Progress!
I wouldn’t want to say this project was a failure, as things have been learned and properly executed. I have set out what I wished to do, which was to use Ink to create a text adventure. However, I’ve not successfully created what I had originally envisioned. My original plans were to create something far more interactive, but in the end I fear I’ve overstepped my intentions.
I have successfully completed the text adventure itself, it is fully playable albeit there is little else to it. The book I have created can be interacted, and using it one will be able to determine what disease afflicts the doctor’s patient. So far, this what the main UI would look like.
I’ve also added audio files that are read depending on which tags are recorded throughout the ink story script. This is mostly used for ambiance’s sake, however provides little else. Due to the ink implementation script, one of the audio files I attempted to execute conflicts with the button’s basic script. Something that I cannot afford to fix and that changes little to the game as a whole. Sound design often makes or breaks a game, but I would rather think in the light of this unit, it will have little effect.
I’ve basically remedied the whole tag problem by simply creating a list and foreach loop that checks for specific tags within the story each time the UI refreshes, activating said events from the Game Manager with each noticed tag.
In addition to this, I’ve decided to cut much of the original content of the adventure down to a singular story. I had originally planned for the ‘prologue’ of the game to be a tutorial period, then followed by the tale of a plague doctor living in a small town from fictional France. Originally I had the doctor meet with various figures from the town, curing their diseases one by one to prevent the onslaught of a plague, referring to each plague through the use of the doctor’s own book of a diseases.
However due to time, I had to cut much of it out, and instead focus on making sure the game would run with only one, which I dubbed the Smith’s Tale. Much of my time has been writing said tale and trouble checking it to ensure it would run smoothly. I’m glad to say it does, though does present some issues I have yet weeded out. As it currently stands, the game is playable, but unimpressive and rather boring to look at. Not all audio has been implemented properly, and there are no graphics to be seen, sadly. While I’ll submit a functionnal copy, if I can add some graphical effects before the hand in time, I’ll see that it can be done.
What was learned, and what is possible:
For the time being the first adventure is complete, the game has a beginning, middle and end. It is sufficient though not satisfactory to my own expections, which I shall explore in my report. However, I have learned considerably in making this project, namely in implementing Ink, but also its scripting language and its versatility. The scripting API is remarkably easier to understand than C#, much of it suits a writer’s perspective, but one can add variables that can be manipulated/incremented through scripting, just like so:
This would then lead to other opportunities that can be set at the beginning of the story. Different names could be inputted as string variables, maths can be done in the scripting as well to calculate player levels or dialogue options, various different endings can be provided through conditional statements, so on and so forth.
If I were to continue the project, however, I would likely implement these variables in methods that would increase player interactivity. Allowing them to choose or input their own name, for example.