Goodness hell, that was pretty meta.
Nice concept though, very interesting.
Well done.
Reviews for "Type Help"
cool text game
Wow nice
I have to say this was something different then the normal games and you really put some nice effort into it especially the interface and machine etc I was quite impressed by how this turned out. I really didn't know what to expect at all, but it turned out to be really cool. I had a little trouble at first, but it really is a lot of fun! It just goes to show that you don't have to be too elaborate or anything with this. It's quite inspiring how it's the kind of game anyone can enjoy. I also like how the variety was good. You have some good Criteria to make some great stuff.
~~THINGS TO IMPROVE ON~~
none
~X~
Warning, May contain spoilers... sort of...
Ha.. Good stuff. I did have to go to the walkthrough for exactly the reason you thought most people would have to go. The game was short but fun. I really think you could do a lot more with the concept of editing rooms and items in a text adventure. It felt like a really underexplored ploy. A couple of things that could be made better if you do ever decide to make a longer version that puts this concept to the test navigating the room editing could be made a bit easier it feels like a lot of steps and if you make 1 typo you have to start over and you can't list items while you are in the room edit. Perhaps you could make it such that the CMD edit room worked just on the room you happened to be in. then you could CMD edit room and just put in one number to edit the line then have the line edit options. Just my thoughts.
I do also agree that the game was ripe for adding easter eggs. I typed xyzzy and when that did nothing I figured you probably didn't put anything in, though I didn't play too much with it and I somehow wonder if there were some hidden things that I was simply too lazy to find.
I also did love that the end of the game was a game maker with online submissions. Although I did not make one, I thought that was a really cool way to wrap things up especially in a game where the puzzle is to edit the game.
Not personally a fan of scan lines, so.. I would suggest if you do decide to put them in, allow us to turn them off.
All told great game!
BoMToons responds:
Thanks!
The idea to make the commands smaller in scope, based on the current room you're in is interesting, but I think that might end up being too limiting since I tend to lay out all the base building blocks, then stitch them together...
You're basically weaving a web of id numbers, which can get really hard to keep track of on complex games... I was toying with the idea of maybe showing a wider screen with the game's "library" listed at all times, so you could easily toggle between items and witems and actions and rooms and such without having to mess with/affect the command line screen... but then again, some of the hurdles to creation/learning curve might be some of the charm?
I was telling someone else that it's like a gauntlet you have to pass to prove your worthiness to contribute to the game library :-P
Remember, you can always add your own easter eggs and submit them, or make your own game with tons of easter eggs and submit that!
Well, this really takes me back. Let's get the biggest gripe out of the way; clicking anywhere on the screen opens the TypeHelp website every time. Very annoying if you lose focus.
Otherwise, this is really good. Not finished yet, but muddling my way through.
No music? I know it's text-based, but might be an idea.
Also, some lovely retro graphics would be nice.
No pun intended, but a text walkthrough would be much more useful than a video.
BoMToons responds:
The click-anywhere thing is a Ruffle bug. They're working on it.
I thought about perhaps adding a command line command to load a NG audio file... think it would be worth it?
The pixelated white text and the commodore 64 keyboard aren't retro enough??? ;-)
There's a text walkthrough on the site now, but warning, it has spoilers!