Hello and welcome! Happy noodling!
Hello…!
I’m Tsukum. I’m a high school student and amateur writer/programmer. I discovered parser IF when looking for free games online when I was a little kid, and I was blown away, haha. Like, someoned combined my two favorite things EVER? Video games and books?! TOGETHER?! Since then I’ve been hooked, really. (I am also partial to traditional “visual novels” and that kinda stuff.)
I’ve lurked here for a while, and I’m finally making an account to be able to join in discussions. I’m teaching myself to author in Inform 7.
Nice to meet you all!
Welcome, newcomers! Great to have more people here of all ages!
Initially posted this as a thread of its own but it seems better to be here:
Hi there! I’ll be honest, I didn’t know such a community existed - though the world being what it is and the internet being infinitely deep, I always suspected that somewhere hiding beneath the flotsam of popular culture there might be.
I came a little late to the party, born in 1986. But we were poor and I didn’t get a computer until 1997, and it was an old IBM 286. A pre-installed copy of QBasic and a copy of “Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer (1983)” from the local library http://www.atariarchives.org/adventure/ was my introduction to that world. I still remember how proud I was of that first game. Unfortunately all remnants of the source code perished due to water damage on the antiquated 20MB hard drive of the 286. Around the same time I started playing MUDs, my longest and still-current playership being at Ancient Anguish (www.anguish.org)
I’m really pretty excited that this community exists. I was actually looking for more books like the above mentioned, and came across a wikipedia article that mentioned this community. I was thinking about spending some time “retro programming” using BASIC for old-time’s sake, as I’m a professional developer these days working on websites and writing a MUD engine in my spare time. But I’ve read some stuff that suggests you’re better off using tools specifically tailored to this purpose. Is that true? Thanks
If your goal is to make a game that people will play, an existing IF development tool is better. They’re polished, they’re easy to work with, and they produced polished output from the get-go.
If your goal is to start a programming project on a retro platform, there’s nothing wrong with that. Have at it. 
Hi all!
I was born in 1987, one year later than merlinfire, but I too was influenced by “Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer.” In elementary school, that book and a few others taught me some BASIC, and I wanted to implement Monopoly… but I couldn’t even imagine how to write the Community Chest cards. I wanted them to be configurable data, but each card had special behavior.
Later I had some middle school friends who were into MUDs, and I was excited to study various systems for IF and MUD writing, including Inform and TADS. As I learned more about programming, I started sketching up a (really naive) programming language to represent Pokémon TCG cards, and most of my projects since then have been programming languages.
Last year or so, I found the right friends to spark a different kind of motivation. I started actually building out some story outlines, drawing illustrations of my characters (if only to get the point across to a better artist!), and even a really basic procedural generator and a simple tabletop game. I’ve hacked a little bit in Seltani, but I keep trying to use storytelling styles that don’t quite fit into that medium.
I still program, but as this writing trend continues, you may see some completed IF from me.
For the moment, I’ve signed up here just to offer bug reports on the 18 Rooms to Home thread. 
Welcome aboard!
I’m not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed. I think I’m going to settle for “Achievement Unlocked”.
if our birthyear is important, i’m from december 1987…
is there an age range to people who like IF?
I stumbled upon it just a month or two-three ago, i knew of its existence before that… but seeing how accessible it is, i got so swept up in trying to make one…
I’m not even that good at playing IF xD lots of fail.
I have IF friends ranging in age from 16 to 65. I don’t think it appeals to a specific age group over another. 
Just the smart cool people!
Edited this post to reply to the next post, because I didn’t want this to derail the introductions thread any further:
To clarify my intent: Smart, Cool, and Sexy are all subjective terms.
Yes, even Smart. Because my IQ is 163 and I’ve got more stupid than most cats combined. #science’d
IF also appeals to some of us who are neither cool nor sexy, and not more smart than the average person.
(I get that you’re just having a bit of fun, but for some reason that kind of talk just gets me slightly annoyed.)
I think you’re cool!
You don’t know me.
You’re still the guy who GOT ME ON TV. (Well, okay, it was Trumogottist’s “Frasse and the Peas of Kejick” game being featured on TechTV’s “Cinematech” tv show, but since I helped betatest Frasse, I felt like I was on tv, too).
Hello
My name is Felicity and I’m a writeaholic.
I’ve been writing novels for longer than some of you have been alive (I’m in my 30s, but I started early) and somehow only truly discovered IF this year. But I became obsessed fast. I’ve finished two games (one of them 60,000+ words), outlined another, and I’m writing a fourth one at the moment. There will definitely be at least one more this year, for the IF comp (yep, haven’t started that one yet).
One of the finished games is free via itch.io/jam/wag-challenge/rate/29091
It takes about twenty minutes to play, and is called THROUGH THE WOMBAT HOLE in tribute to Lewis Carroll.
Oh, and I have a regular-variety print (and digital) novel coming out in 2016, for those of you who still real non-IF stories
Felicity Banks
@FBanksBooks
facebook.com/FelicityBanksBooks
FelicityBanks.wordress.com
Welcome to the community - so cool that you entered the WAG challenge! (I didn’t have the time to join, but it sounded like an amazing opportunity.)
Hi. I am Jeb. I am 6.
Hold the phone… Eloise is 6.
cough
Anyways, I’m actually in my early-30’s. Married with children. Too many children.
I’m a dreamer. I dream of one day writing full-time. Wait, I do that already—as a technical writer. Just not in the capacity of fiction and interactive fiction. I am finding an engine to build my first IF work with (likely Undum or TiddlyWiki). My first work is going to be based on someone else’s world (e.g. Mount and Blade), just to get my feet wet with writing fiction and the like. One day I’ll hopefully, dreaming big, write original IF on an epic scale. I hope to have my first work done in about 6 months, no matter how small or incomplete. I guess that’s enough for now. I’ve ranted enough!
Nate Clive Gerard from the UK, living in Colorado in the USA. 43 years young.
I wrote my first parser-based interactive fiction when I was 14 (using PAW on the ZX Spectrum), but my mum threw away the data tape it was on while cleaning my messy room! I played the classic Level 9, Magnetic Scrolls and Infocom games back in the day and play newer titles now.
In the last few years I’ve got back into writing, adventuring, and programming. I’ve been playing with Twine the last few months and am expecting to spend my spare moments in September writing for IFComp.