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Do you want to make a game where the player truly feels part of the game world? This is your first step.
The most fundamental aspect of an adventure game is giving the player the ability to reveal information in the game.
Unlike other media where the interlocutor is passive to the narrative and can only consume it, in games players have the ability to co-create with the media.
Not every game uses this mechanism to show the game world to the player. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman demonstrate this in their book, Rules of the Game, where they present the idea of Narrative Descriptors.
For Salen and Zimmerman, games can use various artifices to present elements of the background story and plot to the player. Artifacts such as the game cover, the aesthetics, and even the title itself can present these elements without the player having to discover them.
However, in adventure games, the player is invited to test their investigative skills. Therefore, in games of this genre, part of the gameplay is designed to provide mechanisms for discovering this information.
In this chapter, we will develop a simple component that will enable the player, using their avatar, which in the case of our project is the spaceship, to approach objects and characters and interact with them. Ultimately, this system transforms elements of the game world into narrative descriptors. We'll call this component InteractiveArea2D.
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For more context and knowledge about the functionality of the component we'll be developing in this chapter, I suggest you read the Area2D node official documentation:
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Before we get into the practical part of the chapter, below is the initial project so that you can follow the content of the video.
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With the project opened, let's get to work!
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If you've followed the steps in the video, everything should have worked and you're equipped with a component that you can use to trigger interactive events in your game! Congratulations, this is an important step on your journey.
However, in order to move forward, you need to make sure you have the resources in hand to tackle the next levels. Below is the complete code for the component covered in this chapter. I suggest reading the comments, as they can provide relevant context for fully understanding the code.
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