{"slug": "inform-6", "name": "Inform 6", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.389, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2026-02-02", "latest": "2026-10-05", "why": "Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "jxself.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.inform-fiction.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Inform 6"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 766636144, "item_id": 47914759, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47914759", "by": "anthk", "date": "2026-04-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Yes, very easy to grasp and games will be much lighter than Inform7.", "excerpt": "Yes, very easy to grasp and games will be much lighter than Inform7. Tads it's propietary even if the interpreters are free. Inform6 has the whole stack (even free documentation too), from Inform Beginner's Guide to these, where you have libre games for Inform6 and some free as in freedom related documentation of Inform6 internals. https://jxself.org/git/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Visible Zorker: Zork 1"}, {"id": 749660033, "item_id": 46853752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853752", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools", "excerpt": "If you want to create an adventure game but your visual skills are lacking, I recommend looking into text adventures! There are great tools for making them these days: - Inform 7 has annoying syntax but an amazing IDE; - Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools; - Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are ", "context": "", "use_case": "making text adventures", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["developing text adventures", "interactive fiction", "making text adventures"], "compared": [{"slug": "inform-7", "name": "Inform 7", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "dialog", "name": "Dialog", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46846252", "title": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49943637", "title": "Infidel goes wild", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49325714", "title": "AGI-64 Brings Sierra Adventures to the Commodore 64", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47911644", "title": "The Visible Zorker: Zork 1", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "quotes": [{"id": 799382977, "item_id": 49961436, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49961436", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Inform 6 is a completely different language, reading more like object-oriented code.", "excerpt": "Someone commented that it's fun to see Zarf is still around, so I want to take the opportunity to say that the entire community around text adventures is likewise still thriving, most visibly on the IntFiction.org forums. People seem to look at text adventures as relics of a specific era, and it's true that it's hard to make money off of them these days, but there are several high-quality releases per year, and the q", "context": "", "use_case": "developing text adventures", "switched_from": "", "story": "Infidel goes wild"}, {"id": 789352496, "item_id": 49334531, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334531", "by": "gapan", "date": "2026-08-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Also, ozmoo, a z-machine interpreter for the C64 (+other 8-bit machines) with several qualify of life improvements. https://github.com/johanberntsson/ozmoo https://ozmoo.online/", "context": "", "use_case": "Interactive fiction", "switched_from": "", "story": "AGI-64 Brings Sierra Adventures to the Commodore 64"}, {"id": 766636144, "item_id": 47914759, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47914759", "by": "anthk", "date": "2026-04-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Yes, very easy to grasp and games will be much lighter than Inform7.", "excerpt": "Yes, very easy to grasp and games will be much lighter than Inform7. Tads it's propietary even if the interpreters are free. Inform6 has the whole stack (even free documentation too), from Inform Beginner's Guide to these, where you have libre games for Inform6 and some free as in freedom related documentation of Inform6 internals. https://jxself.org/git/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Visible Zorker: Zork 1"}, {"id": 749701217, "item_id": 46856326, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856326", "by": "perryprog", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Funny, I just started playing The Wise-Woman\u2019s Dog yesterday\u2014it really is excellent! I\u2019d also secondly endorse Dialog. It\u2019s a really intuitive way to think about the game world as a whole without having to worry about Inform 7\u2019s AppleScript-esque syntax. It\u2019s also grown quite a bit since the community started their own fork: https://github.com/Dialog-IF/dialog", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}, {"id": 749660033, "item_id": 46853752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853752", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools", "excerpt": "If you want to create an adventure game but your visual skills are lacking, I recommend looking into text adventures! There are great tools for making them these days: - Inform 7 has annoying syntax but an amazing IDE; - Inform 6 is somewhat object oriented, has a good Emacs mode and decades of tools; - Dialog takes the evaluation model of Inform 7 and dresses it in sensible syntax but it is a bit niche so tools are ", "context": "", "use_case": "making text adventures", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}]}