«

[supa_mario]

Originally Posted by _r.u.s.s.

why is information science weird..? that's most probably the most common name for "the computer thingy". and what do you think IT stands for?

also, with game maker he'd achieve way more than with actionscript, as a newbie

It would make a lot more sense just to call it programming. Or 'copy everything out of the book while the teacher does his own thing. '

[hunvagy]

Originally Posted by supa_mario

It would make a lot more sense just to call it programming. Or 'copy everything out of the book while the teacher does his own thing. '

Which kinda defeats the whole meaning of learning to code. And it's called Information Sciences for a reason: AI, Databases, Algorythms etc. are Informations sciences. And coding is the last thing you do, and with most of today coding languages, it's a job that even a monkey could do At least that is what we've been told, and I do think there is truth in there.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by Fubb

I've used game maker.....it lacks the power i need. Me and a friend were trying to make a greek-mythology theme'd game but yea......only so much can be done with game maker....

also Arete, shush!

fine, i will read tutorials :\ and all that jazz....

And i have done some scripting (only Auto-It though) but that was like 2 years ago, i don't remember anymore of it

Well, to have a starting point, find a gamebook with an engine similar to what you want and try to replicate it in software. What you need to pay attention to is the character creation system, how the combat works and how to manage the inventory. The rest should (should!) be straightforward once you have those worked out.
Also, if you're going with C++, there is a library called "Allegro" for all your graphic needs.

If you want to go with Freeway Warrior, the first book is accessible at http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/HighwayHolocaust

[Fubb]

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

Well, to have a starting point, find a gamebook with an engine similar to what you want and try to replicate it in software. What you need to pay attention to is the character creation system, how the combat works and how to manage the inventory. The rest should (should!) be straightforward once you have those worked out.
Also, if you're going with C++, there is a library called "Allegro" for all your graphic needs.

If you want to go with Freeway Warrior, the first book is accessible at http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/HighwayHolocaust

Thanks for the link...so this game book is just simple html docs with hyper links? Thats quite neat, even I can do that!

at least I think I can...The hyper links and stuff I understand easy, how to set the back ground as the gray with the 'freeway' warrior sign is another thing, but then again thats prolly just a header that one could set in MS word, Open office writer/web, etc.

Once I get some free time I'll tinker around a bit and see what I come up with

Thanks for the link Fifth!

[The Fifth Horseman]

You're kind of entirely missing the point. Writing a gamebook versus implementing its' mechanics in a software program are two different things.

[Fubb]

Do yo umean kind of making some sort of shell capable of running the game book files or something?

Im yound and niave, FORGIVE ME!

[The Fifth Horseman]

A shell is a description as good as any. For practical purposes, though, you'll want to split the files into separate data files for easier handling - I'd suggest keeping each paragraph in a separate file.
And you'll have to develop your own basic structure for the game data files - if you want to use HTML files from other sources, you'd have to write your own parser in the first place (and that's assuming they are structured well enough for the utility to avoid issues).

To begin with, you'll need to be able to:
1. Display a paragraph from a text file on the screen.
2. Present the player with a list of choices.
3. Move to the paragraph the player selected... IF it's an allowed choice

That's the basics common to each and every gamebook. It's also only the beginning of your trouble, because you'll find yourself doing these next:

1. Break up a multi-screen / multi-paragraph entry into separate screens and allow the player to move forward and backward.
2. Add game flags and inventory to make some of the choices dependant on the currently triggered flags and the presence (or lack of) inventory contents.
3. Add support for forced moving from paragraph to paragraph (no player choice), only requiring player confirmation to execute the move.
4. Add support for random number generation and forced move from paragraph to paragraph dependent on the generated number.
5. Add events affecting the player (health, inventory etc) during the gameplay.
6. Add combat engine
7. Add support for different weapons.
8. Make sure 5, 6 and 7 don't mess up the rest of the game.

Good luck.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Okay, I might have a few things you can experiment with for your engine (IMHO it's easier to develop an adaptable engine and then create custom data for it).

You can be the Stainless Steel Rat, as a simple "straight" paragraph game with no combat and minimal random nuber generation (coin toss) http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?enzdzmwy2nk

Golden Dragon: Temple of the Flame as a slightly more complex title, with statistics, inventory, skill checks and combat. http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jzyodvzdmm3

Barbarian Prince, as an example of a map-based semi-nonlinear adventure game http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yk4miinjjmi

[hunvagy]

Heh, maybe I should check these out, too Anyway just wanted to add a tidbit: If you really want to make your life easy (and you decide on one of the 4th Gen Languages) XML could help you in a lot of ways. Combined with the WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) you really could do some good looking stuff without too much hassle

[_r.u.s.s.]

hey fubb do you want to be able to run the game on all os?