Template:UDGame/Guide

Guide

This guide assumes that you have knowledge of the templates for UDGame The Start     The Basics The UDGame works by creating a bunch of pages in that are linked by movement on the map or actions your protagonist takes. The idea is that by creating a bunch of similar pages linked together, it can create the appearance of moving or doing things. It's a wiki, so you have to remember that this can't happen "automatically", things happen after the player clicks the links. They're just wiki pages, after all. You can create the illusion of other "NPCs" doing things by strategically placing them on the map and following you around, attacking or talking. It's helpful to use logical locations that make sense to you, so if you wanted an action to enter a building, you could call it Building1Enter (the 1 is incase you create more than one building).     The Story It's a good thing to start out with a proper idea for your game, essentially your story you want to tell. I found it incredible useful to start out with a map, made in word, or paint or PS, whichever you prefer. If you plan on making many similar locations, such as large fields or woodlands, it might be good to mark out the location names. Locations Somewhere the Ross Building a road a field the Ross Building a road a field the Park a road a field ...1 south to Somewhere the Ross Building a road a field the Park a road a field a cemetery a road a field     Movement Pages should be designated by one subpage, so User:Example/Road1. Links on the map are best done in a way you can understand, so if you wanted the option for the protagonist to move south you could do User:Example/Road1 -> User:EXample/Road2 or User:Example/RoadS1. You need to remember to adjust the locations on the minimap as well, so all the locations in User:Example/Road1 would move 1 spot down in User:Example/Road2. It's a good idea, especially for repetitive locations, to have some sort of naming convention as it will make it much easier creating locations fast and efficiently. It's good to find a start point, or point of bearing. So, if you wanted to create a giant field, your location names might look like this: N1Field0 N1Field1 N1Field2 N1Field3 N1Field4 N1Field5 Building Field1 Field2 Field3 Field4 Field5 S1Field0 S1Field1 S1Field2 S1Field3 S1Field4 S1Field5 Where the first letter N1 = North one spot and S1 = South one spot. For horizontal movement, it's an ascending number but you may need to the same with E for east and W for West if there's field locations on both sides of the building. I find it best to go in order from left to right and to copy the former page and paste it on the next. So all I'd have to do for one block right is for example, change the S1Field0 to S1Field1 for all the blocks. For actions that don't move you, it's a lot easier. Simply copy paste the former location and create a new one with the changes.     State Changes This is when you pick up something, or do something that you don't want to be repeated endless. For example, picking up an item might mean you need to change the inventory slot to the appropriate item and then create duplicate pages that contain that item. So if Bob walked west on a road (RoadW1) to (RoadW2) and picked up and axe, you'd need to alter the locations to something like (RoadW1axe) / (RoadW2axe) and include the axe for those locations in the inventory spot. You need to do this for every location, or until you reach a choke point (read below). Lets say your character kills a zombie. You would need to duplicate the blocks, so Building1Stairs and Building1Room would turn into Building1Stairszed and Building1Roomzed. This allows the player to do something with the dead zombie, such as dragging it over to the stairs and pushing it down.     Choke Points These are pretty much a necessity, unless you plan on creating the same game multiple times with different items, actions etc. Choke points are essentially areas the player travels to that must have certain items or done certain things. So, if the area that needs to be accessed requires an axe, lets say to break down a door, the character would have to have this axe to continue. In the area after the choke point, the player would always have this axe, so the creator (you) won't have to create two different sets of locations (one with the axe, one without). For example, in my game, you can't leave the apartment without 1) clothes 2) a knife. I do this by simply barring the exit with planks and glass, requiring the player to find these two items to break free and continue. This way, I don't have to create 4 games (one with clothes, one with a knife, one with both and nude/knifeless). That would be real pain. Miscellaneous     Random ::{{UDAction|Dodge out of the way|{{switch |{{CURRENTHOUR}} |case: 01=Station1Left |case: 02=Station1Right |case: 03=Station1Backward |case: 04=Station1Forward |case: 05=Station1Angled |case: 06=Station1Left |case: 07=Station1Right |case: 08=Station1Backward |case: 09=Station1Forward |case: 10=Station1Angled |case: 11=Station1Left |case: 12=Station1Right |case: 13=Station1Backward |case: 14=Station1Forward |case: 15=Station1Angled |case: 16=Station1Left |case: 17=Station1Right |case: 18=Station1Backward |case: 19=Station1Forward |case: 20=Station1Angled |case: 21=Station1Left |case: 22=Station1Right |case: 23=Station1Backward |case: 0=Station1Forward |default=Station1Left }}}} You can create "random" events for the same action by using the Switch template. This can be done by placing it on the link part of a template, such as UDAction. For example: I'm sticking the switch template in the link spot, so in this case the link changes depending on the hour, designated by the number. The same thing can be done with day of the week, or time (except time will take hours to do). This creates a little bit of variance for important, high-use actions. In this case, the action is Dodge out of the way and the possible outcomes, depending on the hour can be to the left, right, forward, backward or at an angle. Remember, none of these can result in a dead-end or a situation where the character can get stuck because all actions lead to their death. Otherwise, they're stuck and might need to wait an hour. There's no true way of getting randomness to my knowledge. If you're finding that the action won't change (switch), it's either because you screwed up the code there are caching issues with your browser.     Death WIP     Being both efficient and pedantic It's important to try to be as efficient as possible when creating pages, as taking the slow routes is a pain in the ass and can lead to burnout or laziness. It's also good to be really pedantic about it. If you're careful about checking over each of your edits (use show preview), you won't need to go back and fix things constantly, slowing you down in the process. Edit URLs for repetitive edits - Often times when I'm making "duplicate" blocks, ie. ones that have only a few changes such as an item I'll only add one other # or letter to the page name. Then, all I have to do is go to the new page, change the URL to the old one, copy code + paste it back in the new one and make the changes. Ex. title=Template:UDGame/Guide2&action=edit -> title=Template:UDGame/Guide&action=edit (copy code) -> title=Template:UDGame/Guide2&action=edit (paste code and make changes). It makes adding new items a lot easier and much more efficient.     Troubleshooting I'm getting black text You've probably messed up the template by creating manuall breaks, such as UDAct. Use the <br> tags instead. The template looks all broke You've likely forgot to close a tag }} on one of the templates.