| < Inventory & dialog layout | Index |
The demonstration games show the capabilities of ADePT. All include the Adventure Language code. Thus, the best way to learn the Adventure Language may be to have a look at the examples.
The demos consist of:
The tool example displays the images of the predefined tool cursors. For the scene as well as for the inventory view, the fifteen predefined tool cursors are defined as Tool items. In both cases, the background image is a spectrum of all colour hues to test the visibility of the cursors against arbitrary background colours.
The region example consists of regions with all kinds of shapes and images. The first column shows the basic shapes circle, ellipse, and rectangle and the windows region. Different kinds of polygons are in the second column. The next column demonstrates the combination of shapes based on a rectangle and a circle. The fourth column contains regions whose form is defined by the transparency of images. The last column has several examples for text areas in regions. The last example shows a bitmap and three regions, one for each colour of that bitmap. The background image displays the regions. You may try the region inversion of the debugging options to highlight the defined regions.
The image example demonstrates the supported file types for images and the scaling of images. The left column of buttons allows you to choose an image file type. In addition, the usage of brightness and colour filters is shown. With the buttons on the right side, you can adjust brightness and colours and fade the image from dark to bright and back again.
In addition, all strings are defined using abbreviations defined in a text mapping.
The inventory example is already a very small adventure game that explains the usage of the
inventory by adding, removing, and combining
objects. Have a look at the diary to see your task. Open the cabinet and
take all objects you can take. Then, open the inventory and examine and combine the objects to finish your
task.
This example serves four purposes.
First, it demonstrates conversations in a dialog. Talk to the right smiley to open
the dialog view. Second, it shows the usage of the
diary. Entries are added to the diary for
textual information and for conversations.
Another purpose is to demonstrate the change of images. The
smileys in the scene change their face while the cursor is over them and the smileys in the dialog change
their face as a result of the conversation. In addition, you may change the background image by clicking
on it. Finally, this example shows how to adjust the tool to the region. The cursor
will always change to look while over the left smiley and to talk while over the right smiley.
The sequence example demonstrates the different kinds of sequences.
There are three flags for loop, single execution, and random selection resulting in eight different
combinations. In the example, for each combination exists a button that is associated with a sequence with
the according flags. Each sequence consists of three actions that are visualised by a number indicating their
position in the sequence. Each time you press a button, you will see which actions are executed in which order
due to the numbers that appear.
This small collection of examples shows the shifting and reversing of list elements with
ChangeList. The regions are defined by using a macro.
Since actions in adventure games are not real-time, other criteria have to be used to measure game time.
The ADePT engine counts all actions and scene changes the player makes and assigns these values to
special variables. These variables may be accessed by the
calculation item. In the example, these counters are used to change
the points reached. In addition, the example has a watch with the real time.
This is an example for the usage of timers and
mathematics to realise animations. It also includes brightness and colour filters.
Animations like this require some programming skills. There are now easier ways for animations (see below).
The media example demonstrates the usage of audio and
video.
This example shows how to process input from the mouse and the
keyboard. The smiley is moved with the arrow keys. By clicking on the smiley,
you change the mode for mouse input. First, the smiley is moved to the mouse position on each mouse click.
Then, the smiley follows each move of the mouse.
This demonstrates how to use the Command item to create a menu scene and
to perform other tasks like disabling and enabling the toolbar menu and the input. There are also several
small examples for the different kinds of toolbar styles.
The robot example has animations nearly where-ever possible. The character is animated, the other robot
is animated, the backgrounds of the first scene, the dialog, and the inventory too. When you click on the
red balls they start / stop animation. Click on the ABC to change the letter. These animations all use the
animation and timing features. In addition, there
are several examples for motion like the flying rocket and the pulsating,
the rotating, and the waving balls.
The dialog with the robot shows how to lay out a dialog with own text style and how
to use speech and animation for dialogs.
When you select the robot object in the inventory, two
tools will use the robot as cursor, one with an overlay of the original cursor.
This one shows a human walking character. The checker scene mainly serves to
visualise the size and speed of the character relative to its position in the room. It also has some actions
caused by the position of the character and repositionings of the character. The path scene shows to find
a non-trivial shortest path. The living room shows how to walk in front and back of other objects. Also, the
red balloon follows the woman using a CharacterPosition item.
The beach left to the checker room is a scene that is larger than the scene window. You may use the arrow
keys to move the scene. The scene moves automatically, when the woman is moved. When the character enters the
bridge, it starts to walk to its middle using a ChangePlace item.
Inventory
Dialog
Sequence
Change list
Time
Animation (old)
Media
Input
Menu
Animation
Character