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Quest Viva

Transcripts

A transcript is a recording of everything the player types and the game prints. It is the single most useful thing a beta-tester can send you: you see exactly what they did, in order, including the commands that didn’t work.

The commands below are built into every game, so there is nothing to set up. Point your testers at this page, or paste the instructions into your game’s introduction.

Recording a transcript

Section titled “Recording a transcript”

To start recording, type any of these:

SCRIPT
TRANSCRIPT
SCRIPT ON
TRANSCRIPT ON
ENABLE SCRIPT
ENABLE TRANSCRIPT

The game asks for a name for the transcript - anything that will help you tell one session from another - and offers the game’s title as a suggestion in the command box. Accept it or type your own, then press Enter. Recording starts with a header giving the game’s title, author, version and version code, IFID, and the date and time:

Start of a transcript of:
TITLE: The Mansion
AUTHOR: A N Author
VERSION: 1.2 (7)
IFID: 4d1f2b70-2a6c-4f5e-9a23-6b3f1c5d2e88
DATE AND TIME: 20/09/2026, 09:00:30 GMT+1

Recording a second session under the same name appends to the same transcript, so give each session its own name if you want them kept apart.

If a transcript is already running, the game says “The transcript is already enabled.”

To stop recording:

SCRIPT OFF
TRANSCRIPT OFF
DISABLE SCRIPT
DISABLE TRANSCRIPT

Anything the player types starting with * is not treated as a command. The game replies “Noted.” and the line goes into the transcript, so a tester can leave notes as they play:

> * the hook is described as brass here but iron in the hall
* the hook is described as brass here but iron in the hall
Noted.

Starting every note with * also makes them easy to search for afterwards.

Reading and sending a transcript

Section titled “Reading and sending a transcript”

Type VIEW TRANSCRIPT (or SHOW TRANSCRIPT, or DISPLAY TRANSCRIPT) at any time. The game prints a link to a transcript viewer, which lists every transcript recorded for any game, with buttons to open, download or delete each one. “Download” saves it as a plain .txt file - that’s what a tester should send you.

Where transcripts are kept depends on how the game is being played:

  • In a browser - in that browser’s local storage for the site the game is on. They survive closing the tab, but are lost if the player clears the site’s browsing data, or if they were playing in a private window. Download anything worth keeping first.
  • In the desktop app - as files in the app’s own data folder, so clearing browser data doesn’t touch them. The VIEW TRANSCRIPT link opens the same viewer.

Either way transcripts stay on the player’s own machine. Nothing is uploaded, so a tester has to send you the downloaded file themselves.

Turning the feature off

Section titled “Turning the feature off”

There is no editor control for this, but you can switch transcripts off entirely by setting a notranscript attribute on the game object to true - add it on the game’s Attributes tab, with type “Boolean”. All the commands above then answer “This game has no transcript feature.”

Most games should leave it on. It costs nothing, and it’s what your testers will use.

See also

Section titled “See also”