Category: interactive fiction

Inform 7 for the Fiction Author

Jeff Nyman recently raised the idea of having a guide to Inform 7 specifically written for an experienced fiction author without background in IF, and I posted a brainstormed outline for such a project. The formatting was pretty ugly on Usenet, though, and I had a few ideas for revisions, so here is another, longer and better-laid-out version of the same thing, with more links to relevant games and articles.

This still isn’t nearly into the shape I would use if I were actually going to write this book — and I don’t have time to do any such thing right now anyway; I have a bunch of things to do for Inform 7, feelies.org, and the long-neglected theory book before I could take up a project of this magnitude. (And I’d like to have a little time to work on a WIP of my own — IF support work has pretty much wiped out my time for that kind of thing lately.) But possibly people will find the brainstorming interesting, even if it isn’t worked up into a complete document.

Continue reading “Inform 7 for the Fiction Author”

On Stephen Bond on Player Freedom

Stephen Bond recently (very recently, I think) posted an essay on player freedom, essentially arguing that IF shouldn’t be about offering the player moral choice, and that not forcing the player to make a specific choice is a kind of artistic abdication, giving up the opportunity (or the responsibility) to Say Something.

Now I’m about to disagree with him, at some length.

Continue reading “On Stephen Bond on Player Freedom”

Recommendation

Over the weekend I played and quite enjoyed Adventurer’s Consumer Guide by Oyvind Thorsby. I will probably publish a longer review later, but for now I want to mention it because it doesn’t seem to be getting much notice on the newsgroups, which is a pity. It’s a game of the light-hearted, puzzle-centric type: the puzzles are good, the game is very soundly tested, and there are lots of nifty easter eggs.