Re: text adventure game problem

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
  • Carl Banks
    #1

    Re: text adventure game problem

    On Apr 11, 12:08 pm, "Neil Cerutti" <mr.ceru...@gma il.comwrote:
    On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 8:25 PM, Carl Banks <pavlovevide... @gmail.comwrote :
    On Apr 10, 2:20 pm, Tommy Nordgren <tommy.nordg... @comhem.sewrote :
    >
    On 9 apr 2008, at 03.01, corvettecra...@ gmail.com wrote:
    >
    okay, I'm having this one problem with a text adventure game. It's
    kind of hard to explain, but I'll do my best.
    [code]
    >
    def prompt_kitchen( ):
    global gold
    >
    Python is not a suitable language for Text Adventure Development.
    >
    Ridiculous.
    >
    Agreed. "Not suitable" is an exaggeration. However, designing and
    implementing your own adventure game framework in Python is a total
    waste of time.
    That depends.
    Don't do it excet for the sake of it.
    >
    You can even claim one of several Python-based frameworks out of
    mothballs as a starting point, if you want to use Python.
    >
    There are many good reasons why someone might want to use a general
    purpose language like Python to write a text adventure,
    >
    Yes.
    >
    such as so
    they're not stuck with a quasi hack of a language if they have to do
    something that doesn't fit the framework anticipated by the language
    designer.
    >
    That's not a reason, it's FUD.
    No, it's prudence.

    If I am writing a banal, been-done-a-million-times before, cookie-
    cutter text adventure, yes I'd just use a domain-specific language.

    If I am writing a unique game that does new things, sooner or later
    I'm going to want to do something the designer of the domain-specific
    language and framework didn't anticipate. And there is no uncertainty
    or doubt about this: when it comes to that, I don't want to be
    restrained by a narrow framework or domain-specific language, and I
    would want to be using Python, and it isn't even remotely close.

    The only question would be whether there's enough general purpose
    programming required that it would outweigh the extra work. Which,
    let's be honest, is not all that much for a text adventure.


    Carl Banks
    Tags: None
    • Neil Cerutti
      #2
      Re: text adventure game problem

      On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 9:25 AM, Carl Banks <pavlovevidence @gmail.comwrote :
      On Apr 11, 12:08 pm, "Neil Cerutti" <mr.ceru...@gma il.comwrote:
      such as so
      they're not stuck with a quasi hack of a language if they have to do
      something that doesn't fit the framework anticipated by the language
      designer.
      >
      That's not a reason, it's FUD.
      >
      No, it's prudence.
      >
      If I am writing a banal, been-done-a-million-times before, cookie-
      cutter text adventure, yes I'd just use a domain-specific language.
      >
      If I am writing a unique game that does new things, sooner or later
      I'm going to want to do something the designer of the domain-specific
      language and framework didn't anticipate. And there is no uncertainty
      or doubt about this: when it comes to that, I don't want to be
      restrained by a narrow framework or domain-specific language, and I
      would want to be using Python, and it isn't even remotely close.
      >
      The only question would be whether there's enough general purpose
      programming required that it would outweigh the extra work. Which,
      let's be honest, is not all that much for a text adventure.
      Thanks for the more detailed response.

      Your reasoning is valid, but your understanding of the properties of
      existing text game frameworks seem to be be out of date.

      A usable, extensible, customizable text adventure library for use in
      any general-purpose programming language is still a pipe dream.
      There aren't even very many failed attempts.

      The decent text adventures composed from scratch in a general-purpose
      programming language are rare exceptions to the rule. Even among the
      tolerable ones, I have personally never seen one that took advantage
      of the general-purpose nature of its implementation language to do
      something that couldn't have been easily done in the handful of mature
      domain-specific languages.

      Moreover, the small, but dedicated text-adventure-playing internet
      community has developed expectations for the features, infrastructure
      and portability of their text adventures that are not trivial to meet
      when starting from (close to) ground zero. A few bold pioneers have
      managed it. If you're keen to attempt it, Python is an OK choice. The
      most recent success I know of was "Aunts & Butlers" [1], composed in
      Javascript, which made portability less of an issue than it would be
      for Python. There are no completed text adventures in the wild
      composed in Python, that I'm aware of. That doesn't mean it can't
      happen.

      [1] http://versificator.co.uk/auntsandbutlers/

      --
      Neil Cerutti <mr.cerutti+pyt hon@gmail.com>

        Comment

        Previous template Next
        Working...