Chapter 3 - Welcome to Story Town

Welcome to Story Town

Today, you’re not just a player—you’re the storyteller, game designer, and director of your very own adventure. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create a story-based game using the Town Template in Adventure Game. This isn’t just about coding—it’s about using your imagination, your writing skills, and your creativity to build an interactive world that others can play through and enjoy.

The Town Template is filled with possibilities. It already includes a town setting, five characters, houses, and even a garden. But the story? That’s all up to you. You’ll decide what happens in this town, what problems need to be solved, and how the characters will help fix them. It’s your story—and you’re about to bring it to life.

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Understanding the Parts of a Story

Before we dive into building your game, let’s review the parts that make a story work. Every story, no matter how big or small, has four key parts: characters, setting, a problem, and a solution. Characters are the people or animals that your story is about. The setting is where the story takes place. The problem is what goes wrong, and the solution is how the characters fix that problem.

These story elements are important in games too. When you’re playing a game, you’re often helping a character solve a problem—just like in a storybook. Today, you’ll be writing that story, and players will experience it through the game you create.

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Exploring the Town Template

When you open the Town Template in Adventure Game, you’ll find a world ready for your ideas. The town includes five characters who are already programmed with a Talk command. That means they can speak—but you’ll decide what they say. There are also four houses, paths, and a garden, giving you a rich environment for your story to take place.

You’ll also notice a message board. This is a special tool you can code to give instructions or hints to your players. And there’s something extra fun—one of the houses, Foodini’s, has an alarm system. You might want to use that in your story. Maybe something important gets stolen, or maybe someone sneaks in and sets it off. It’s up to you!

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Planning Your Story Game

Just like authors plan their stories before writing them, game designers plan their games before building. You’ll use a worksheet to help map out your story. Think about what kind of adventure you want to create. Who are the characters? What is going wrong in the town? How will the characters help fix the problem?

You’ll also need to decide what the player will do and how they will know what to do next. The message board is a great place to give them clues. As you plan, think about what each character should say to move the story forward. At the end of your game, you’ll place a star where the story ends. That’s how the player knows they’ve finished the game.

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Bringing Your Story to Life

Once your plan is complete, it’s time to build your story game. You’ll open the Town Template and begin coding. Start by editing the Talk command for each character. This is where you write what they will say. You can change their words by clicking on the white box in the Talk command and typing your text.

If you need more space for dialogue, you can add a Chat command or buy an extra Talk command from the store using your coins. Don’t forget to code the message board to give your player helpful hints or directions. This is where you tell them where to go first, or what they’re looking for.

You can also use fun commands like Pick Up, Walk To, or Act to make your story feel more alive. Add sound effects, animations, and whatever else makes your story exciting. When your story is ready to end, place a star where the final event happens.

As you work, switch between Edit Mode and Play Mode to test your game. Make sure everything works the way you want. If something doesn’t feel right, that’s okay! Part of being a game designer is fixing things when they don’t work. That’s called debugging—and it’s a very important skill.

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Testing and Learning

As you create your game, you’ll use the Test and Learn model. First, you understand the story elements. Then, you plan your story using the worksheet. After that, you test your game to see how it works. Finally, you learn from what went well and what you might want to change.

This process helps you grow as a storyteller and coder. You’re not just building a game—you’re learning how to make ideas come to life on screen.

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Reflecting on Your Story Game

After your game is built and tested, take some time to reflect. What was your favorite part of making the game? What was the hardest part? If you had more time, what would you add? Maybe you’d give a character a new line of dialogue or add a new obstacle to the path. Maybe you’d even write a whole new ending!

You can share your story game with a friend or the class. When someone else plays your game, they get to experience the story you created. Talking about your game also helps you learn how to explain your thinking and how to be a creative communicator.

Term	Definition
Story Elements	The important parts of a story: characters, setting, problem, and solution.
Characters	The people or animals in the story.
Setting	The place where the story happens.
Problem	What goes wrong in the story.
Solution	How the problem is fixed.
Talk Command	A block of code that makes a character say something.
Message Board	A tool that gives hints or directions to the player.
Star	The object that ends the game when the player reaches it.
Test	To try out the game and see if it works.
Debug	To fix mistakes in the game.