codehop » interactivefiction

Cone of Silence: The Text Adventure

Jacob Joaquin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:18:41 +0000

Cone of Silence is an experiment in combining politics with interactive fiction. The piece is short and makes use of humor similar to that of a political cartoon.

The game is inspired by the recent nationally televised Saddleback Civil Forum. The format of the forum was supposed to be that Pastor Rick Warren would ask questions of one candidate while, the other candidate was placed into a “cone of silence.” When the first candidate was done, the other candidate would come out and answer the same line of questioning.

Senator Barack Obama went first, decided by the toss of a coin. During this time, Senator John McCain was supposedly placed into this so-called cone of silence. However, several media outlets are now reporting that John McCain was not in the cone for the first thirty minutes.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that McCain used this time outside of the cone to learn of the questions prior to his on-stage interview. Though if the media’s assertions are true, then the Saddleback Civil Forum was clearly compromised by John McCain and raises justifiable doubts about the validity of event. Which is really a shame because I really enjoyed the less aggressive nature of this kind of format. I guess it wouldn’t be politics if things didn’t get ugly.

To play “Cone of Silence,” you’ll need to download this and a z-machine interpreter. I recommend the Z-Machine Preservation Project. Written with Inform 7.

>examine interactive fiction

Jacob Joaquin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:05:17 +0000

Yesterday, I blogged about my first foray into the world of Interactive Fiction. While searching the web last night, two things in particular grabbed my attention.

The first is a blog post at Dorophone titled “On Inform 7, Natural Language Programming and the Principle of Least Surprise.” The article is clearly written from the viewpoint of a coder. The author does an excellent job of examining the “natural” qualities of Inform 7’s syntax, discusses many of the positives and negatives of programming in such an environment, and compares it to other languages such Inform 6 and python.

The other site is Emily Short’s Interactive Fiction. Emily Short writes both interactive fiction and about interactive fiction. After briefly browsing her articles, which I plan to revisit in the near future, I was left with the impression she has developed a mastery of the medium. The information found here is invaluable to anyone interested in interactive fiction, including novices, veterens, and everything in between. I discovered this site thanks to @christophernies, who recommended Galatea, an IF written by Emily Short.

Writing Interactive Fiction with Inform 7

Jacob Joaquin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:31:10 +0000

I’m learning Inform 7, a programming language designed to create interactive works of fiction for the same Z-Machine used for many text classics such and Zork and Planetfall. My inspiration comes from Adam Parrish‘s >frotzophone, “an interface for making music with interactive fiction”.

So far, I’ve put in about three hours. Within this time frame, I’ve already been successful at creating some very rudimentary, yet interactive environments. The syntax of Inform is by far the highest level language I’ve personally ever encountered; Coding requires the use of real english language. That fascinates me, and at the same time, hard for me to wrap my brain around.

Below is the in-game action of a demo I wrote to learn the language, followed by the actual code used to create the work.

The Hack-o-torium An Interactive Fiction by Jacob Joaquin Release 1 / Serial number 080815 / Inform 7 build 5T18 (I6/v6.31 lib 6/12N) SD


Hack-o-torium

This room looks like an astromech spewed its guts all over place, as each nook and cranny is filled with odd electrical devices, wires, resistors, etc.  You hear the busy street traffic below.
A simple but well crafted wooden staircase is here.
A large wooden table resides near the giant windows.
On The large wooden table is a bottle (closed) (in which is a clear brown liquid).

>climb stairs

Loft Stacks of nondescript boxes practically fill this room. The low ceiling and makes moving about the room a bit of a challenge. A wooden staircase leads into the main space below.


A simple but well crafted wooden staircase is here.
>d
Hack-o-torium

A simple but well crafted wooden staircase is here.
A large wooden table resides near the giant windows.
On The large wooden table is a bottle (closed) (in which is a clear brown liquid).
>examine windows

These giant windows look out onto the buildings across the street.
>examine table

The construction of the table is of high quality, though clearly built for function rather than form. Scratches, nicks, tiny splatters of solder and dried glue cover the surface.
>get bottle

Taken.
>examine bottle

The yellow and blue label says, "Caffeine-Mate".
>look in bottle

In the bottle is a clear brown liquid.
>examine caffeine-mate

A magical elixir for warding off sleepiness.
>drink caffeine-mate

The bottle isn't open.
>open bottle

You open the bottle.

>drink caffeine-mate The slightly sweetened elixir hits the spot. An electric buzz permeates your frontal lobe. Urge to code rising.

And here’s the code:

"The Hack-o-torium" by Jacob Joaquin


The Hack-o-torium is a room. "This room looks like an astromech spewed its guts all over place, as each nook and cranny is filled with odd electrical devices, wires, resistors, etc.  You hear the busy street traffic below."
The giant windows are scenery. The description is "These giant windows look out onto the buildings across the street."

The giant windows are in the Hack-o-torium.

Instead of taking windows:

	say "Your efforts to take the giant windows prove futile.".
The large wooden table is a supporter. "A large wooden table resides near the giant windows."

The description of the large wooden table is "The construction of the table is of high quality, though clearly built for function rather than form. Scratches, nicks, tiny splatters of solder and dried glue cover the surface."

The large wooden table is in the Hack-o-torium.

Instead of taking the table, say "Moving this table is at least a two person job."
A bottle is a thing.  The description is "The yellow and blue label says, 'Caffeine-Mate'.".

The bottle is closed, transparent and openable.

The bottle is on the large wooden table.
In the bottle is a clear brown liquid.

Understand "caffeine-mate" as clear brown liquid.

The description of the clear brown liquid is "A magical elixir for warding off sleepiness.".
Instead of drinking the clear brown liquid:

    remove the noun from play;

    say "The slightly sweetened elixir hits the spot. An electric buzz permeates your frontal lobe. Urge to code rising."
The Loft is a room. "Stacks of nondescript boxes practically fill this room. The low ceiling and makes moving about the room a bit of a challenge. A wooden staircase leads into the main space below."
A staircase is a kind of door. "A simple but well crafted wooden staircase is here."

A staircase is always open. A staircase is never openable.

The wooden staircase is a staircase. It is above the Hack-o-torium and below the Loft.

Understand "stairs" as wooden staircase.

Instead of climbing a staircase: try entering the noun.