Child's Play

An interactive fiction by Stephen Granade (2007) - the Inform 7 source text
Chapter 3 - Playtime

Playtime is a scene. Playtime begins when Introduction ends. Playtime ends when the player has your favorite toy.

When Playtime begins:
    display chapter head "Chapter 1" with subhead "Playtime";
    now Zoe is active;
    say "Right behind Marion and Zoe the little red haired girl is Lisa who is Cassie's mom. Lisa is carrying Cassie all carefully but Cassie is squirming to get down. 'Hi Farina, hi Marion--hang on Cassie, mommy's going to put you down,' Lisa says and then she steps over the baby gate and dumps Cassie by the couch to the south of you.

Meanwhile the mom is putting all the pillows back on the couch and loveseat. As she finishes she asks Marion, 'Can I put this toy in Zoe's backpack for now?' Marion is all 'Sure!' as she puts Zoe on the floor over by the rocking chair and sits on the loveseat.";
    if the player is gnawing something (called g), now g is not gnawed by anything;
    remove your favorite toy from play;
    remove the squishy ball from play; [Cassie will get this in a bit.]
    if the squishy ball is in the Intro Middle, move the squishy ball to the Middle of the Living Room;
    if the plush book is in the Intro Middle, move the plush book to the Middle of the Living Room;
    change the chatter list table to the Table of Playtime-Chatter.

After going a direction when the mom is not in play during Playtime:
    consider the report going rulebook;
    now the mom is in the Middle of Couch;
    now Becca is in South End of Loveseat;
    now Parry is in By the Rocking Chair;
    now Watson is in the South End of Loveseat;
    now Jemison is in South End of Loveseat;
    say "There is a ding-dong! and the mom goes and opens the front door. It is Becca and her son Jemison and some strange guy is there holding Watson Mason. 'Come on in, everyone,' the mom says. She turns to the strange guy, 'I'm glad you could make it, Parry[note parry-entering].'

Parry shrugs and smiles and says, 'I always wondered what everyone did during playgroup.'

'Drink mimosas[note drink-mimosas]!' Becca says over her shoulder to Parry and there is polite laughter and Parry smiles like he is kinda unsure about all of this.

'Why don't you put Watson in here with the others?' the mom asks and Parry nods. He ends up putting Watson by Jemison over by the loveseat. Then all the standing adults sit down [if the mom and the player are co-located]with the mom sitting near you [otherwise if Parry and the player are co-located]with Parry sitting near you [end if]so now I guess they are sitting adults.";
    change the chatter status to ready to act.

When Playtime ends:
    record 10 points for "getting your favorite toy the second time";
    say "Parry says, 'Okay, down you go,' and he gently lowers you to the floor, right next to Zoe. Zoe looks over and sees what you have in your hands and she goes totally nuts, she is shrieking and waving her fists and if she had Force powers you would totally be choked right now.

And of course Zoe acting out gets Marion and the mom to pay attention and Marion is all 'Hey, hey, Zoe, calm down!' and the mom is all 'Oh, gosh, they managed to get that toy out of the backpack.' So the jig is up where by 'the jig' I mean the toy and by 'up' I mean going away.";
    cut chatter short;
    [Reset Cassie's state machine, in case she never gave her hint]
    choose row with a baby name of Cassie in the Table of Baby State Machines;
    change machine entry to CS State Rules;
    change the base act percentage of Cassie to 20;
    change the act percentage of Cassie to 20;
    if testing is not in progress, wait for any key.

Table of Playtime-Chatter
Convo
Table of Parry-Name-Chatter
Table of Shari-Chatter
Table of Mimosa-Chatter
Table of Breastfeeding-Chatter
Table of Watson-Rash-Chatter
Table of Parry-Name-Chatter
Chatter
"'Hey, I just realized,' Becca says all loud[if Becca is present] above you[end if], 'Your name is Parry Mason!'"
"'Um, yes?' Parry says."
"'Cool, just like the detective!' Becca says."
"Parry [if the player is enclosed by Parry]blushes red and [end if]says, 'My name's actually spelled--'[paragraph break]'No, I think the original Perry Mason was a lawyer,' Lisa says."
"Parry clears his throat. 'The lawyer spells his name with an e--'[paragraph break]'Right, lawyer, that's what I meant,' Becca tells Lisa."
"'Let Parry finish,' the mom says[if the mom is present] from above[end if], but Parry just goes, 'No, that's okay.'"
Table of Shari-Chatter
Chatter
"Marion asks Parry, 'How is Shari doing?'"
"'Oh, my God, Parry and Shari!' laughs Becca. 'I hadn't realized that--that's just too precious.'"
"'She's feeling better,' Parry says. 'She's keeping food down now, at least.'"
"Marion asks, 'Oh, are you two expecting?'"
"Parry is all, 'Oh, no, no, no. No. It's just the flu.'"
"Becca goes, 'You two should give Watson a brother. Toughen him up.'"
"'Can you imagine having two?' Lisa laughs, and it's not a calm laugh, more a desperate laugh, 'I'd go crazy.'"
Table of Mimosa-Chatter
Chatter
"Becca says to the mom, 'Nice job on those mimosas.'[paragraph break]'Thanks,' the mom replies."
"Lisa says, 'It's nice, they help me calm down.'"
"'And they're good for you,' Marion says."
"'I'm not sure they're that good for you,' Parry says."
"Marion says, 'They do have orange juice in them.'"
"'Besides, if it tastes good, it's good for you,' says Becca."
Table of Breastfeeding-Chatter
Chatter
"Lisa all of a sudden busts out with 'I know I asked this last time but does anyone else's boobs hurt? Because here lately feeding Cassie is murder.'"
"'Mine don't,' Parry says quietly, but Becca is all 'That's why I got Jemison on solids as soon as I could.'"
"The mom asks Lisa, 'Have you tried lanolin?'"
"'You and your remedies, Farina,' Lisa says. 'Lanolin this and cabbage leaves that.'"
"'It makes me glad Zoe was so good at latching on,' Marion says. Grr, Zoe."
"Lisa sighs and says, 'Maybe I'll try the lanolin,' and the mom says, 'Let us know how it works.'"
Table of Watson-Rash-Chatter
Chatter
"'Say, how's Watson's rash doing?' Lisa asks Parry.[paragraph break]Parry clears his throat. 'He's much better, thanks.'"
"The mom says, 'Did you use zinc oxide cream?'"
"'In a roundabout way,' Parry says, 'We used Boudreaux's butt paste[note butt-paste].'"
"'Ew,' Becca laughs, 'that is the grossest name for a product.'"
"Marion tells Becca, 'Given what we have to deal with from our children, a name like that is the least of our worries.'"

The source code to Child's Play is licensed under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sampling Plus 1.0 License.