March 2, 2006
3 in 7: New IF
Leading IF author Emily Short has released two new games, and Graham Nelson, IF author and creator of the widely-used IF system Inform, has a new IF offering, too. Graham’s piece is entitled The Reliques of Tolti-Aph. Emily’s new games are Damnatio Memoriae (set in the Savoir-Faire universe) and Bronze (a “fractured fairy tale” based on the legend of beauty and the beast). They were all coded in the soon-to-be-released Inform 7, and they come with lavish virtual “feelies” such as PDF manuals, a map, and a walkthrough (for the weak). Among these is Emily’s IF Instruction Manual and similar instructions in the Bronze manual, which will prove very useful for IF newcomers.
These three are zcode games, but they come in a new container format, zblorb, which encapsulates metadata and “cover” art. Because of this, Mac users who use Zoom will need the very latest version, Zoom 1.0.5 alpha 1.
I had the pleasure of beta-testing Bronze, a medium-sized IF piece set in an expansive castle, with well-deployed backstory, and with interesting magical machinations. I highly recommend it as an introduction to IF and as an example of some of the interesting new ways in which Inform 7 works. Of course, IF fans will need no urging, but for those who aren’t diehards: Check it out. Whether you have time to complete the piece or just want to explore a bit of the story-laden landscape, Bronze will be rewarding.
You can also check out the original announcement of these three Inform 7 games on rec.games.int-fiction.
March 2nd, 2006 at 6:19 am
[…]
3 in 7 Scritto il 2 Marzo 2006 da Giovanni Riccardi | Categorie: News Titolo ripreso da Nick Montfort su Grand Text Auto per annunciare quello che si sentiva nell’ari […]
March 2nd, 2006 at 9:32 am
Thanks for the pointers, Nick. I’m going to be teaching some IF in the fall, and Emily’s instruction manual seems like something wise to add to the syllabus (with the suggestion to read before playing).
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:22 pm
I had a bit of down time between meetings, so I figured I’d check GTA to see what’s up. Bingo! Three hours sucked away. Joyously, delightfully, devoured. Thanks for the news, Nick.
I’ll also be teaching IF this fall, both in an entry-level introduction (where students do some basic IF coding) and in an upper-level media design class (that will also include Flash animation and Half-Life 2 modding).
April 30th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
[…] Writing with Inform. An excerpt, for example, from the source code to Emily Short’s Bronze, mentioned previously here on GTxA: The warning sign is scenery in the Entrance […]