Interesting Text game creator...

[PsychicHeart]

This is a neat little engine i found for creating a text-based game. The program is called Text World and it really is quite fascinating.
The reason i've posted this here is because, well, text-based games and adventure games are the only two forgotten genres that people want back.
It is incredibly simple, and the interface barely requires a readme.
Check it out, it's nostaligic beauty.
Cheers,
-Fluke.

[ManicMatt]

Is that where you type in verbs and it responds with "I don't understand"?

I prefer multiple choice. Much simpler. Like this program:

http://www.madladdesigns.co.uk/MuCeS/index.htm

It lets you have one background picture for the game and one song to be looped. If anyone knows of a program like this that can have more songs and pictures let me know please!

[Exorph]

If you've tried any good modern interactive fiction game, you'd know that they have come a long way since the days of trying random verbs. I've played a couple of them these last few days and I've NEVER gotten stuck on a puzzle because I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to KNOCK BOTTLE OVER, PUSH BOTTLE or THROW BOTTLE TO WALL. And only rarely have I even performed an action that seemed believable only to get a "that is a verb I don't understand" response..

On the other hand, I have know idea how good the program linked to in this topic is, so..

[Khris]

I gave it a try, and it's really very basic in every way. Way too basic, to be exact.
The available commands are N,S,E,W, take item, use item. That's it.

IMO, the reference for IF-languages has always been and will always be Inform.
It's very versatile, but at the same time quite easy to learn, too. It's very possible to write your own Zork, and there are interpreters for every system that has a keyboard and a screen.

The only "advantage" of Text World over Inform is its Editor, which allows to create a "game" using a DOS-GUI, whereas Inform is just a compiler and the designer has to write the source in a text editor.

But considering the fact that the systems are as comparable as a Bobby car and a BMW, I'd really suggest to use Inform or something similar (TADS, Hugo), if you seriously think about writing IF.

EDIT: Wow. Inform 7 is in beta-testing phase. Versions 1 to 6 have used C-like code, but version 7...

In place of traditional computer programming, the design is built by writing natural English-language sentences

[scotch]

There's a public beta of Inform 7 at the moment, which has a natural language system for writing games, and a GUI, but I'd recommend learning the language so far, this only seems suitable for the extremely coding phobic.

[Kweepa]

Wow, the I7 IDE is beautiful! And natural language? How did I miss that announcement? Thanks scotch!

[Bluke4x4]

I find Text World extremely easy to make a game with.... I'll try Inform 7, but for right now, I want to see how stupid I can make this game I'm working on...

EDIT: That was extremely stupid of me... Inform 7 is brilliant...

[BerserkerTails]

Inform 7... So shiny. I'm currently restarting the text adventure I've been slaving away at in Basic using Inform 7. It's very neat...