bashtell

An engine for creating short stories written in bash

Possible output characteristics

Total possible values for strings: 4
Possible values:

• * - Text output. Most often used to display multiple lines.
• + - The text that will be displayed before the selection
• ? - Selection options
• / - Ending

Game file structure

characteristic step number-depend step-dependent answer

Example: *1-0-0 Something

Larger example:

0-This is start
*1-0-0 First (*) message
*1-0-0 Second (*) message##With beautiful tab
*1-0-0 @@3 Third (*) message with 3 seconds timeout @@
+2-1-0 This is the (+) message before the choice
?3-2-1 Option 1
?3-2-2 Option 2
?3-2-3 Option 3
+4-3-1 Chosed Option 1
*5-4-1 Simple text
*5-4-0 Simple text (2)
/6-5-0 End of Option 1
+7-3-2 Chosed Option 2
*8-7-2 Simple text(2)
/9-8-0 End of Option 2
*10-3-3 Long long long message of Option 3
+11-10-0 This is the second choice of the message.
?12-11-1 Option 1 of the second message
?12-11-2 Option 2 of the second message
/13-12-1 End of Option 1 of the second message
/13-12-2 End of Option 2 of the second message

Gameplay example:

This is start

< First (*) message
  With beautiful tab
< Second (*) message
< Third (*) message with 3 seconds timeout @@

<... This is the (+) message before the choice
1: Option 1
2: Option 2
3: Option 3
> 3

< Long long long message of Option 3

<... This is the second choice of the message.
1: Option 1 of the second message
2: Option 2 of the second message
> 1

<=== End of Option 1 of the second message

Tips:

• After answering the question (?) When using the message (*), the previous dependent step is reset

?3-2-1 1
?3-2-2 2
*4-3-1 1 was chosen
/5-4-0 ...

• Before using answer options (?), It is strictly necessary to use +
• You can set a timeout before the output message using @@time (doesn't work in ?)
• You can save the current progress and load it. To save, just press Ctrl + C
• To load progress, type -l or --load after the name of the game file
• Use ## symbols (as in the example) to form neat lines in the text (it helps if you need more than one line in one message)
• The transition to a new line is carried out after: the last message with * and after answering the question (?)
• You cannot use the @@ character combination in ?
• Main rule: one step - one symbol - unlimited lines (One symbol is given per step. There can be as many lines as necessary for a step.)
• When using *, you need to use different steps to answer the question (?) (This is done to join some storylines into one, in order to sometimes have a way of the same narration for two different choices)

-Hello
*1-0-0 Hello
+2-1-0 1 or 2
?3-2-1 1
?3-2-2 2
*4-3-1 1
*5-3-2 2
/6-4-0 1
/7-5-0 2

Needed binaries:

bash
base64
grep
tail