If you're setting a game during the Cuban Missile Crisis, look through a library. find out what people were wearing, what other issues were in the news, how houses were furnished, what cars were being driven. Especially include things which now seem foreign. Graham Nelson carcrisiscuban share on social
By the new year of 1994, it had grown up into Inform 4 and could produce games twice as large. Graham Nelson gamegrowinform Change image and share on social
This means keeping many trails open at once, inevitably requiring a fairly 'parallel' plot. This plot should be discovered rather than announced, so show, don't tell. Graham Nelson announcediscoverfairly Change image and share on social
Writing a really general parser is a major but different undertaking, by far the hardest points being sensitivity to context and resolution of ambiguity. Graham Nelson ambiguitycontextgeneral Change image and share on social
Players very widely disagree with me about what's hard and what's easy. and in a way, 'I won, but it was a fight' is the best compliment a game can receive. Graham Nelson complimentdisagreeeasy Change image and share on social
The most frequent complaint is that it's hard. True. it's a hard game to win Also, many people ask me how to use the secret debugging commands, apparently under the impression that I'll tell them. Graham Nelson apparentlycommandcomplaint Change image and share on social
At the end of April I archived 'Curses' and Inform, and announced them on the newsgroups. Graham Nelson announceaprilarchive Change image and share on social
For a fortnight nobody at all emailed me, or posted a follow-up. Doesn't anyone care, I thought? It turned out my newsreader was broken, and hadn't posted at all. Graham Nelson breakcareemailed Change image and share on social
I'm rather pleased with the new manuals. I see Inform now as a gauche young adult, having got past the stage of growing out of his shoes every few months. Graham Nelson adultgauchegrow Change image and share on social
The 'interactive fiction' format hasn't changed in any fundamental way since the early 1970s, in the same way that the format of the novel hasn't since 1700. Graham Nelson 1970schangeearly Change image and share on social
