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Interactive Fiction Engine & Player - 1st Release

Author:	Joshua M.	Submitted:	18th August, 2005	Favourites:	0
Genre:	Miscellaneous	Downloads:	269
Rated:

Edited By Joshua (MMFDomain & CrapWare) on 8/18/2005

Interactive Fiction Engine

Something I've started working on yesterday. I call it the Interactive Fiction Engine, but actually it's a player as well. Using this engine (I'll just call it 'engine'), making interactive fiction is easy. The only thing you need is Notepad and some graphics tools.

You use notepad to write the INI files. INI FILES?! Yes.
Everything works from the INI files. Using the functions I've made in MMF, you can:

- Load background images
- Load character images
- Hide the character image
- Show the character image
- Start Music (IT/XM/S3M/MOD) (looped/unlooped)
- Stop Music
- Play a WAV sample
- Go to a different part of the INI

For more info on how to do this, check the example story and the text files included in the ZIP file.

Since there isn't an interface, I couldn't make any screenies of that. Instead I've made some screenies of the example story.

Suggestions are welcome!

Review This Download

http://mononoetoe.myadsl.nl/mmfdomain/apps/if_engine.zip (1.6mb )

Posted by axel

18th August, 2005

that 4th screenshot r teh ossum :D

Posted by axel

18th August, 2005

hm... you could make an app that would optimise the INI writing, like, an app that lets you browse for pics and wavs and writes the code for you, making it faster and easier to use this thingy. :P

Posted by Joshua M.

18th August, 2005

Hmm, well, you see you need to set a directoryname in the [gameinfo] group, which will be used as something like a ROOT directory; all the image files, sounds and stuff will be loaded from that directory, if you know what I mean. It's like appdrive$+appdir$. I'm trying to find another way to do this kind of stuff, like true code parsing, so that you don't have to deal with strange INI structures and stuff... hmm... By the way, I've noticed that the screenies don't always load correctly. Sorry 'bout that. Hehe. Stupid xs.to...

Posted by Joshua M.

18th August, 2005

But I could make something simple I guess...

Posted by Radix

18th August, 2005

I've made my own flexible interactive novel engine a few months ago that would seem to do the same thing, but I haven't released it because I was going to make a demo first. I'll check this one out and see which is better.

Posted by Muz

19th August, 2005

Cool, I've been trying to make something like this but never had time for it. Sounds fun.

Posted by DeadmanDines

19th August, 2005

Yeah, you really need to make an editor for it rather than relying on notepad. I think you should just make it using a 'screens' principle. You use an INI or array to contain data for each 'screen' (location of objects such as pictures, the text to display, and the options, etc). Then you just reference them by an ID number. If you really wanted a challenge, you could try building an editor where each 'screen' is represented by a box with a number for each possible option (eg: 1, 2, 3, 4 if there were 4 options). Other screens are connected to it by a line, showing the relationship. You can move the 'screens' around to get a better view, to sort them in order, etc. Maybe if you define them as Active System Boxes, you could also zoom in and out? Basically like the database relationship screen in MS Access.

Posted by Joshua M.

19th August, 2005

I don't know if I can do the last thing, sounds a bit too hard for me, hehe. But I keep thinking of how I should improve the engine so that I can make an editor for it. I've got some ideas, but I'll have to write them down first before I can make something out of it.

Posted by Mephistex

20th August, 2005

Nice engine, though it'd be better with something a little more elegant than 'press 1 to do this'.

Posted by Joshua M.

21st August, 2005

I know, I know ^_^ I'm working on it... well maybe not right now, I have a headache now

Posted by Leon101

24th August, 2005

I'm trying to make a game now...I actually want the ini stuff to stay, make it more of a challenge to make the game, then just point and click make,but anyhow, how do I make a song I want be an IT file?

Posted by Iv4n

25th August, 2005

Woah! Very cool! Would you make a support for more fonts? And maybe for font colors, sizes, etc? So it would look like x_font=\fonts\arial.ttf; x_fontcolor=3 (using color palete from 0 to 16); x_fontsize=4; x_fontformat=bold etc. Also I found that right now it doesn't automatically resize .jpg or .gif images to 640x480. That's actually not a problem cause it gives you more possibility to change the picture size for your needs.

Posted by Joshua M.

25th August, 2005

Nah Phizzy, I'll make the editor. But it will be simple. @lv4n: If it's possible in the event editor, it's possible to code it. Though I thought I coded it so that it would automaticly resize the background images... hmmm... I'll check that.

Posted by Leon101

25th August, 2005

I still need help to get music and sounds to work.

Posted by Joshua M.

26th August, 2005

Oh, right. IT/XM/S3M/MOD files are modules. They can be made using the Modplug Tracker. Visit www.modplug.com for that. The Modplug Tracker is free. Sounds can just be wav files.

Posted by Leon101

27th August, 2005

Hmmm, I like the INI things, but I don't like making a song a IT file. I think I'll just wait until you come out with an easier to use interactive fiction maker, with easy to input music... I hope.

Posted by Leon101

28th August, 2005

Well, maybe. Not exactly, maybe just being able to put music in a folder, like with the sounds.

Posted by Iv4n

28th August, 2005

Yes you can place music in folder. Don't see the problem. If you want mod music, go to modarchive.com for the biggest free mod archive over the internet.

Posted by Leon101

28th August, 2005

I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. I tried, it didn't work. You have to convert it into something else, like IT.

Posted by Joshua M.

5th September, 2005

Ahem. I'm NOT going to make a music app myself. Download Modplug Tracker, it's free and it works great. You can put the music in a folder, check the example file. You can put it in any folder. d00d. And I don't get that last comment. It does work that way. You don't have to convert it to something else. If it's a ZIP file, open it with either winzip or winrar. You really need to look into the manual... -_- *sigh*

Posted by Leon101

12th September, 2005

I did, and according...nevermind. I don't have the creater anymore anyway.

Posted by DaVince

2nd February, 2006

Pro?

Posted by Leon101

6th February, 2006

I got music to work! Also, I want to know, when I finish my game and I upload it on here (first I have to find someplace to upload things for download) can I delete the game off of my computer and other people still be able to play it perfectly, with music, sfx, pictures and all?

Author

Joshua M.

Registered
01/06/2004
Points
1999

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