Work on Hanger 22 Continues

Last week I gave myself two weeks to complete Hanger 22, my first “official” text adventure. Things are moving along, and I expect to meet my self-imposed deadline.

The game’s story takes place over two days. Other than minor wordsmithing, “Day One” is essentially complete. All the objects and game mechanics within Day One are in place, but each time I re-read through the text I make minor tweaks to streamline the text and tighten the jokes. For “Day Two”, the second half of the game, all the rooms have been created and, more importantly, all the game logic has been worked out on paper. At this point it’s just a matter of sitting down and finishing the programming.

The hardest part about programming a text adventure isn’t the code that responds to what a player “should” do. It’s the code that reacts to what a player “might” do (but shouldn’t) that turns out to be tedious — much more so than with a traditional video game. Take Pac-Man, for example. When programming a Pac-Clone, you would need to program what happens when Pac-Man eats a dot, when a ghost touches Pac-Man, and so on. You would not have to program in what happens if Pac-Man gets tired of running, calls time-out, and decides to ask the Ghosts if they would like to go get some coffee instead. In Pac-Man, the player does not have the ability to do that. In Interactive Fiction however, players have the entire English language at their disposal. Players can (and will) try things you may or may not have thought of, and the way those events are handled can be the difference between an enjoyable game and a frustrating experience.

Partly because of this, I have implemented both HINT and CHEAT commands into Hanger 22. One of the most frustrating things in a game for me is not knowing what to do or where to go. In Hanger 22, when a player types HINT, the game will respond with a location-specific “nudge” to get the player back on track. In most of the puzzle areas, players will be able to type CHEAT to get the solution of the puzzle. Every location will respond to HINT, but not every one will contain CHEAT information. I think some people enjoy figuring stuff out while other people enjoy beating the game, so I’m hoping this system meets both groups’ needs.

When I mentioned the game before, a few people asked what I was programming the game in and what system(s) it would be playable on. Hanger 22 is being written in Inform 6, which means it will be playable on every major operating system, most mobile devices, and also through your web browser. If you want to play Hanger 22, you will be able to.