Inform 7

Inform 7 is an interactive fiction authorship system. It’s not the only one out there (see the other resources on Writing IF for how to choose a system), but it’s the one I use; I’ve also been quite closely involved in its development.

Of potential interest to Inform 7 users:

• The Inform home page
• Library extensions that can be used to expand I7’s abilities
• The documentation for Inform 7 online (possibly an older version than the current one, which is included in each new build)
• Several complete games with sample code in Inform 7
• The bug report form for filing bugs in I7
• Links to other documents about I7 or related to using it
• An article of mine on writing in I7
• Interim progress post: a post to rec.arts.int-fiction describing what is likely to happen to the language next, as of January 2007
• Draft of syntax reference, updated through December 2007
• “Inform for Fiction Authors”: a post about how elements of interactive fiction, and Inform in particular, correspond to elements of traditional fiction writing

I’ve also put a few documents, largely for interim use, on this site, about things like room description modification and the relationship between I6 and I7.

There is not an official separate forum or mailing list for Inform 7, but many people discuss coding issues on rec.arts.int-fiction. A search of the group will turn up answers to some frequently-asked questions.

Also of possible interest, here are some samples of released source code for complete I7 games by other people:

• Child’s Play, by Stephen Granade
• Fate, by Victor Gijsbers (unlike the other links, this goes to a zip-file download rather than a web page)
• The Beast of Torrack Moor, by Linda Wright
• Accuse, by David A. Wheeler
• A Late Delivery to #avalon, by Michael Martin
• Robopuppy Redux, by J. D. Clemens
• The Amazing Interactive Turing Machine, by J. D. Clemens
• Zork (adapted by Dean Menezes)
• Very introductory samples of I7 usage developed in an I7-using course. (Not by the Inform 7 team, but may still be useful for some.)
• List of games on IFDB with released I7 code (including some already mentioned here).

And some odd/esoteric uses of I7:

• Inform 7 version of Dungeon (okay, perhaps not that odd)
• I7 game tied in with real-world temperature sensors that detected and reacted to liquids poured into a cup, among other things.
• Inform 7 code poetry.
• An Inform 7 quine (program that prints its own source code).