Freeware: Create Text Adventures with Inform 7

As a child, I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books. These are books in which, at the end of each chapter or scene, the reader is asked to choose what the main character will do next.

I was already an avid reader, and being able to interact with a story made reading even more fun.

I wasn't the only kid who loved Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Millions of other kids did too, and still do. And similar books have been written for older readers.

Considering the popularity of such stories, it's no surprise they've found their way into the world of computers. Only, there, they are called text adventurs.

What Is a Text Adventure?

A text adventure is a computer game. Only, instead of shooting alien invaders, or trying to get an animated character through a maze as fast as you can, you read a story, and score points for solving puzzles, going on secret missions, solving mysteries, or just making the right choice at the right time.

Text adventures are often called interactive fiction, and for good reason. In a text adventure, the reader interacts with the characters and settings, and the choices the reader makes determine the outcome of the story, or game.

Making Your Own Text Adventure

There was a time when making your own text adventure was a bit challenging. There were many different programs you could use to create a text adventure. A most of them required you to learn a special language specific to that system. You could spend weeks learning the language before you could even start creating a text adventure.

Now, the programs used to create text adventures are much more frienly to the beginner. With some, you can learn what you need to know to create a simple text adventure in a few hours. And one of the easiest text adventure creation systems is Inform 7.

What Is Inform 7?

Inform 7 is a free text adventure creation system that's easy to learn and use. Instead of using a complex programming language, Inform 7 uses natural, everyday language.

If you are familiar with text adventures, learning and using Inform 7 will be a breeze. But, even if you're new to the world of text adventure, there's no need to worry. Inform 7 comes with a detailed, easy to understand user's manual that will take you step by step through the process of creating a text adventure. You will quickly learn the basic concepts behind creating interactive fiction. And, before you know it, you will be creating text adventures of your very own.