<game name="blah">
<attr name="start" type="script">
msg ("For help, type in this: help")
</attr>
</game>
<command name="help_command">
<pattern>help</pattern>
<script>
ClearScreen
// msg ("-------------------------Room description--------------------------
The whole digging site number 5 rests about 3 yards underground. This is the south chamber – a 6x6 yards squared room bathed in darkness and as dry as the open desert outside. There is a passage heading north connecting this chamber to the main chamber of this small complex.
Previous studies suggests this very chamber used to be a bedroom, making the scientists believe it would have been a workshop or even a house.
-----------------------On first time only-----------------------------
Since Margareth finished unearthing this chamber in special, she converted the place into her personal resting place. She tends to work for hours on the site’s mysteries and secrets, trying to find out more of its past, use and inhabitants.
The only light source is the old oil lamp, which timidly casts a yellow color over the walls, the flooring, a bedroll and a copy of “The Running Heir” – the novel book she reads during breaks. Also, an empty backpack lies between the bedroll and a can of baked beans.
Margareth stretches her back. Not tired. Not yet. She takes a look around, thinking how much work she had here and that the mysteries at digging site number 5 are about to come to an end. She wonders how the things at the new structure found would be going, and then her mind drifts to the others – now considered less important – digging sites. It’s been days since last time she compared notes to her colleagues, and perhaps during the time she got herself entombed, something new would had been unearthed. By Margareth’s calculations, she would be there, focused only on work, for a full day. However, she would not get surprised if finding it already passed two days since she did dive into work.
---------------------End of description-----------------------------------")
wait {
ClearScreen
}
</script>
</command><game name="blah">
<attr name="start" type="Script">
ask ("Skip Intro?") {
if (result) { // yes (true): skip intro
// if you always want to have something here at start of game
} else { // no (false): do NOT skip intro
// your wall of text
}
// or, alternative design:
// if (not result) { no (false): do NOT skip intro
// wall of text
// }
</attr>
</game>
Aside from the "Click to Continue" method I also do something like...
---First Time---
The room you're standing in is cold and drafty.{once: From the threshold of the doorway though, you can see the glow of a burning candle against the far wall, which is shining brightly and adding security and comfort to your situation. Behind it, eerie shadows to dance across the wall in a hypnotic rhythm. You also notice scattered punctures throughout the space; the floors, the walls, the ceiling --- they all look to have been eaten through by something. You wonder what could have caused it.}..It makes you hesitant to enter any further.
---Look---
The room you're standing in is cold and drafty...It makes you hesitant to enter any further.
Sorry about the sloppy writing @_@ I was trying to come up with something quick.
My first impression is that it does seem a bit much. Though it's not even do much the amount of information as the way it's all structured. For instance in the 'first time only' section you point out objects that the player will presumably try to interact with, but it's a description they're only getting once.
The basic room description itself is pretty non descript, even bland. Instead of keeping it separate from the rest, is there any reason some of the more detailed bits about Margaret and the background couldn't be moved to the room, the objects, Margaret herself, for the player to discover?
It's interactive fiction, you want to invite the player to interact. There's no need to hit them in the face with these things.
I tend to see it as...the first time you enter a space you sort of scan it all with your eyes. So you catch some of the more obvious things like...a bookshelf, cobwebs, a candle and a desk as well as a general feeling/scent for/of the room.
But after "looking at object" more closely, I imagine the player walking up to that specific object and noticing particular details that you didn't see before when you scanned it. Like scratch marks that could indicate a monster etc.
I do see what you're saying though. Perhaps it just depends on what the player wants in a story...some like a lot of description to immerse them, but others just want a little detail so they can fill in the rest with their imagination. I'm not sure which way is more sought after.
I tend to get a lot of compliments regarding the writing sucking in the player but they don't represent everyone unfortunately. ^___^ Maybe their should be a vote!
I tend to see it as...the first time you enter a space you sort of scan it all with your eyes. So you catch some of the more obvious things like...a bookshelf, cobwebs, a candle and a desk as well as a general feeling/scent for/of the room.
But after "looking at object" more closely, I imagine the player walking up to that specific object and noticing particular details that you didn't see before when you scanned it. Like scratch marks that could indicate a monster etc.
Well yes, that's been established as the standard way rooms and objects work for decades now.