Walkthrough

A walkthrough is a list of commands; one that will typically, if entered into a parser-based game, produce a winning ending.

Extensive walkthroughs explain why to perform the various actions, and may include a number of optional commands that are not necessary to achieve a winning state, but which are required for the player to understand the plot of the game, to get a higher score than necessary to win, or just to observe the game's more interesting aspects.

Abrupt walkthroughs also exist which only offer the sequence of actions absolutely required to reach a win, or in the case of multilinear games, one of the better endings.

Walkthroughs can be separate files (usually plain text), or included in a game accessible with a special command like WALKTHRU, or even embodied in a walkthrough mode of the game.

Links

• Discussion of walkthrough best practices on the Interactive Fiction Community Forum.
• solutions/ at the IF Archive.
• CASA: The Classic Adventures Solution Archive.
• Adventure Solutions (archive) by Dorothy Millard. Hundreds of walkthroughs for older text adventures.
• Key & Compass - IF Games Index. Listing includes links to walkthroughs by David Welbourn.
• Walkthroughs in the IF Gems review quotes collection (also available from the IF Archive).
• Walkthrough at TV Tropes Wiki.