Beginner's Guide

Creating Rooms

Creating a room is where it all begins. Usually before you begin a game, you have a general idea of what you want to do. Some people have their games all planned out before hand. I thought it would be a good idea to start out with something simple. I know most will find this very boring, but I think it can often help new users by keeping their first game simple until they are more familiar with how ADRIFT works, so we are going to create a simple four room house.

Click on the house Icon or select Create then Room from the menu. A new window will pop up and you are ready to give your first room a name. In the Short Room Description text box, type in the name Living Room. I chose to start with a living room because it makes for the perfect room to demonstrate static and dynamic objects and their attributes. I know it sounds like it is a little on the boring side, but it will help you to familiarize yourself with the basics.

We want the room to be displayed on the map, so we are going to leave that checkbox alone. You are ready to give your room a description. There are some very important things you need to know about room descriptions. Each room description sets a scene; tells the player what his surroundings are. It is very important to create objects for anything you mention in your room description. You will be creating objects in the next section, so don't worry just yet.

Now that we know what room it is, we need to give it a description. For the purpose of this guide, we will be using the following description - type it in the Long Room Descriptiontext box:

The living room is a little smaller than you'd prefer, but you can't really complain. Your sofa sits along the east wall, complimented by a glasstop coffee table. A matching chair sits to one end and faces the television on the other side of the room. The front door is to the south.

It may seem like a rather short description, but you can always go back later and add more objects and build the description up better. For now it will be just fine.

Now click on the button Add Room. You will then notice that it adds the room to the list. Now create another room and give it the name Front Yard. In the description field type in the words, The front door is to the north. You can add a better description to that room later. Before you click Add Room, click on the Directions tab. You will then see a new window with directions listed. Click on the arrow in the first window next to Move North to. A list of rooms that you have created will drop down. Right now the only room that is listed is the Living Room, since that is the only one you have created. Select it, then click the Add Room button. Once you have accepted the room, a window will appear asking if you 'Would you also like to move South from the Living Room to the Front Yard?', select Yes.

You have now created two rooms that connect together. If you click on the Globe icon, or press the F2 button a map will appear and show you the rooms you have created. Your map should show your two rooms connected. If not, then bo back and try the steps again.

At this time we will not be covering advanced room descriptions. But you are now ready to begin adding objects to your first game!