Hello
I want to make something real simple for me and my friends; I enjoy doing this kind of stuff so I thought why not give it a try. After searching for a while, I still can't decide which platform/engine/software to use. This is what I'd like to achieve.

a) This "comedy adventure" I want to make is supposed to be set in a maze, so having north/west/south/east directions is a must. Another must is a "score" that should always be displayed. There won't be stuff like health, money, or whatever: I'll use score for everything ("if you have 200 score, then you can enter this room" kind of stuff; or at a high score there is a special encounter; etc). An inventory system should also be necessary: things like keys, items, artifacts, to carry and to drop, etc.
b) Now I know what you're all thinking: QUEST! And well that's also what I have installed on my PC right now. But I have a few things that I don't really like about it. Uploading the game online is basically a must: if you give the file to other people they need to have Quest installed (which is dumb); there is no option to make a simple, clean, global-accepted .exe file; and even if you do upload the thing online, then your friends still have to register to the website! I mean, ok, but that deters people.
c) I need to be able to change all the keywords and everything related. Right now in Quest to change the word "look" or "go" I need to do some real complex stuff and I'm not even sure what I'm doing. I need to be able to change all of these. Right now I'm not even sure I can't change the "score" word to one of my own
d) A minimum of scripts for encounters or other stuff. For example "There's a baddie in the room! You punch him, you seduce him, or you fake yourself as a blind man?" and then you have a choice. Stuff like that.

Quest would really be perfect if it wasn't for b) and c) which I hope you can give me a solution for.
Any other software besides Quest that meets the requirements is welcome!

Sorry for my english, cheers

To make it a "clean" .exe, you will need to learn to program in a language that allows for you program to be compiled.
Then, you will need to write the program, story, and the input method, (typed or keyboard commands), the map, screen layout... Basically, everything. If you know programing, you are already 2/3 there...
Quest does the 2/3 for you, all you need to write is the story. (and a little bit of code.)
B)... did not notice that registering to the site was required... (Learn something new every day)
C)... Why?...
D)... Easy to do, a simple "if" statement controls all of that...

Try a few test programs before you build your "big one".

I'm currently doing pretty fine with Quest.
If only there was a way to change all the stuff inside the language dictionary and more... For example, I'd like to change basic default responses to unknown commands. So, when you type "bla bla" it'd say "Sorry, not sure what you meant" (BASIC EXAMPLE, it's not what I want) instead of the default text

B) yes, sadly that's really the worst part. I do understand why's that, but that's where I asked for a way to make exe/simple solutions. Of course I don't know how programming complex stuff like these, otherwise I wouldn't be using Quest in the first place ^^

I have to say I'm really surprised with Quest though, I think i'll stick with it.
It'd be A LOT better knowing how to change and modify the internal, default stuff though

EDIT: Anyway to remove the very top bar that says the room name?

quest is extremely powerful, you can do everything that you want to do in your posts, but you got to know/learn quest's built-in programming to do it. You can literally create your own engine with quest, as the default quest engine is just a bunch of library files.

there's the 'templates' you can use, but you got to learn how they work / how to use them.

all this built-in stuff is beyond my ability/knowledge, but Pixie or whoever knowledgeable can help you with this type of stuff.

"EDIT: Anyway to remove the very top bar that says the room name? (bandito)"

look at the 'game' Game Settings Object's various Tabs, you should find a toggle/control for it.