Giant Bomb Flight Club Text Adventure

Hi guys -- longtime member but never really had the urge to post. I was reading Patrick's recent article about interactive fiction and remembered a desire to learn more about Inform7.

I decided to make my first project a high-flying adventure with the Giant Bomb Flight Club, featuring Vinny, Drew, Dave and a rapidly decending A-10 Warthog.

Try it out here:

http://iplayif.com/?story=https%3A//dl.dropbox.com/s/dqnmxlry48vy97o/Giant%2520Bomb%2520Flight%2520Club.zblorb

If you have any feedback, feel free to send along. If you'd like to see the source and maybe add to it, I'm happy to pass it along.

EDIT -- cooking up a new version with a "help" menu and more, should be available in the next few days. Thanks to everyone who has tried out the first version!

Your link scares me.

zblorb is the format used for Inform7 text adventure output. I can understand the link being scary, but it's not a download -- it plays in the browser.

Read more about the format here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blorb

Apologies if that keeps anyone away from playing -- I don't have a better method of serving it (but open to suggestions).

i tried killing Dave but it didn't let me, so this game gets a pass. i'ma mess around with it a little, but neat idea! i'll check back in when i'm done

edit: i'm kinda stuck, but y'all should try ejecting. it's pretty awesome

This is pretty neat. Trying it right now.

@jakeyjake: It's fun, but it reminds me why I hate text adventures.

Cool but I"m bad at text adventures

@AjayRaz: It's funny how tunnel-vision affects you when you make this kind of game -- killing these guys (at least, not in a plane crash) never occurred to me. Back to the code!

@jakeyjake said:

@AjayRaz: It's funny how tunnel-vision affects you when you make this kind of game -- killing these guys (at least, not in a plane crash) never occurred to me. Back to the code!

I messed around for a while, got the radio messed up, and then tried to punch Dave and take the wheel. About to give it another shot.

>apply flaps
That's not a verb I recognise.

...well this game is broken.

I gave Dave the HOTAS and now he won't give it back! Argh!

Pretty neat, although I tried a bunch of verbs for the eject switch before I realized you have to type "eject" only.

@Sin4profit: Flaps! Damn, I missed including those. New version coming soon.

I did it! Goodness, all of Vinny's talk about the fuel mixture threw me off. That was pretty funny. Good job!

This was my attempt. I think it went pretty poorly. I suck at text adventures. It is like 15+ years since I've played one:

Pretty cool thing to put together, duder. I played with it a bit but I'll have to mess around with it when I have more time later.

I'm lost...

For its basic functionality, it's pretty amusing. It may need a little bit more work, though.

Better textures, perhaps.

Well I crashed. The game was awesome though, nice job.

Awesome! This is just the kind of ridiculous I can get behind.

@TyCobb said:

Your link scares me.

If you click it, you will likely be eaten by a grue.

YEAH! I survived!

It took glancing at the log MattyFTM posted to realize I could talk to Vinny/Drew/Dave, but then I figured it out! That was really clever, A+.

i was eaten by a grue :(

@Phatmac said:

i was eaten by a grue :(

search the house for the lamp, always the first thing you need to do.

Boy Drew, Vinny, and Dave are pretty uncooperative people. Remind me never to fly with them. =p

Also: great idea.very cool!

@drewbert: Thanks for checking it out! Lots of great feedback in the thread -- I'm going to take another stab at it (adding a list of verbs per @MattyFTM is definitely a priority).

Help should be a typable command.

@jakeyjake said:

@drewbert: Thanks for checking it out! Lots of great feedback in the thread -- I'm going to take another stab at it (adding a list of verbs per @MattyFTM is definitely a priority).

XYZZY

@jakeyjake said:

@drewbert: Thanks for checking it out! Lots of great feedback in the thread -- I'm going to take another stab at it (adding a list of verbs per @MattyFTM is definitely a priority).

Don't take my comment about the lack of a help command personally. That was just me melodramatically dicking about in a text adventure. A help command would be useful, though.

Yeah, not having a help list is pretty bad.

Not to mention you can't tell Vinny not to buy a racing wheel.

