For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on a game where the gameplay revolves around creating and playing IF.
To give you an idea of the kind of IF you can make with it, I’ll try to contrast it to both parser-based and choice-based IF.
Similar to parser-based IF, you can type whatever you want, and observe how the game world reacts to it. Contrary to parser-based IF, you move through the world using directional controls: arrow keys, WASD, left-click, tap on mobile (this is the “twitchy” part in case you were wondering).
Similar to choice-based IF, a reaction is triggered by interacting with a description. Contrary to choice-based IF, you move your avatar into descriptions to interact with them.
In addition to these similarities and differences, authors can mix and match single-player and multiplayer sub worlds under the same Top Level World (which is itself a sub world of Main World). Multiplayer worlds are persistent by default, meaning that the next player finds the world exactly as the previous player left it. The degree of persistence can be tweaked on an object-by-object level by the creator of the World.
Assuming I haven’t lost you by now, I invite you to create an account at glyffe.com, and explore a couple of demo worlds to get a better idea of what I’m talking about.
So as to avoid any misunderstandings, let me state clearly that I intend this to be a commercial project. However, while the current open alpha lasts, every new account gets 3 Months allocated to it. You can use those Months to create one, two or three Top Level Worlds and keep them online. You can also support development by buying Months.
You should be able to find most of Glyffe’s features under the right-click menu (tap-hold on mobile). I haven’t gotten around to writing documentation yet, but there should be tooltips when you hover over input boxes and the like. You can drag menu windows around by grabbing their green or yellow colored header bars.
The roadmap ahead will in part depend on your feedback. Please note that moving forward into beta may involve a database wipe, destroying all Worlds, and possibly even deleting your user account.
I leave you with some numbers to mull over. Currently, you can create a maximum of 100 sub worlds under any given Top Level World you own. Every sub world is able to hold up to 100 Devices (descriptions). Maximum 50 of those can be Solids (descriptions players can interact with). The remainder will have to be Holos (descriptions players can’t interact with). Any Device, whether a Solid or a Holo, can consist of up to 1000 characters.
Oh, and one more number to keep in mind: 11 — the last Internet Explorer version. Please don’t use it (or any other IE version really).
Happy glyffing!