Best Navigation

I am designing an Interactive Text Adventure game, like Zork with images/videos,,etc.
I would like to know the most interesting way to Navigate thru Rooms. (Btw, I don't use any tools, I code in C++, PHP, JS,,,etc)

  1. Simple links on the screen "go into the cave"
  2. NLP - enter command _____ "go south"
  3. Clickable Map
  4. Clickable Images
    There are so many ways to code navigation, but I want to know what is MOST APPEALING ?

I think a lot of people find it easier to use links on the screen. I prefer typing myself; but it can get tedious if you're entering the same commands a lot. So I'd suggest that you have commands you can type, but also have clickable links (preferably using the same phrasing as the command) so that there's always a few suggestions of what someone can do when they get stuck. And for people who are moving a lot, the shorter form of the commands (like typing "n" as an alias for "go north") make it a lot easier.


Actually, I think it is more about what the type and feel of the game you want. For example, on more character driven, emotional projects, it like having buttons for the choices. However, on another project about light investigation theme, I use image maps for most of the "digging clues" parts of the game and the classical buttons for dialogs. If you are looking for a game where the player should beat the designer by having clever ideas, the parser style is prefred. During my studies I found that the combination of mutiple player inputs are not bad, as long you make clear to the player somehow what input type happens on what situation.


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