3.6. Windows

| Chapter 3: Place |

| 3.6. Windows

Calvin Coolidge once described windows as "rectangles of glass." For us, they have two purposes: first, they offer a view of landscape beyond. In the simplest case the view is of an area which will not be interacted with in play, and therefore does not need to adapt to whatever may have changed there:

> The window is scenery in the Turret. "Through the window you see miles and miles of unbroken forest, turning from green to flame in the hard early autumn."

More interesting is to adapt the view a little to provide a changing picture: a forest may not change much, but a street scene will. Port Royal 4 allows us to glimpse random passers-by.

The trickiest kind of window allows the player to see another room which can also be encountered in play, and to interact with what is there. Dinner is Served presents a shop window, allowing people to see inside from the street, and even to reach through.

Vitrine handles the complication of a window misting up to become opaque, and thus temporarily hiding its view.

Second, windows provide openings in walls and can act as conduits. Escape shows how a "door" in the Inform sense can become a window. A Haughty Spirit provides a general kind of window for jumping down out of: ideal for escapers from Colditz-like castles.

See Doors, Staircases, and Bridges for a door which can be partially seen through

20
| Example Escape Window that can be climbed through or looked through. |
WI

Suppose we want to offer the player a window he can climb through, instead of a boring ordinary door. Our window will be like a door in that it connects two rooms, appears in both places, and impedes movement when it is shut. But we also want to add that we can look through it and see what lies on the other side; and we further want to understand "climb through window" or "jump through window" as attempts to pass through it. We'll start by defining a couple of rooms and making the window a door between them. "Escape" Your Bedroom is a room. The bedroom window is a door. It is west of Your Bedroom and east of the Grassy Slope. Now we have a "bedroom window" object which can be entered. Now, to catch the case where the player types "LOOK THROUGH WINDOW": Instead of searching the window: say "Through the window, you make out [the other side of the window]." The other side of a door is always defined to be the room that we are not currently in when doing the check. When we are in the bedrooom, the other side will be the grassy slope, and vice versa. "Searching" is the action that occurs when the player attempts to LOOK THROUGH something. (To review what grammar gives rise to what actions, we can always consult the Actions portion of the Index.) Next we want to cover the case where we climb through the window: Instead of climbing the window: try entering the window. And because "climb window" is understood but "climb THROUGH window" is not, we will have to borrow from the chapter on Understanding to add some new vocabulary to the game (and we'll add Jump too, while we're at it): Understand "climb through [something]" as climbing. Understand "jump through [something]" as climbing. Now the final piece: Inform will already keep the player from going through a closed window, but it will say "You can't, since the bedroom window is in the way." This is probably not ideal, so we can replace the instruction thus: Instead of going through the closed window: say "The window is shut: you'd break the glass." Test me with "look through window / climb through window / open window / climb through window / look through window / close window / e / open window / e".

116
| Example Vitrine An electrochromic window that becomes transparent or opaque depending on whether it is currently turned on. |
WI

261
| Example Port Royal 4 A cell window through which the player can see people who were in Port Royal in the current year of game-time. |
WI

217
| Example Dinner is Served A window between two locations. When the window is open, the player can reach through into the other location; when it isn't, access is barred. |
WI

181
| Example A Haughty Spirit Windows overlooking lower spaces which will prevent the player from climbing through if the lower space is too far below. |
WI

Previous | Contents | Next