Inspired by Conrad Cook’s post over in the “Other Development Systems” subforum, I’d like to make a single-page resource for people who are just stumbling into the world of interactive narrative, wanting to make a story, and wondering what system would be best for them to use. I’m picturing this as a list of profiles listing the basic information about each system, with lots of links to help people find out more. (UI-wise, I’d love to make the page filterable by various criteria, and provide the ability to link to particular profiles.) As far as scope, I think it should be very wide-ranging as to which systems to include, from hypertext to parser IF to Ren’Ai to choice-based games.
Here’s a list off the top of my head: TADS 2, TADS 3, Inform 6, Inform 7, Quest, Hugo, ADRIFT, ChoiceScript, Twine/Twee/AdventureCow, Undum, Ramus, Ren’Py, Vorple, Bloomengine, SCUMM
However! That’s a lot of writing to do, much of it on things I don’t necessarily know about. So, I need your help! You could suggest a system that I don’t have listed, or you could write up a profile. (Or… both?) Stylistically, I’d like to keep a neutral-to-positive tone and focus on the big distinctions between systems, while remaining fairly concise. If you contribute a profile, let me know if you want authorial credit and/or a link to your website. I reserve the right to edit for tone or grammar/spelling.
Here’s an example profile, for Inform 7, which demonstrates the categories of information that I think it would be useful to have:
(I welcome feedback on the above profile. I think I may have said some things that are no longer true. Also, I have no idea whether or not to capitalize “glulx.” And I use a lot of hyphens, all the time. I’m also not sure where to mention playfic.com – since it’s a pruned-down version of Inform 7, perhaps it should get its own profile?)