A 4k-Room Text Adventure Written by One Human in QBasic No AI

Marketing language and “No AI” positioning

• Opening blurb is widely read as PR-like and even “AI-sounding,” which some find incongruous for a forum reply.
• The “written by one human, no AI” angle is seen by some as a genuine selling point; others view “No AI” as an emerging marketing gimmick similar to “organic” or “handmade.”
• Several expect “No AI” / “hand-coded” labels to become a premium or “slow programming” badge, though opinions differ on whether that will matter long-term.

Scope, craftsmanship, and actual game quality

• The claim that this is the “first” open-world-style modern text adventure by one person is challenged as exaggerated; people cite many existing one-author text adventures.
• Inspection of the rooms.txt file leads some to argue “handcrafted” is oversold: many rooms are brief, one-or-few-sentence vignettes with limited interactivity.
• Others counter that even a few thousand such sentences is substantial work, and that “handcrafted” doesn’t imply length, only origin.
• Multiple commenters say they found the gameplay mostly linear text with minimal interaction and stopped quickly.

Human vs AI creativity debate

• One thread argues current human-produced work is still generally higher quality than AI output; another pushes back that judging by source (human vs AI) rather than result mirrors prejudicial reasoning.
• The discussion escalates into broader arguments about meritocracy, consumer discrimination by origin (e.g., fair trade, fast fashion), and whether using AI for most of a work still counts as “creation.”
• Some insist they simply don’t want AI-generated art; others say “human-made” alone doesn’t entitle work to an audience—quality should dominate.

Nostalgia and early programming experiences

• Many share memories of writing BASIC text adventures or tiny games on early home computers, wrestling with GOTOs, line numbers, and lack of storage.
• These anecdotes underline how simple text adventures are an accessible first project and how much personal satisfaction comes from sharing something you coded yourself.

Technical details and platform issues

• Despite “QBasic” branding, the game targets QB64, not real DOS QBasic; this breaks DOSBox expectations and complicates Mac/Linux play.
• System requirements (e.g., 512MB RAM) are attributed to modern OS/QB64 overhead and loading all room text into memory, not to the inherent demands of the game.

Room counts and comparisons

• Commenters note older text adventures and MUDs with far more rooms (often via mazes or collaborative building), suggesting room count alone doesn’t indicate depth or quality.