Inform 7 Workshop

In pairs, work on developing a simple interactive fiction game. You are welcome to build on any of the examples from the book.

Interactive Fiction (TBA)

You don't need to create a separate blog entry for each game on this list, but if you'd like to break up your observations into separate entries, by all means go ahead.

On your own, play Pick up the Phone Booth and Die and 9:05. The first game should only take a few minutes. (There is a way to win it.) The second game has two main endings... one involves fading away without any sort of big climax, and the other involves a major revelation that is the reason I like using this game in class. You're welcome to work in groups. If you get help from a friend when you get stuck, you should be able to get through both of these in 15 or 20 minutes.

Then, sample each of the following works of interactive fiction for about 5 minutes, and choose two to play for about 15 minutes each. Your blog entry for these readings should include quotations from the games, with an explanation for why you chose the games you chose.

These are classic works from the 80s:

• Zork I (the most famous and the geekiest; created by and mostly for MIT engineers);
• Leather Goddesses of Phobos (campy sci-fi farce);
• Deadline (detective story);
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (absurdist comic sci-fi)

For general tips on playing IF, see Emily Short's Introduction to IF.

Jerz, ''Exposition in Interactive Fiction''

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/exposition.html

Jerz, ''Ask the Adventure Dwarf''

Check the handouts section on J-Web. We'll go over it in class Tuesday.