Text Adventures in the Age of AI

You are standing on a long road... I loved text adventures as a kid. Still do. I even wrote a few, though I never had the courage to show them to others. The challenge, as a text adventure creator, was that you had to predict what kinds of things the player might reasonably try and prepare a response. The more detailed your planning, the more "real" your adventure seemed. As a player, I loved trying something bizarre and discovering the creator had anticipated it and prepared a clever retort. The DnD games I played with friends had a step-up on this, of course: a human being who could intelligently respond to anything you tried. But you couldn't do that with text adventures. Until now. There are exits to the North, South and West... It was only a matter of time before somebody had the idea to use AI for adventure games, and there are some interesting options out there I'm keen to try sometime: AI Dungeon, DREAMIO and Friends & Fables. Inworld Origins looks like it will take it even further and provides a cinematic experience where you talk to suspects at a crime scene, and they respond intelligently to anything you ask. The possibilities to this are staggering. But back to text adventures.. A lantern lies on a nearby table... One day I was mucking around in Copilot, trying to find weird things to ask it, and a thought came to me: could it simulate a text adventure? To cut a long story short, yes. It can. I started with a simple prompt. Simulate a text adventure game similar to the original collosal cave. Again, long story short: the prompt needed a lot of work to provide a consistent experience. In the beginning, Copilot would confuse its directions, taking you west when you asked for south. A road that ran north-south in one description might run east-west when you took a step north. At some point, it even began to play the game without me, making commands and acting on them as I sat there watching the game scroll by. I kept working at the prompt. Each time I modified it, another adventure would start. I would play it for a bit, find something I didn't like, change the prompt and try again. You are standing at the entrance of a dark cave... Here is my latest version of the prompt. I've been using it for a little while and haven't found anything else to change (yet). Simulate a text adventure game similar to the original collosal cave, where you present a location to me and wait for me to take an action. Keep playing the game until I type the word "stop". After I take an action, always repeat the description of the current location after displaying the results of my action. Always list the possible cardinal directions I can go in the location description. If I am carrying anything, list what I am carrying in italics after the location description. Do not suggest actions I can take. if I type "n" it means to go north. If I type "s" it means to go south. If I type "w" it means to go west. If I type "e" it means to go east. Write the names of interactable objects in bold. If I type “stop” do not repeat the location description. Here's how it started: I decided to take the lantern.. I love the flavour that Copilot adds here when I picked up the lantern. And the suggestions it offers for possible actions. This is text adventuring that truly feels like anything is possible. What do you do...? After I took the lantern, I lit it and headed into the cave. I kept going, discovering an ancient tome, mysterious eldritch runes carved on the walls and an amulet that glowed. When I put on the amulet, the runes become readable. I kept going, and found an obelisk, and a key. The key opened a door, that led to a portal that took me to another realm. I tried looking at things, picking up things, even making requests that were ridiculous - and the LLM handled them all and did it with a style that surprised me. Nothing I tried phased it. I loved text adventures as a kid, but this.. is something new. Here is an adventure that can last as long as you want it to. An adventure you can take in any direction you want. And no matter what you try to do, the dungeon master is ready for you! That's a whole new type of magic. What will you do with it? Epilogue As you walk along the road, you notice a small sign that reads: As an aside, you don't need Copilot for any of this. That happened to be where I started, but I tried the same prompt in multiple LLMs, with varied and amusing results. Each had their own style, so try them all and see what suits you. That's an adventure in itself.

May 10, 2025 - 02:12

You are standing on a long road...

I loved text adventures as a kid. Still do. I even wrote a few, though I never had the courage to show them to others.
The challenge, as a text adventure creator, was that you had to predict what kinds of things the player might reasonably try and prepare a response. The more detailed your planning, the more "real" your adventure seemed.
As a player, I loved trying something bizarre and discovering the creator had anticipated it and prepared a clever retort.

The DnD games I played with friends had a step-up on this, of course: a human being who could intelligently respond to anything you tried.
But you couldn't do that with text adventures. Until now.

There are exits to the North, South and West...

It was only a matter of time before somebody had the idea to use AI for adventure games, and there are some interesting options out there I'm keen to try sometime: AI Dungeon, DREAMIO and Friends & Fables.

Inworld Origins looks like it will take it even further and provides a cinematic experience where you talk to suspects at a crime scene, and they respond intelligently to anything you ask. The possibilities to this are staggering.

But back to text adventures..

A lantern lies on a nearby table...

One day I was mucking around in Copilot, trying to find weird things to ask it, and a thought came to me: could it simulate a text adventure?
To cut a long story short, yes. It can.

I started with a simple prompt.

Simulate a text adventure game similar to the original collosal cave.

Again, long story short: the prompt needed a lot of work to provide a consistent experience.
In the beginning, Copilot would confuse its directions, taking you west when you asked for south. A road that ran north-south in one description might run east-west when you took a step north.
At some point, it even began to play the game without me, making commands and acting on them as I sat there watching the game scroll by.

I kept working at the prompt. Each time I modified it, another adventure would start. I would play it for a bit, find something I didn't like, change the prompt and try again.

You are standing at the entrance of a dark cave...

Here is my latest version of the prompt. I've been using it for a little while and haven't found anything else to change (yet).

Simulate a text adventure game similar to the original collosal cave, where you present a location to me and wait for me to take an action. Keep playing the game until I type the word "stop". After I take an action, always repeat the description of the current location after displaying the results of my action. Always list the possible cardinal directions I can go in the location description. If I am carrying anything, list what I am carrying in italics after the location description. Do not suggest actions I can take. if I type "n" it means to go north. If I type "s" it means to go south. If I type "w" it means to go west. If I type "e" it means to go east. Write the names of interactable objects in bold. If I type “stop” do not repeat the location description.

Here's how it started:

I decided to take the lantern..

I love the flavour that Copilot adds here when I picked up the lantern. And the suggestions it offers for possible actions. This is text adventuring that truly feels like anything is possible.

What do you do...?

After I took the lantern, I lit it and headed into the cave. I kept going, discovering an ancient tome, mysterious eldritch runes carved on the walls and an amulet that glowed. When I put on the amulet, the runes become readable.
I kept going, and found an obelisk, and a key. The key opened a door, that led to a portal that took me to another realm.
I tried looking at things, picking up things, even making requests that were ridiculous - and the LLM handled them all and did it with a style that surprised me. Nothing I tried phased it.

I loved text adventures as a kid, but this.. is something new.
Here is an adventure that can last as long as you want it to. An adventure you can take in any direction you want.
And no matter what you try to do, the dungeon master is ready for you!
That's a whole new type of magic.

What will you do with it?

Epilogue

As you walk along the road, you notice a small sign that reads:

As an aside, you don't need Copilot for any of this. That happened to be where I started, but I tried the same prompt in multiple LLMs, with varied and amusing results. Each had their own style, so try them all and see what suits you. That's an adventure in itself.