Notes

General notes of all stripes, python snippets, ideas, etc:

Code Snips:

• a="spot %Rock on.%" a.rsplit('%')[1] Result: Rock on.

Ideas:

On the subject of cutscenes, animations and dialog:

All of these come down to disabling the normal user input, doing something else, and then enabling it again. There should be a global flag like "UIMode" that sets this maybe. My "ideal" implementation means that from the toplevel demogame you can basically say "Animate this, say this, animate this, walk here, return"

Further on this topic, we can avoid class inheritance by making some "sibling" classes, whose only similarity is that they have some important methods (display, start) and variables (finished) in common. So an animation class and a speak class can both be started, get to their ends, and then remove themselves from the "BlockingEvents" list. (The BlockingEvents list would only allow user input when empty.)

On the subject of new parts of a game, I want an in-game tutorial. You have the in-game character explain how to edit the code and source files to add a room. (Look at: How To Add A Room Sign) If the user runs from the terminal, they can get code snippets that just drop in the terminal with labels, ready to paste to gedit. This would be an awesome way to learn code and it's just a shame that this genre will never carry quite the same resonance for the next generation as it did for mine. But I think we can get a few youngsters who'll like it...

In-game tutorial shouldn't require the command line. That's hack-y and not fun for beginners. Ideally the tutorial game will show you commands onscreen, but since PyGame doesn't have good text/clipboard integration to my knowledge, that will involve some typing. But I think that's okay. Just have "look sign" give you a screen board that's easy to follow along with. "Open a text editor and then get this file:" First step: edit a door maze :3