Well, it'll be a learning experience.
Unity can work for 2d games as well as 3d (eg
starwhal I think was made in unity) though it doesn't necessarily do so well with 2.5d sprites. I'd love to make a 2.5d dungeon crawler though, I love the interection between sprites and solid textures.
Yeah, have steam and skype. I'll pm them to you if you want, though as a brit our timezones might not intersect much.
With coding, it really helps to have someone there to explain the start. It does all look horribly complicated, but once you get used to it it all fits into place.
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As a very basic thing (that you can use no coding for) Game Maker Studio (free) could work. You can either program options or use the inbuilt commands to determine the actions.
The most basic game you could make... well, this would work in c#:
This game is you choose either forwards or backwards. The monster has a equal chance of being in either direction. If you choose the same direction as the monster, you get eaten, else you survive.
Random random = new Random();
int randomNumber = random.Next(0, 2);
string monsterLocation = "";
string playerLocation = "";
if (randomNumber == 0)
{
monsterLocation = "F";
}
if (randomNumber == 1)
{
monsterLocation = "B";
}
Console.WriteLine("YOua in cave");
Console.WriteLine("You are lost in a cave. Do you go forwards or backwards? F/B");
playerLocation = Console.ReadLine();
if (playerLocation != "F" && playerLocation != "B")
Console.WriteLine("Invalid Input");
if (playerLocation == monsterLocation)
Console.WriteLine("You got eaten. Alas.");
if (playerLocation != monsterLocation)
Console.WriteLine("You excape the cave. Huzzah. You win.");
Console.ReadLine();
The problem with text adventure games is that writing them is really, really boring.