Engine for interactive novels and text adventure games, in Python.
The main motivation of the TAINT project is to allow non-technical people to bring their own stories to life, which they can then share with their friends and family or even release on a greater scale.
- Documentation: http://gouvatsos.com/TextEngine/html/index.html
- Games hub: http://taintgameshub.appspot.com/
Text adventures and interactive novels are another way to serve written fiction. It is similar to reading a book, however instead of having a completely passive experience, the reader can make choices that affect the course of the story. In this report, the term 'text adventure' is used for such interactive fiction where the reader interfaces with the system through commands, which are hidden to him. On the other hand, the term 'interactive novel' is used for interactive fiction where all the possible actions the player can take are always visible, like a multiple-choice list.
Text adventures and interactive novels were extremely popular back when computers were not as powerful as today and a good story was the focus of games, instead of impressive visuals. With the coming of more powerful computers, these games became overshadowed by modern games which could combine a good story together with graphics, more intense game-play and great sound.
However, with the coming of portable devices like smart phones and tablets, these games have become relevant again: not because today's devices lack the computational power to play more advanced games, but due to the environment in which people use these devices to play. More specifically, common experience shows that people read or play on their portable devices when in-between locations or tasks. Because of the short-term nature of these sessions, deep games with complex mechanics which require the user's full audio-visual attention are not as popular, compared to simple games which require little input from the user.
As such, text adventures and interactive novels have the potential to make a comeback. It is important to note that this does not mean that it is expected for these games to claim a greater market share than games with actual graphics, but rather to become more popular than they have been in the recent past.