I am very interested in creating a story via the use of Inform 7. I have used the program previously and was rather taken with it, however, upon trying for days to find an answer to the following question, my head was definitely kicked for a loop and I have now humbly come to liaise with the experts!
My question:
Once I have a finished an Inform 7 project, is there any way (at all) to achieve the following?:
– Combine/Compile everything necessary to play the game into a single executable or folder, so’s one could potentially release said project commercially on a platform such as STEAM.
and
– To have this completed project run and display in a specific way based on my design. Example: Full-screen, Text that is neon and pixelated just like it was on the old CRT screens (Overlays, etc.), perhaps even the retro ‘Plink Plinking’ sound of an old crusty Keyboard as the user typed, played via audio file, and basically to eliminate all extraneous details like having to rely on a web browser – in the effort of maintaining full immersion for the player while also satisfying my own desires to have the game ‘feel’ a certain way.
I have spent many nights looking into such things as Glux, Glulxe, Gargoyle, etc., and because these things are generally and relatively beyond me and my realm of comprehension I have always given up in failure.
This is my final effort in seeking out an answer to whether these goals are even plausible. I am definitely willing to hire a programmer if that is what it takes as well, to get all of these desired components playing nice together.
Thank You Very Much for reading this, if you’ve got an answer or not, I am grateful for any opportunity to have this solved or to be pointed in a better direction!
See manual chapter 25, particularly 25.10 and 25.11. This lets you produce a web site. You can customize the CSS of the web site to look however you want.
You can use the Lectrote interpreter (github.com/erkyrath/lectrote) to build an application folder which can be uploaded to Steam. I’ve done this. However, Lectrote’s styles are meant to be customized by player preference, not by the game designer. You can still play with the CSS, but it would take some programming work to get rid of the preferences dialogue and players wouldn’t necessarily appreciate that.
However, I’m still looking to find out whether or not there is a way to have the Inform 7 story as the ‘back end’, and have the display controlled directly by me. I understand the nature of IF is that people can grab the files and play them how they like to read, however, from what I have seen from the available options, these methods are decidedly ugly and ungainly compared to how these types of stories used to be played.
I’d like a greater degree of control over the presentation while not using a web browser at all.
I’m not against paying a programmer to make it happen, I’m just asking if there is an easier way to get to that point and if not, how would this be achieved.
