Adrift

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Adrift has many friendly features and good documentation.  However, teachers may want to create some materials of their own to get students started.  Here’s an introduction that I give to students.

  Getting Started With Adrift Generator

Adrift Generator is a Windows-based program for creating interactive stories or interactive descriptions.  It works best for stories that are fairly simple and straightforward.  For such stories, Adrift is quite easy to use and requires no computer-programming skills.  To make more complicated stories, a writer needs to learn some programming.

When Adrift Generator starts, it usually displays five windows.  The windows are labeled “Rooms,” “Objects,” “Tasks,”  “Events,” and “Characters.”  When a writer opens an Adrift file from a network, the usual five windows may not appear right away.  To display these windows, the user opens Adrift’s Window menu and clicks on the items labeled “Rooms,” “Objects,” “Tasks,”  “Events,” and “Characters.”

When Adrift Generator starts, it usually displays five windows.  The windows are labeled “Rooms,” “Objects,” “Tasks,”  “Events,” and “Characters.”  When a writer opens an Adrift file from a network, the usual five windows may not appear right away.  To display these windows, the user opens Adrift’s Window menu and clicks on the items labeled “Rooms,” “Objects,” “Tasks,”  “Events,” and “Characters.”

Use these steps to get started with Adrift Generator:

1. Start the computer program called Adrift Generator. 
2. Open the Adventure menu and choose Options.  Type in the title of your piece of writing and your name, in the appropriate spaces.  The click on OK.
3. Open the Adventure menu and choose Player.  Type in the name of your player/character.  Then type a brief description of your player/character in the appropriate space.  Click on the appropriate gender for your player/character, male or female.  Then click on OK.
4. Create your first “room” or location. 
1. From the Create menu choose Room. 
2. In the form that opens, fill in the “short name” of the room.  This name should be three words or fewer in length. 
3. Then, in the appropriate space, fill in the “long room description.”  You can copy and paste the long description from your word processor, if you like. 
4. Click on “Add Room” when you have finished with this form. 
5. You can use the same procedure to make more rooms.
5. Create your first “object.” 
1. From the Create menu, choose Object. 
2. In the form that opens, type in the name of the object. 
3. Then, in the box labeled “Aliases,” type the object’s name again and press Enter.  (Don’t forget this step.)
4. Next, indicate whether the object is static or dynamic.  A dynamic object is one that the player/character can pick up, move, or change.  Other objects are static. 
5. Next, type in the description of the object and click on the room in which you want it to appear. 
6. Click on the Advanced tab, and indicate that you want your new object to appear in room descriptions. 
7. Click on “Add Object” when you have finished with the “Add Object” form. 
8. You can use the same procedure to make more objects.
6. From the Adventure menu, choose Introduction and Winning.  Type in any text you would like to show at the start of the story.  Check “Display First Room.”  Then choose the room in which you would like the story to start.
7. To see how your story works so far, open the Adventure menu and choose Run Adventure.  If Adrift asks if you would like to save your changes, save them.  Now, a separate program called Adrift Runner will start, as Adrift Generator continues to operate.  In Adrift Runner, you can try out your story, but you’ll have to go back to Adrift Generator to make any changes.
8. Create your first "task." A task is an action that the player/character must, or may, take to produce a certain result.
   a. From the Create menu, choose Task. The "Add     a   Task" box will open.
   b. With the Description tab selected, type in whatever the player must type to accomplish the task. Be sure to type in different versions of what the player must type.
   c. Type in the message that the player will see when the he or she completes the task.
   d. Choose the room in which the task can be completed. (Don't forget this step or the task will not work anywhere.)
   e. Choose the Restrictions tab, and select Add. Using the menus that appear, choose any restrictions you would like to require for the task.
   f. Choose the Actions tab, and select Add. Using the menus that appear, choose any actions that you would like to occur when the task is completed.
   g. Click on Add Task.
9. Create your first character.
   a. From the Create menu, choose Character.
   b. With the Details tab selected, type in the character's name and the character's description.
   c. Choose the character's initial position, the place where the character will first appear.
   d. In the box called "Aliases," type in all the names the player can use to refer to the character. Be sure to include at least one alias.
   e. Click on Add Character.