Text Based Adventure Game

Text Based Adventure Game

1. User Problem

   • User Persona
     • Quantavious Eason
       • Wants
         • A quick game that can be replayed many times
         • Simple game mechanics
       • Needs
         • Visual interface
         • An immersive and interactive gameplay experience
           • NPCs
           • Items

2. Developer Problem

   • User interface
     • Features
       • ASCII art map showing where the player current is located
       • A text bar for players to type commands
     • User interface components
       • Button to enter commands
       • Visually displayed backpack contents
       • Image of current location
   • Usability principles
     • Safety
       • Enter button to ensure unwanted input is not actioned
     • Effectiveness
     • Accessibility
       • Large images and titles for illiterate and hindered eyesight
     • Learnability
       • Large titles to quickly give locations and provide understanding of the layout
     • Utility
       • Solution must fulfill as many criteria as possible
   • Coding environment
     • Development tools
       • Thonny
       • ASCII art converter
     • Key algorithms
       • if and else statements
       • print messages
       • gameMessage
       • Variables
         • mapLoc
         • mansionMap
         • livesRemaining
       • Defining functions

3. Impacts

   • Personal
     • Quantavious can practice and play a game with visual interface and reduce cognitive load
   • Social
     • Children will be able to have a better experience with text-based adventure games through reducing the cognitive load to one they are able to comprehend
   • Economic
     • Adds competition to the text-based adventure game market

4. Task Requirements

   • Existing solutions
     • Forest of Lyrica
       • Fulfills being able to navigate commands using directions and returns with I do not understand otherwise
       • Fulfills series of events that must be completed
       • Fulfills beginning with no equipment but being able to pick them up from the map
       • Fulfills having a boundary to prevent players from leaving the map
       • Fulfills player arriving at new location and its name being announced
   • Prescribed criteria
     • The play begins with 3 health points
     • The player begins in one of the centre squares of a 5 x 5 map grid
     • The player begins with no equipment but can pick up items from the map and use them
     • The map must be displayed visually, as ASCII art
     • There must be at least two Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) that can be talked to
     • When talked to, the two NPCs will give a random game hint from a possible list of 5 hints. E.g. “The bakery is north.”
     • The player can navigate the map using valid commands: “north”, “south”, “east” and “west”. Other navigation commands will return: “I do not understand”.
     • When the player arrives at a new location a text-based description of the location is displayed
     • If the player tries to move outside the boundary of the map a message appears explaining that the way is blocked, and the player cannot move in that direction
     • Have a series of events that the player must complete to finish the game
   • Self-Determined Criteria
     • Add a battle system to the game
   • Constraints and limitations
     • Thonny is unable to create high quality images however HTML can be integrated.
     • Time
       • 6 weeks
     • Skills
       • The creator is lacking in coding experience and therefore skills is a constraint