Inform
Inform is a system for creating works of interactive fiction, designed by Graham Nelson. It includes a programming language with syntax that resembles natural language.
Here are some code examples from the documentation, as a taster:
Inside from the Meadow is the woodcutter's hut.
On the table is a folded newspaper.
A face is a kind of thing. A face is part of every person.
For an introduction, I’d recommend reading Inform 7 Concepts and Strategies by Allison Parrish (2020).
Inform is being released as open-source software, as part of a long-term project to overhaul the codebase. It’s being published as a literate program – you can read documentation which is essentially the codebase itself, formatted for readability. More context on this project:
- Inform 7 v10.1.0 is now open-source (Graham Nelson, 2022)
- Inform 7 open-source release (Andrew Plotkin, 2022)
- Assessing Inform (Graham Nelson, 2018)
- Opening Inform (Graham Nelson, 2019)
- Narrascope 2020 (Graham Nelson, 2020)