Quest Creators,
For this update, we'll be exploring the Context Explorer, a recently-launched feature on the Quest Creator. Also, we've fixed two bugs!
Context Explorer
You may have noticed this new bar on the bottom of the screen labeled "context explorer"...
What does it do?
If you're adventurous enough to click on "CONTEXT EXPLORER", you'll find:
To really get the hang of this window, we'll need to understand a few Quest Creator terms:
Context
Context lets you keep track of variables during your quest. For example, you can save how much gold your adventurers have, or if they've found the key.
You can then use that context to change what they see - for example, not showing "unlock the chest with the key" until they find the key:
* {{haveKey == true}} Unlock chest with key
MathJS
MathJS is the language used to set context variables. To use MathJS, simply wrap whatever operation you're doing in {{double curly brackets}}. For example, {{gold = 10}} will set gold to 10, and "Your party has {{gold}} gold" will show them how much gold they have.
Note for the programmers out there: MathJS is very similar - but not quite identical - to JavaScript. If you're having problems getting it to do what you want, try running your command in the demo console on the MathJS page and see if it's doing what you expect!
Initial context
When players first open the quest (or you click "play from cursor" in the Quest Creator), the context is empty. This is known as the "initial context". However, it can be annoying to have the context start as empty when you're trying to test something that's happening in the middle of your quest. Maybe you need to assume they've already found the key, or that they have {{gold = 20}} from slaying the dragon. No worries! Now, if you define those variables in the left hand side, they'll be automatically assigned to the scope when you click "play from cursor".
Scope history
As cards make changes to the scope, each card's scope is recorded in the "scope history" on the right, making it easier for you as a quest creator to keep track of what's happening in the context as you play.
Putting it all together
Here's a quick example, showing what happens if you use the context explorer to set the initial state to {{haveKey = false}}, then watching the history as you navigate to a card that sets haveKey to true:
Bonus trick: you can also drag to resize the context explorer, making it larger or smaller as needed!
We understand that context can be tricky to fully grasp - please don't hesitate to email us if you have questions or ideas on how we can make it better!
Bug fixes
Thanks to your feedback, we were able to locate and fix two bugs:
- variables equal to 0 now appear as zero in the app, instead of disappearing
- the quest creator no longer freezes when you try to create a new quest (was an issue with spellcheck)
If you encounter other bugs, please let us know at Expedition@Fabricate.io and we'll get them fixed ASAP!
Keep calm and adventure on,
Todd & Scott