Harlowe allows you to use raw HTML and style tags, too, and basically any format should do that. You always have the option of styling content yourself. I can recommend the MDN guide to CSS. MDN is basically the go-to resource on anything related to web development in general.
If you want to style content yourself, I recommend editing the HTML and style snippet in an editor like VSCode, they have CSS property name completion and you get a one-line description of what most properties do (e.g. I often confuse color with background-color and try to use text-color…). Oh, and another nice thing is color preview: color properties get a little box where you can see the color and when you click it it opens a color pick, very useful.
Well, yes, obviously. So does most (if not all) program that compiled into an HTML file. And sure, SugarCube could technically do all most of the thing (enchant:) can do, in plain CSS, but I’d find it more interesting to see an article taking advantage of the macro of the format, if possible (especially if targetted at first-time user, that may or may not know how to use CSS).
Note: there are still things SugarCube can’t do, but that Harlowe does, like have the previous passage linger, blurring into the second.
It is a great resource, for sure (I use all the time), though it is not really beginner friendly (at least not as much as W3Schools, even if that one as well).
I only work in VSCode, actually using Tweego + VSCode, instead of Twine
Have you looked at the guide? It’s made for beginners. Just reading the MDN reference as a total beginner is a bad experience, but that’s what the guide is for. Once you know the basics, you can use the reference to search for CSS properties and in-depth concepts, and most properties have interactive samples.
Well, I work without Twine in raw Typescript using Svelte for UI, so that clearly makes me the superior developer (this was a joke, if it wasn’t clear)
Of the default formats only Harlowe does styling with (enchant:), the 3 other included formats all use CSS. Are there any other popular formats that use a custom styling solution?
How about you pitch that article to the Rosebush, then? You seem to have much more knowledge than I in the matter. Better have an expert writing these, don’t you think?
I think some beneficial context is that manon has made several large, comprehensive guides for using twine, has made several styling templates for twine games, has made several heavily styled twine games, is active in helping code on the help forums and the twine discord, and in general knows what she is talking about.
I’ve just thought of it now, but one think I’d be interested in a Craft article would be to have things like the Bubbling Beaker Awards and strange/mad things you can do with Inform but also other programs (like Twine, or Adventuron, or INK ). Or maybe just an article about that thread, because we stand to learn quite a bit of mad scientists and crazy code.
(maybe even have a demo or some sort).
Also, but that’s because I still don’t understand it no matter how many times I get into the Inform Guide: an Inform for Dummies article with like a basic template with a room, some objects, maybe a barrier, and some commands/synonyms. If this already exists, please pleaseplease, send it to me, because I WANT TO CRACK THIS BEAST
Another thing I’d be interested in, would be a comprehensive article of the Twine revolution, the Good, the Bad, the very Ugly, to how Twine went from an easy tool to a powerhouse used by so many people making IF, and the struggles with the Forum.
My problem with Inform is that it uses pseudo-english: You write what could almost be a normal description of a locations, and it somehow converts that to a world model (If you use the right phrases, e.g. you always have to use the present tense). I’d rather write a parser myself tbh.
Interviewing past IFComp/Spring Thing winners about their games (process, influences) and what advice they could give future participants
A History of the Spring Thing, similar to what Brian has been doing for the IFComp, but for the SpringThing, highlighting important games and community behaviour (like the change of rules)
How different reviewers review games (maybe a tableround interview or something) - I feel like this has been mentioned before but I can’t remember what/when/by whom…
Some deep dive into obscure IF games from like… the 70s?
Yeah, @DeusIraeasked for favorite reviewers a while back: my recollection is that he found reviewers who agreed to talk to him but hasn’t found time to schedule interviews yet, let alone start writing the article.
Not to derail this thread (didn’t Hanon say there was now a way to make a reply as a new thread? I don’t see it) but have you tried Allison Parrish’s Inform 7 Concepts and Strategies? It’s almost exactly this.
Yup, I pitched the article idea, and you kindly agreed to be one of the panelists Sorry, I know it’s been a long time! It’s first on my list after Spring Thing (well, and the bad IF jam).
I’m planning to write this! (Well, maybe not quite this broad in scope, but definitely covering some of this part of IF history.) I haven’t officially pitched it to the Rosebush yet, but I definitely plan to.
Mathbrush has already done it, you can see it here.
As for what articles I would want to see show up at some point, how about the challenges IF faces for the new generation and what is being done to mitigate them- one of them, as someone else mentioned, is trying to make IF accessible- this does not mean just ‘easy to play’- to newcomers, and opening up to a broader range of IF authors. We have devoted a significant a mount of space to discussing IF theory, why not this?
I’d like to hear from them and find out about their style. Mathbrush has a series of IF author insights- no interviews though- about different authors who have ‘a significant body of work in their arsenal’. Adam Cadre, Chandler Groover, Ryan Veeder et al have been featured. There have been 50+ authors planned on that list, and there may be more down the road.
This one could be a thing- but there need to have enough reviewers first. There is no problem finding them, some may be authors (Mike Russo/Tabitha/Kastel), some are more active in the review departement only (JJMCC, wolfbiter), and maybe myself, but that’s something else for now.
Ooh, yeah! That has my vote. Just need someone knowledgeable to write it.
Other web sites such as Jimmy Maher’s The Digital Antiqurian and Jason Dyer’s Renga in Blue do a good job of this, together with other scattered blogs.
It’d be nice if you’d make it clearer that you’re joking? I think a fair number of us know enough to see that this is nonsensical fooling around, but with the straight-faced tone, some people could be misled by this…
). Or maybe just an article about that thread, because we stand to learn quite a bit of mad scientists and crazy code.
:
Sorry, I know it’s been a long time! It’s first on my list after Spring Thing (well, and the bad IF jam).