The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
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The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
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Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#2The annual IFComp short interactive fiction competition just released the awards for this year's competition: https://ifcomp.org/comp/2021 I haven't played anything from this year yet, but from years past they are always a fantastic set of IF to explore.
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#3Fascinating. How does one go about writing one of these in 2021? Do analogs to Unity/Unreal Engine exist for interactive fiction, or are people rolling their own?
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#4Fascinating. How does one go about writing one of these in 2021? Do analogs to Unity/Unreal Engine exist for interactive fiction, or are people rolling their own?
You can probably start with simple text console program that doesn't need any graphics.
Second step can be ASCII style graphics added to it.
Then you can do already something like The Hobbit with 2D graphical backgrounds.
I don't think you need Unity or the like for any of it.
It would probably be akin to writing a shell interpreter for the input at least.
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#5Fascinating. How does one go about writing one of these in 2021? Do analogs to Unity/Unreal Engine exist for interactive fiction, or are people rolling their own?
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-tools-to-create-your-own-tex...
Writing your own is, of course, an option, but don't underestimate the task. A "simple" POC is usually very easy (my son and I did one in an afternoon). But building an engine with block-able exists, recursive containment, item interaction (eg. "turn bolt with wrench" and the custom functions they need), can be a much larger effort.
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#6Fascinating. How does one go about writing one of these in 2021? Do analogs to Unity/Unreal Engine exist for interactive fiction, or are people rolling their own?
Inform7 is a natural language based system for programming interactive fiction. http://inform7.com/
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#7I remember years back I was into interactive fiction. I remember converting a random haiku generator in JavaScript to Inform 6. Good times.
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#8Fascinating. How does one go about writing one of these in 2021? Do analogs to Unity/Unreal Engine exist for interactive fiction, or are people rolling their own?
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#9Fascinating. How does one go about writing one of these in 2021? Do analogs to Unity/Unreal Engine exist for interactive fiction, or are people rolling their own?
For the choose-your-own-adventute type of story Inkle's Ink language & editor is really nice
Re: The Interactive Fiction Archive (2019)
#10Fascinating. How does one go about writing one of these in 2021? Do analogs to Unity/Unreal Engine exist for interactive fiction, or are people rolling their own?
There are a lot of options.
Inform 6/7 is the most popular of the parser-based languages, with v6 being closer to a traditional programming language and v7 being a fascinating, natural-language based programming language that is powerful but can be difficult for those steeped in traditional programming languages to wrap their head around. Twine is the most popular choice-based system, supporting three languages that range from basically Javascript to no-code.
Honorable mention to both 1) Ink which is my personal favorite choice-based IF language and integrates well with Unity but doesn't have a great default presentation and 2) ChoiceScript, which is frustratingly limited (by design) but supports an incredible ecosystem of pro, semi-pro and amateur game writers (at ChoiceOfGames.com).