Impressed by the Welsh there Joey! Dda Iawn! I moved here to try something new whilst was young enough and mad enough lol.
I might give some speedy IF writing a go. I have no experience as of yet using development tools like Inform. What ‘tools’ would you recommend I use to write a game, and how long do you think it would take me to get the basics of it?
What tool to use depends very much on your tastes. I used to study logic and I learned a bit of Pascal way back, so I was able to jump into using a programming language without too great a trouble. I started by helping out with a friend’s project, and as he was using Inform 7 that’s the one I learned. But if you’d rather use a GUI, then there are systems like Adrift and Quest which perhaps offer a less steep learning curve than Inform or TADS (though, with the documentation and ready help on the forum, most beginner problems can quickly be solved with these more popular systems).
If you wanted to jump in and make something over a weekend and you like non-parser based IF as well, then Inkle is very easy to get to grips with and looks very elegant. I can’t speak for the ease of use of Varytale, but I’ve played some very fine games made in it. I really like how Undum looks, and there’s a lot of potential in the RPG-like ChoiceScript, but both require some Java know-how to really get the most out of them.
The Ultimate Not Numbered New Year’s Speed IF does present a good opportunity, especially if you gave Inform 7 a shot: it’s a very loose, anything goes, mini-comp but what a lot of people this year are doing is adapting examples from the Inform 7 documentation. If you got involved, the bare bones of the game you’d make would already be written. My trouble is I’m often over-ambitious and I run out of time to do things, but if you set yourself a manageable goal then you could be quite pleased with the result.