@cooljammer00 said:

Yeah, not having a help list is pretty bad.

Not to mention you can't tell Vinny not to buy a racing wheel.

Planetfall never had a help list. infact it told you to buy the guide if you used help.

Well this was pretty fantastic. I did figure it out on my second try though.

> wait for death 
I only understood you as far as wanting to wait.

I ended up with the control panel, the altimeter and the eject switch in my inventory. Either that's part of this goofy game or someone needs to place them as scenery with the inform7 code.

My first text adventure!!!

Eh, most common things like "use throttle" and "ask Vinny about Driver: San Fransisco" wont work.

The first thing I typed: eject.

I survived (kind of.)

so is the point that you can't win?

@MattyFTM: Haha I did that straight away without even trying

>turn on switch

(the eject switch) You flip the eject switch, blasting the cockpit hatch open and sending you, Dave, Vinny, and Drew flying out into the atmosphere. As you each stare at the ground quickly coming up from below, a new A-10 Warthog appears under you and you land in the middle of the open cockpit! Vinny is frantically flipping levers and switches.

@Getz said:

so is the point that you can't win?

It's winnable. Just fairly oblique. Pay attention to the things the game mentions as time passes. Most of them, like the stuff about a racing wheel, is meaningless, but trying commands with that stuff is how I eventually found the solution.

@jakeyjake:

Can I ask how long it took you to make? Seems like a fun thing to try.

>ask Whom do you want to ask?

>drew

What do you want to ask Drew for?

>what he is wearing

You can't see any such thing.

@Twinsun: Maybe 10 hours off and on? The hardest part is guessing at what people will type in and trying to find an end state that isn't so obscure no one will get there.

I'm happy to share the source of the game if you (or anyone) is interested.

I am completely clueless! My ideas are either to get the hatch open, somehow, or flip the switches in some sort of order, but I haven't been able to do either. I'll come back to it later on probably, and have a Benopause and get it first try.

I'm completely stumped, as I feel like I've done as much as I can with everything that the game has told me about. All I can think of in terms of possible solutions is that maybe there's some other object that isn't specifically mentioned, and that you just need to know is there. Or maybe I just overlooked something that's been sitting right in front of me the whole time.

Process of elimination, things I have tried that yield results other than the default "you can't do that" messages:

• Ask Drew/Dave/Vinny about hatch
• Ask Drew/Dave about Dave/Drew
• Flip switch on HOTAS
• Flip fuel, battery, and inverter switches on control panel (in various sequences)
• Flip switch on ejector
• Eject
• Examine Dave, Drew, Vinny, self, track IR, altimeter, control panel, hatch, ejector
• Take control panel, altimeter, ejector switch
• Give control panel, altimeter, ejector switch, HOTAS to Dave/Drew/Vinny

I can't think of anything else, really. Am I at least on the right track with any of that?

I just wish any command did anything. great idea though! I'm terrible at playing text games. I imagine designing them would be nearly impossible.

@BBAlpert said:

I'm completely stumped, as I feel like I've done as much as I can with everything that the game has told me about. All I can think of in terms of possible solutions is that maybe there's some other object that isn't specifically mentioned, and that you just need to know is there. Or maybe I just overlooked something that's been sitting right in front of me the whole time.

Process of elimination, things I have tried that yield results other than the default "you can't do that" messages:

• Ask Drew/Dave/Vinny about hatch
• Ask Drew/Dave about Dave/Drew
• Flip switch on HOTAS
• Flip fuel, battery, and inverter switches on control panel (in various sequences)
• Flip switch on ejector
• Eject
• Examine Dave, Drew, Vinny, self, track IR, altimeter, control panel, hatch, ejector
• Take control panel, altimeter, ejector switch
• Give control panel, altimeter, ejector switch, HOTAS to Dave/Drew/Vinny

I can't think of anything else, really. Am I at least on the right track with any of that?

The important things are all in there except for one. There's one more thing you have to ask Dave about once you've made the necessary preparations.

The only other real thing that sticks out to me is Vinny going on about the fuel mixture, but I haven't been able to work any commands regarding it :(