Incidentally...

...what do you call works of IF? Games? Stories? I suppose it depends upon which side the piece is weighted - more towards the interactive or the fiction.

This is interesting (to me)

I've been downloading other people's IFs to see how they're put together but, while playing these games does give you a feel for the sorts of things people override when writing an Inform IF piece (the "instead of taking [thing], say [this]" kind of stuff) it only really shows what is done, not how it's done.

However, one of the games I downloaded recently was "Gardening for Beginners" by Juhana Leinonen, which included the source text! I added it in to an Inform project to get a look at it. It's great to be able to see the structure of an entire story from beginning to end. I think I'll be looking at this for a while as I try out new things. Thanks, Juhana!

New Email, new ideas

Got me a new email address, just for the IF:
N3O2NE [a t] hotmail [d o t] com

Feel free to drop me a line.

Also, I've started putting some of the stuff I'm learning into an actual story, a prologue for the main piece I intend writing once I've learned enough. It'll shift the POV by making the player character someone who will be an NPC in the final game and should give a bit of background info on the game world. I figure I'll release the prologue just a little before the main game, just as a taster.

Getting somewhere!

My test room now has a sink with a broken pipe that prevents a tap from working. Luckily, a wrench in a nearby toolbox with sort that right out. It's not the world's most fiendish puzzle, but it's working - thanks to a little bit I used from one of Emily Short's examples (feeding fish is much the same as fixing pipes, it turns out!). Now, I wonder if I can persuade my wife to be my first beta tester...

The Story (code) So Far:

Section 1 - Just Testing

The Main Room is a room. "This is a small, windowless room with grey metal walls. There is a chipped and dirty enamel sink in one corner of the room."

Rule for deciding whether all includes scenery: it does not.

Some metal walls are scenery in the Main Room.

The description of the metal walls is "Grey and featureless, they serve three purposes: to keep the inside from being outside, the outside from coming in, and to keep the ceiling off the floor."

The sink is a container in the Main Room. It is open and not openable. It is fixed in place. The description of the sink is "[if the tap is switched on]A single tap is spewing rusty water down the plughole. Ew![Otherwise]The sink has a single tap, which is off.[end if] There is a rusty pipe running down to the floor from the back of the sink."

The tap is a device. It is part of the sink. It is switched off.

The rusty pipe is a thing. It is part of the sink. The pipe is either broken or working. It is broken.

Instead of switching on the tap, say "[if the rusty pipe is broken]You turn the handle on the tap, but no water comes out.[otherwise]With a splutter, filthy water starts to pour from the tap."

The toolbox is a closed container in the Main Room. It is fixed in place. It is openable. In the toolbox is a screwdriver and a wrench.

Instead of taking the toolbox, say "It's too heavy to lift."

Before opening the toolbox:
say "The toolbox is full of old fuses, bits of wire and countless screws and nails of varying lengths. The only things that look like they could be of any use to you are a screwdriver and a wrench.";
Now the toolbox is open;
Stop the action.

The description of the wrench is "Just the thing for fixing broken pipes. What? This [italic type]is[roman type] just a test game."

The description of the screwdriver is "There is a picture of a little red fish on the handle. That's subtle."

Instead of doing something other than taking or examining the screwdriver, say "Have you had a look at the screwdriver? I'm guessing it won't be of any use to you."

Understand "fix [something]" as fixing.

Fixing is an action applying to one visible thing.

Check fixing:
if the pipe is working, say "You've fixed it already." instead;
if the noun is not the pipe, say "That doesn't need a wrenching." instead;
if the player is not carrying the wrench, say "You can't fix it with your bare hands!" instead;

Carry out fixing:
change the pipe to working;
Say "Well done, that ought to do it!"

The First Post - the first test room

So, I've embarked on my Inform 7 learning journey. I have a grand plan for a game, but I'm taking it in small steps at first. I'm just working on some test rooms, putting down a little interactive scenery. I'll expand on it as I learn new tricks.

Here's what I've got so far:

The Main Room is a room. "This is a huge room with grey, metal walls and no windows." Some metal walls and some windows are scenery in the Main Room. The description of the metal walls is "Grey and featureless, they serve three purposes: to keep the inside from being outside, the outside from coming in, and to keep the ceiling off the floor." The description of the windows is "There are no windows, remember? I'm pretty sure I just said that."

Test me with "x walls / x windows"