Onward
In the cultural history of IF, graphics in text adventures have sometimes been looked at with suspicion. Mostly this is because attempts in the 1980s were not very successful, because computer graphics were so poor then (by modern standards). It may be that some people also felt that the takeover of computer games by graphical interfaces was the death knell of IF. But pictures are now rendered in superb quality by computers, and the death of IF turned out to be an exaggeration, so it is time to move on.
—Graham Nelson, Writing with Inform
Inform is far more capable than it was when it first appeared. This hasn’t happened by magic, of course. An uncountable number of hours have been spent by a whole host of people to introduce new features, improve stability, and, yes, enhance support for audiovisual content. While Inform itself is not updated often, that does not mean that the Inform ecosystem is static. Extensions are released or updated often, and many interpreters are, too. Specifications evolve. Ongoing technical discussions, both in terms of future platforms as well as current authorial efforts, can be lively indeed.
While parser games can seem a conservative or even immobile category, the truth under the hood is that the world of Inform authorship is dynamic and constantly evolving. At the time of this writing, the 2026 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction has just gone live. Three years ago, nearly to this day, I struggled to customize the appearance of my first game, Repeat the Ending.
Look at us now, at the end of a reference intended to solve such problems! So much has changed. Styling an Inform game is now an option for anyone interested in trying. Having a common framework for making these changes, we can help one-another realize our artistic intents.
Previously, advanced customization of an Inform game involved some knowledge of Javascript. With Bisquixe, we can build upon our knowledge of Inform code, and maintain everything within a single project. Rapid developments in this field demonstrate just how dynamic and exciting Inform authorship can be!
I have said—and I truly believe this—that we authors should think of Inform’s future. How do we attract new players? Is it possible to maintain all the rich complexity of Inform’s world model while taking inspiration from platforms like Ink and Twine? So much possibility lies before us, should we choose to embrace it.
It’s a journey that starts simply, with css-set-fast, but who knows where it might go? Only you can say.