Neighborhood Watch
Suppose we want a locked door that can be opened with a key, but is also openable by hand without a key from one side only. We start by defining an ordinary lockable door and the key that controls it:
The next part is going to require that we modify the normal operation of the "lock" command. "Lock" ordinarily requires that the player supply two objects: a thing he wants to unlock, and the key he wants to use on it. The full command is LOCK DOOR WITH THE KEY, and Inform will not accept simply LOCK DOOR as locking.
Therefore, we're going to need to create our own new variant on the lock verb (and the unlock verb, while we're at it). The full procedure for this is laid out in the chapters on Action and Understanding, but here is an example:
Here we've created a new action -- locking something without a key -- and we've told Inform to understand LOCK DOOR as this action, rather than an incomplete command to LOCK DOOR WITH SOMETHING.
Now we add some instructions so that the game will not let us use this keyless unlocking command unless we're in the right place or are properly equipped:
This check rule is performed before the keyless locking action succeeds. The first thing we do is try to use the key if the player is outside and has the key: this way, LOCK DOOR will turn automatically into LOCK DOOR WITH THE KEY, under circumstances where that is both possible and necessary.
The second thing is to check whether the player is outside but keyless, and, if so stop the action from being performed successfully. Here we print a failure message followed by the word "instead", which tells Inform that we've substituted some other outcome for the usual performance of the action.
Now we're reasonably sure that the player is only locking keylessly in the case that he is inside the Studio. (We might have to do a more thorough check for this if there were more than two rooms, but as it is, the player can only be in the Stairwell or in the Studio, so if we have ruled out the Stairwell, we are safe.) So now we want to add what happens when locking-without-a-key command succeeds:
That's it. We've just told Inform to make the door be locked. "Now…" syntax will be explained more thoroughly in the chapter on change. But we still haven't described to the player what just happened, so let's provide a description of that, too:
And now we have to do a similar set of things for unlocking:
Test me with "unlock door / drop key / open door / out / close door / lock door / open door / in / get key / out / close door / lock door / unlock door".
You can see a shabby door here.
>(Testing.)
>[1] unlock door
You flip over the deadbolt to unlock the shabby door.
>[2] drop key
Dropped.
>[3] open door
You open the shabby door.
>[4] out
Rickety Stairwell
You can see a shabby door here.
>[5] close door
You close the shabby door.
>[6] lock door
You can't lock the door from this side without the key.
>[7] open door
You open the shabby door.
>[8] in
Studio Apartment
You can see a shabby door and a brass key here.
>[9] get key
Taken.
>[10] out
Rickety Stairwell
You can see a shabby door here.
>[11] close door
You close the shabby door.
>[12] lock door
You lock the shabby door.
>[13] unlock door
You unlock the shabby door.
Some (but not all) of this work is done for you if you like by the Locksmith extension. If you prefer, you can include that extension, then follow the documentation in order to implement the remainder of the scenario. Locksmith takes care of implementing the additional locking and unlocking actions, and provides some other conveniences.