"Hello Wikipedia" by A Wikipedia ContributorThe story headline is "An Interactive Example".The Living Room is a room. "A comfortably furnished living room."The Kitchen is north of the Living Room.The Front Door is south of the Living Room.The insurance salesman is a man in the Living Room.The description is "An insurance salesman in a tacky polyester suit. He seems eager to speak to you."Understand "man" as the insurance salesman.A briefcase is carried by the insurance salesman.The description is "A slightly worn, black briefcase."Understand "case" as the briefcase.The insurance paperwork is in the briefcase.The description is "Page after page of small legalese."Understand "papers" or "documents" or "forms" as the paperwork.Instead of listening to the insurance salesman: say "The salesman bores you with a discussion of life insurance policies. From his briefcase he pulls some paperwork which he hands to you.";now the player carries the insurance paperwork.I'm serious, that is the actual source code you send to the Inform compiler.
Here's what it looks like when you play it.
Quote:Hello Wikipedia
An Interactive Example by A Wikipedia Contributor
Release 1 / Serial number 061003 / Inform 7 build 3Z95 (I6/v6.31 lib 6/11N) SD
Living Room
A comfortably furnished living room.
You can see an insurance salesman here.
>inventory
You are carrying nothing.
>examine man
An insurance salesman in a tacky polyester suit. He seems eager to speak to you.
>listen to man
The salesman bores you with a discussion of life insurance policies. From his briefcase he pulls some paperwork which he hands to you.
>inventory
You are carrying:
an insurance paperwork
>
I'm not yet sure how viable it would be for a large and complex game (for example Curses), but I haven't spent enough time with it to say either way. Regardless, after having worked with an older version of Inform, it seems a lot easier to get started with. This is what roughly equivalent source code looks like in Inform 6
Constant Story "Hello Wikipedia"; Constant Headline "^An Interactive Example^"; Include "Parser"; Include "VerbLib"; [ Initialise; location = Living_Room; "Hello World"; ]; Object Kitchen "Kitchen"; Object Front_Door "Front Door"; Object Living_Room "Living Room" with description "A comfortably furnished living room.", n_to Kitchen, s_to Front_Door, has light; Object -> Salesman "insurance salesman" with name 'insurance' 'salesman' 'man', description "An insurance salesman in a tacky polyester suit. He seems eager to speak to you.", before [; Listen: move Insurance_Paperwork to player; "The salesman bores you with a discussion of life insurance policies. From his briefcase he pulls some paperwork which he hands to you."; ], has animate; Object -> -> Briefcase "briefcase" with name 'briefcase' 'case', description "A slightly worn, black briefcase.", has container; Object -> -> -> Insurance_Paperwork "insurance paperwork" with name 'paperwork' 'papers' 'insurance' 'documents' 'forms', description "Page after page of small legalese."; Include "Grammar";