Interactive Text

📦 Unity packages from today's class:


📚 Other relevant resources to today's topic:


Interactive text for videogames typically contain the following elements:

  • a dialogue sequence that plays upon interacting with a sprite, object, or ending/exit tile;
  • branching lists of dialogue that use conditional statements to determine which text to display at any given point;
  • specific actions that get triggered upon arriving at a particular dialogue line (e.g. a room transition, or a variable change);
  • a map of rooms that reveal different spaces, dialogues, and narratives.

For example, take a look at Bitsy, a browser-based game engine that uses pixel graphics and interactive text.

-- flirting. Visager.


Early Text Adventure Video Games


-- Hunt the Wumpus (1973). Gregory Yob.


Natural Language Parsers for Player Interface + Interaction

-- Colossal Cave Adventure (1976). William Crowther.


-- Parsely (2018). Jared A. Sorensen.


More adventure games (now with visual graphics)

-- pedit5, or "The Dungeon" (1975). Rusty Rutherford.


-- Ultima I (1981). Richard Garriott.


Visual Novels

-- The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983). Yuji Horii.


-- Butterfly Soup 2. Brianna Lei. Using RenPy.


-- The Game: The Game. Angela Washko.


-- GONCHAROV 2073. sweetfish. Using tape window engine.


Hypertext Fiction

-- Shell Song. Everest Pipkin. Using Twine.


-- My Boyfriend Came Back From The War (1996). Olia Lialina.


In-game Text as Performance

-- Elden Poem. Danny Snelson.


-- Oikospiel Book 1, Act 2 - Salt and Scab 2: Bridge from Kochiri. David Kanaga.


Interactive Text in Unity

Here's the notes for today's tutorial -- We'll learn how to set up interactive text systems using Unity C# and a narrative tool called Ink.

Some course reminders

  • Homeplay 3 (Extra Credit) and Project 3 Sketch is due Thursday.