Text-Based Adventure Game

Text-Based Adventure Game

1. Impacts

   • Social
     • Connect people with common interests
   • Personal
     • Can increase someone's love for their hobby (i.e. gaming), which could increase quality of life
   • Economic
     • If game is mass produced, it creates jobs for people in community
     • Can create profit for game makers and people involved with game production

2. User Problem

   • User Persona
     • User Persona 1
       • Wants
         • Twist ending
         • Multiple endings
         • Adventure game about apocalypse
       • Needs
         • Complex and interesting story
         • Game able to be played as a break after school
       • Details
         • Teen in high school
         • Likes gaming, movies, adventure
         • Doesn't like boring ends, short stories, or games that are too easy

3. Task Requirements

   • Existing Solutions
     • Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
       • Pros
         • Multiple endings
         • Complex story
         • Many valid actions for a more accessible, interesting game
       • Cons
         • Visual component (website), not available within restrictions
   • Constraints and Limitations
     • Coding Environment
       • Limiting coding language
       • Specific requirements that must be followed limit creativity
     • Skills
       • Game built from starting code, however, this limits how much the game is initially understood
     • Time
       • The game, with the additional evaluation, much be completed within the 6 week time constraint
   • Prescribed Criteria
     • PC1 Description
       • The player begins with 3 health point
         • Requirement 1: A global health point variable that is able to be changed through player actions (Eg eating food, combat)
         • Requirement 2: The beginning value of the health variable must be set to 3
     • PC2 Description
       • The player begins with no equipment but can pick up and use items
         • Requirement 1: A global array must be created that items can be added to and taken from the backpack
         • Requirement 2: Items must be allocated to map locations that the player is able to pick up through specific commands
         • Requirement 3: When an item is in a player's item array, they are able to use it for certain map locations through specific commands
     • PC3 Description
       • The player begins in one of center squares of 5x5 map grid
         • Requirement 1: The map must be designed as a 5x5 grid (0-24 spaces)
         • Requirement 2: Math for map boundaries must be altered to suit requirement 1
         • Requirement 3: The player must start in space 6, 7, 8, 11, 12,13, 16,17,18, which will be assigned randomly each start
     • PC4 Description
       • The map must be displayed visually
         • Requirement 1: ASCII art must be used to create a map specific to the theme so the player can visually see location
     • PC5 Description
       • There must be at least two NPCs that can be talked to
         • Requirement 1: Two NPCs must be created and assigned to a map location which the player can talk to using specific commands
         • Requirement 2: NPCs must have an array of speaking lines that they can say to player
     • PC6 Description
       • The NPCs will give a random game hint from a possible list of 5 hints
         • Requirement 1: An array of game hints specific to each NPC must be created that will randomly output when a specific command is used at the NPCs map location
     • PC7 Description
       • Player can navigate map using valid commands "north", "south", "east:, "west", with other navigation commands returning "I do not understand"
         • Requirement 1: An array of valid navigation commands must be created to allow the user to move around the map
         • Requirement 2: If the player inputs a navigation command that is not in the array, then output "I do not understand"
     • PC8 Description
       • When player arrives at new location, text-based description of location is displayed
         • Requirement 1: A function describing the map location the player is at must be created, which will define what the output will be at each new location
     • PC9 Description
       • If player tries to move outside boundary of the map, a message will appear explaining that the way is blocked and they cannot move in that direction
         • Requirement 1: A blocked messgae must be created for each outer grid square (0,1,2,3,4,5,9,10,14,15,19,20,21,22,23,24), which will be displayed in a list
         • Requirement 2: Math for map boundaries must be changed to suit the 5x5 grid.
         • Requirement 3: If a player inputs a navigation command that would send them out of the map grid, a blocked path message will be outputted and the player will stay in the square they are in
     • PC10 Description
       • A series of events that the player must complete to finish the game
         • Requirement 1: The player must play the game in a logical order to follow a cohesive storyline
         • Requirement 2: An event must be done at the end of the game that will allow the player to finish the game
   • Self Determined Criteria
     • SDC1 Description
       • The game will follow a story where a zombie attack occurs at school
         • Requirement 1: The map locations must correlate with MSHS buildings
         • Requirement 2: The NPCs in the game must be in the context of the story (i.e. what they say, objects they hold, where they are, etc.)
         • Requirement 3: The sequence of events must follow a logical order that follows the story of a zombie attack at school, with the player needing to figure out what happened and how to escape
     • SDC2 Description
       • The game will have a deep backstory with a complex twist
         • Requirement 1: The backstory of the game will follow the player being a secret alien agent who lost their memory
         • Requirement 2: The player can unlock these secrets by doing certain actions throughout the game

4. Developer Problem

   • Usability Principles
     • Effectiveness
       • How code does what it is intended to do
     • Utility
       • How easy the solution is to use and its usefulness
     • Accessibilty
       • If the code can be used by a large variety of people
     • Learnability
       • How easily the solution is to learn and understand
     • Safety
       • How the solution prevents users from making errors and how it recovers from errors
   • Data
     • Required Data
       • Variables
         • Local
           • Variables created inside a function that can only be used inside that function
         • Global
           • Variables created outside a function that can be used inside and outside a function
       • Data Structures
         • Lists
           • Ordered collection of data
           • Items in list do not need to be same data type
         • Dictionary
           • Unordered collection of key-value pairs
         • Tuple
           • Ordered, immutable collection of values
           • Cannot be altered once created
       • Data Types
         • Integer
           • Whole number
         • Float
           • Decimal or fraction number
         • String
           • Sequence of characters/letters
         • Boolean
           • True or false value
         • Range
           • Used to generate a sequence of integers
   • Coding Environment
     • Algorithm Constructs
       • Assignment
         • Set a value into a variable
       • Sequence
         • Set of instructions in a logical order
       • Selection
         • What happens when the code meets a condition
       • Condition
         • Used to evaluate whether an expression is true or false, or whether is meets a requirement
       • Iteration
         • Used when code has to be repeated multiple times (for loops, while statements, if statements)
       • Modularisation
         • (Functions) Used to break code into units to reduced redundant text