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2 \*\*\* You have won \*\*\*
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7 | *I might just as well have saved the labor and sweat I had put into*
8 | *trying to make my reports harmless. They didn't fool the Old Man.*
9 | *He gave me merry hell.*
11 -- The Continental Op in Dashiell Hammett's *Red Harvest*.
15 .. image:: /images/picJ.png
18 |J|\ust a few final words to round things off. All that remains are the
19 appendices, with terse but comprehensive summaries of the Inform
20 language and its IF library, plus the source code and run-time
21 transcripts of the games we have developed here. Our "labor and sweat"
22 have been oriented towards making your introduction to Inform as
23 harmless as possible, but this probably won't fool you for long.
24 Although we believe we have covered the system's basic functionality and
25 given you enough grounding to feel comfortably sure-footed as you roam
26 the designing wilderness, there are still many techniques to be mastered
27 and additional aspects to be learnt, including medium and advanced
28 features at which we have not even hinted.
30 Before you give us merry hell, however, be reassured that the remaining
31 lore, which may at times feel obscure and enigmatic, is fundamentally
32 constructed around the principles that you have already seen. You should
33 now be ready to browse through other documentation and resources without
34 them seeming full of inscrutable hieroglyphs; on the contrary, you'll be
35 able to focus on those bits you don’t know about (which now, we hope,
36 will be rather less abundant). Inform, like other powerful and flexible
37 IF design tools, is prepared to cope with the needs of demanding
38 authors: "I don't like the way it handles the TAKE ALL command; I wanna
39 change it." And so you can. "I'd prefer the listings of objects
40 organised in a prettier way." Go right ahead. "I want to have a better
41 social life thanks to Inform." No problem, but you'll have to be one
42 damn charming designer. Oh, well.
44 Inform has been designed to let you do simple things intuitively and
45 quickly. Left to its own devices, it offers a wide range of default
46 functionality, and we’ve seen that it’s also easy to alter some of its
47 standard behaviour. The desirable goal is for you to reach a state of such
48 familiarity with the system that you can concentrate on designing your
49 games. By "such familiarity" we are not implying that you should know the
50 innards of the library inside out; such people exist, but they're few and
51 far between. However, once you become reasonably proficient at typing in
52 code, with a knowledge level similar to the one provided by this guide, a
53 careful look at the appropriate section of the |DM4| should help you
54 through most difficulties. Admittedly, there are problems and *problems*,
55 from the slap-on-the-head trifle to the teeth-gnashing nightmare. We advise
56 you to put the nightmares on hold for the time being. It may be that one
57 day you discover that their fangs were not as sharp as they seemed.
59 There are many interesting topics that you could pursue next. Here are a
62 * **Score:** we have seen two ways of scoring a game, but you may decide
63 that scores have no meaning in your game. And there is yet a third
64 built-in system for defining "tasks" worthy of reward, from "wearing
65 the ridiculous bonnet at the Ambassador's party" to "convincing the
66 unfriendly monkey to play the upright piano". This technique requires
67 a bit of knowledge about...
69 * **Arrays:** these are enumerated lists of variables. Instead of having
70 just one variable to play with, you can have a collection of them,
73 * **Lists and inventories:** there are many functions to let you arrange
74 the way objects are grouped and presented to the player at run-time.
76 * **Vehicles:** cars, elevators, hot-air balloons, magic carpets,
77 spaceships -- or any other device in which the player may travel
80 * **Create verbs and vocabulary:** although we have already nibbled at
81 this concept, you can fine-tune the parser to allow for all sorts of
82 amazing commands (from magical utterances that trigger unfathomable
83 spells, to special actions that affect many objects at once).
85 * **Changing the player:** who says that the player character must be a
86 boring human being? Metamorphose the unsuspecting mortal into a
87 virtual-reality proxy, a fantastic animal, an untouchable ghost, a
88 powerful telepath or a telekinetic vampire. Undecided about which one?
89 Make your game with multiple starring characters and switch between
92 * **Passing of time, timed machines and events:** set a timer that ticks
93 away, unbeknown to the player and attach it to a bomb; a door which
94 opens only once every ten turns; a dragon with short fuse and little
95 patience; a marching patrol of soldiers; a clock that ominously chimes
96 the arrival of sunset and doom. Change the "turns" count on the status
97 line into minutes, or days.
99 * **Mutable directions:** north is north? Not necessarily. Change the
100 direction objects of the game to "forward", "back", and so on. You are
101 on a ship? "fore" and "aft", "port" and "starboard" may be the thing
102 for you. Enter a mirror and have the map and all the directions reflected.
104 * **Complex NPCs:** how unpredictable can the behaviour of that
105 impertinent butler be? Can he talk, move, steal your possessions,
106 poison your tea? Does he react coherently to the player's actions?
107 Does he have a hidden agenda of his own? Although NPC creation is
108 indeed a knotty craft, it’s one worth mastering. "Living" NPCs
109 increase immensely the reality of your games.
111 * **Techie features:** change the status line, or the command prompt.
112 Clear the screen, or alter its colour; centre text upon it, and colour
113 the text as well. Wait for the player to press a key and then trigger
114 some action. Display a message one letter at a time. Add a tiny
115 compass showing available exits at all times.
117 Interactive fiction mixes creativity and narrative skills with coding
118 expertise. Usually, those games which make the biggest impact have a
119 fair amount of both. If you feel yourself lacking one of these qualities
120 at present, contemplate a little teamwork: there are IF collaboration
121 lists on the Internet, where people offer to lend a hand with ideas or
122 programming (and some very good games have come from the mixed efforts
123 of a well-tuned collaboration). Above all, don't forget the importance
124 of beta-testing, which may produce the feedback inspiring you to turn
125 your decent attempt into a killing machine. There's little as obnoxious
126 to players as a game which is obviously under-tested. Getting those bugs
127 out is your responsibility; be sure to clean it as best you can, but
128 never *ever* release a game until it has been kicked around by others.
129 And remember that beta-testers are (almost certainly) experienced
130 players, so their advice beyond the call of bug-hunting is as priceless
131 counsel as you are likely to get. Encourage them to comment on your
132 achievements in both programming *and* design.
134 Now: where to go, what to do? Allow us to insist one last time on the
135 importance of reading the |DM4|, an excellent book in all respects. While
136 you are at it, write small games, training exercises; we don't advise you
137 to try an epic saga for your first scenario, but if nothing else will work
138 for you -- the Think Big approach -- don't let us deter you. It's a good
139 idea to play other people's games, because you'll know the average level
140 that players may expect; check the newsgroups for comments on good
141 titles. Be sure around September to keep an eye open for the Interactive
142 Fiction Competition (http://www.ifcomp.org/), an annual showcase for
145 And, who knows? It might be that next year we’ll all be smashed by
148 |FILL| *Sonja and Roger*