Inform 7

Inform 7 is an interactive fiction authoring system. It is notable for its use of a subset of natural language and for being rule based, rather than object based.

Although it is (in name) the successor to Inform 6, the syntax of the language is entirely different to its predecessor. The link to Inform 6 lies under the hood: an Inform story is translated first to Inform 6, which is then compiled into Z-Code by the Inform 6 compiler. This means that works produced using Inform 7 can be played on Z-Code interpreters (although there are some modifications required, as, for example, Inform 7 games tend to use a larger stack than Inform 6).

Inform 7 was first released as a public beta on April 30th, 2006.

Early Inform 7 games

The earliest Inform 7 game released to the public may have been Mystery House Possessed (Emily Short; 2005) for the Mystery House Taken Over project.

On March 1st, 2006, three example games were released (see the rgif announcement: Three Games in Inform 7). These games were:

• Bronze (Emily Short). New Homepage. Old Homepage. This is an updated version of the same game from Speed-IF Gruff.
• Damnatio Memoriae (Emily Short). New Homepage. Old Homepage.
• The Reliques of Tolti-Aph (Graham Nelson). New Homepage. Old Homepage.

Inform 7 was released as a public beta on April 30th, 2006. Three more example games were released at the same time:

• Glass (Emily Short). Homepage.
• When in Rome 1: Accounting for Taste (Emily Short). Homepage.
• When in Rome 2: Far from Home (Emily Short). Homepage.

All six example games are available from the Worked Examples page.

Code Snippets

I started this section before speaking to Graham Nelson about how we might share code examples. He said he had thought about the idea, but wanted to ponder it some more. If and when he decides to do something, I will likely alter this section. In the meantime, examples are welcome. --David Cornelson 21:27, 13 May 2006 (EST)

• Scenery Tables - defining scenery using tables by David Cornelson.

Links

• Inform 7 Homepage
• Introducing Inform 7 - a semi-brief overview of I7 at Stephen Granade of Brass Lantern.
• SPAG #44 - Interviews with Graham Nelson and Emily Short about Inform 7.
• Inform 7 in Wikipedia