intfiction.org

I am curious. How many people here have actually tried authoring using ADRIFT 5? And if not, what are your reasons.

Please note, I deliberately haven't put this in the Other Development Systems section because I want to get feedback from people who don't use the system, or aren't interested in it.

Many thanks.

_________________
ADRIFT Developer developer.

This thread might work better in the "General Game Design" forum, since it really isn't about playing IF. (And it might get more eyeballs there, though I don't know.)

For me, it's some combination of a couple of the above factors, plus one that isn't listed: inconsistent Mac support. If I'm not mistaken, the ADRIFT 4 developer didn't run on the Mac, and cruising over to the downloads page I see that the ADRIFT 5 Developer Mono distribution is listed as untested on the Mac. (I think I do have Mono installed, so it's not an insurmountable barrier, but....) And the Runner is still Windows-only, isn't it?

Yes, I agree. Could a mod please move it there?

_________________
ADRIFT Developer developer.

I gave the ADRIFT website only an (admittedly) cursory glance yet.

Thing is, I feel much more confident with programming an IF game in the Inform or TADS style, rather than "configuring" it, which is what the GUI of ADRIFT suggests. But that's really only a matter of taste.

Cheers,

syzygy

_________________
"Art is pretty, but a lot of work." -- Karl Valentin, comedian
The Ontos Enterprise

So far I've only used ADRIFT 5 for playing games made in the language. I guess what's needed is an excuse to try out a new language, such as a New Language Speed IF.

_________________
"Will you stop breaking the fourth wall? It's costing me an absolute fortune to replace it!"

Several of the above, really, and none of them are quite right.

"I'm put off by its reputation" is close but misleading. My most basic assumption about systems (which I acknowledge may reflect lots of things other than the formal qualities of that system) is that by their fruits you shall know them. And of the ADRIFT games I've played over the years, I can think of perhaps three or four that were soundly constructed and overall pretty good. Perhaps just as importantly, I haven't encountered any ADRIFT games that were blow-me-away awesome. (Perhaps the ADRIFT community is not good at promoting its best games to the wider IF community, or perhaps ADRIFT authors are just not interested in the things I'm interested in.) So I'd say that more than its reputation, ADRIFT's problem is its track record. Certainly, there are coders whose opinion I respect who have a low opinion of ADRIFT, but that wouldn't be such a big deal if I hadn't played a lot of ramshackle ADRIFT games, few good and no great ones.

"I'm competent in an existing system and have no interest" is right, but not the whole story: I'm interested in lots of other systems, but only if they have features, design philosophies, specialties, etc. that a) are difficult or impractical in I7 and b) I'm interested in. I haven't really heard about any features that ADRIFT offers and I7 doesn't, except for the GUI coding environment, which I'm not interested in. I have a vague idea that I should try ADRIFT at some point in the interests of completeness, but it's not high on the list because I really don't have a conception of The Great Game I Could Make In ADRIFT That Would Be Hard, Impossible Or Ugly In I7.

The top two answers are currently "I am competent with a different system and have no interest" and "I would like to have a look, but haven't found the time yet", which are predictable - anyone posting here is already using something else, probably Inform or TADS as those systems don't have their own forums.

If you want more people to use ADRIFT you will have to cast your net a bit wider. "Interactive fiction" as a whole is becoming bigger all the time now, but you will only find a tiny fraction of your potential userbase hanging around here on intfiction.org - and it would be a huge effort to make even a handful of people among this tiny fraction switch to a different system. So why bother? There are plenty of people elsewhere who are interested in writing interactive stories.

The way to make ADRIFT successful is not to appease the Inform and TADS users.

_________________
Quest - create and play text adventure games in your browser

I'm not sure I'd agree Alex. I think, when it comes to newcomers - and there is certainly a decent turnover of newcomers to this forum - is that they get here and think "ok, what is the best system I could be using?". They look and see that the majority are discussing Inform, a few discuss TADS, and the "other" systems are most likely no good as pretty much no-one is discussing them at all. So I guess perhaps I should be directing this poll more towards newcomers of this forum, but it is people from here that I would like to hear from.

I'd be particularly interested to know whether people download and evaluate each system to find out what works best for them, or if they just make a decision early on based upon something else.

_________________
ADRIFT Developer developer.

Just a data point about why I started using Inform.

I started writing interactive fiction when Lea held the Interactive Fiction Writing Month, and that event was done using Inform 6 (with some nods to Inform 7). And then I switched to Inform 7 because people in my local area were using it.

So, the reason I started using Inform was that someone held an event especially aimed at beginners and said, "I'll help you learn how to write interactive fiction, and let's do it in Inform." I don't know what all you've done to promote the use of ADRIFT to newbies, but maybe something similar to this would be useful.

-Kevin

After reading from another adrift-related topic a month or two ago, I actually did head over to the website to download and have a look around the authoring portion of the system. My overall impression was positive. Admittedly, considering the interface, I came in with low expectations about the system producing games of much complexity. I was pleasantly surprised, though; with clever and careful planning it certainly does seem possible to create games with interesting mechanics.

I especially liked the ability to replace certain printed words/messages with my own text. I didn't really get deep enough into it to fully explore the feature, but on the surface it seemed very convenient. Such message replacement is something other systems don't always handle so easily. The built-in mapping system is also very handy both on the authoring and playing sides.

As for using adrift on a serious game, I'm currently way too deep into my own Inform 7 project at the moment. Once I finish that, I'll probably try to give Adrift another more in-depth look and see how it goes.