Tag Archives: Inform 7

That Handbook Thing

Posted on February 26, 2023 by midiguru

I’ve written a couple of books on music technology. Got paid, even; these were not self-published projects. In recent years, though, the market for that type of book seems to have imploded. New software is released, but the publishers are … Continue reading →

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The Vorple Blade

Posted on February 26, 2023 by midiguru

I have a long and somewhat contentious relationship with the Inform language for programming text adventure games. I’ve written a couple of games using it. I’ve written a book-length tutorial about how to use it. But I don’t actually like … Continue reading →

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From Inform 7 to TADS 3

Posted on June 16, 2022 by midiguru

From time to time, an author who has been writing interactive fiction in Inform 7 gets curious about how easy or difficult it would be to switch to TADS. Eric Eve (who has used both systems) wrote a good comparison … Continue reading →

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No, It’s Not Easy

Posted on June 10, 2022 by midiguru

Writing text adventure games is not easy. It’s a craft that combines conventional writing with both computer programming and game design. It’s kind of a niche art form, but people are still actively engaged in it. I’m one of them. … Continue reading →

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Any Port Is a Storm

Posted on June 2, 2022 by midiguru

The long-awaited open-source version of Inform 7 has now been released. (Yay, I guess.) For those who don’t know what this means, Inform is a specialized programming language designed for writing text adventure games, a medium that is often dignified … Continue reading →

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Informal

Posted on November 11, 2021 by midiguru

From time to time, moved by an impulse that’s nearly as obscure as dark matter, I find myself writing a text adventure game. Over the years I’ve written and released half a dozen of them, the first in 1999 and … Continue reading →

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Badly Informed

Posted on December 9, 2020 by midiguru

Rather to my surprise, I was awarded a bit of non-trivial prize money for placing well in this year’s IF Comp. This is the Interactive Fiction Competition; it’s for text-based games of one sort and another. There were a hundred … Continue reading →

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Informed or Reformed?

Posted on April 14, 2020 by midiguru

Pardon me; I’m going to kvetch. This is sort of about computer programming, but it’s also about writing stories, so I’ll try to provide a few relevant bits of technical information along the way. What with being stuck at home … Continue reading →

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it something noun

Posted on January 20, 2018 by midiguru

Maybe because I’m in need of an intellectually stimulating diversion, or maybe just because a guy emailed me and said he has enjoyed the text adventure games I’ve written in the past, I thought I’d get out my half-finished magnum … Continue reading →

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The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Posted on April 20, 2015 by midiguru

Six years ago I wrote an unauthorized book-length manual called The Inform 7 Handbook. There were (and still are) some things I liked about Inform 7, an authoring system for text adventures, but I didn’t feel its built-in suite of … Continue reading →

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