When we began our own piece of IF work, I quickly had a new appreciation for the authors of IF and the enormous amount of time and effort it takes to complete a simple room and string of commands. To answer my previous question, it was HARD! VERY HARD! I found myself spewing words I didn’t even know could come out of my own mouth and throwing my hands up in frustration. I must admit, I even slammed the desk a couple times. With that being said, if there are any aspiring IF writers out there reading this, I strongly suggest you take a sedative ( or two ) before sitting down to write. You’ll need it, I promise. When I first began my journey into the IF author word, I wanted to create a fun story that was easy for the reader to interact with; after all, this was my biggest gripe as a reader and I wanted my readers to have a better experience. When I originally sat down, I was totally devoid of ideas; I felt like the possibilities were totally endless and I didn’t even know where to begin. After brainstorming for about 20 minutes, I decided to create an animal shelter. This was my first room. I did not really have any plans after that and I decided to let the story come to my as I typed rather than figure it all out in advance. After creating my room, I decided to make my story about a women who has entered the animal shelter and it looking for a dog for her husbands birthday. She is a bit reluctant to get another pet, but he was begging and pleading with her so she finally gave in. My story is about her journey through the shelter and her decision process when picking the new dog. As I created each room and idea, it was overwhelming at times to think of all the possibilities for interaction the reader could have. What if the player wanted to kick the dog, or bite the dog, or steal the dog? These were all things I had to consider when writing. What if they didn’t follow the simple rules such as “Ask for Assistance Before Petting Dogs!’ and stuck their hands through the cage instead? Ultimately, I wanted my story to be simple yet complete, so I stuck with actions such as “pet”, “talk” and “take.” This simplicity is due to two main factors: First, I simply do not have the knowledge or the time necessary to create elaborate options in my IF. Secondly, I did not want the reader to be able to take hundreds of different paths to the end of the story, I figured a couple different options was sufficient. Currently, my story is not finished, but the reader can play for about ten minutes. There are 4 different rooms ( the animal shelter, the small dogs, the large dogs, and the front desk) about 8 different dogs to pet, on
e person to talk to, and one key to take. The story is progressing nicely and I got great feedback from my classmates as to how to improve and refine it.Overall, the software is extremely difficult to work with. A author must type in almost everything they want the reader to be able to do in a tricky computer language; frankly, I don’t even think that it is English. For example, I wanted t
o put four different types of dogs into the room “ Larger Dogs.” In order to accomplish this, I had to type “ A dog is a king of thing. The pit bull is a dog. The pit bull is in larger dogs" Not only was this an issue, but the program also refused to work properly if I forgot a period, spelled a word wrong, or had an extra space between words. This can be very frustrating. At one point, I spelled a word wrong but didn’t realize it and it took me about 15 minutes to find my mistake. When the program is unable to complete the command the user requests, a screen pops up with a picture of what appears to be parts of the inside of a machine and text which gives the author tips on how to fix the issue they might be havi
ng. The only problem is the “ helpful hints” text isn’t helpful at all. The author is essentially left to retrace their steps and find the problematic issue on their own. Once the author thinks they may have found the source of the glitch, they must start or refresh the story to see if the program will accept the text they have entered. This was another source of frustration for me. I’m not quite sure if the length of time I had to wait before my story would start again was due to the fact that many
computers were running on the same server or the program itself, but I had to wait an average of about 2 minutes before my story would load again. These two minutes or so add up quickly when there are many mistakes within the IF and really chip away at the patience of the author. I found myself quite literally CHEERING when my IF worked and that dreaded error screen disappeared! Throughout the creation of my IF, I referred to the Inform 7 handbook many times. Although it was a bit helpful, the sheer amount of information I had to sift through in order to find what I was looking for was astonishing. The number of pages in the handbook just stressed me out and made the simple task of placing a key in a dust pile overwhelming. Creating IF requires patience and plenty of time to devote to the task; if an author thinks they are going to sit down for a couple of hours and produce a story, they are delusional. The software was difficult to work and discouraging. I can’t even begin to count how many times I thought to myself, ‘ I’ll pay someone 50 dollars to type my story into this program for me!” In reality, this wouldn’t be much of a compensation for the headache creating IF produces. I wish Inform 7 had an actual brain and could interpret what you meant like a person would. Unfortunately, Inform 7 is just a computer program and it relies on a set of commands to understand what the author wants. If the author does not use those commands correctly, the program is completely stumped and can’t produce the desired outcome.In terms of creative possibilities, Inform both created them and reduced them. As the author, I felt like I had endless ideas as to how my story could turn out and different paths and inputs the reader could use to get to the outcome. This was exciting. I enjoyed trying to envision what my reader wanted to accomplish in my story and writing the text so they would be able to have those interactions. I was overwhelmed ( in a positive way) because I wanted to create so many different options and possibilities, but at the same time, I was limited by the time it took to produce them as well as the knowledge necessary to be successful. As I mentioned before, Inform 7 is NOT an easy program to work with and I struggled to create even the most simple of options. My personal inability to work with the program was severely limiting to my creative process, but I was inspired by Inform 7 and the idea that I was in control of creating the story. My original idea for the animal shelter grew as I worked with the program. I wanted to create a key in a pile of dust that the reader could take, but for whatever reason, the program was not allowing me to do that. This made me go back and re-think how I could add an option for the reader in a way the program would allow. One thing that really frustrated me about Inform7 was that in order to move around the story, the reader needed to input directions rather than places. For example, if I wanted to go to the Animal Shelter in my story, I had to say “North” rather than “ Animal Shelter.” It was really easy to get turned around which was annoying. I have to admit, using Inform 7 to create IF is downright ADDICTIVE. Although it is most certainly frustrating, when I finally created an element of the story successfully, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and I felt rejuvenated to keep trying. It was like obsessive gambling; I forgot the 10 times I lost and remembered the one time I won, which propelled me to continue my story. Once I had a general understanding of the most basic elements such as how to create a room or and object, it became fun and enjoyable. Of course, I realize that I have just scratched the surface of learning the possibilities of Inform 7 but I really did enjoy the experience of creating my own IF. I feel like creating IF can be rewarding and fun, but the author has to take it one step at a time; if the author can learn how to do one new thing a day on the program, they were successful. When creating IF, you need to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run; Inform7 is not a program that you can open for the first time and master.
Using Inform7 is very different than writing a regular story because the author has to acknowledge that each reader may want to go about the story in a different manor. The author has to tailor the story to different personality types and strive to make the story enjoyable for every person. With a regular book, there is one way to accomplish a task, one ending, one choice that the character makes...the reader is just along for the ride. I think that I much rather create a story using Inform7 than traditional pen and paper. Sure, it may be more frustrating, but it forces the author to think more profoundly where the story can go. Inform7 is also much more malleable than a traditional story. The author may want to change the direction of the story halfway through. He has the tools to do that by creating multiple scenarios and endings. He can include the ending he originally planned as well as the new ending he was inspired by. It was exciting to know that a reader could interact with my story multiple times and never have the same experience twice. Unfortunately, traditional stories do not offer this luxury.
Inform 7 is a fun program to work with, but it is not for those with high blood pressure, heart conditions, or those who may be pregnant. It is frustrating and complicated to the extreme, but once the author learns how to manipulate it, it becomes rather enjoyable. I can see how it can be addictive. I think Inform7 has some kinks that can be improved upon, but it absolutely has potential to be the future of literature.
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