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Inform 7 at Play

Inform 7 with illustrative examples of play

Inform 7: I Don’t Have Any Idea What Inform (or Any of This) is About.

What is this?

Inform is a tool used to make an older kind of computer game that accepts English language commands. They were financially successful in the 1980’s before sophisticated graphics were possible.

People still make these kinds of games but now mostly call them Interactive Fiction. It works the same though: you and the computer talk to each other using a written language.

What does the tool do?

It lets you make this old style of game using instructions that are also in the English language.

Inform lets you use English language to make these kinds of interactive stories and games.

This is actually the complete instructions to make a very small story you can interact with.

"Great Stories Start in the Kitchen" by You
Your own kitchen is a room.

Using just those instructions, Inform can make a world like this:

Great Stories Start in the Kitchen

An Interactive Fiction by You

kitchen

>jump
You jump on the spot.

>walk north
You can’t go that way

>look at self
As good-looking as ever

Imagine the lines that look like these:

>walk

are commands you typed and then hit enter.

How can I try this myself?

Inform 7 can be downloaded and installed as an application on Windows, OS X (Macs), or Linux for free. The program lets you type programs like the above, and then turns them into interactive stories. Then you can publish those stories as a website.

You can get Inform 7 and learn a lot more about it at the Inform 7 website.

Then, try reading about how to make places in Inform 7.

Are there pictures?

There can be but usually there aren’t. It’s mostly about worlds described like fiction, using prose.

Did you make Inform 7?

No.

I wrote this guide to help people understand how to use it. I’m a computer programmer, writer, and user of Inform 7 named Daniel Talsky.

When I was learning Inform 7 I had a hard time finding the answers to some important and simple concepts that would have helped me understand more quickly.

Inform 7 is primarily the work of a pretty amazing scholar named Graham Nelson. He built it on top of older tools other cool people wrote. Many other people have helped him of course, but in any case, not me.

I just really like Inform 7 and like to teach things. Inform 7 is pretty unique as a programming language. (No other programming language comes closer to using the English Language.)

Only the English language?

You can make interactive stories in other languages but it’s harder. Writing the instructions in another language is even harder but it’s a long term goal of the project.

Are there 6 other Informs?

Yes.

The 7th one still uses the 6th as it’s base so 7 is really 6 + 7.

Inform 7 is the first one that makes such a solid attempt to let you write instructions in the English Language.

Is Inform 7 Open Source?

Yes!

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TO DO: Reminders to myself: