C#•7mo ago

Branching paths for a text based adventure game (language agnostic)

How would i create a system of branching paths for a text based adventure game? i dont want it to devolve into a ton of if-statements because i have done that before and it is a mess to keep track of and maintain

7 Replies

Angius•7mo ago

Splitting stuff into methods can flatten the structure a lot and facilitate code reuse For example:

void Shop()
{
    Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the shop");
}
void Temple()
{
    Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the temple");
}

void City()
{
    Console.WriteLine("You enter the city. Where do you go?");
    Action place = Console.ReadLine().ToLower() switch {
        "temple" => Temple,
        "shop" => Shop
    };
    place();
}

void Shop()
{
    Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the shop");
}
void Temple()
{
    Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the temple");
}

void City()
{
    Console.WriteLine("You enter the city. Where do you go?");
    Action place = Console.ReadLine().ToLower() switch {
        "temple" => Temple,
        "shop" => Shop
    };
    place();
}

Instead of having everything in the City method

2spooky2playOP•7mo ago

oooh functional programming i like that idea ima experiment with that and come back to you

static class Input {
    public static string? GetInput(string prompt) {
        Console.Write($"{prompt}: ");

        return Console.ReadLine()?
            .Trim()?
            .ToLower();
    }
}

static class TestWorld {
    public static void Shop() {
        Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the shop");
    }

    public static void Arena() {
        Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the arena");
    }
}

class Program {
    static void Main() {
        var userInput = Input.GetInput("shop or arena?")!;
        var place = userInput switch  {
            "shop" => TestWorld.Shop,
            "arena" => TestWorld.Arena,
            _ => throw new Exception(),  
        };
        place();
    }
}

static class Input {
    public static string? GetInput(string prompt) {
        Console.Write($"{prompt}: ");

        return Console.ReadLine()?
            .Trim()?
            .ToLower();
    }
}

static class TestWorld {
    public static void Shop() {
        Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the shop");
    }

    public static void Arena() {
        Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the arena");
    }
}

class Program {
    static void Main() {
        var userInput = Input.GetInput("shop or arena?")!;
        var place = userInput switch  {
            "shop" => TestWorld.Shop,
            "arena" => TestWorld.Arena,
            _ => throw new Exception(),  
        };
        place();
    }
}

No best type was found for the switch expression.

No best type was found for the switch expression.

i have no idea what this error means looking up its code doesnt get me anywhere

Angius•7mo ago

Means it could not automagically figure out what type to infer That's why my example specified the type to be Action instead of using var

2spooky2playOP•7mo ago

ah ok

Omnissiah•7mo ago

i believe a common way would be having engine+branching data, instead of the path being directly implemented in the code so the data would have a pointer to where to go next, a bit like the adventure card games where there's writter "if you answered A pick card 48"

2spooky2playOP•7mo ago

so with that idea it would be more like

Location location = GetNextLocationFromInput();
location.ResolveEvents()

Location location = GetNextLocationFromInput();
location.ResolveEvents()

Omnissiah•7mo ago

if the adventure is short i would maybe go for a simpler approach if there are scenes, chapters, plots, then i would move it to data, like

// example: { "text", Answer1Next = 312, Answer2Next = 11, ... }
// ...
answer = ReadAnswer();
nextId = GetNextFromAnswer(current, answer);
current = scenes[nextId];
print(current.Text);

// example: { "text", Answer1Next = 312, Answer2Next = 11, ... }
// ...
answer = ReadAnswer();
nextId = GetNextFromAnswer(current, answer);
current = scenes[nextId];
print(current.Text);

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Branching paths for a text based adventure game (language agnostic)