You may choose topics that seem interesting but, if you follow this tutorial through to the end, you will have created your own small online game to play and share with others!
Use the menu on the right to navigate the index of each of the tutorial's parts. Use the [next](Part1/Beginner-Tutorial-Part1-Overview.md) and [previous](../Howtos-Overview.md) links at the top/bottom right of each page to jump between lessons.
You need to know how to find the terminal/console in your OS. The Evennia server can be controlled from in-game, but you _will_ realistically need to use the command-line interface to get anywhere. Here are some starters:
> Note that the documentation typically uses forward-slashes (`/`) for file system paths. Windows users should convert these to back-slashes (`\`) instead.
You should make sure that you have successfully [installed Evennia](../../Setup/Installation.md). If you followed the instructions, you will have already created a game-dir. The documentation will continue to refer to this game-dir as `mygame`, so you may want to re-use it or make a new one specific to this tutorial only -- it's up to you.
If you already have a game-dir and want a new one specific to this tutorial, use the `evennia stop` command to halt the running server. Then, [initialize a new game-dir](../../Setup/Installation.md#initialize-a-new-game) somewhere else (_not_ inside the previous game-dir!).
You may already have a preferred MUD client. Check out the [grid of supported clients](../../Setup/Client-Support-Grid.md). Or, if telnet's not your thing, you may also simply use Evennia's web-client in your preferred browser.
> In this documentation we often interchangeably use the terms 'MUD', 'MU', and 'MU*' to represent all the historically different forms of text-based multiplayer game-styles (i.e., MUD, MUX, MUSH, MUCK, MOO, etc.). Evennia can be used to create any of these game-styles... and more!
You need a text editor application to edit Python source files. Most anything that can edit and output raw text should work (...so not Microsoft Word).
- [Here's a blog post summing up a variety of text editor options](https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/resources/best-code-editors) - these things don't change much from year to year. Popular choices for Python are PyCharm, VSCode, Atom, Sublime Text, and Notepad++. Evennia is -- to a very large degree -- coded in VIM, but it is not suitable for beginners.
Make sure to configure your text editor so that pressing the 'Tab' key inserts _4 spaces_ rather than a tab-character. Because Python is whitespace-aware, this simple practice will make your life much easier.
This tutorial will primarily assume you are experimenting with Python through your game client, using the in-game `py` command. But you can also explore Python instructions outside of the game. Run the following from your game dir folder:
The `evennia shell` console is convenient for experimenting with Python. But note that if you manipulate database objects from `evennia shell`, those changes will not be visible from inside the game until you reload the server. Similarly changes in-game may not visible to the `evennia shell` console until restarting it. As a guideline, use `evennia shell` for testing things out. Don't use it to change the state of a running game. The beginner tutorial uses the in-game `py` command to avoid confusion.
This will open an Evennia/Django aware python shell. You should use this instead of just running vanilla `python` since the latter won't set up Django for you and you won't be able to import `evennia` without a lot of extra setup. For an even nicer experience, it's recommended you install the `ipython` program:
You should now be ready to move on to the [first part of the Beginner Tutorial](Part1/Beginner-Tutorial-Part1-Overview.md)! (In the future, use the `previous | next` buttons on the top/bottom of the page to progress.)
