Modern Inform IF recommendations?

Playing
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Any good recommendations for IF made with Inform 7, preferably good and recent ones? I just want to see what’s possible with the engine.

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That’s a deceptively hard question to answer since Inform 7/10 is by far the dominant parser system these days. Are there particular capabilities you’re most interested in (like, complex simulation or interface tweaks or multimedia or…)?

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I am basically too inexperienced to even know what I don’t know. I want to play some games made with Inform 7 to find out what’s possible to do, then wonder actually HOW to do it in my own games.

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I will simply name some of the most popular games:

  • Counterfeit Monkey
  • Anchorhead

Edit: Removed outdated and misleading link.

Also worth mentioning is Galatea. Not sure if Inform 6 or 7.

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No worries! Here are some short games you can try that might give you a flavor of how Inform games tend to work – if after playing them you have more focused questions, glad to provide additional recommendations, but I tried to keep this relatively short (and pick shorter games that are relatively newbie-friendly; all should be two hours or less to play all the way through, much less if you just want to dip in to check them out).

  • Dr Ludwig and the Devil is a reasonably traditional puzzle-based game, where you play a Frankenstein-style mad scientist trying to turn a deal with the Devil to his advantage; it’s really funny and has a built-in hint system.

  • Trouble in Sector 471 is a limited-parser game, where only a restricted set of commands are needed to play the game (unlike the more open-ended parser typical of more traditional games). It’s also got an integrated automap and a couple of other cool features.

  • And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One is a more serious (though still often funny!) game that melds a memoir-ish frame story with a trip through a bunch of different computer games.

Hope these are a helpful place to get started!

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FWIW that’s not the most recent version:

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Just flagging that most of these games, with the exception of Counterfeit Monkey, are written in Inform 6; from a player’s perspective admittedly there’s not much difference since just about everything I6 can do, I7/10 can as well, but it’s worth noting since they are different languages (…sorta, but not sure that level of detail is helpful right now!)

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Thanks to both for correcting. I will edit my post

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Since you expressed interest in recent titles, here’s an IFDB search of inform 7 games from the past five years, sorted by rating.

Search for Games (ifdb.org)

Without knowing much about your taste, I’ll just say what I like: The first few pages of this search are really strong! To pick three: Spectators, And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One, and something by Art DiBianca.

If you’re into long games, Never Gives Up Her Dead.

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In terms of “what Inform 7 is capable of,” I recommend taking a look at Ryan Veeder’s The Little Match Girl series. Using Vorple, Ryan hosts these on his website, and he uses the Inform engine to do some unexpected tricks you may not have seen before. (Thinking here especially of real-time gameplay and an RPG combat system, though these are by no means the only remarkable conceits.)

While I’ve enjoyed all the games, I recommend focusing on the numbered entries (and maybe also …against the Universal Sisterhood of Naughty Little Girls); the first one establishes the baseline, but each of the subsequent games introduces new features and twists on the formula.

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I point everyone’s attention to Jagielski’s specific question:

so I guess we should recommend story file with released source, playing IF then looking at the source is by far the best way of learning IF languages.
Kudo to Jagielski for having asked the best question !

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

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Here’s a revised search that includes the tag “i7 source available.” However, tagging is optional, so it probably isn’t comprehensive.

(if your game with source is missing from the list, I hope you’ll consider adding the tag)

Search for Games (ifdb.org)

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Always a good idea if you want a fun experience.

However, Art’s games don’t really showcase what I7 can do.

Since it appears that @darkhog is a newbie to parser (do I have that right?) I’ll recommend what I always recommend, which is TALP games. I don’t know how to do a search on IFDB for TALP and I7… can someone help with that?

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I think I7 can show people a good time

My search is coming up glitchy. I’m only getting a few I7 games back and none with source. Maybe some smarter person can get better info.

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Yeah, I’m only seeing these four TALP games made with I7—maybe it’s just not as popular for that event?

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I think if you really wanna see what Inform 7 can do you should download the IDE and play with the hundreds of examples that come with it, as they show some incredibly cool techniques.

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Yeah, TALP started out of the Adventuron community, so Inform is a minority system there.

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While on the subject of Inform recommendations… anyone know of any good Inform games that are, for lack of a better term, laid back and homey? Perhaps something with a Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing like vibe or something in the virtual pet genre. The kind of game with no real set goal that one could while away a lazy afternoon playing or use to unwind late at night when too wired to sleep, but too tired for anything requiring complex thought… Sorry if I’m not making much sense, it’s quarter after 2 in the morning and I picked browsing the forum for tonight’s unwinding… probably going to try for sleep as soon as I post this message.

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Ryan Veeder’s Authentic Fly Fishing is allegedly good.

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  • Never Gives Up Her Dead is a puzzle-based game that uses a lot of different mechanics built into Inform 7, including obscure ones like measurements and money systems. Segments of the game involve dialogue systems, using spells from a book to solve puzzles, and recording commands for a robot to play back later.
  • A Matter of Heist Urgency has a really impressive sequence making use of sequenced music and timed text, which are uncommon to see in Inform.
  • Honk! is a very fun non-linear circus adventure where you can take on individual, sequential challenges with the different performers.
  • Assembly revolves around a unique furniture-assembling and disassembling mechanic.
  • It’s not too modern, but Kerkerkruip is a very well-known game for making an entire roguelike full of complicated mechanics in Inform 7.
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