Editing SCUMM (section)

== Design ==
[[Image:Loom interface screenshot.png|thumb|''[[Loom (computer game)|Loom]]'' (1990) replaces the conventional SCUMM interface of verbs with spells played on a musical [[distaff]].]]
Most SCUMM games feature a verb–object design paradigm. The player-controlled character has an inventory, and the game world is littered with objects with which the player can interact, using a variety of verbs. A large set of these were often featured at the bottom of the screen in the early games, but by ''[[Full Throttle (1995 video game)|Full Throttle]]'' (1995) and ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island]]'' (1997) these had been reduced to a "verb coin" appearing at the mouse cursor with the option to use character's eyes (to ''look''), hands (to ''use'', ''pick up'', ''push'', ''pull'', etc.), or mouth (to ''talk'', ''consume'', ''inhale''). Humongous Entertainment's games simplified this interface, with a transparent mouse cursor graphic that would become filled in when the player could interact with an object, or transform to an arrow to indicate a clickpoint that will take the player to a new screen.

Puzzles generally involve using the right verb action with the appropriate object—"use biscuit cutter with rubber tree", for example. "Talk to" commonly produces dialogue sequences, in which the player selects from a list of predefined questions or comments, and the character they are talking to replies with a predefined response. The notable exception to this general paradigm is ''[[Loom (computer game)|Loom]]'' (1990), which does not use the standard verb–object interface, but replaces most actions with a selection of spells played on an instrument.