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New Text Adventures Compete In 22nd 'Interactive Fiction Competition' (ifcomp.org)
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
58 brand-new text adventures are now available free online for the 22nd Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. The public is encouraged to play the games, and on November 16th the contest's organizers will announce which ones received the highest average ratings. After 22 years, the contest is now under "the auspices of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, a new, charitable non-profit corporation dedicated to supporting the technologies and services that enable IF creation and play..." according to the contest's organizers. "[T]he competition now runs on servers paid for by the IF-loving public, and for this I feel sincere gratitude."
Inform is a great tool for creating interactive fiction. Since it requires logic, branching, etc. I always thought it'd work well as an introduction to some of the thinking that is required in the design of programs.
That is all.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
You were eaten by a grue
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
In the 80s and 90s writing text adventures was a popular framework for intro to programming books.
Inform7 is something unique. As a special purpose tool, I hear that it's fantastic. If you're a developer, however, I expect you find it a bit maddening.
A sample from Emily Short's Bronze:
The iron-barred gate is a door. "An iron-barred gate leads [gate direction]." It is north of the Drawbridge and south of the Entrance Hall. It is closed and openable. Before entering the castle, try entering the gate instead. Before going inside in the Drawbridge, try going north instead. Understand "door" as the gate.
After opening the gate:
say "You shouldn't be able to open it, heavy as it is, but it swings aside lightly at your touch. The Beast said that it knows friend from enemy; and the castle, at least, still regards you as friend."
[... snip ...]
Before going outside in the Entrance Hall, try going south instead.
The fireplace is scenery in the Entrance Hall. The description is "Unlit, vacant[if Search is happening]. It is almost as though you are not expected[end if]." The sound of the fireplace is "whistling wind". Understand "fire" or "whistling" or "wind" as the fireplace. Instead of burning the fireplace: say "There is no fuel prepared for a fire."
You can do other things with it. Towers of Hanoi looks like this: Towers of Hanoi, and is surprisingly readable. Though I can't imagine trying to use Inform7 in an intro to programming class.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Inform is a great tool for creating interactive fiction. Since it requires logic, branching, etc. I always thought it'd work well as an introduction to some of the thinking that is required in the design of programs.
It's interesting that you mention this. I actually teach a Theory of Programming Languages course at a state University, and the first (out of five) languages that I introduce to my students is Inform 7. I do so for a few reasons:
1. It's a great introduction to "specialty" programming languages. An example of how languages can be created and used for highly specialized use cases.
2. It's a very unique way of looking at programming (unlike Java, which has been drilled into the CS students since Freshman year).
3. It has full language documentation in an accessible form, like grammar tree and parse generation tables.
4. It's fun to make games and I think logic games fit in well with a Computer Science course in tandem with CS language concepts.
Although, strangely, #4 is quite polarizing among my students. I only get one of two responses typically: "I hate it!", or, "This is awesome!". I guess game creativity isn't something that people usually take CS courses for...and since it's the "easiest" of the five languages to pick up, my students typically have a shortened time to learn it. So maybe that's it...
that fell out of favor, replaced by gore and instant satisfaction from killing people, collecting loot, etc.
True.
But there was, way back then, always Hack (or net-Hack, or any of the hundreds of variants). Pre-scripted or Random dungeons, loot, skill points, and all of that other stuff that kids these days can only handle if it's wrapped in a graphical environment with PHENOMENAL water ripples and shadows.
They are still the same game genre. WoW just made it graphically impressive but tedious to play through.
* I can't count how many times I killed Werdna. Made speed-runs as a challenge.