Beginner's Guide to Interactive Fiction with Inform 7/Introduction to Interactive Fiction

What is Interactive Fiction?

Interactive Fiction (commonly abbreviated as IF) is a genre of writing that evolved out of older text-based adventure games. The main point of differentiation is that the player can input commands and influence how the story proceeds. This makes the player an active participant as opposed to a passive observer.

A typical IF follows the player as they interact with the places, people, and things within it. The player inputs commands via the command prompt. An example of playing through a very minimalist piece of IF is:

Magic Flask
An Interactive Fiction by Dylan Greene
Release 1 / Serial number 140527 / Inform 7 build 6L02 (I6/v6.33 lib 6/12N) SD

Altar
You can see a flask here.

>get flask
You got the flask!

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