(b)logophile » inform

IF experiment in collaborative dialogue design

tikitu — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:50:29 +0000

Emily Short is trying something very exciting in interactive fiction design: she’s written a conversation system that lets you write in new dialogue. It’s supposed to ask you how that dialogue should fit into what’s already there, then generate some Inform 7 code. You send her the code and she incorporates it in a new release of the game (probably with some tweaking, since she’ll be getting other updates at the same time).

Here’s the first announcement, and an update. Sadly I have no time to play with this, but the idea is fantastic.

IFComp ‘07

tikitu — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:22:24 +0000

This year’s Interactive Fiction Competition entries are live. I’ll be very interested to see the effect Inform7 has had on the competition. Emily Short is blogging reviews as she plays¹ (judges may discuss entries but should make it easy for people to avoid seeing things they don’t want to).

Awwwww… anybody know how I can skip sleep for a couple of weeks, without going batshit insane? I’d really like to get back into IF, if only I had the time (among my many half-started projects is a game, which now needs porting to Inform7…).

Hat tip to waxy.org for both the IFComp and emshort pointers.

Notes:

And she has a new WordPress-based website (well, new to me — I’ve been out of touch a long time) which looks really rather nice.

Inform 7: still cool

tikitu — Mon, 08 May 2006 18:40:30 +0000

On rec.arts.int-fiction today, Brian Slesinsky posted the following snippet:

In a hole in the ground lives a hobbit. A nasty, dirty, wet hole contains ends of worms and an oozy smell. A dry, bare, sandy hole contains nothing to sit down on or eat. The hole in the ground is a hobbit hole. “That means comfort.”

The perfectly round door is like a porthole. It is painted green. A shiny yellow brass knob is in the door’s exact middle. Through the door is a tube-shaped hall. Inside from the hall is the tunnel. It is very comfortable, without smoke. It contains panelled walls. The floor is tiled and carpeted. Some polished chairs and lots-and-lots of pegs for coats-and-hats are here. The hobbit is fond of visitors. The tunnel is winding on-and-on going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill (called the Hill). Many little round doors are on both sides. The hobbit is not going up stairs. Bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, many pantries, wardrobes, whole rooms devoted to clothes, kitchens, dining rooms are on the same floor. All are on the same passage. The best rooms are on the left-hand side. They contain deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

That’s honest-to-god Inform 7 code. Admittedly it needs a little setting up (defining that a hobbit hole is a kind of hole, and similar) but even that is surprisingly compact. Also it must be admitted that the game this produces bears very little resemblance to the text (although it does include the door, the knob —if you look for it— several tunnels and sundry furniture, it’s entirely lacking in hobbits, bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries or wardrobes; and you obviously don’t rate the best rooms, since they’re nowhere to be seen). Still, this should give you some idea why I’m excited about this shiny new toy.

Slesinsky has a simpler version on his blog, including a wee scrap of transcript and a shot of the IDE running. Looks lovely (suppressing pangs of extreme envy).