these games was the puzzle or rather the problem-solving aspect. I never gave up at any game. These days, the animation is wonderful and the problem solving component still exists, and arguably it is an evolution. Sadly, my last games completed were GTA5 and Diablo 3. I could go back and play around with the games, but once you finish a game, the love diminishes. I don't play online anymore since players can be mean and nasty. So, MMORPG is pretty much out for me. However, something like a "last man standing" scenario might be intriguing. In Korea, every student plays Overwatch, LoL, CoD, or other similar games. It can be a profession here. Especially with WoW and StarCraft. What do you think?

[@uuuuNB]

Try out Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead (post apocalyptic) or ADOM (fantasy) if you want some extremely well done games (traditional roguelikes) with exceptional player freedom and deep gameplay. They're both games that have been worked on for decades now (and CDDA experimental branch still get _daily_ updates), and since they're oldschool roguelikes they've had the freedom of being able to prioritize gameplay and immersion over graphics - although they've both improved on the UI aspect and especially CDDA is very competently made regarding UI and hotkeys and they've really modernized the retro ASCII style (it's confusing at first, mostly because of the sheer amount of possible actions but once you've gotten used to it, it mostly flows really well). Other well made roguelikes are Cogmind and Caves of Qud which are also very deep and interesting games in this genre, and all 4 of these games have a vastly different feel and theme but all provide a unique and fascinating experience that many modern gamers had no idea existed (because most instantly write off the games as soon as they see the old school graphics, but hey different strokes for different folks). Just some recommendations if you feel the modern AAA titles feel a bit soulless or just lacks something compared to games that truly reward problem solving, thinking out of the box and creative deep gameplay.

[@deckrect]

By the way, Interactive Fiction is an umbrella term to gather both Game Books and Parser games.

[@ArjunTheRageGuy]

I swear, the text adventure genre could work on Needy Streamer Overload when it comes to that messaging app in the game and talking to the girl that's a streamer out of that app, other than just talking to her out of emotes all the time later on after talking out of legit texts to her without the physical typing of the keyboard.

[@ProteusMega]

I have at least two commersial text adventures (in the classical sense). One on Steam and one outside. Also a video about text adventures and you never mention the inform6/7 engine. This probably the easiest and most comprehensive way to make. IF in modern times. Then, if we expand the genre from adventure to games made out of text well then things open up ALOT. But I agree, compared to visual representation of graphical elements yes, text games are fairly small. But I do not think they will ever truly die.

[@skyezu1776]

Does anyone remember a game much like the mobile game InstLife, where you had drop boxes, born into male or female somewhere in the world and you had to make world decisions? It was grey and white text. I don't remember much else but nowhere else has any remotely similar information.

[@nicholisesmithbobjunior1889]

cascablanca

[@tri-ox9508]

Infocom and the games on tape for the TI-99/4A were my favorites.

[@lemmingsishard]

does anyone know what the intro song for this video is, if so can you tell me please

[@hatababazi4413]

There is a text based game on android named The Great Tournament it has more than 500 k downloads

[@fan9775]

It's alright.

[@prof2596]

The Game is great and other games made by Choice of Games and Hosted Games are good like Breach:The archangel job, zombie exodus and more

[@hatababazi4413]

@@prof2596 definitely

[@Sembiance]

Anyone know where I can get the "Adventure" game at 3:16? The one in yellow text from 1979.

[@unacomn]

That's being played on a PDP-10 mainframe emulator. You can make an account on cyber1.org to play it.

[@danielortega8067]

una, is this one the very original one? Can't find the guniune version.

[@GodofWar1515]

Language parsers are extremely difficult to build. Modern text adventures; most of them don't have these parsers, inventories, etc. However, even the old text adventures had limited capabilities with this. For example they required you to write a command a specific way, if not written correctly you'd get a "I cannot understand you" message which frustrated many players. We have not got a text adventure that can allow players to type commands in their own way e.g. "I want to move to (Location), You walk to (Location)". Most text adventure games that do have parsers have commands e.g. "Move (Direction)/Walk (Direction)" If you watch the video interview on youtube called "Get Lamp", this video will explain in more detail why text adventures died out. In one of the interviews by Chris Crawford, he stated "Text adventures are based on Black and White Boolean logic. So you have to create these boolean tree structures in order to make the game. But if text adventures took on Arithmetic Logic. Then they could go back into the same node and something different would happen. While in Black and White Boolean Logic, you'd be repeating the same story if you were to go back." Text adventures in the past and today are very limited, and because of this not everybody enjoys these games. The only people who enjoy text adventures now are those who view text adventures as novels or stories, because that is the way they are built. In the past, text adventures were created for you to explore and to meet fictional characters and talk to them. That is why Zork got popular in those days. But in the end, graphics won. If text adventures focused on becoming more smarter, they allowed realistic conversations with AI and they broke through their restrictions of boolean logic. Then maybe text adventures could have been a big gaming genre. But sadly that is not the case.

