[ibg.git] / chapters / 17.rst

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\*\*\* You have won \*\*\*
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.. epigraph::

   | *I might just as well have saved the labor and sweat I had put into*
   | *trying to make my reports harmless. They didn't fool the Old Man.*
   | *He gave me merry hell.*

   -- The Continental Op in Dashiell Hammett's *Red Harvest*.

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ust a few final words to round things off. All that remains are the 
appendices, with terse but comprehensive summaries of the Inform 
language and its IF library, plus the source code and run-time 
transcripts of the games we have developed here. Our "labor and sweat" 
have been oriented towards making your introduction to Inform as 
harmless as possible, but this probably won't fool you for long. 
Although we believe we have covered the system's basic functionality and 
given you enough grounding to feel comfortably sure-footed as you roam 
the designing wilderness, there are still many techniques to be mastered 
and additional aspects to be learnt, including medium and advanced 
features at which we have not even hinted.

Before you give us merry hell, however, be reassured that the remaining 
lore, which may at times feel obscure and enigmatic, is fundamentally 
constructed around the principles that you have already seen. You should 
now be ready to browse through other documentation and resources without 
them seeming full of inscrutable hieroglyphs; on the contrary, you'll be 
able to focus on those bits you don’t know about (which now, we hope, 
will be rather less abundant). Inform, like other powerful and flexible 
IF design tools, is prepared to cope with the needs of demanding 
authors: "I don't like the way it handles the TAKE ALL command; I wanna 
change it." And so you can. "I'd prefer the listings of objects 
organised in a prettier way." Go right ahead. "I want to have a better 
social life thanks to Inform." No problem, but you'll have to be one 
damn charming designer. Oh, well.

Inform has been designed to let you do simple things intuitively and 
quickly. Left to its own devices, it offers a wide range of default 
functionality, and we’ve seen that it’s also easy to alter some of its 
standard behaviour. The desirable goal is for you to reach a state of 
such familiarity with the system that you can concentrate on designing 
your games. By "such familiarity" we are not implying that you should 
know the innards of the library inside out; such people exist, but 
they're few and far between. However, once you become reasonably 
proficient at typing in code, with a knowledge level similar to the one 
provided by this guide, a careful look at the appropriate section of the 
*Inform Designer's Manual* should help you through most difficulties. 
Admittedly, there are problems and *problems*, from the slap-on-the-head 
trifle to the teeth-gnashing nightmare. We advise you to put the 
nightmares on hold for the time being. It may be that one day you 
discover that their fangs were not as sharp as they seemed.

There are many interesting topics that you could pursue next. Here are a 
few:

* **Score:** we have seen two ways of scoring a game, but you may decide 
  that scores have no meaning in your game. And there is yet a third 
  built-in system for defining "tasks" worthy of reward, from "wearing 
  the ridiculous bonnet at the Ambassador's party" to "convincing the 
  unfriendly monkey to play the upright piano". This technique requires 
  a bit of knowledge about...

* **Arrays:** these are enumerated lists of variables. Instead of having 
  just one variable to play with, you can have a collection of them, 
  indexed by number.

* **Lists and inventories:** there are many functions to let you arrange 
  the way objects are grouped and presented to the player at run-time.

* **Vehicles:** cars, elevators, hot-air balloons, magic carpets, 
  spaceships -- or any other device in which the player may travel 
  around.

* **Create verbs and vocabulary:** although we have already nibbled at 
  this concept, you can fine-tune the parser to allow for all sorts of 
  amazing commands (from magical utterances that trigger unfathomable 
  spells, to special actions that affect many objects at once).

* **Changing the player:** who says that the player character must be a 
  boring human being? Metamorphose the unsuspecting mortal into a 
  virtual-reality proxy, a fantastic animal, an untouchable ghost, a 
  powerful telepath or a telekinetic vampire. Undecided about which one? 
  Make your game with multiple starring characters and switch between 
  them when you want.

* **Passing of time, timed machines and events:** set a timer that ticks 
  away, unbeknown to the player and attach it to a bomb; a door which 
  opens only once every ten turns; a dragon with short fuse and little 
  patience; a marching patrol of soldiers; a clock that ominously chimes 
  the arrival of sunset and doom. Change the "turns" count on the status 
  line into minutes, or days.

* **Mutable directions:** north is north? Not necessarily. Change the 
  direction objects of the game to "forward", "back", and so on. You are 
  on a ship? "fore" and "aft", "port" and "starboard" may be the thing 
  for you. Enter a mirror and have the map and all the directions reflected.

* **Complex NPCs:** how unpredictable can the behaviour of that 
  impertinent butler be? Can he talk, move, steal your possessions, 
  poison your tea? Does he react coherently to the player's actions? 
  Does he have a hidden agenda of his own? Although NPC creation is 
  indeed a knotty craft, it’s one worth mastering. "Living" NPCs 
  increase immensely the reality of your games.

* **Techie features:** change the status line, or the command prompt. 
  Clear the screen, or alter its colour; centre text upon it, and colour 
  the text as well. Wait for the player to press a key and then trigger 
  some action. Display a message one letter at a time. Add a tiny 
  compass showing available exits at all times.

Interactive fiction mixes creativity and narrative skills with coding 
expertise. Usually, those games which make the biggest impact have a 
fair amount of both. If you feel yourself lacking one of these qualities 
at present, contemplate a little teamwork: there are IF collaboration 
lists on the Internet, where people offer to lend a hand with ideas or 
programming (and some very good games have come from the mixed efforts 
of a well-tuned collaboration). Above all, don't forget the importance 
of beta-testing, which may produce the feedback inspiring you to turn 
your decent attempt into a killing machine. There's little as obnoxious 
to players as a game which is obviously under-tested. Getting those bugs 
out is your responsibility; be sure to clean it as best you can, but 
never *ever* release a game until it has been kicked around by others. 
And remember that beta-testers are (almost certainly) experienced 
players, so their advice beyond the call of bug-hunting is as priceless 
counsel as you are likely to get. Encourage them to comment on your 
achievements in both programming *and* design.

Now: where to go, what to do? Allow us to insist one last time on the 
importance of reading the *Inform Designer's Manual*, an excellent book 
in all respects. While you are at it, write small games, training 
exercises; we don't advise you to try an epic saga for your first 
scenario, but if nothing else will work for you -- the Think Big 
approach -- don't let us deter you. It's a good idea to play other 
people's games, because you'll know the average level that players may 
expect; check the newsgroups for comments on good titles. Be sure around 
September to keep an eye open for the Interactive Fiction Competition 
(http://www.ifcomp.org/), an annual showcase for short(ish) works.

And, who knows? It might be that next year we’ll all be smashed by 
*your* entry.

.. todo:: This signoff should be aligned to the right side.

*Sonja and Roger*