Anatomy of a Game: Images

It is possible to have TAF show an image to the player.

Images can be shown for:

• Objects
• Problems
• Set Dressings

Whilst this is a functionality that TAF has, I don’t actually like it that much! I dislike it for two main reasons.

As they play, a player is building a mental map of the landscape of the game, and a mental image of each item in the game. Asking to see an image of an item and being presented with something that looks nothing even similar to what they expected is a jarring experience, and it jolts the player “out of the game”.

Because of the text-based nature of TAF, there are no restrictions on the creativity of the game author whatsoever. If they can imagine it, and describe it in words, they can put it in the game. So they’re going to come up with stuff that will be difficult to find an image for.

The inspiration for TAF was classic text-based adventures. They didn’t need images. TAF probably doesn’t, either. But if, for some reason, a game just has to have them, TAF can support them.

Before and After Images

The item at the heart of a problem might be changed by virtue of solving the problem. For example, the unsolved state might be a locked chest, and the solved state might be an unlocked chest. That means, for problems, there will be two images. You need one for the unsolved problem and one for the solved problem. Even if the item at the heart of the problem doesn’t change appearance, you’ll need to provide two image files. In such a case they can be the same file, simply copied and renamed.

I thought very carefully about image files and whether to include them. In my humble opinion, it’s really not a good idea. But, if someone puts a gun to my head, TAF supports them.

Seriously, just say no.