[@alexxx4434]

Boolean outcomes was not a technical limitation, but rather production costs consideration. Similar with CYOA. Increasing story variables increases complexity of IF structure and amount of story writing needed exponentially.

[@CJ-jl6hf]

I missed these so much that I am making a brand new one set in a fantasy world! you'll be able to do pretty much anything and itll play like a mud but will just be single player sandbox mainly.

[@trabaduris1]

Hey decent video. I have played a game on steam called untold stories. Can you recommend any horror or survival/apocalypse text games for pc?

[@robodragonn9506]

A really excellent lovecraftian-inspired horror game is Anchorhead from 1998. It's sort of an atmospheric horror mostly, but you can (and will) die, and the writing is excellent. It's also punishing as hell, so save often. Also, heres the horror tag from the interactive fiction database ifdb.tads.org/search?searchbar=Tag%3Ahorror&searchGo.x=0&searchGo.y=0 And here are some lists some people made of IF horror games "Recommended Horror Games": ifdb.tads.org/viewlist?id=sdlumtnqlssilj9m "Horror": ifdb.tads.org/viewlist?id=329vk67sfb9g8n0v "A Timeline of Lovecraftian Horror": ifdb.tads.org/viewlist?id=19wqe6h183ycwgr5 "Great 'white-hat' Horror Games by Genre": ifdb.tads.org/viewlist?id=21e7wjl5fv9jgirt Also i havent played this one but it looks like it might be good (and hey these are all free so might as well check it out) ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=4x7nltu8p851tn4x Also havent played this one but apparently it's a survival horror zombie game ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=ihd4d1ewnrf1shmi Anyway hope you find what youre looking for

[@FeelingShred]

for "survival" I can imagine Angband fitting in this category (or Rogue although more casual, more limited in scope)

[@Yama-kid187]

What is thw game at the start with the skeleton dude i wanna play it

[@joseluispcr]

just think the diference: making a drago versus writing the word dragon. this makes you more free in some sense. I think that visual novels works as well as a next step, but you can also create a history in the interactive text format and them after put it on a game only when it works by itself

[@jamijordan5106]

Original DRAGON POETRY Text- adventure GAME! repl.it/talk/share/Poetry-Dragon-Text-Adventure-Game/51211

[@johng5295]

Thanks in a million.Great content.

[@zemxxi2765]

A lot of these interactive fiction titles from that golden age came along when computers were still GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out). Typically, you could type no more and no less than what was required as a command. IF changed all of this and you were actually encouraged to try and make something weird happen. This was a novelty back then due to the usual boilerplate "I don't understand that.", "You can't do that here." or "I don't recognize that word" responses. Many players enjoyed typing things like "eat the computer" and getting a snarky comment back implying that "You don't get out much, do you?". Or being reprimanded by a computer of all things for typing vulgarity or profanity. This was revolutionary at the time and actually suggested Artificial Intelligence. But it's easily explained through subroutines today. These asides weren't actually useful in being able to solve the puzzles, but they were amusing time wasters within the game itself to make up for being tortuous and unforgiving. And they gave the illusion that the game wasn't just the linear sequence of precise moves that it actually was. For many players, this is where the fun lie in the game, even if they couldn't finish something like HHTTG.

[@primortalj211]

listen, your kinda wrong, there are interactive fictions by a company called Choice of games. I bought an interactive fiction called Choice of Robots on steam.

[@Dyzinel]

I loved your video, I'm glad you made it.

[@MatthewHollow]

Dose AI dungeon count?

[@lovely-shrubbery8578]

text adventures just turned into rpg games, the closest ancestor being jrpgs, I'd argue. I really think the ideas expressed in text adventure games are underutilized in modern day.

[@milansikidjo]

What's the name of this first 2d adv game ?

[@unacomn]

It is called The Wardrobe .

