Friday, February 4, 2011

Inform 7 full game source code

Inform 7 is a programming language for interactive fiction games (modern descendants of Zork) that emulates nautral language. I've had that knowledge filed away in the back of my head as a novelty for a while now, even marveling at its extensive physics modeling capabilities. But I never fully appreciated how a program written in a language like this reads without an example.

So I was enthralled by the source code for Bronze, a full game written by Emily Short, a notable IF author. Some sections are simply beautiful to read (despite probably still being hard to write). The making of notes also helped me get a good sense of the thinking behind the game's iterative development. Spoilers abound throughout the source and making of, of course.