Telium – A text-based adventure game in Python

This resource includes:

• PDF handouts for students.
• Original Word documents.
• Coded solutions.
• PowerPoint presentation for teachers.

Telium [Tel-ee-um] is a text-based adventure game based loosely on the films Life (2017) and Alien (1979). The game is coded in several stages. Each stage presents you with the base code to give you a head-start, plus additional challenges for you to extend the code further.

Unique to Telium, it doesn’t matter how many extensions the students complete before moving to the next stage. Even if no extensions are completed students still have the code for a fully functioning game. The extensions just make the base game even better.

In the game, the player navigates around a space station called The Charles Darwin, made up of several interconnecting modules. The object of the game is to find and trap a queen alien called Telium, located somewhere in the station. Not wanting to get into a conflict with humans, the queen will attempt to escape to adjacent modules when it is encountered.

To win, the player must lock a module so the queen cannot escape. Once trapped, it can be killed with a flamethrower. The space station is also populated with additional objects to enhance the adventure.