Iām Tsukum. Iām a high school student and amateur writer/programmer. I discovered parser IF when looking for free games online when I was a little kid, and I was blown away, haha. Like, someoned combined my two favorite things EVER? Video games and books?! TOGETHER?! Since then Iāve been hooked, really. (I am also partial to traditional āvisual novelsā and that kinda stuff.)
Iāve lurked here for a while, and Iām finally making an account to be able to join in discussions. Iām teaching myself to author in Inform 7.
Initially posted this as a thread of its own but it seems better to be here:
Hi there! Iāll be honest, I didnāt know such a community existed - though the world being what it is and the internet being infinitely deep, I always suspected that somewhere hiding beneath the flotsam of popular culture there might be.
I came a little late to the party, born in 1986. But we were poor and I didnāt get a computer until 1997, and it was an old IBM 286. A pre-installed copy of QBasic and a copy of āCreating Adventure Games on Your Computer (1983)ā from the local library http://www.atariarchives.org/adventure/ was my introduction to that world. I still remember how proud I was of that first game. Unfortunately all remnants of the source code perished due to water damage on the antiquated 20MB hard drive of the 286. Around the same time I started playing MUDs, my longest and still-current playership being at Ancient Anguish (www.anguish.org)
Iām really pretty excited that this community exists. I was actually looking for more books like the above mentioned, and came across a wikipedia article that mentioned this community. I was thinking about spending some time āretro programmingā using BASIC for old-timeās sake, as Iām a professional developer these days working on websites and writing a MUD engine in my spare time. But Iāve read some stuff that suggests youāre better off using tools specifically tailored to this purpose. Is that true? Thanks
If your goal is to make a game that people will play, an existing IF development tool is better. Theyāre polished, theyāre easy to work with, and they produced polished output from the get-go.
If your goal is to start a programming project on a retro platform, thereās nothing wrong with that. Have at it.
I was born in 1987, one year later than merlinfire, but I too was influenced by āCreating Adventure Games on Your Computer.ā In elementary school, that book and a few others taught me some BASIC, and I wanted to implement Monopolyā¦ but I couldnāt even imagine how to write the Community Chest cards. I wanted them to be configurable data, but each card had special behavior.
Last year or so, I found the right friends to spark a different kind of motivation. I started actually building out some story outlines, drawing illustrations of my characters (if only to get the point across to a better artist!), and even a really basic procedural generator and a simple tabletop game. Iāve hacked a little bit in Seltani, but I keep trying to use storytelling styles that donāt quite fit into that medium.
I still program, but as this writing trend continues, you may see some completed IF from me.
if our birthyear is important, iām from december 1987ā¦
is there an age range to people who like IF?
I stumbled upon it just a month or two-three ago, i knew of its existence before thatā¦ but seeing how accessible it is, i got so swept up in trying to make oneā¦
Iām not even that good at playing IF xD lots of fail.
Edited this post to reply to the next post, because I didnāt want this to derail the introductions thread any further:
To clarify my intent: Smart, Cool, and Sexy are all subjective terms.
Yes, even Smart. Because my IQ is 163 and Iāve got more stupid than most cats combined. #scienceād
Youāre still the guy who GOT ME ON TV. (Well, okay, it was Trumogottistās āFrasse and the Peas of Kejickā game being featured on TechTVās āCinematechā tv show, but since I helped betatest Frasse, I felt like I was on tv, too).
Iāve been writing novels for longer than some of you have been alive (Iām in my 30s, but I started early) and somehow only truly discovered IF this year. But I became obsessed fast. Iāve finished two games (one of them 60,000+ words), outlined another, and Iām writing a fourth one at the moment. There will definitely be at least one more this year, for the IF comp (yep, havenāt started that one yet).
Anyways, Iām actually in my early-30ās. Married with children. Too many children.
Iām a dreamer. I dream of one day writing full-time. Wait, I do that alreadyāas a technical writer. Just not in the capacity of fiction and interactive fiction. I am finding an engine to build my first IF work with (likely Undum or TiddlyWiki). My first work is going to be based on someone elseās world (e.g. Mount and Blade), just to get my feet wet with writing fiction and the like. One day Iāll hopefully, dreaming big, write original IF on an epic scale. I hope to have my first work done in about 6 months, no matter how small or incomplete. I guess thatās enough for now. Iāve ranted enough!