Has anyone made a hint system for adventure games? I know about the UHS (Universal Hint System) but I wonder if anyone has made a freeware (or shareware) version of something like the UHS. The way the UHS works (for those of you who doesn't know) is that you get little pieces of information to the puzzle you are stuck with. To have something like this for us amateurs would be a great asset.
On Nov 9, 12:57 am, Cowboy <rosenloe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone made a hint system for adventure games? > I know about the UHS (Universal Hint System) but I wonder if anyone > has made a freeware (or shareware) version > of something like the UHS. > The way the UHS works (for those of you who doesn't know) is that you > get little pieces of information to the puzzle you are stuck with. To > have something like this for us amateurs would be a great asset.
If you're looking for something that's made for all games, you won't find one.
The usual practice has been either: - a full walkthrough is provided; - a separate Invisiclues-style hint file (which is generally close to the UHS system); - a built-in hints system within the game itself (more commonly used).
There's also the rec.games.int-fiction newsgroup where you can also ask for hints.
> On Nov 9, 12:57 am, Cowboy <rosenloe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Has anyone made a hint system for adventure games? > > I know about the UHS (Universal Hint System) but I wonder if anyone > > has made a freeware (or shareware) version > > of something like the UHS. > > The way the UHS works (for those of you who doesn't know) is that you > > get little pieces of information to the puzzle you are stuck with. To > > have something like this for us amateurs would be a great asset.
> If you're looking for something that's made for all games, you won't > find one.
> The usual practice has been either: > - a full walkthrough is provided; > - a separate Invisiclues-style hint file (which is generally close to > the UHS system); > - a built-in hints system within the game itself (more commonly used).
If you like the idea of UHS-style progressive-disclosure hints, but without inventing a new format and application to port, how about HTML? Just a standalone HTML file. Do disclosure buttons with Javascript. It would be a single file, so you could upload it to the Archive or include it in a game .zip package with no extra trouble, and it would work for everybody.
--Z
-- "And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..." *
If you are writing in Inform 7, Reed's "Intelligent Hinting" uses some code setup and AI to make hints for a game you write. Reed also re- made the original ADVENTURE with said hinting system in it.
> If you're looking for something that's made for all games, you won't find one.
Hmm.. That's what I was looking for.
> The usual practice has been either: > - a full walkthrough is provided;
I wanted to avoid having to provide a full walkthrough. (I'm aware that some player prefer to have a walkthrough, but personally I would rather have a hint system.)
> - a separate Invisiclues-style hint file (which is generally close to the UHS system);
I've been taken a look at the Invisiclue but it doesn't look like I can make my own clues, or is it just me? ;-)
> - a built-in hints system within the game itself (more commonly used).
I work in Adrift, which has a built-in hgint system, but it only has two choises and I would like to give more than just two clues.
Cowboy wrote: > I work in Adrift, which has a built-in hgint system, but it only has > two choises and I would like to give more than just two clues.
Oh, that's interesting. I did wonder, last year, why an Adrift game I was playing only gave two hints for each topic. Now I know. This is a pretty good object lesson in "choices have consequences," I suppose.
You can easily do what you want in hand-coded HTML. What you do is set the color of the clue text to be the same as the background color. This will cause the clues to be invisible until the user drags over the text with the mouse. Dragging over the text will highlight it, thus making it magically appear.
The only downside of this is, it won't work for blind players. Their screen reader will still be able to see the text.
If you poke around in the Archive, I'm pretty sure you can find a file or two that does this. You could then just use the existing file and rewrite the text. It should be dead easy to do what you have in mind.
> You can easily do what you want in hand-coded HTML. What you do is set > the color of the clue text to be the same as the background color. This > will cause the clues to be invisible until the user drags over the text > with the mouse. Dragging over the text will highlight it, thus making it > magically appear.
> The only downside of this is, it won't work for blind players. Their > screen reader will still be able to see the text.
But then, a screen reader will be reading down the file anyway, so the hints will come out in the right order. So that's close to right.
I am not a fan of the foreground/background color trick, because it depends on the details of the OS's text highlighting. (Have you tested it on Linux? iPhone? Android?) I'd go with a display:hidden property, as I said -- that's at least nominally standardized, and it's no worse in a plaintext/unscripted browser.
