Noob question! looking for a good guide to authoring/coding

Ahoy there!

I’m interested in creating some IF. I’m very new to coding however. Can anyone direct me to the best place to get started?\

Thank you kindly :slight_smile:

Have you decided upon a game development system, for example Inform 7, TADS 3, Twine, and etc.?

I have no idea what those words mean :smiley:

You’ll probably want to use some kind of “development system” that helps you with authoring a game.

There are two major branches of IF: “Choice Based” narratives or “CYOA” (Choose Your Own Adventure) where the player reads a story and clicks highlighted links to proceed (like turning pages in classic CYOA books), and “Parser” which involves the player typing commands in and the game telling them what the result is. (Similar to Infocom games in the past, Zork, Planetfall, etc.)

The two major systems to look at first most likely are Twine for choice-based narratives, and Inform 7 for parser-based narratives.

twinery.org/
inform7.com/

There are several other common development systems for parser and choice games, but once you determine what you’re wanting to create and understand what’s involved, then you may wish to explore alternate systems in more detail.

thank you! I’ll definitely check those out, cheers!