the state of things.
Since this project is now three weeks old, I thought I’d post a short project update. Here are some answers to questions that you may or may not have:
do I expect anyone to read all of this?
Not all at once, that’s for sure! However, there’s a dearth of craft writing about parser IF nowadays. It’s been that way for almost a decade now. While it’s easy to find tech discussion or game recommendations, I just don’t see the kind of longform craft/theory writing that we once saw from authors like Aaron Reed, Emily Short, Nick Montfort, and others. No, I’m not saying that “Let’s Make IF” is of comparable quality. I am hoping that there’s better and more to come, actually. Nothing would please me more than for some author to surpass my writing. In fact, I’m hoping that the IF community might foster more types of writing for more types of occasions. Perhaps places like Top Expert and The Rosebush are only the beginning.
At any rate, once the whole project is finished, I plan to go back through the series and tag posts by subject, which should help beginning authors find whatever interests them. Since I don’t think there’s been this amount of documentation associated with a single Inform 7 project (at least not in some time), I think this series in its entirety will interest someone(s) eventually, if not now.
I’m not so great at this, am I?
The purpose of this series is not technical ostentation. I am “good enough” to write Repeat the Ending, a game that some people liked. I don’t mind telling people how I did that, or how I plan to write other games. There are definitely better Inform 7 programmers out there. As the title “Let’s Make IF” suggests, I think of myself as just another beginner, and I’m writing for my fellow beginners. If you’re looking for mad science or Inform 6 wizardry, you won’t find it here. I’m not capable of that sort of thing, and I’m not really trying to become capable in that way. Inform 7 is a way for me to tell stories. I like telling stories with Inform 7, and I lose interest when Inform 7 isn’t helping me do that.
what’s the current project status? & do I have a project plan?
Currently, development is proceeding more or less the way I have hoped. I spent some time up-front figuring out how to manage complex, varied text descriptions. I didn’t previously have a method for doing that; I worked it out during the course of this project. I knew there would be things–many things, probably–that I didn’t know how to do. I’m using relations and scenes–two features of Inform 7–for the first time. I think most people at my level of competence will be inexperienced with them, too.
Making investments in new techniques is already paying off. I’ve been primarily focusing on the game’s text output for most of the past week. The technical stuff is on autopilot until I get to the titular “sinister spotlight” a couple of scenes from now. That will be more complicated, with more moving parts than I’ve dealt with so far. I do have a vague plan for how I want to handle that part of the game, but it will be new territory for me, too.
Short answers: it’s going the way I expected, which is good. I do have a plan, but I expect that some improvisation will be needed. I hope I don’t let any of you down! You’re reading these updates as the events that they describe occur; this isn’t a memoir. If something goes wrong, I’m not going to put the project on hold until I figure it out: you’ll be able to read all about it here.
when will Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight be finished?
I’d like to have a feature-complete game in January then do some playtesting.
what is my release plan?
I intend to enter MD&SS in Spring Thing 2024 as a Back Garden entry. Unlike the entrants in the main festival, BG games aren’t eligible for a “Best in Show” distinction or prizes of any sort. Because Repeat the Ending did so well in this year’s Spring Thing, I have always intended to sit out the main festival in 2024. It only recently occurred to me that doing so will also give me some flexibility so far as publishing project updates, source code, etc.
To avoid cutting things too fine, I will stop sharing source code before release. Updates here will cease before testing. I’ll add some unannounced content, time permitting. You need a reason to play Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight when it comes out, after all! If you’d like to playtest this game, keep an eye out for announcements here and elsewhere.
next.
Short updates, most likely, until things get more complex.
top expert 