Text Quest: Unlock your imagination

Visit the website or play one of the games:

• Halloween (v1.0)
• The Sleepy Traveller (v1.2)

 _             _                          _
| |_ _____   _| |_   __ _ _   _  ___  ___| |_
| __/ _ \ \/ / __|  / _` | | | |/ _ \/ __| __|
| ||  __/>  <| |_  | (_| | |_| |  __/\__ \ |_
 \__\___/_/\_\\__|  \__, |\__,_|\___||___/\__|
                       |_|

                       Unlock your imagination.

Overview

Text Quest is a game engine for running text-based adventure games, using a low/no code approach to game design.

Motivation

The project was started to...

• Inspire creative story writing (without images, CGI or video)
• Create a low/no code solution for building games (using YAML)
• Bootstrap something as quickly as possible to test the above (and not get bogged down with tooling, libraries and frameworks)
• Provide a little escapism during these unusual times

Game Design

Games are defined using YAML. A sample game can be seen in ./game.yml).

Here's an overview of the core concepts within a games:

• Blocks: A block represents a single location within the game. A block can have:
  • exits: Connections to other blocks
  • states: Variations for a block state (containing exits, actions, items)
  • items: Items which are 'visible' from within a block state
  • actions: Actions which can be performed by the player within a block state, and actions which can be triggered automatically based on what a player is carrying
• Game: The name, version and author for the game
• Player: The name, current block location, powers and items they are carrying
• Powers: Descriptions for powers a player can unlock (not listed here, as they are part of the game)
• Items: Descriptions for items which the player can carry, or can be found in a block

Technical Details

This project currently uses:

1. JavaScript as the core programming language for the game engine
2. Node.js v16
3. Parcel web application bundler
4. text-terminal for the terminal interface
5. YAML to store
6. ascii generator for the logo
7. github-fork-ribbon-css

Development: Getting Started

1. npm i: To install the dependencies
2. npm start --game=sleepy and open localhost:1234 in a browser to view the live reload development server
3. Changes in the ./src directories will cause a live reload and compiled files to ./dist-$game
4. Press CTRL+c to stop the development server
5. npm run build --game=sleepy: Builds to ./dist-$game
6. npm run build:serve --game=sleepy: Server builds from ./dist-$game

TODO

1. Introduce characters as a concept (and associated powers)
2. Cross over with voice activation project
3. Upload/point to yaml URL
   1. Auto conversion yaml > JSON
   2. Game yaml validator
4. Create a supporting website with docs and links to games
5. Online game editor (visual, or text based)

---

Credits

• Des Holmes: Technical Leadership & Product Development
  • Blog
  • Text Quest: A Low/No Code Approach to Game Design
  • Skills & knowledge: Technical Leadership, Technical Direction, Technical Delivery, Product Development, SaaS, DevOps, Azure Public Cloud
  • Job Titles: CTO, VP Engineering, Head of DevOps, Technical Product Owner
  • Example Projects: Development standards, DevOps, CI/CD, React, docker, Cost Management