Simkin in Animals of Farthing Wood
The "Animals of Farthing Wood" is an adventure game written
for the BBC, composed of a large number of scenes and characters, each
with their own behaviour.
The game was implemented as a C++ game engine with the scenes, animations and characters described using Simkin script files.
The game engine managed 2-dimensional sprites, video and sound playback, and timers.
Scenes were described single Simkin script files. A scene might be quite simple, like the one above or very complex, like the collection game on the left.
Each scene contained a list of the characters and sprites in that location, as well as special code for hiding, showing or modifying their behaviour depending on the state of play.
The game scripts set up timers which called other scripts to move game time along, and affect the characters' energy levels, for example.
Click here for a sample script from the game (written in a the C++ hierarchical file format).
Using Simkin meant that the game was produced on-time and on-budget.
The scripting made it easy enough for the game's logic to be specified by the games designers (non-programmers).