🗺️ Module 8

Text Based Game

Now we stitch functions into an adventure: rooms, choices, and a bag that remembers what you picked up.

A young adventurer follows a cozy cave map with a backpack holding a key, apple, and lantern. — Patch has entered the bubbling room. The inventory says “one cork.” This feels relevant.

🪄 The concept

A text adventure is a loop of places and choices. Each room can be a function; a playing flag (or similar) decides whether the adventure continues.

Inventories fit dictionaries perfectly: item name → True/False (or counts). Room lookup tables store descriptions as data and keep movement code small.

Bugs are part of the craft. Watching a game fail and fixing it teaches more than a perfect first draft — that is intentional in this module’s videos.

💬 Discussion

Talk these through with a friend, a class, or just your notes app:

If you designed a three-room school map, what would each room do?
Should room descriptions live in code (print statements) or in data (a dictionary)? Trade-offs?
Have you ever gotten stuck in a game with no way out? How would you prevent that as the designer?

💻 Code walkthrough

Copy into your editor, or download the .py file and run it. Tinker — change names, numbers, and spells.

Game loop with rooms as functions adventure_game.py

# playing controls whether the adventure continues
playing = True

def great_hall():
    print("You stand in the Great Hall. Candles float overhead.")
    choice = input("Go to (c)ourtyard or (l)ibrary? ")
    if choice == "c":
        courtyard()
    elif choice == "l":
        library()
    else:
        print("You hesitate and stay put.")

def courtyard():
    print("Cold air. The fountain is frozen.")
    if input("Return to hall? (y/n) ") == "y":
        great_hall()
    else:
        print("You explore the grounds...")

def library():
    print("Thousands of books whisper on the shelves.")
    playing = False   # local variable — see Module 9 for global
    print("You found a secret passage. Game over!")

while playing:
    great_hall()
    # In a full game, set playing = False when the player wins or quits

Player inventory as a dictionary player_inventory_as_a_dictionary.py

# Track items and whether the player has them (True/False)
inventory = {"wand": True, "cloak": False, "map": True}

def show_inventory(bag):
    print("--- Your bag ---")
    for item, has_it in bag.items():
        status = "yes" if has_it else "no"
        print(f"  {item}: {status}")

def pick_up(bag, item_name):
    bag[item_name] = True
    print(f"You picked up the {item_name}.")

pick_up(inventory, "cloak")
show_inventory(inventory)

Room lookup table (data + functions) rooms_lookup.py

rooms = {
    "hall": "Candles float. Long tables groan with food.",
    "yard": "Cold grass. The Whomping Willow creaks.",
    "tower": "Spiral stairs. Owls hoot above."
}

def enter(room_key):
    description = rooms.get(room_key, "You are lost in mist.")
    print(description)

enter("hall")
enter("dungeon")   # not in dict — uses default message

🧪 Try this

Add a fourth room to rooms_lookup.py (dungeons? kitchens?). Call enter() on it.
Give the player a starting item in the inventory demo, then write drop(bag, item) that sets it to False.
Sketch on paper a tiny game with 3 rooms and 1 win condition, then try coding just the map first.

📁 Local files

All runnable Python for this module:

module-08-text-game/ · all modules

🎬 Video lesson

← Module 7 Module 9 →