Re: Potential new IF author needs advice
10 Nov 1995 08:04:46 GMT
Chris (boognish@ucla.edu) wrote:
> Hi there. Now, I know I'm gonna get scolded for this, but here goes...
> (putting on flame-retardent jumpsuit) I have a fairly decent idea for an
> IF game and have it more or less mapped out in my head. Only problem is,
> I have NO idea how to program, and quite honestly, little desire to
> learn. I've browsed the manuals for TADS and Inform and have become
> disheartened by the idea of all painfully menial code-learning and
> scripting I'd have to go through to design my game. I've even dismissed
> ALAN (from what I've heard, the easiest authoring program) as too complex
> for my patience. My question is, what can I do? Is there an easier
> program out there somewhere? I don't wan't to have someone else write the
> code for me, I'd really like to do it myself. Does this mean that I'll
> just have to buckle down and learn the stuff? Btw, I have a Mac.
You could try AGT, which is pretty non-programmy kind of programming.
(Basically, you need to learn the format for the data files, but
no programming per se.) The problem is that the parser isn't very
flexible, you're limited in size, and you have to hand-write all
the variations of possible player actions.
--Laurel, who hasn't programmed seriously since writing BASIC on
the Apple II and is now having to learn C