راهنمای Inform 7

This book makes no claim to being the ultimate guide to Inform 7. On the contrary: A number of topics that experienced Inform authors (or new authors who envision unusual types of gameplay) may want or need to know about simply aren’t included in The Inform 7 Handbook, or are mentioned only in passing. The purpose of this book is to give first-time authors the kind of information and insight that they’ll need in order to start using Inform 7 to produce parser-based interactive fiction in its most familiar form, without getting tangled up in a lot of complexities. (If you don’t know what I mean by “parser-based,” keep reading.) This version of the Handbook is current with respect to version 6L38 of Inform 7, and may not be accurate with respect to older or more recent versions. Foreword 8 Acknowledgments 11 About the Author 11 Chapter 1: Getting Started 12 Downloading & Installing 14 The Inform 7 Program 14 The Page Headers 16 The Go! Button 20 The Release Button 22 Other Features 23 Using the Built-In Documentation 23 What Happens in a Game 24 Entering Commands 25 Downloading & Playing Games 29 What’s This .z8 Stuff All About, Anyway? 29 Writing Your First Game 31 From the Top 32 The Detail Trap 33 Title Trickery 33 Telling a Story 35 Managing Your Project(s) 35 About Inform Source Code 36 All About Bugs 36 Testing Your Game 38 Using the Debugging Commands 39 Another Way to Debug 41 Puzzles 43 Extensions for Inform 44 Where to Learn More 46 Chapter 2: Rooms & Scenery 47 Creating Your First Room 48 Scenery 51 The Names of Things 52 How Much Scenery Is Enough? 55 Distant Scenery 56 Adding More Rooms to the Map 58 The Great Outdoors 61 Enterable Scenery 64 Doors 65 Locked Doors 67 Secret Doors 69 Dangerous Doors 70 Travel by Fiat 71 Windows 71 “You can’t go that way.” 72 Duplicate Exits & Twisty Connections 73 Hallways with Lots of Doors 75 Changing the Map During the Game 76 Regions 78 Backdrops 80 Removing a Backdrop 80 Dark Rooms 81 Backdrops in Dark Rooms 84 Seemingly Identical Rooms 84 Floorless Rooms 85 When Is a Room “visited”? 85 More About Room Descriptions 87 Chapter 3: Things 90 Creating Things 90 Things vs. Kinds 91 The Names of Things 93 Long Names 95 Initial Appearance 96 Adding Vocabulary Words with “Understand” 97 Conditional Vocabulary 98 Containers & Supporters 99 Stealthy Containers 104 Sneaky Supporters 108 Looking Under & Looking Behind 109 Take All 112 Enterable Containers & Supporters 112 Moving Things Around 114 Inventory 115 Testing Where a Thing Is 117 Things Can Have Properties 118 Number Properties 119 Word Properties 120 Plurals & Collective Objects 123 More about Collections & Kinds 125 Objects That Have Parts 128 Reading Matter 129 Writing on Things 130 Mechanical Marvels 132 Smelling & Listening 136 Transforming One Thing into Another 138 New Ways to Use Things 139 Holding Something Up in the Air 140 Tipping Something 141 Holding Something Against Something Else 142 Chapter 4: Actions 144 Built-In Actions 144 Using “Instead” 147 Action Processing 148 Rulebooks & “Stop the Action” 153 Three Types of Actions 155 Creating New Actions 156 [Any Thing] 160 Same Action, New Results 163 Redirecting an Action 163 Actions with Topics 165 Action Processing — Summary 166 Chapter 5: Creating Characters 170 Overview 172 The Player Character 173 Creating an NPC 174 Mr. & Mrs. 177 Conversations, Part I: talk to 178 Conversations, Part II: ask/tell/give/show 180 Topics of Conversation 181 Conversations, Part III: Character Knowledge 184 Conversations, Part IV: Menu-Based Conversation 186 Giving Orders to Characters 186 Giving Orders that Involve Going Elsewhere 188 Moving Characters Around 189 Characters Who Follow the Player 192 Characters the Player Can Follow 193 Stage Business 194 Character Actions 195 Combat 196 Moods 198 Body Parts 199 Chapter 6: Puzzles 200 Mapping 201 Blocked Passageways 201 Darkness 202 Hidden Items 203 Items Out of Reach 204 Locked Containers 205 Combination Locks 205 Manipulation Difficulties 205 Enigmas 207 Deceptive Appearances & Unusual Usages 207 Assembly Required 208 Mechanisms 209 Vehicles 209 Consulting Information Sources 209 The Uncooperative Character 210 Timed Puzzles 210 Inadequate Implementation 211 Chapter 7: Winning & Losing 213 A Word About Fairness 214 Keeping Score 215 A Treasure Chest 216 Achievements 218 Chapter 8: Time & Scenes 220 Passing Time 220 Future Events 222 Scenes 223 Chaining Scenes 224 Using Scenes to Control Action 225 Every Turn Rules 228 Chapter 9: Phrasing & Punctuation 231 Types of Source Text 232 Text Insertions 233 Switchable Markup 237 Quotes Within Quotes 238 Breaking Up Paragraphs 239 Large Text Blocks 240 White Space 240 Objects vs. Rules 242 The Names of Things 244 Punctuation 245 Assertions 246 Values 247 Arithmetic 252 Doing Calculations 253 Testing Conditions 255 Creating New Phrases 256 Indenting 257 Too Many Indents 261 Headings 262 Loops 263 Chapter 10: Advanced Topics 265 Story Tense and Viewpoint 265 Code Optimization 265 Instead of Instead 266 Every Turn Rules 267 Other Ways to Streamline Your Code 268 Tables 268 The Skein 272 Using the Index 273 Replacing Rules in the Standard Library 274 Helping the Parser 275 Pronouns 276 Clearing the Screen 276 I6 Constants 277 Relations 278 Adding Hints 281 Special Features in Glulx 282 What Does Inform 6 Have to Do with Inform 7? 282 So, Is Inform 7 the Ultimate IF Programming Language? 283 Appendix A: Glossary 286 Appendix B: Updating Older Extensions 289 Appendix C: Short Sample Games 292 Flea Market 292 Mr Potato Head 294 A Dangerous Jewel Box 296 The Omega Machine 298 The Lurking Critter 300 Restraints 301 Broken Eggs 304 Indoors & Outdoors 306 Appendix D: License 314