Quest 5 is written in C#, with some Visual Basic, has its own scripting language, ASL, and also uses JavaScript for the UI. Players can either download a dedicated player/editor or use the web version, in the latter case the game runs on the textadventures.co.uk server. In contrast, Quest 6 is written entirely JavaScript, and runs in the player's browser. This means:
Better for players
• No lag between turns
• Game does not time-out
• Saved games will play in the latest version of the game
Better for authors
• Authors can upload games to their own web site
• Authors are learning/using JavaScript, the computer language of the internet, rather than ASL, which is exclusive to Quest 5
• Authors can change absolutely anything in the game system; everything is accessible and customisable
• Authors can create games on Linux and Mac, as well as Windows
Better for me
• No need to support legacy games in the app (the Quest 5 player/editor and the web player both have to support every version of Quest 5, and Quest 4 - and I think all the way back to Quest 1)
Alex had some experiments into this before he quit. QuestJS was hoped to convert a Quest .quest file to pure JavaScript. QuestKit was supposed to do pretty much the same as I am doing here. Arguably Squiffy is another attempt, being entirely JavaScript, though without a parser.
Is there an editor?
No, but it is under development. It is in another repository on GitHub, so go there to learn more on how that is going.
However, you do not need a dedicated editor to create games, and the Wiki includes a tutorial that will take you through how you can already create a game.
Will it be possible to convert existing Quest games?
Yes, but it is not perfect.
For more details: https://github.com/ThePix/QuestJS/wiki
