Quick guide to py-urq dialect of URQ language

Comments

URQ use C-style comments

/*
  This is comment
*/

Text output

Print text

print This text will be printed.
print This text will be the same line.

p is alias for print. Commands print Some text and p Some text are equivalent.

Print text with new line

println This text will be printed.
println This text will be on separate line.

pln is alias for println. Commands println Some text and pln Some text are equivalent.

Labels

Labels describes location or procedures.

:label
/*
 There must be some operators
 */ 
end

End operator

end operator marks label end and pass control to player or return proc call to call point.

Common label

common is a special label that will be called on each goto and btn call.

You can redefine common name via common system variable. If common variable is set label common_{value} will be called on each goto and btn call.

Links

Links is a fast way to create

[[link]] link to label 'link' in text

[[link name | label_name ]] link to label_name

[[link name | ...operators... ]] link to call operators

Buttons

Buttons are similar to links but are displayed after the text and not in it.

btn label_name

button redirects to label label_name and has text "label_name".

btn label_name, Button text

button redirects to label label_name and has text "Button text".

btn operator1 & operator2 & ...

button will call operator1 and operator2 and ... on click and has text ???

btn operator1 & operator2 & ..., Button text

button will call operators and has text "Button text"

Goto

goto label_name

Immediatly go to label label_name.

User input

input var

will wait for user input and store it in variable var. Can be used to ask players name or to create quests with input.

anykey

will wait for any key press.

anykey var

will wait for any key press and store pressde key in var.

Procedure

proc label

will go to label, execute operators until end and then return to the operator after proc call.

forget_proc

Do not return to call point when reach procedure end.

Variables

Set variable

apples = 4

Variable substitution

pln I have #apples$ apples.

Special characters

##{code}$ 

Substitute ASCII character by code

Inventory

Inventory is a list of variables available for player. Each inventory variable starts with inv_ prefix

Add items to inventory:

inv+ Item

will add one Item to inventory.

inv+ X, Item

will add X Items to inventory

Remove items fro inventory:

inv- Item

will remove one Item from inventory.

inv- X, Item

will remove X Items from inventory.

Set count of Item to zero

invkill Item

will set count of Item to 0.

invkill

will delete all inventory.

& operator

expression1 & expression2

Will run expression1 then expression2

Example:

if inv_gold > 10 then inv- 10, gold & goto some_location

Conditional

if <condition> then <operators_true> [else <operators_false>]

Conditional execution. else block is optional

Actions

quit - termination of quest

save - save game state to slot

Math operations

(a + b) * c

Brackets works as usual.

not

Negation for boolean expression.

*, /, +, -,

Arithmetic operations.

<, <=, >, >=,

Compare operations, works as usual.

= 

equals

== 

String mask compare. Mask can contain * - for any count of any characters (even zero) and ? - for exactly one character.

!=, <>

not equals operators

&&, and

boolean and

||, or

boolean or

Random number generation

rnd

will return float value in interval 0 - 1 (exclusive)

rndX

will return integer value in interval 1 - X (inclusive)

Time operator

time

will return seconds from midnight.

Can be used to set time restrictions on locations. Though it is a very questionable game design.

Example

loc:
if first_time = 0 then first_time = time
if time - first_time >= 600 then p This message will not be shown until 10 minutes passed since first location visit
p This is regular message
end

Pause

pause {ms_count}

will pause game for ms_count milliseconds. It can be used to simulate waiting but it is strongly recommended not to use values greater than 5 000 milliseconds.

Sound

Play music file once

play "file_name"

Sysytem varianbles

count

count_{label}

stores each label visit count.

music

music = "realtive/path/to/file.mp3"

will play file as background music.

common

common

will redefine common label. See common section.

current_loc

current_loc

read only. Stores current location.

previous_loc

previous_loc

read only. Stores previous location.

Text color

style_dos_textcolor

set dos compatible color as int in range [0, 15].

style_textcolor

set textcolor in hex format.

style_backcolor

set background color in hex foramt.

image

image = 'path/to/image'

questionable functionality. Should be only operator.