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Tutorial 10: Uploading
So you want to publish your game...
This is a quick overview. If you are about to publish your masterpiece, I very much encourage to use the link at the bottom, which goes into more details, discusses beta-testing and other concerns. If you have spent weeks or months creating a game, you want to get the last step right!
The first step in publishing is to go to the settings.js file, and change the "settings.playMode" line to:
settings.playMode = 'play'
Having you game hosted on textadventures.co.uk is great because you do not need your own website, but it has other advantages. It is one of the biggest repositories of interactive fiction on the internet, which means people go there to find games. Furthermore, it has a comment and review system built-in.
Open up you file manager (eg Windows Explorer) to the game directory. You should seen a file called "index.html" (it might just show the "index" part), plus folders called "game", "lib", "lang" and "assets". Select the whole lot, and zip them all into one file (how you do that depends on your PC, I use 7-Zip); make sure it is a .zip file that is produced. You might want to rename it at this point.
Now go to the textadventures.co.uk web site, and click on "Create", then "Upload game". Follow the instructions on the screen, and away you go!
When you upload a new game, it should then be available immediately. If you are updating an existing game, it can take quite a while for the changes to manifest (I think somewhere your old game will be cached, and it takes a while for the cache to expire; if you give the ZIP file a different name it should be instant). If the new version is not there after 24 hours, though, something has gone wrong.
If you have your own web site you will presumably already have a way to upload web pages (FileZilla and WinSCP are popular tools). The best way to proceed is to create a new folder named after your game (I suggest all lowercase, no spaces or special characters). Then simply upload index.html, together with the folders, to a single location in your web site.
For more details and alternatives, see this page.
Tutorial
- First steps
- Rooms and Exits
- Items
- Templates
- Items and rooms again
- More items
- Locks
- Commands
- Complex mechanisms
- Uploading
QuestJS Basics
- General
- Settings
- Attributes for items
- Attributes for rooms
- Attributes for exits
- Naming Items and Rooms
- Restrictions, Messages and Reactions
- Creating objects on the fly
- String Functions
- Random Functions
- Array/List Functions
- The
respond
function - Other Functions
The Text Processor
Commands
- Introduction
- Basic commands (from the tutorial)
- Complex commands
- Example of creating a command (implementing SHOOT GUN AT HENRY)
- More on commands
- Shortcut for commands
- Modifying existing commands
- Custom parser types
- Note on command results
- Meta-Commands
- Neutral language (including alternatives to "you")
- The parser
- Command matching
Templates for Items
- Introduction
- Takeable
- Openable
- Container and surface
- Locks and keys
- Wearable
- Furniture
- Button and Switch
- Readable
- Edible
- Vessel (handling liquids)
- Components
- Countable
- Consultable
- Rope
- Backscene (walls, etc.)
- Merchandise (including how to create a shop)
- Shiftable (can be pushed from one room to another)
See also:
- Custom templates (and alternatives)
Handing NPCs
- Introduction
- Attributes
- Allowing the player to give commands
- Conversations
- Simple TALK TO
- SAY
- ASK and TELL
- Dynamic conversations with TALK TO
- Following an agenda
- Reactions
- Giving
- Followers
- Changing the player point-of-view
The User Experience (UI)
The main screen
- Basics
- Printing Text Functions
- Special Text Effects
- Output effects (including pausing)
- Hyperlinks
- User Input
The Side Panes
Multi-media (sounds, images, maps, etc.)
- Images
- Sounds
- Youtube Video (Contribution by KV)
- Adding a map
- Node-based maps
- Image-based maps
- Hex maps
- Adding a playing board
- Roulette!... in a grid
Dialogue boxes
- Character Creation
- Other example dialogs [See also "User Input"]
Other Elements
- Toolbar (status bar across the top)
- Custom UI Elements
Role-playing Games
- Introduction
- Getting started
- Items
- Characters (and Monsters!)
- Attributes for characters
- Attacking and guarding
- Skills and Spells
- Limiting Magic
- Effects
- The Attack Object
- Quests for Quest
- User Interface
Web Basics
- HTML (the basic elements of a web page)
- CSS (how to style web pages)
- SVG (scalable vector graphics)
- Colours
- JavaScript
- Regular Expressions
How-to
Time
- Events (and Turnscripts)
- Date and Time (including custom calendars)
- Timed Events (i.e., real time, not game time)
Items
- Phone a Friend
- Using the USE verb
- Display Verbs
- Change Listeners
- Ensembles (grouping items)
Locations
- Large, open areas
- Region,s with sky, walls, etc.
- Dynamic Room Descriptions
- Transit system (lifts/elevators, buses, trains, simple vehicles)
- Rooms split into multiple locations
Exits
- Alternative Directions (eg, port and starboard)
- Destinations, Not Directions
Meta
- Customise Help
- Provide hints
- Include Achievements
- Add comments to your code
-
End The Game (
io.finish
)
Meta: About The Whole Game
- Translate from Quest 5
- Authoring Several Games at Once
- Chaining Several Games Together
- Competition Entry
- Walk-throughs
- Unit testing
- Debugging (trouble-shooting)
Releasing Your Game
Reference
- The Language File
- List of settings
- Scope
- The Output Queue
- Security
- Implementation notes (initialisation order, data structures)
- Files
- Code guidelines
- Save/load
- UNDO
- The editor
- The Cloak of Darkness
- Versions
- Quest 6 or QuestJS
- The other Folders
- Choose your own adventure