Upon the Spooky House — 4 of 8

Chapter 2 - The Porch

Porch is a room. The printed name of Porch is "Manor Porch". The description of the Porch is "A more terrifying front porch is impossible to conceive. A dilapidated bench sits next to the gaping doorway. The ruined entryway seems to beckon you inside, although that could just be because of its leftover hinges, creaking softly in the wind." Instead of listening to the Porch, say "Naught but the beating of your heart and the ruined doorway's creaking hinges can be heard." Instead of smelling the Porch, say "Smells musty."

[This porch isn't really important, but I felt it was necessary to set up the atmosphere of the house. I implemented smelling and listening the rooms like that because for some reason the way I set it up earlier doesn't work. I think Inform treats rooms differently from regular objects (i.e., "something"). You can look forward to this method appearing throughout the source.]

An enterable supporter called a bench is in the Porch. The description is "An old bench made from rotting timbers. It's very worn out." The bench is scenery. Understand "dilapidated bench" or "worn bench" or "wood bench" or "wooden bench" or "old bench" or "old wooden bench" or "rotting bench" as the bench. The handfeel of the bench is "It feels rusty, despite being made out of wood". The smell text of the bench is "Smells moldy. Bleh". After entering the bench, say "The old bench creaks under your weight, but it holds." After getting off the bench, say "The bench creaks as you stand, as if its timbers were sighing from relief."

A doorway is scenery in the Porch. The description is "A gutted doorway leads inside to the house. The hinges still on it creak ever so faintly." The sound text of the doorway is "The creaking from the hinges is faintly ominous". Understand "hinges" or "hinge" as the doorway. Understand "entryway" as the doorway. Instead of entering the doorway, try going inside.

[The player, after the frightfest that is the game's opening, will want a milder, yet still spooky experience. These objects are set up to do just that. Don't ask me why I bothered to implement all those synonyms for the bench but not the doorway.]

A thing called bat poop is in the Porch. "Yep, there's some bat poop here all right." The description is "A big smelly pile of bat poop. You don't want to get too close to it." The smell text of the bat poop is "Smells smelly". The sound text of the bat poop is "Ehhh, you'd really rather not". The handfeel of the bat poop is "Ewww, you don't want to touch it". Instead of taking the bat poop, try touching the bat poop. Instead of searching the bat poop, try touching the bat poop. Understand "guano" or "bat crap" or "crap" as the bat poop.

[Some may wonder why I included this disgusting object. I would agree myself that it is in somewhat bad taste. My reasons are thus:

1. I felt like it.

2. To set up a character, which we'll learn more about in the next room.]

Instead of going nowhere from the Porch:

say "Your nerves have abandoned you at last. You flee the awful mansion across the moor, reaching your house in Pickering the next day. You and Strikefire share a morning brandy, planning your return to... the Spooky House!";

end the story saying "Your journey endeth... for now".

[I felt it necessary that there be a way to end the game early, just in case the player gets too scared to continue the game. I tried to set it up so that obviously ridiculous directions like up or down didn't work here, but struggling with Inform to make it work the way I wanted was too hard for me, so I gave up. It's fine, like, whatever. I'm pretty over it now.]