Interactive Fiction Design

Designing a piece of interactive fiction can be a daunting task. Here is a collection of resources to help you understand some of the issues and challenges that are unique to interactive fiction.

Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship

One perspective on writing adventure games, by Gerry Kevin Wilson. The basic guide, Supplement #1, and Supplement #2 are available.

The Craft of Adventure (2nd ed)

Another perspective on the mechanics of writing adventure games, by Graham Nelson. Neil K. Guy has kindly made a web version of the articles. A TeX version and an ASCII version are also available.

Computer Adventures, the Secret Art

A book by Gil Williamson, originally published in 1990. It is available in a zip archive, and may be freely downloaded. Some sections of the book are out-of-date, but there are still a lot of good suggestions about designing IF.

XYZZYNews Articles

XYZZYNews is a magazine for interactive fiction enthusiasts which has had several articles on game design.

• 10 Steps to Great Game Design, by C.E. Forman. XYZZYNews #1.
• Game Design at the Drawing Board, by C.E. Forman. XYZZYNews #4.
• Distinguishing Between Game Design and Analysis: One View, by Gareth Rees. XYZZYNews #6.
• Tales From the Code Front: Interactive Fiction in Five Easy Years!, by Stephen Granade. XYZZYNews #8.
• Oh No! Beta! Tips and Techniques for Beta-Testing Games-in-Progress, by C.E. Forman. XYZZYNews #8.
• Player Character Identity in Interactive Fiction, by John Wood. XYZZYNews #9.

Rec.Arts.Int-Fiction

The Usenet group known as RAIF is a good place to pick up tricks and tips for IF design. I have made a topical index of threads on RAIF I found useful.

IF Collaborators List

This web page, started by Nicholas Daley and now maintained by Jay Goemmer, lists IF programmers who need an author, authors who need programmers, and people who can do either and want to collaborate with someone. If you feel you aren't up to programming your dream game or you are interested in programming but have no concrete ideas, talk to one of the people on this list. Or add your name to it.