I'm at the concept/drafting stage of a new game, and I'm trying to wrap my head around how to go about creating a sort of "minigame" within my game. I wanted to get some direction before I start configuring/coding.

In the game, the player gets exposed to a sort of "brainwashing" drug being used as a weapon by a totalitarian government. To simulate trying to focus on reality and sort of "snap out of it," the player has to try to form coherent, retaliatory thoughts.

To simulate this, I'd like to have scrambled phrases appear on the screen for about 10 seconds each, and the player has to type the unscrambled phrase to snap back to reality.

So "Ym inmd si a sortfrse." Would appear for a 10 count, and during this time (or not during this time if it's easier) the player has to type "My mind is a fortress" and they will be returned to the game, shake off the mental haze, and continue.

My initial thought is that when the drug level (there are different levels of exposure) reaches 100%, the player is moved to a new "room" with no objects. There's a little intro message about struggling to focus, and then the scrambled phrases begin to appear. When the player types an unscrambled phrase, they return to the game. If they don't unscramble a phrase after a certain number of turns, they slip back into a brainwashed state and the game ends.

My questions are these:

Is moving the player to a room and then moving them back a good way to pull them out of the game for a moment to do the minigame and then return them?

I can have the phrases appear with timers - is there an easy way to make them then disappear?

Thanks in advance for any help. The rest of the game is pretty straightforward. I just wanted to have this one mechanic that appears at a few points in the game to give it a little variety.

I don't really know how to do any of the advanced stuff with Quest, but yeah, I think moving the player would probably be the simplest way and keep you from having to deal with them trying to interact with things in the room they were in before. As for making text disappear, I think that's what they're talking about in [rul="http://forum.textadventures.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4703&p=30980&hilit=makign+text+disappear#p30980"]this[/url] thread, if any of that makes any sense to you.

And fwiw, this is a really cool and unique idea for a puzzle, I like it.

Thanks for the kind words! I'll take a look at that script. Is there just a general way to "clear the screen?" That would do it, too.

ClearScreen ( http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... quest.html )

example:

<command name="stats_function">
  <pattern>stats</pattern>
  <script>
    stats_function
  </script>
</command>

<function name="stats_function">
  ClearScreen
  msg ("Strength: " + player.strength)
  msg ("Endurance: " + player.endurance)
  msg ("Dexterity: " + player.dexterity)
  msg ("Agility: " + player.agility)
  msg ("Speed: " + player.speed)
  msg ("Luck: " + player.luck)
  wait {
    ClearScreen
  }
</function>

---------------------------

here's some links too:

http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... timer.html
http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... cript.html
http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... riter.html
http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... amble.html

enjoy

Thank you! I'll give this a try. You guys are great.