ADRIFT 5 fundamentals

Adventure games are usually based around a series of locations that the player can move between and explore. These locations can be rooms of a house, chambers and tunnels in a cave system, or outdoor locations such as streets and fields. In ADRIFT each of these locations has both a short name and a long description that describes in detail what the player can see (and possibly hear, smell and feel) at that location, when they enter it. Different locations are then linked together in such a way that the player can move between them by asking to move in a particular direction. Eight compass directions (north, northeast, east etc.) are provided as well as up/down and in/out to allow moving in any direction. Both the Developer and Runner display a map of the locations, with the connections between them shown as a conecting line. Movement between locations can be restricted until the player has performed certain tasks, for example by a locked door that requires them to find the key before they can go through.

Into these locations you can place both large objects such as cupboards, tables and refridgerators that the player can examine and interact with, and small objects that can also be picked up and carried around by the player. ADRIFT refers to fixed objects as "Static" and portable objects as "Dynamic". Portable objects can also be placed on a table or locked in a cupboard. Each object has properties that controls what the player can do with it. Books have a readable property that allows them to be read, food has an edible property and clothing has a wearable property.

A game also needs other characters for the player to interact with, people for them to talk to and fire breathing dragons for them to avoid. These other characters can do anything the player can do. They can move around the world, pick up objects, sit on a chair, wear a hat or attack the player.

When the player plays the game they type in command's to tell the game what they want to do. These are often in the form "<verb> <noun>" such as "Eat peach", "Get bat", "Throw ball" or "Read diary", but ADRIFT does allow more complex commands such as "Put the red ball in the cardboard box". Several commands can also be abreviated by just entering the noun. "inventory" or just "i" will list all of the objects the player is carrying. "north" or "n" will cause the player to walk north from their current location.