So I put together a list of engines/development systems

Authoring Other Development Systems
,
21

Aight, I have copied the list to a no-frills webpage, which you can find here: ifengines.twocredits.co/

Going to work on making a better header soon.

For the time being, I’m going to keep the Google Spreadsheet updated, as well, because it’s easy to just comment on it with corrections and whatnot.

I’ve added TAVERN, but, because of when OASYS was last updated and the lack of a website, I’ve got to do a bit more research before adding it.

22

TADS’ game file format is listed as “TADS, HTML/JavaScript (TADS 3)” which doesn’t make sense. The file formats are simply TADS 2 and TADS 3, both are virtual machine bytecode images. There is no HTML nor JavaScript involved.

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IIRC, I wrote it that way to distinguish that the following was possible, but I can change it if there’s a better way to say it.

tads.org/t3doc/doc/sysman/web.htm

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This will still produce a TADS VM byte code file in the exact same format as non-WebUI TADS. The interpreter runs on a server which only sends the output to you. It’s server-side, running remotely. JavaScript would be client-side, running locally.

So the file format is just TADS. Maybe you’d need an “online support” column, which would state “client-side” or “server-side.”

25

Noted and updated.

26

Nice, comprehensive list. It is a quick way to survey the authoring resources.

Thank you

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Alan - alanif.se/
WinPAW - winpaw.com/

These two are alive and well.

MechaniQue - esolangs.org/wiki/MechaniQue

An esoteric programming language specifically for IF. I can’t really find a download, but the author is still around. I remember working on a game in this a long time ago…

EDIT: Found this perusing the forums.
ScottKit - github.com/MikeTaylor/scottkit

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ZILF now has an IDE of sorts - Visual Studio Code, with this plugin.

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I think Adventuron ( https://eeyo.io/adv781 ) should be on the list. It’s a parser based adventure engine + web based IDE (with autocomplete). Adventures can be emitted to single page HTML files. Both the IDE and GAME ENGINE run on any platform with a browser, although the IDE really requires a hardware keyboard in order to be able to edit at full speed (have not yet built a touch/small screen optimized IDE).

30

Ficdown
ficdown.com

For writing gamebooks with logic–toggles and conditionals and such–that can be output to epub format for reading as an ebook, or to a static HTML page to put on a website. Very much in the same vein as Inklewriter, but with a local, plain-text workflow instead of using an online GUI.

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Okay, updated this again today.

  • Added a column for whether the system is open source or not This is a work in progress, as I haven’t had time to check every single system again just yet.
  • Updated the Adrift and Storytron entries to reflect the releases of their source code.
  • Added relevant links to each open source system’s Website column.
  • Updated the link for XVAN.
  • Added Adventuron, Ficdown, ScottKit, and WinPAW.

I’m going to go through the forums sometime this week and add any new systems that I missed in this update.

Going forward, I’m going to try and update this more regularly, but it is likely that I won’t be able to keep the Last Updated column up to date on my own, so comments are greatly appreciated. :smiley:

32

I saw IFML on your list of IF systems. I am the creator of it and have a few corrections to offer.

IFML is a two word parser system, not hyperlink.

While sourceforge shows a more current date, the software itself has not been updated since 2002. It is highly doubtful that it would run in modern browsers and modern versions of Java.

Parenthetically, it was highly limited in what it could do. At the time I was learning about XML and though it would be a fun little project. There might be some good ideas buried in there, but they are very few.

33

Fixed.

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Please sticky this thread!

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sourceforge.net/projects/aceforwindows/

ACE, sometimes referred to as WinACE, is a modernized PAW, so much so, in fact, that WinPAW can load ACE’s game files… supposedly. I have not personally tested this. Only the source code is available; it is written in C++. As I am currently restricted to ChromeOS or Linux, I have not attempted to compile it.

Related: sourceforge.net/projects/jace2/

By the same author as WinACE, a Java-based IDE and compiler. Without documentation, I have no way of knowing its current state of operability, but the source exists. I would ask that someone with NetBeans already installed check out the repository.

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Update:

  • Added egamebook, InquisitorIF, and Toothrot.

Also, looking at the list, updating the last updated date for each of these is fairly tedious at this point. I’m considering changing it so that the last updated column is simply the year. Thoughts?

37

It’s a good list. I’d add Dialog to it, though.

38

Done.

39

The forum software changed and I lost my password and my account is tied to an email that no longer exists. Wellp, will probably be posting from this account going forward.

Anyways, I added Windrift to the list today.

1 Like
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Message the mods, they should be able to help!