Having only played Zork, I wanted another adventure to explore, to confirm that IFs had mileage. The Directory of IFs presented a plethora of opportunities and an active IF community. To play an IF, you will mainly need an “interpreter” although some games can now be played directly in your browser (I had more success with Firefox than IE8). For education environments I would recommend playing offline, using an interpreter like the Z-Machine Interpreter (Windows Frotz).
Next you will need an IF adventure to play. I plumped for Anchorhead, with over 135 ratings, 4.5 stars , the reviews sounded positive. Loosely based on the Cthulhu mythos, Anchorhead takes place in a New England town by the same name that bears a resemblance to Innsmouth, Arkham, and other fictional towns created by H.P. The INFORM7 website also offers a range of starter titles.
Both the reading and the game play were challenging and my word did it draw upon my thinking skills. As I found with Zork there are common commands…
LOOK or L, LOOK AT BOB or LOOK IN JAR or LOOK UNDER BED
TAKE, TAKE KNIFE or DROP, DROP KNIFE
EXAMINE, SEARCH, OPEN, CLOSE, ASK, TELL
INVENTORY or I
so at this point, I felt fairly confident I knew what I was getting into and what I want to share and achieve with the students. On the iOS platform tapping the command line opens the commands list and swipe reveals a note page. Handy.
So, I am confident that playing IF / Zork is an excellent introduction or ‘hook’ to creative writing, however I anticipate that writing an IF will be more of a challenge. Moreover, that sharing and playing one another’s IFs would be a motivator for high quality work. So, to INFORM7.
Learning to write with INFORM7
Interactive fiction lets the player explore your worlds and stories through text. Write adventure games, historical simulations, gripping stories or experimental digital art.
INFORM7 is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
The installation comes with a manual and ‘recipe book’ that shares practical ideas and uses. There are a number of resources available on the website, and of course I am bookmarking resources as I find them.
Chapter 1 – Welcome to INFORM
I am sorry to say, that in places, I found Chapter 1 rather difficult to follow. I am not 100% comfortable with the different Skein and transcripts available, although and I am hoping that when writing in INFORM7 it will become clear? What I did learn is that INFORM7 will require students to be divergent in their thinking and also demand that they can think creatively.
Chapter 2 – The Source Text
Creating worlds, assertions and rules seemed more intuitive, and the use of verbs an obvious lesson that INFORM7 can deliver. Chapter 2 also provided the basic commands with which to build interactive fiction. Then came the punctuation rules and there are numerous rules to learn. At this point, I can see why IF is considered a useful precursor to programming.
I learnt about the important or ordering, the use of heading the forward thinking through the issues that might arise. The various testing procedures (SHOWME and TEST) were difficult to follow, but this may just be my inexperience. One point of reference in the ‘Administering Classroom Use’ PAGE 2.13 although only the telemetry recordings seem to be of interest.
I found this video clip a few days after, but it about brings you up to speed and to the point that I have reached.
Inform 7 Introductory Screencast from Aaron Reed on Vimeo.
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