![]() | Chapter 11: Out Of World Actions and Effects | ![]() ![]() |
11.6. Ending The Story |
Play can end in many ways, at the writer's discretion:
end the story;
end the story finally;
end the story saying "You have reached an impasse, a stalemate";
end the story finally saying "You have succeeded.";
The phrase "end the story" by itself will finish play, printing "*** The End ***". Using one of the phrases with "saying..." allows us to specify some other text with which to conclude. Including "finally" means that the player has earned access to AMUSING text and other notes, if any of these are provided.
We can eliminate the asterisked headline entirely by removing the rule that prints it, thus:
The print obituary headline rule is not listed in any rulebook.
The next step is to print the player's score and, if applicable, the rank he achieved. If there is no score in the game, we can prevent a score being listed here with
Use no scoring.
Or, if we want to allow a score but alter the way it is reported, we may remove or modify the print final score rule, as in
The print final score rule is not listed in any rulebook.
or perhaps something like
The chatty final score rule is listed instead of the print final score rule in for printing the player's obituary.
This is the chatty final score rule: say "Wow, you achieved a whole [score in words] point[s] out of a possible [maximum score in words]! I'm very proud of you. This was a triumph. I'm being so sincere right now."
What happens next is normally that the player is invited to RESTART, RESTORE (from a saved game), QUIT or UNDO the last command. The presence of the question can somewhat undercut a tragedy, and Battle of Ridgefield shows another way to go out.
If we do leave the question in, the text is formed by the Table of Final Question Options, which by default looks like this:
Table of Final Question Options
final question wording only if victorious topic final response rule final response activity "RESTART" false "restart" immediately restart the VM rule -- "RESTORE a saved game" false "restore" immediately restore saved game rule -- "see some suggestions for AMUSING things to do" true "amusing" -- amusing a victorious player "QUIT" false "quit" immediately quit rule -- "UNDO the last command" false "undo" immediately undo rule --
Because this is a table, we may alter the behavior by changing entries or continuing the table. Finality shows how we might take out the option to UNDO the last command, for instance.
Using an ending phrase that includes "finally" tells Inform to include the options that are marked "only if victorious". One common use is to let the player read some special bit of additional text, perhaps describing easter eggs he might have missed in the story or presenting some authorial notes. Xerxes demonstrates a simple AMUSING command to read final information, while Jamaica 1688 shows how to add completely new elements to the list of options.
Old-school adventures expected their adventurers to die early and die often. Labyrinth of Ghosts shows how the residue of such past attempts can be preserved into subsequent attempts, using an external file. Big Sky Country shows how a player can be resurrected by, let us say, some beneficent god, so that a player can even die more than once in the same attempt.
| ![]() Completely replacing the endgame text and stopping the game without giving the player a chance to restart or restore. |
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| ![]() Not mentioning UNDO in the final set of options. |
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| ![]() ![]() Offering the player a menu of things to read after winning the game. |
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| ![]() Adding a feature to the final question after victory, so that the player can choose to reveal notes about items in the game. |
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The options offered to the player at the end of the game are listed in the Table of Final Question Options, which means that we can add to them simply by continuing the table; what's more, the table gives us the opportunity to create a "final response rule", a rule that the game should follow in order to parse the player's input at this point.
So, for instance, if we wanted the player to be allowed to ask for notes about any of the rooms, characters, or objects in a historical game:
"Jamaica 1688"
Section 1 - Procedure
Table of Final Question Options (continued)
This is the investigate something rule:
Section 2 - Scenario
The Upper Deck is a room. Lucius is a man in the Upper Deck.
The maximum score is 501.
When play begins: now the score is 501; end the story finally.
Table of Footnotey Stuff |