Inform 7 is an interactive fiction authorship system. It’s not the only one out there (see the other resources on Writing IF for how to choose a system), but it’s the one I use; I’ve also been quite closely involved in its development.
Of potential interest to Inform 7 users:
- The Inform home page
- Library extensions that can be used to expand I7’s abilities
- The documentation for Inform 7 online
- Several complete games with sample code in Inform 7
- The bug report form for filing bugs in I7
- Interim progress post: a post to rec.arts.int-fiction describing what is likely to happen to the language next, as of January 2007
- Draft of syntax reference, updated through December 2007
- “Inform for Fiction Authors”: a post about how elements of interactive fiction, and Inform in particular, correspond to elements of traditional fiction writing
- Chart of rules: a visual presentation of the major rulebooks used by I7 during play.
There is not an official separate forum or mailing list for Inform 7, but many people discuss coding issues on the intfiction forum. A search of the group will turn up answers to some frequently-asked questions.
Also of possible interest: IFDB tracks I7 games with released source code.
The Inform 7 page lists assorted tutorials and other helps.
And some odd/esoteric uses of I7:
- Inform 7 version of Dungeon (okay, perhaps not that odd)
- I7 game tied in with real-world temperature sensors that detected and reacted to liquids poured into a cup, among other things.
- Inform 7 code poetry.
- An Inform 7 quine (program that prints its own source code).