I’m starting to think about writing a new game. Having mostly finished revising my Inform Handbook (look for it in a few weeks), I’m reasonably conversant with Inform again, so now I have to think about whether to use Inform or T3/adv3Lite.
The advantages of Inform are that it has a rich set of clever Extensions and that it’s probably more robust at producing a game that includes some graphics and sound. I’ve done TADS games with both graphics and music, but anything beyond bare embedded files is likely to be difficult. There is no TADS equivalent to Vorple. Also, I have an obscure desire to really feel that I’ve mastered Inform, especially in its new incarnation. I don’t feel that way yet.
The main advantages of TADS are that I’m faster at it because I know it better and that it compiles a lot quicker during game development. When you’re compiling your game a couple of thousand times, this is not a trivial factor. Also, the code syntax of TADS is inherently less prone to ambiguity. It just does what it’s supposed to do, with less fussing about.
As far as the features of the finished game go, it’s probably a toss-up. Both systems are excellent.
Both partisan and non-partisan comments are welcome. What would you do?