[@janet.snakehole]

I haven't even watched this more than 5 sec and I'm excited. I ask this regularly lol

[@danielortega8067]

INTERACTIVE FICTION IS THE BEST ONE THAT LETS YOU DEEPLY IMMERSE INTO THE STORY. NO OTHER MEANS EXCEPT MAYBE PERSONAL STORYTELLING ARE NOT NEARLY THE SAME EFFECTIVE.

[@nicholisesmithbobjunior1889]

Why dont you interact with people nerd

[@TeksAdventure]

I'm writing one but finding a good way to distribute it to people who aren't very tech savvy is a head scratcher to me... other than HTML

[@ThePixelitomedia]

what is the name of the game of the first game with the Skelett?

[@unacomn]

The Wardrobe, check out the video about it I made with it a few weeks ago.

[@GaminGHD]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHnPgqd-d5l3hK8

[@davidgagnon3781]

I'm going to find one of those parsers and make a game where YOU ARE Jack The Ripper. I'll give it away for free.

[@jassu9917]

Good luck mate!

[@jacobwendt118]

If I had unlimited money, I’d pay developers to create the ultimate parser.

[@NoreenHoltzen]

It is a good idea to focus on the parser Jacob, but also important is the environment and mechanisms of what is happening internally (independent of the English language parsing). For example, the emotions or intent of characters you meet in the game, how different objects such as hot water and tea bags interact etc. That is what takes the longest time to programme. See Xalaria - simple parser but ludicrously deep environment.

[@veirant5004]

@@NoreenHoltzen, nowdays you'd be able to include neural networks there. This still needs to make a specific represenation and dedicated training models, but that should work! Just take a look at how good recognation of such different requests from the side of voice assistant is. "What's the weather like today", "Say the weather", "May I hear what's the weather", "weather". All those kinds of addressing is correct to, let's say, Alexa. Just a lot of work and a high probability that there would be a low payback percentage.

[@VTuber_Central]

What you're saying its text thus its a book thus you can use your imagination. Even leisure suit larry did it before it was a point and click game

[@PiroKUSS]

They became obsolete because of graphics. Detailed descriptions and narratives were pointless when you could see stuff and use your imagination just as much (at least with early computer graphics).

[@aaaaaaa-dg6gd]

I have to make one of this games in my class using unreal!!

[@ayanbhattacharjee1076]

dead? go to playstore and see the no. of downloads and ratings of the text adventure games

[@chaitanyasharma6597]

Text games are great you can add your any fantasy just need some good coding, i myself made 2 when i first start coding in python , now this video inspire to make a new text game , any ideas

[@ishaana.596]

How was this Made?

[@tiskolin]

This is depressing.

[@MarioBodescu-wt9xh]

Are you romanian?

[@khaoskhaos]

I won't allow it.

[@thecondescendinggoomba5552]

Hope you're doing good 👍

[@gu9838]

with ai they are back on steroids

[@SkullHeroLord]

I've always wanted to get into this type of games but never knew with which one to start off.

[@NatiuneaJucatoare]

Can't go wrong with Zork I

[@robodragonn9506]

I recommend going to the interactive fiction database and having a look around. You can find it at ifdb.tads.org {or through a quick google search if you don't trust clicking on links in KZbin comments}. I find Ryan Veeder's "So, You've Never Played a Text Adventure Before, Huh?" {here is a link ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=z9mk3i7w95wtdqnz } to be an excellent introduction to the mechanics of parser-based IF, but if you're already familiar with common commands or want to figure out how to play parser IF on your own, you really can just play anything that catches your eye.

[@danielortega8067]

Better try some modrn top hits on ios or android like LIfeline or LIttle tiny adventure.

[@alandunaway3000]

You can try Jacaranda Jim, available at adrift.co remade by Campbell Wild(author of the Adrift Engine) or get the original version by searching for "jacaranda jim graham cluley"

[@alexxx4434]

I suggest to try Gateway 2 by Legend Entertainment. It's not just your typical technically archaic IF, it has a helpful UI, with good text illustrations & music.

[@wzohum]

You guys should play this www.aidungeon.io/ this game uses OpenAI to create infinitely generated worlds that are only limited by your imagination. Seriously you can do whatever you want in this game!

[@tbone5757]

Moon man logic?

[@remiajoybuquing5063]

Hurdles

[@TheRealFrankWizza]

Graphics

[@remiajoybuquing5063]

😂