Publishing to web with Inform 7

[kamineko (Drew Cook)]

I have struggled this a lot! I was very close to not entering Repeat the Ending in Spring Thing 2023, if you can believe that.

“release along with an interpreter” for future generations + question - Authoring / Inform 7 - The Interactive Fiction Community Forum

Return to the valley of release along with an interpreter - Authoring / Inform 7 - The Interactive Fiction Community Forum

I did finally get something going, and I kept adding images until I found sizes that worked most of the time. I edited the CSS until I managed the modest stying changes I wanted. I downloaded “python”—which I had previously only as a snake—and ran a mysterious script.

It worked out in the end, but it was very close, and harrowing, too.

I never used the off-the-shelf Inform stuff again. Maybe Inform 11 will be different!

For the next six releases of Repeat the Ending, I used the Parchment IF Site Generator that Dannii made.

Online sitegen service

Thanks to the work of @dfabulich iplayif.com now offers a sitegen service, allowing you to upload your storyfile (Adrift 4, Glulx, Hugo, TADS 2/3, Z-Code) and get a tailored single-file version of Parchment. Try it out here: iplayif.com/api/sitegen I’ll be making some additional changes behind the scenes over the coming weeks, but nothing that will be too noticeable, and it is ready to use right now. Single-file Parchment files can be downloaded and played offline, or can be uploaded to itch.io …

For my more recent games, I used Bisquixe, which allows authors to inject specific bits of CSS a web release without having to understand a ton of CSS. I went back and rereleased Repeat the Ending with Bisquixe, too. My next game will be a Bisquixe game. I’m used to the required python thingy by now, and I’m happy with how those games look. These are the web versions on my itch.io page.

Web styling with Bisquixe for new Inform authors (who don’t know CSS or web stuff) - Authoring / Inform 7 - The Interactive Fiction Community Forum

For a basic, defaults-only website, I can’t say enough good things about the Parchment generator. It made it possible for me to quickly fix bugs and update the post-Thing version of RTE.