From Scratch Web Games: A Beginners Guide to Game Development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Chapter 3.13: Webbus Project

The project for chapter 3 is a clone of the classic text-based game Hunt the Wumpus. As with all projects in this book, the reference version that I create only uses the material and concepts that have been covered up to this point. As this chapter is the second programming-related chapter in the book, there is only the basics of HTML and CSS. This means we have to use multiple pages and interactivity is rather limited for now. Since we have not covered JavaScript or the more advanced features of CSS yet, we are very restricted with what we can accomplish. Just using links is surprisingly powerful, but as you add more states to a game the number of pages needed to be created blows up very quickly. This time we are trying to recreate a more ambitious game.

The evil Webbus, a terrifying silicon-based lifeform, has been eating local farmer’s cows and sheep. You have been sent into it’s cavern to hunt it down. Unfortunately, you somehow lost your quiver of arrows and only have a single arrow left. The cavern itself is made up of twisty passages between chambers so navigating is a bit tricky. Each cavern has three exits and as your arrow is a trick arrow, it can navigate the passage to hit a target. Rumors exist that in addition to the deadly Webbus, there are caverns that teleport you and deadly slime. Hopefully you will be able to pick up the warning signs and avoid these hazards.

Move through the caverns by clicking on the move buttons. When you think you know where the Webbus is, fire your arrow at the passage you suspect it lies. You only have one shot so shoot wisely.

For my version of the game, I went with the flattened dodecahedron that was used by the original version of the game, but you are welcome to design a map how you like. If you have not played my version of the game, you can play it at https://spelchan.com/books/FromScratchHTML/Chapter03/HuntWebbusCSS/index.html or can play the total conversion winter version of the game at https://spelchan.com/books/FromScratchHTML/Chapter03/HuntWebbusCSS/index.html where the rules are the same but the theme has changed to a Christmas theme.

While you could create artwork for each room in the game, I opted to go with just 4 room images which would be interspersed throughout the maze. This may not be the best approach, and for Hunt the Santa each room was made unique. Sadly, this has to be done manually, but later chapters will provide the tools to automate this.

Moving is easy enough once you have a map, and shooting can be thought of as a binary that only needs two pages. One for winning the game and the other for wandering through the caves without an arrow until caught by the Webbus.

Once you have finished the project, or if you run into issues, next chapter I will walk through my solution to the project.