The Anatomy of a Game: Detailed Descriptions

Detailed Descriptions

Detailed descriptions provide an in-depth look at an item within the game. They can be provided for :

• The current location
• Objects
• Problems
• Set Dressings

Locations, objects and problems provide their own short descriptions of themselves, but detailed descriptions take that to another level. If a player in a real-world escape room is looking for clues or inspiration they can pick up anything in the room and examine it, whether it is directly involved in the game play or not. Detailed descriptions provide that same functionality in TAF.

Places, objects and problems are obviously part of the game play, but set dressings need not be. They may be, but sometimes stuff is just stuff. Either way, if the player wants to examine it they can, as long as the game authors has provided a detailed description for it.

Detailed descriptions are not displayed automatically. The player must ask for them, as part of their exploration of the game and the detection work they need to do to complete the game. Detailed descriptions make world exploring, fact finding, and “getting the lay of the land” fulfilling for players.

Problems can have two different detailed descriptions. One is shown before the problem is solved and the other is used after the problem is solved. This allows you to accommodate differences in the state of things before or after the solution of the problem. Perhaps they have to open a safe. The before description will describe the safe. The after description will describe the safe with an open door.

Another example would be two liquids that have to be mixed as part of the actions the player must take en route to solving a problem. If the two liquids are red and blue, the after description will describe a single purple liquid.

Set dressings may be changed in some way due to the actions carried out to solve a problem, or the effects that result from solving a problem. Set dressings can have two detailed descriptions associated with them: an unsolved version and a solved version.

Transition Descriptions

It’s also possible to attach a detailed description to the action of moving from one location to another. This is a special case of a detailed description. As the player leaves their current location and moves to a new location, an optional detailed description—as long or as short as the game author likes—can be shown to the player.

This can be used to introduce information that is useful in the solution of problems, or just to add detail and atmosphere to the game play. If there is a direction of travel from the first location to the other location, but no means of going back, this can be explained to the player at this point.

This caters for situations where some event prevents the player from going back to the first location. Perhaps a portcullis has dropped, or a tunnel has collapsed, or a bridge has been swept away—or anything else that means there’s no going back.

More dramatically, transition descriptions can have sound effects associated with them—so the sound of a collapsing tunnel can accompany the transition description.