--Z
-- "And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..." *
>> If you're looking for something that's made for all games, you won't find one. > Hmm.. That's what I was looking for.
>> The usual practice has been either: >> - a full walkthrough is provided; > I wanted to avoid having to provide a full walkthrough. (I'm aware > that some player prefer to have a walkthrough, but personally I would > rather have a hint system.)
>> - a separate Invisiclues-style hint file (which is generally close to the UHS system); > I've been taken a look at the Invisiclue but it doesn't look like I > can make my own clues, or is it just me? ;-)
>> - a built-in hints system within the game itself (more commonly used). > I work in Adrift, which has a built-in hgint system, but it only has > two choises and I would like to give more than just two clues.
> Cheers
Here's a method similar to Invisi-clues. Save as .html and edit
----- CUT ----- <HTML> <TITLE>Visi-clues</TITLE> <BODY> <NOSCRIPT>Sorry, this page requires Javascript to work properly</NOSCRIPT> <SCRIPT language='javascript'> var hints = new Array ( "*How do I get into the house?", "You need a key.", "What's the cliche place to hide a key?", "LOOK UNDER THE DOORMAT", "*Should I trust Frank?", "Have you checked his story with Fran?", "No.", "*And the third thing?", "Just keep trying", "*And the fourth?", "Is it July?", "SIGN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE", "*And the fifth?", "DRINK VODKA" );
var current_item = -1; var clue_starts, clue_ends;
<BR><BR> To use this for your own, modify the 'hints' array. Each string starting with a star is a question, and the strings following it (until the next string starting with a star) are the hints that will be displayed.
Original hints system by Shalbatana, modified by ralphmerridew. </BODY> </HTML> ----- CUT -----
On 9 Nov, 09:57, Cowboy <rosenloe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone made a hint system for adventure games? > I know about the UHS (Universal Hint System) but I wonder if anyone > has made a freeware (or shareware) version > of something like the UHS. > The way the UHS works (for those of you who doesn't know) is that you > get little pieces of information to the puzzle you are stuck with. To > have something like this for us amateurs would be a great asset.
SLAG. You write a text file with hints. SLAG compiles it to Inform 6 source code, which you can then compile to a z5 file, playable by any Z-code interpreter. The questions will be presented in menus, and the hints will be presented one by one until the player chooses to exit.
> On 2009-11-10, Cowboy <rosenloe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> If you're looking for something that's made for all games, you won't find one. > > Hmm.. That's what I was looking for.
> >> The usual practice has been either: > >> - a full walkthrough is provided; > > I wanted to avoid having to provide a full walkthrough. (I'm aware > > that some player prefer to have a walkthrough, but personally I would > > rather have a hint system.)
> >> - a separate Invisiclues-style hint file (which is generally close to the UHS system); > > I've been taken a look at the Invisiclue but it doesn't look like I > > can make my own clues, or is it just me? ;-)
> >> - a built-in hints system within the game itself (more commonly used). > > I work in Adrift, which has a built-in hgint system, but it only has > > two choises and I would like to give more than just two clues.
> > Cheers
> Here's a method similar to Invisi-clues. > Save as .html and edit
> ----- CUT ----- > <HTML> > <TITLE>Visi-clues</TITLE> > <BODY> > <NOSCRIPT>Sorry, this page requires Javascript to work properly</NOSCRIPT> > <SCRIPT language='javascript'> > var hints = new Array ( > "*How do I get into the house?", > "You need a key.", > "What's the cliche place to hide a key?", > "LOOK UNDER THE DOORMAT", > "*Should I trust Frank?", > "Have you checked his story with Fran?", > "No.", > "*And the third thing?", > "Just keep trying", > "*And the fourth?", > "Is it July?", > "SIGN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE", > "*And the fifth?", > "DRINK VODKA" > );
> var current_item = -1; > var clue_starts, clue_ends;
> <BR><BR> > To use this for your own, modify the 'hints' array. Each string > starting with a star is a question, and the strings following it > (until the next string starting with a star) are the hints that > will be displayed.
> Original hints system by Shalbatana, modified by ralphmerridew. > </BODY> > </HTML> > ----- CUT ------ Skjul tekst i anførselstegn -
> - Vis tekst i anførselstegn -
Wow... Works great... Thanks a lot for your help. Cheers
|
