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