Help

By now, you've probably realized that the QnS engine has a number of moving parts. States, Actions, Events, Scenes, and Entities can be combined in countless ways to create almost any kind of interactive adventure.

While every story is unique, many gameplay situations are surprisingly common. Whether you're creating a locked door, a hidden passage, a magical portal, or a character that reacts differently based on the player's choices, you'll often find yourself building scenarios that other authors have created before.

This section walks through a collection of common scenarios and demonstrates one way to build them using the QnS engine. You can use these examples as they are, modify them to fit your story, or simply use them as inspiration for creating your own unique interactions.

💡 Builder Tip: Don't think of these examples as the only solution. The QnS engine is flexible, and there are often several different ways to create the same gameplay experience.

By default, players can freely move to any adjacent scene. However, the QnS engine gives you ways to control when a player is allowed to enter a scene.

🚪 Method 1: Hide the Scene

Set the scene's Is Visible state to FALSE.

• 👀 The scene will not appear in the environment description.
• 🚫 Because the player cannot see it, they cannot move to it.

📖 Scenario

You have a door, mirror, or some other entity that acts as a portal to another scene.

1. 🚫 Set the destination scene's Is Visible state to FALSE.
2. 🚪 Add an OPEN action to the door.
3. ⚡ In the OPEN event, add an effect that sets the destination scene's Is Visible state to TRUE.
4. ✨ The scene now appears in the environment description and the player can move to it.

🛡️ Method 2: Prevent the Player from Entering

Instead of hiding the scene, you can leave it visible and prevent the player from entering by creating a MOVE TOWARD action. with a STOP ACTION effect when the player should not be allowed to enter.

📖 Scenario

A magical barrier prevents the player from entering a scene. The player can only pass if they have obtained the Magic Key.

1. 👀 Leave the scene's visibility at its default value.
2. 🏃 Add a MOVE TOWARD action to the scene.
3. ⚡ In the MOVE TOWARD event:

• ✅ Condition: The Magic Key is in the player's inventory.
  • ✔️ Yes
    • No response is required, although you may want to display a message describing the magical barrier fading away.
  • ❌ No
    • Issue a STOP ACTION effect.
    • No response is required, but you can display a message explaining why the player cannot pass.

💡 Builder Tip: Hiding a scene works well for locations the player hasn't discovered yet. Using a MOVE TOWARD action is better when you want the player to see the destination but understand that something is preventing them from entering.