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The game interface consists of four views:
Depending on the current view, the game interface contains additionally a toolbar and displays for textual information.
The left mouse button is used to select whatever may be below the cursor. If a view has a toolbar, the right and middle button may be used to choose the next or previous tool respectively.
All views except from the scene may have several pages. In that case, silver arrows appear in the left top corner for the previous page and in the right bottom corner for the next page. A click with the right mouse button opens the first or last page respectively.
The toolbar for scenes contains the main menu (the six scrolls), the buttons to open the inventory (crate / F7) and the diary (book / F8), the tools for scenes (here: sneakers, eye, bag, speech), and optionally the selected object (here: gift). The bordered text area displays a description of a button, while the cursor is over it. Alternatively, there may be only a single button to open the main menu instead of the scrolls. If no inventory is available, the crate and the area for the selected object are missing. If the game counts points, the toolbar displays the current points and the maximum points.
Depending on the game settings, the toolbar may contain only some of the above or may be missing at all. The toolbar may be hidden initially and only shown, when the cursor is moved at the upper border of the scene or ESC is pressed. Optionally, a game may contain a scene menu that is opened with F10 (also ESC, if there is no toolbar).
In the example above, the middle area with the two smileys is the scene that consists of the smileys as regions. (A scene usually has the same size as this area, but it also may be smaller or larger.) A region is a part of a scene for interactions. An interaction is done by clicking at a region with the mouse. The result of an interaction usually depends on the selected tool that is symbolised by the image of the cursor (here: speech). A special type of region is the optional player character. It represents the player and may be moved by pointing with the mouse to a new position. If a scene is larger than the scene area, the scene usually scrolls to the hidden part when the player character approaches the borders.
The bordered text area displays a description of the region the mouse is over (here: Smiley). The text area below displays textual information (here: It's a smiley) usually created as result of an interaction with the scene. Both text areas may be integrated into the scene area instead of being separate areas.
Dialogs are usually started by some interaction with a character in a scene. The dialog view may include images of the envolved characters (here: smileys). The player character is usually on the left, the other on the right side. The bordered text area at the top displays the name of the one currently talking. The speech is shown as text in the middle. For the player, there may be several alternatives to choose from. The alternatives may be the complete text to say or just a topic. A selection is done by a mouse click and an answer is acknowledged in the same manner. A dialog is usually closed by saying "bye" or something like that.
The inventory is opened by the inventory button of the scene toolbar (F7). Its toolbar has a button to close the inventory (scrolls / F7 / ESC), the inventory tools (here: glass, arrow), and the selected object (here: gift). The middle area displays the objects. As in the scene view, tools are applied by clicking on an object, whose description is shown in the bordered text area. The result may be some change of the object or an information displayed in the lower text area.
The diary is opened by the diary button of the scene toolbar (F8). The toolbar has a button to close the diary (F8 / ESC) and a button to add entries (F9). Each entry consists of a symbol, a title, and a text. The symbol and the title indicate where the entry comes from.
book: an entry created by the game
scroll: an information displayed in a scene; the title is the name of the scene
crate: an information displayed in the inventory; the title is the name of the object
speech from left: something the player said in a dialog; the title is the addressee
speech from right: something the other character said in a dialog; the title is the speaker
feather: an entry added by the player
Which entries are added automaticly to the diary depends on the game. The symbol for the diary in the scene toolbar changes from a book with empty pages to one with written pages, if an entry is added.