Designing and implementing the GUI command prompt.

Progress

I couldn’t get much work done because I had trouble sleeping and I was busy with other classes, but I managed to lay the foundations of the new, custom command prompt.

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As you can see, the default inline command prompt (with a “>”) has been torn out and replaced with a fancier version with a fleuron in a separate part of the game window. The idea is to make the parser system more accessible to new players by presenting it prominently, in a modern interface style, with tooltips and clickable buttons.

The command prompt now looks like a graphical control panel instead of a command line, and animates prominently whenever the player is expected to enter a command. There’s placeholder text to help new players who haven’t played parser text adventures before (“Enter a command…” and “Press any key to continue…” offering pointers on how the player is expected to interact with the game).

There’s also a list of recommended commands below the command prompt, which is updated with new recommendations based on the current game state. Hovering over a command will show a tooltip that concisely explains the command’s syntax and what it’s used for. Clicking on a command will automatically input it into the command prompt.

The new prompt isn’t finished yet: the recommended commands currently don’t take endoscopy into account, and there needs to be a separate interface for when the player is engaged in dialogue. But those will have to wait for next week, I think.

• The Weight of a Soul Dev Diary