A Christmas Game (Inform Port) — 2 of 15

Section 1 - Setting up the game

The release number is 2.

Release along with a website, an interpreter, introductory booklet, introductory postcard, the source text, and cover art.

[When play begins:

now right hand status line is "Turn: [turn count]".]

To say exit list:

let place be location;

repeat with way running through directions:

let place be the room way from the location;

if place is a room, say "[way][line break]".

Include Rideable Vehicles by Graham Nelson.

Include Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short.

[Use brief room descriptions.]

quest_count is a number that varies.

Understand "tell [someone] [text]" as telling it about.

After looking:

say "Exits are: [line break][exit list][paragraph break]".

Figure of snowman is the file "Snowman.jpg".

Understand "help" or "hint" or "instructions" or "info" or "about" as asking for help. Asking for help is an action out of world. Carry out asking for help: say "Greetings adventurer, and a Merry Christmas to you!

OK, let's try and point you in the right direction.

The object of the game is explore the world, its objects and its characters through typing in commands.

The basic commands you can use are listed below, but there are many others you can use, part of the fun of a text adventure is finding new actions that you can perform, some are crucial to solving puzzles:

'Look' Returns a description of the room you are in (which will sometimes change if you have done an action so worth checking often). Room descriptions often contain items that can be taken, (use 'take', or 'get'), normally you need to take an object before you can use it.

'Examine' and 'Look at' perform the same action (or you can just type 'x' as a shortcut) and should return a description for example 'examine armchair' or 'x armchair' would both return a description of the item. People can be examined as well as objects.

'Open' some objects are containers and need to be opened to reveal the contents.

'Use' is a verb you cannot use in this game, you need to be more specific with verbs, but I have tried to anticipate as many altenatives as possible.

'Ask' you can ask characters about objects or people, e.g. 'Ask butcher about bike', sometimes they will have something to say about it, other times not.

'Give' you can try giving objects to people who might want them. To do this name the object before the person, e.g. give object X to person Y (give person Y object X won't work for tedious logic reasons!)

'Inventory' or 'Inv' or just 'i' show what you are carrying, you can examine objects whether you are carrying them or not.

Some responses and descriptions in the game contain clues to solve the game, others are simply there to add atmosphere or humour. If you are stuck try performing an action that you would do if you were really in the situation described.

Lastly I have designed this game so you can't die, also it's not possible for you to perform an action which makes the game unsolvable. However if you want to undo an action just type 'undo'.

If you are stuck for a long time and need a hint email me: [email protected]

Good Luck!"