Hi folks,I used to write text adventures 40ish years ago and sell them on cassette. I have now got more spare time and me and a couple of mates thought we would try again.I started using Dark basic and got the routines for getting commands, splitting it into verbs and nouns, using objects moving etc. When in the pub last night we were talking and this guy suggested we should try Quest. I have had a quick look at it and it looks pretty good.If we ever get any thing decent and polished I have seen you can put it out to android etc. does the program put a virtual keyboard up for the user to type with ? Also is the scripting language to use variables to control things and set up timers for other such things easyish and with a knowledge of dark basic / basic does this set you in good stead.And I know a good game is not written in a couple of weeks but still after a lot of hard work by us all and a long time is it still possible to earn a little beer money either by donations or selling ?
Cheers.
PS is it better to download or use online or is there no difference ?

Welcome! Based on your post, I wouldn’t say you’re a Total Newbie. :)
There is a learning curve for Quest, which I’m still climbing, but I had literally zero coding experience and I haven’t had any huge barriers. Well, maybe I’ve had a couple, but the great folks here are awesome and have guided me through them.

I’m guessing your curve will be far less steep than mine.

WITHOUT A DOUBT, use the offline/downloaded version of Quest. It’s infinitely better!

Quest is definitely awesome!

The desktop version is much better than the online version (as far as creating is concerned).

You can submit your game to the site, and it can be played from any browser.

I have seen you can put it out to android

I have seen no proof of that.

There are many posts concerning it, but, to my knowledge (which is admittedly limited), it has never actually been done.

There was an abandoned project (which never quite completely worked and was never even released as a beta) that compiled a Quest game into a website (HTML, CSS, and JS files), but it does not even produce semi-playable games with the current version of Quest.

I have used an older version of Quest to make a basic game, then, successfully compiled that game to a website, but I never did get it into an app.

I admit that I didn't give it my all. I tried it using PhoneGap for about 2 hours, to no avail (due to my ignorance, I'm sure). I could get PhoneGap's example app to run, but I couldn't figure out how to add my website to the mix.

Then, I tried in AndroidStudio for about 30 minutes before getting bored/frustrated with the whole thing.

So, I'm not saying it's impossible. In fact, I'm fairly certain that it can be done. I just don't know how to convert a website to an app (whether or not the website began as a Quest game).

NOTE: Even if you use an older version of Quest to make your game, you can't use a few features. Some of them are known, many are not.

Things I know you can't use:

• In-game Map (this will break the entire game; it will not even load)

• SetTimeout() functions will (usually) not fire

• Mathematical functions will be ignored, probably leading to errors

...I know a good game is not written in a couple of weeks but still after a lot of hard work by us all and a long time is it still possible to earn a little beer money either by donations or selling ?

I've worked on a few Quest games since retiring three years ago. I've enjoyed the challenge and satisfaction of building these games but given no thought to making money. This is really an open source community with all games made freely available, and code, techniques and knowledge shared. It's just for fun!

If you haven't looked at text adventures for a while I would recommend playing some of the highly recommended games on the site before you start to get a feel for how expectations have changed. I found this approach very useful. Also, to get familiar with Quest why not re-implement one of your games from 40 years back? ...and then post it, inviting reviews?

Bob Bates (of Infocom fame) recently released a text adventure.

http://textadventures.co.uk/forum/games/topic/jbzfoc93m06pya4eelqplq/thaumistry-from-infocom-author-bob-bates-is-now-availabe

It goes for $14.99.

I wonder how he's doing with that...

I think Quest is the best option. Two versions available for Desktop and online ..just choose accordingly...All the Best...Big Love and Big Support from: niftyfut