This is a full re-write of Quest, an interactive fiction app, to pure JavaScript. An example game that was entered for IFcomp 2021 can be found here.

Quest 5 is written in C#, with some Visual Basic, has its own scripting language, ASL, and also uses JavaScript for the UI. Players can either download a dedicated player/editor or use the web version, in the latter case the game runs on the textadventures.co.uk server. In contrast, Quest 6 is written entirely JavaScript, and runs in the player's browser. This means:

Better for players

• No lag between turns
• Game does not time-out
• Saved games will play in the latest version of the game

Better for authors

• Authors can upload games to their own web site
• Authors are learning/using JavaScript, the computer language of the internet, rather than ASL, which is exclusive to Quest 5
• Authors can change absolutely anything in the game system; everything is accessible
• Authors can create games on Linux and Mac, as well as Windows

Better for me

• No need to support legacy games in the app (the Quest 5 player/editor and the web player both have to support every version of Quest 5, and Quest 4 - and I think all the way back to Quest 1)

Alex had some experiments into this before he quit. QuestJS was hoped to convert a Quest .quest file to pure JavaScript. QuestKit was supposed to do pretty much the same as I am doing here. Arguably Squiffy is another attempt, being entirely JavaScript, though without a parser.

No, but it is under development. It is in another repository here, so go there to learn more on how that is going.

However, you do not need a dedicated editor to create games, and the Wiki includes a tutorial that will take you through how you can already create a game.

Yes, but it is not perfect - see here.

This is what the code for QuestJS looks like. It creates a player, two rooms and a hat.

createItem("me", PLAYER(), { 
  loc:"lounge",
  regex:/^(me|myself|player)$/,
  examine:'Just a regular guy',
})


createRoom("lounge", {
  desc:'A small room with an old settee and a tv.',
  east:new Exit('kitchen'),
})


createRoom("kitchen", {
  desc:"The kitchen looks clean and well-equipped.",
  afterFirstEnter:function() {
    msg("You can smell freshly baked bread!")
  },
  west:new Exit("lounge"),
})


createItem("hat", WEARABLE(), {
  examine:"It is straw boater, somewhat the worse for wear.",
  loc:"lounge",
})

Here are some examples:

• There is a tutorial on how to play parser games here.
• There is a "Cloak of Darkness" sample game, more about that here.
• There is an example game where I test most of the features here.

Take a look at the Wiki to see the full documentation. You will find a tutorial that will explain everything from what you need to download, to how to publish your new game.