The Regal Framework

The adaptable, text-driven game framework for everyone.

Introduction

The Regal Framework is a project designed to help developers bring text-driven games and story experiences to players in exciting new ways.

Text-based games, often called Interactive Fiction (IF), were some of the first video games to become popular back in the 1970s. These games were loved by their players for their immersive worlds and gripping stories.

Despite keeping a small group of loyal followers, the text-based game genre has declined in popularity over the years. However, recent advancements in audio recognition, smart assistants, and machine learning have the potential to bring these stories back—and make them more engaging than ever.

Goals

The Regal Framework aims to capitalize on these advances in technology to bring text-driven games into the mainstream through captivating audio experiences.

Regal: Reinventing Gameplay through Audio and Language

Gone will be the days of playing these games by typing terse commands into a command line. Instead, players will speak to the stories, and the changes they cause will be narrated back to them.

With the Regal Framework, interactive fiction will become what it was always meant to be: a totally immersive story that the player can enter and shape just as easily as they can hear and speak.

The Regal Framework is a platform for developers to create these audio adventures.

Core Values

The Regal Framework has three core values that serve as inspiration for how the project should be designed and implemented.

They are, ordered from least- to most-important:

1. Keep it simple
2. Make development fun
3. Bring joy to everyone

Keep it Simple

In order for the Regal Framework to gain popularity, it must be as simple to learn as possible. A developer should be able to write a story and put it on the Regal platform with very little extra effort.

Make Development Fun

Developers are the ones creating the stories that drive the Regal Framework, and so it should be just as fun for them to develop the games as it is for players to experience them.

Furthermore, as much as possible of the Regal Framework will always be open-source. The project has much more potential if the community can be involved.

Bring Joy to Everyone

This is the most important point. The Regal Framework is intended to be enjoyed by all people, on all platforms.

The focus on audio is ideal for the sight-impaired. However, the same games will be offered as text as well, for those that cannot hear and/or speak.

Games are remarkable at bringing people together. No one shall be prevented from enjoying a Regal game because of their disability, experience, or device.

Roadmap

The Regal Framework is still in early development. The major priorities at this stage include:

• Creation of the Regal Game Library, a TypeScript package for games that use the framework.
• Finding passionate contributors to shape the future of the Regal Framework.

Contributors

The Regal Framework was designed by Joe Cowman. He is currently the sole developer and maintainer of the project.

In order for the Regal Framework to succeed, it needs support from other passionate creators. This means people to develop the framework itself, as well as indviduals to write the games that adopt the framework. Skills that are particularly needed include:

• Development
• Writing (both technical and creative)
• Sound
• Machine learning expertise
• Graphic design

Interested in helping? Great! Please contact Joe at joe.r.cowman@gmail.com.

Copyright 2018-2019, Joe Cowman