Hint system

The method of presenting hints within a game, in response to a command (usually a meta-command) such as hint or help.

Standard methods

Hints are often presented as a list of questions (usually in menu form), with a list of increasingly explicit hints available for each question. Fake spoilers are sometimes used to avoid giving away too much information about the game, or as jokes.

An alternative method is to display the appropriate hint directly in response to the command, and require the player to type hint or help again to see the next available hint. In this case, the game must determine the most appropriate hint for the current situation, and so the hints must be "context sensitive" (also known as "adaptive hints").

The list-of-questions method may also be context sensitive, presenting only questions and hints which are relevant to the current situation; this helps avoid the possibility of premature spoilers, since players are not shown questions about areas or objects they have not yet encountered.

Variations

• Trapped in a One-Room Dilly (Laura Knauth; 1998; Z-code) and Beyond (Roberto Grassi, Paolo Lucchesi, Alessandro Peretti; 2005; Glulx) both transport the PC temporarily to a special pseudo-room where hints may be discovered.

Links

• Hint Interfaces in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also available from the IF Archive).