Adventure Language

The Adventure Language (Al) is used to describe adventure games that can be played with the ADePT engine. Different language versions are described in the files named game???.adg. The current version is 003.

The main concepts of Al are derived from the concepts of the game interface. There are scenes consisting of regions that have shapes and images. Mouse clicks in scenes cause actions depending on the current tool. The inventory contains objects that may be added, removed, or used by tools. Dialogs consist of the text of speech and answers. The actions display text, manipulate the game, and provide basic timing and mathematics.

Item types

• Game <> {...}

• Tool <name> {description | cursor | action | move | object}
• Action <name> {tool | action | object}

• Scene <name> {description | image | init | exit | regions | background | size | offset | boundary | frontScale | backScale | perspective}
• Region <name> {description | position | shape | image | actions | init | exit | press | release | in | out | distance | boundary | goto}
• Character <name> {description | position | angle | orientation | imageStand | imageWalk | boundary | time | distance | mouse | actions | init | exit | start | stop}

• Circle <name> {center | radius}
• Ellipse <name> {center1 | center2 | radius}
• Rectangle <name> {position | size}
• Polygon <name> {points}
• WindowsRegion <name> {region}
• Combination <name> {combine | shapes | offsets}
• ColourMap <name> {image | colour}

• Image <name> {file | position | size}
• Transparent <name> {file | position | size | transparent | mask}
• Animation <name> {position | size | images | offsets | sounds | timing | repeat | end}
• Text <name> {text | position | size | style | font | mouse | resolveVar}
• Style <name> {align | transparent | text3d | raised | shadow | colorLight | colorDark | colorBack | gap3d}
• Font <name> {name | size | bold | italic}

• Object <name> {description | image | actions | cursor}
• Inventory <name> {object | add | select | insertAfter | backwards | update}

• Dialog <name> {description | image | init | exit | text | name | player | background | textArea | style | textAlign | answerAlign | font}
• DialogText <name> {text | answer | topic | textSpeech | answerSpeech | textImage | answerImage | action | remove | diary | resolveVar}

• DisplayText <name> {text | diary | resolveVar}
• DiaryText <name> {title | text | resolveVar}

• ChangeList <name> {list | item | position | update | insertAfter | backwards}
• ChangeImage <name> {item | image | redraw}
• ChangeFile <name> {item | file}
• ChangeFrame <name> {item | frame | type}
• ChangeAction <name> {item | action | type}
• ChangePlace <name> {place | position | type | stretch | redraw | angle}

• Sequence <name> {actions | loop | single | random}
• Case <name> {conditions | actions | negation}
• Condition <name> {conditions | true | false | or | loop | negation}
• SetCondition <name> {condition | true}
• SetVariable <name> {variable | item}

• Command <> {command | numberParam | stringParam}

• Motion <> {region | path | type | stretch | timing | repeat | end}
• Route <> {route}
• Path <> {points}
• RandomPath <> {shape}
• Line <> {steps | start | end}
• Spiral <> {steps | center | startRadius | endRadius | startDegree | endDegree | stretch | rotate}
• Wave <> {steps | start | length | startAmplitude | endAmplitude | absolute | waveLength | waveStart | degree}

• Series <name> {timings}
• Timing <name> {times}
• RandomTiming <name> {min | max | steps}
• Acceleration <name> {time | steps | acceleration | speed}

• Timer <name> {action | time | repeat}
• PlayAudio <name> {audio | repeat | sync | end}
• PlayVideo <name> {video | repeat | sync | end | position | size | stretch}

• MouseInput <name> {action | xposition | yposition | move}
• KeyInput <name> {action | key | down}
• CharacterPosition <name> {action}

• Calculation <name> {result | operator | value1 | value2 | flag}
• Comparison <name> {comparison | value1 | value2}

Documentation scheme

All item types are described by the same scheme. It consists of two tables, one for the generic description and one for the defined attribute keys.

Item type	The item type. This starts the declaration of an instance of this item type.
Description	This describes the item in general.
Action	This describes how the item is used as an action. (Only if it has type Actions.)
Condition	This describes how the item is used as a condition. (Only if it has type Conds.)

Key	Type	Default	Description
name	type	default value	short description