Background

You are Rowan of Bunglewood Downs, would-be thief and seeker of magic.

There's known to be a Cave of Magic deep in the forest of Bunglewood. The cave is not hard to find, but no one goes there for fear of being eaten by a troll. As no one's been there, no one knows for sure what's in the cave. It's rumoured to contain treasure, but if it contains treasure, why isn't it called The Cave of Treasure?

No, you suspect that the cave contains magic. There's only one way to find out for sure and that's to go there!

Goal

Your goal is to find The Cave of Magic, uncover its secrets and steal any magic that you find there. You are awarded 5 points for completing significant tasks. This gives an indication of your progress. The maximum score is 20 points. Each time you are awarded points, a short jingle plays, so make sure you have sound turned on.

Instructions

This is a traditional text adventure that was originally written for the Adventuron CaveJam, 31 August to 23 September 2019. See the jam page for the jam rules.

A text adventure is a form of computer game that presents you with a story. You take on the role of the main character in the story and control that character's actions. The story has a goal and you will need to solve puzzles in order to achieve that goal. The computer tells you where you are, what you can see and what's happening around you. You can then move around, examine the things you find and manipulate objects by telling the computer what to do using simple English commands.

Commands consist of a verb phrase, optionally followed by a noun phrase. Most commands can be abbreviated to a verb followed by a noun. For example, LOOK AT THE ROWING BOAT can be abbreviated to LOOK BOAT.

Movement

To move around, use commands like GO NORTH and GO SOUTH. You can move in any of the four cardinal compass directions, as well as UP and DOWN. To save typing, movement commands can be abbreviated to N, S, E, W, U and D. You can sometimes use other commands such as CLIMB, ENTER, JUMP or SWIM to move to another location. These will be reasonably obvious when the time comes.

Examining things

Make sure you EXAMINE everything you come across, even insignificant things like scenery and objects mentioned in room descriptions, as subtle hints and clues are scattered everywhere. To save typing, EXAMINE can be abbreviated to X. For example, EXAMINE TREE can be abbreviated to X TREE.

You can also try your other senses when it seems appropriate, e.g. SMELL TROLL, TOUCH WATER or LISTEN. Unlike EXAMINE, these actions aren't necessary to solve any puzzles, so don't feel obligated to use them.

Manipulating objects

Apart from examining things, most of your time will be spent manipulating objects. Use commands like GET or TAKE to pick up an object, e.g. GET STICK. Use commands like DROP or DISCARD to drop an object, e.g. DROP KNIFE. Use WEAR to wear something, e.g. WEAR POUCH. Use REMOVE to remove something that is already worn, e.g. REMOVE CLOAK.

To see what you are currently carrying and wearing, use INVENTORY (or I). As you are not a pack horse, you can only carry five items and wear two items at a time.

There are many other verbs that can be used to manipulate objects. These will be fairly obvious when the time comes. Common verbs include OPEN, CLOSE, EAT, DRINK, READ, DIG and so on.

Part of the challenge is working out what verbs to use in any given situation. Don't be scared to try anything. The game has well over 100 verbs, so if something doesn't work, try a synonym or try a different way of achieving the same thing. For example, if FEED BIRD doesn't work, try GIVE SEED.

Communicating with characters

You will encounter at least one character in the game. In addition to examining him, try verbs like TALK, GIVE and SHOW.

Advanced features

You can use IT or THEM to refer to the noun used in the previous command, e.g. EXAMINE BRANCH, GET IT, EXAMINE APPLES, GET THEM.

You can refer to multiple objects by separating the objects with AND, e.g. GET BRANCH AND KNIFE. Using IT and THEM in the next command will only refer to the last of those objects, e.g. EXAMINE IT will only refer to the knife.

You can use ALL or EVERYTHING to refer to all the appropriate objects with GET, DROP, PUT, WEAR and REMOVE, e.g. GET ALL to get everything in the current location, and DROP EVERYTHING to drop everything you're holding.

When using ALL, you can use EXCEPT or BUT to exclude some objects, e.g. DROP ALL EXCEPT HAMMER AND NAILS.

Finally, you can enter multiple commands on the same line by separating them with a comma or a period, e.g. UNLOCK DOOR. OPEN IT.

Other commands

Use LOOK (or L) to refresh the display.

Use VERSION to get the game version. Use ABOUT, CREDITS or INFO to get the game version plus some extra info about the game.

Use TURNS to see how many turns you've taken. Once you've solved the game, you should try to solve it in as few moves as possible. The number of turns taken does not include 'meta' commands such as SCORE, TURNS and LOOK.

Use SCORE to get your score. This is also shown in the status bar at the top of the screen as A/B, where A is your current score and B is the maximum score.

Use SAVE to save your progress. You can save up to three game states in separate slots. Use LOAD or RESTORE to restore a saved game. Alternatively use RAMSAVE and RAMLOAD to save and restore without needing to specify a slot number.

Use WAIT (or Z) to do nothing apart from pass the time.

Use GRAPHICS ON and GRAPHICS OFF to turn graphics on and off.

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the game.

Keyboard shortcuts

If you are playing on a computer with a conventional keyboard, rather than a mobile device, you can press the up and down arrow keys to cycle through your past commands. This is handy if you want to repeat the previous command or correct a typo.

Use Page Up (PgUp) or Page Down (PgDn) to scroll through all the commands and responses since the last screen update.

You can also enter a few characters of a word, then press Tab to cycle through any words containing those characters. For example, enter EX then press Tab to change the word to EXAMINE. Press Tab again to get EXIT. Press Tab again to return to EX.

Credits

Game design, coding and graphics by Garry Francis.

Play testing by Chris Ainsley, Gareth Pitchford and Omid Haghgoo.

Delta 4 font designed by Fergus McNeill.

This game was prototyped in Inform 6, then ported to Adventuron. Adventuron was written by Chris Ainsley.

Learn to write your own text adventure with Adventuron. Visit the Adventuron web site for further details.