IfRL
February 5, 2010 11:08 PM Subscribe
IfRL
So, I made a 7-day roguelike. It also happens to be a work of interactive fiction. Finally, the two great genres of ASCII video games unite. Er... finally? It's a little bit barebones, but what do you expect in just seven days? It has its own little website at: http://256k.org/IFRL/
So, I made a 7-day roguelike. It also happens to be a work of interactive fiction. Finally, the two great genres of ASCII video games unite. Er... finally? It's a little bit barebones, but what do you expect in just seven days? It has its own little website at: http://256k.org/IFRL/
So, I released another version. This time with source code.
posted by 256 at 7:44 PM on February 7, 2010
posted by 256 at 7:44 PM on February 7, 2010
Much like Cortex I can not believe that you actually built it.
When I tried to learn Inform 7 my first "big" project was implementing Portal. I designed the first few training levels of the enrichment center and had to come up with quite a few hacks to be able to look through portals by creating and destroying doors.
The effort convinced me that Inform is actually a game for programmers. The natural language interface is sufficiently non-programming language like that it might look like English, but still insufficiently flexible to really DWIM. I found that I spent far too much time figuring out how to do something like "when the player passes the particle field, remove all items from their inventory except the portal gun".
Way more time than I ever spent trying to get the damn Bablefish.
posted by autopilot at 7:46 PM on February 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
When I tried to learn Inform 7 my first "big" project was implementing Portal. I designed the first few training levels of the enrichment center and had to come up with quite a few hacks to be able to look through portals by creating and destroying doors.
The effort convinced me that Inform is actually a game for programmers. The natural language interface is sufficiently non-programming language like that it might look like English, but still insufficiently flexible to really DWIM. I found that I spent far too much time figuring out how to do something like "when the player passes the particle field, remove all items from their inventory except the portal gun".
Way more time than I ever spent trying to get the damn Bablefish.
posted by autopilot at 7:46 PM on February 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
I know entirely what you mean. I no longer work as a programmer, but I have in the past, and I have a love/hate relationship with Inform.
You start out writing things like: "The Pub is a room. The beer is in the Pub."
And it's just like a warm bath. This is what games programming is like in paradise.
And then, within a few hours you are writing: "Repeat with pints running through the list of unidentified beers enclosed by the location of the person asked and the list of unidentified beers enclosed by rooms adjacent to the location of the person asked, change the last quoted price of the beer to the lesser of the price corresponding to a brand of the brand of the noun in the table of beer prices and the amount asked multiplied by the discount corresponding to a person of the person asked in the table of customer discounts;"
And you're just: Fuck it, I'll do itlive in C!
But when I finally get something purring in Inform, it really does deliver that pure unadulterated wash of problem solving endorphins that got us all into computer programming in the first place.
posted by 256 at 9:31 PM on February 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
You start out writing things like: "The Pub is a room. The beer is in the Pub."
And it's just like a warm bath. This is what games programming is like in paradise.
And then, within a few hours you are writing: "Repeat with pints running through the list of unidentified beers enclosed by the location of the person asked and the list of unidentified beers enclosed by rooms adjacent to the location of the person asked, change the last quoted price of the beer to the lesser of the price corresponding to a brand of the brand of the noun in the table of beer prices and the amount asked multiplied by the discount corresponding to a person of the person asked in the table of customer discounts;"
And you're just: Fuck it, I'll do it
But when I finally get something purring in Inform, it really does deliver that pure unadulterated wash of problem solving endorphins that got us all into computer programming in the first place.
posted by 256 at 9:31 PM on February 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
Inform sounds like HyperTalk. I'll have to check it out.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:40 AM on February 10, 2010
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:40 AM on February 10, 2010
Hey, just wanted to pop back in and say that, while no new version is up on the site (due to not wanting to poison the 7dRL-ness of the effort), I've made some pretty significant developments in the game and will be releasing a more robust product under a different name at this point. If any mefites want to help out with beta-testing or general feedback, drop me a memail.
posted by 256 at 12:40 PM on February 10, 2010
posted by 256 at 12:40 PM on February 10, 2010
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posted by cortex at 5:47 PM on February 6, 2010 [2 favorites]