PAWS is a text adventure programming system/language written by Roger Plowman that uses the simple, yet powerful Python programming language. Like other related text game languages: TADS, Inform, Hugo, Alan, and ADVSYS (among others), PAWS sole purpose in life is to create text adventures. All PAWS games (like PAWS itself) are written in Guido's Python. It includes a game engine and a Universe Library that work together to create the world of your choice.

The engine is the PAWS.py module. It contains:

The engine is designed to be used with a library (Universe, by default) to provide much of the higher level functionality one would expect in an adventure writing system.

Because it’s designed to work seamlessly with a library, almost any engine method can be easily swapped out by the library, allowing the text adventure designer to even replace the default parser, useful when writing games in languages other than English.

The 'Universe' library defines the game's "world", providing basic services, like self describing objects and rooms, verbs like "get", "save", "quit", etc.

The default Universe library is designed to create a few basic object types, which can then be enhanced and improved by a selection of mix and match services. For example, scenery is just a basic thing with a fixed item service. However, you can sniff, touch, listen to and look at the scenery—without programming at all!

PAWS also provides a game skeleton that handles the highest-level game logic. Simply copy the skeleton (In the TQ.py module) to a file and start writing your game. No customization needed.

PAWS is also packaged with Roger Plowman's thoroughly commented game--Thief's Quest, fun to play and a good way to get your feet wet with this whole thing.

Available at the Vaults of Parnassus Python Resources--

http://www.vex.net/parnassus/apyllo.py/238168060

A note:
PAWS is still in alpha, and has plenty of bugs. I've tinkered with it a little, but it needs a more time than I have to devote to it. If you have rudimentary python skills and the desire to write a text adventure, than this would be a nice place to start. When PAWS is a little more complete, it should be even better.

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