Category: Inform 7

Seeking Extensions Librarian

I posted about this to RAIF, but I might as well post here as well: we would really like to hand off the job of Inform 7 extensions librarian to someone other than me. If you have keen ideas about how to improve extensions service, and/or you have always wanted to be king of the extensions hill, please get in touch with me.

More details at the RAIF posting.

Update: Someone has now stepped forward, so we’re going ahead with this; I’ll let people know once the transfer of power (mwahaha) has occurred.

Inform 5U92

…is now out. To people who were not waiting for bugs to be fixed, this may seem like a pretty low-key build: a huge amount of work went into it, but much of that work had to do with improving internal code in preparation for an eventual release of the Inform source, rather than with producing new features. Assorted things are now more cleanly implemented and a better foundation for future improvements, but that doesn’t make for glamor in the change log.

However, of possible note to readers here: the latest build does (as I mentioned in an earlier post) allow for scenes to be given properties, which means that it is now possible to make rules about what is allowed to happen during a type of scene — as in

Instead of going somewhere during a restrictive scene: …

We do not yet have the ability to write generic rules about when types of scene begin and end, which I would also like; but this may improve matters somewhat for heavy users of Inform scenes.

In other news, it is now possible to define new directions freely — something that we felt was an omission from the outset, so I am glad that is checked off the list.

Scaffolding and Scene-based Design

One of the things I find useful in developing a very plot-oriented piece of IF is to leverage the scenes mechanism as much as possible, designing as follows. I’m not sure this really qualifies as advice so much as some personal experience that may or may not suit others’ writing styles — people tend to approach IF design in different ways. Still, FWIW:

Continue reading “Scaffolding and Scene-based Design”

Tutorial Mode

Uploaded to the Inform extensions site a small extension that adds some tutorial advice to any game: specifically, it introduces LOOK, EXAMINE, TAKE, DROP, INVENTORY, and compass directions, as well as the meta-commands, in an order that depends on the opening layout of the game.

The tutorial mode can be turned off (of course), and its specific advice may be replaced with alternative instructional rules.