{"slug": "inform-7", "name": "Inform 7", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 2.362, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-12-07", "latest": "2026-10-05", "why": "Also have a look at Inform 7[1] (domain specific language for interactive fiction)", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Also have a look at Inform 7[1] (domain specific language for interactive fiction)", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://ganelson.github.io/inform-website/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Inform 7"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 772839984, "item_id": 48302499, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48302499", "by": "dhx", "date": "2026-05-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Also have a look at Inform 7[1] (domain specific language for interactive fiction)", "excerpt": "Also have a look at Inform 7[1] (domain specific language for interactive fiction), specifically the \"Stone\" example section[2] which explains edible food and the effects different foods may have on the adventurer. It's similar concept to OPM with some modelling basics already built on top for player movement throughout a world, player interaction with objects (looking at, lifting, moving), and many other primitives ", "context": "", "use_case": "Interactive fiction authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "All of human cooking compressed into 2 megabytes"}, {"id": 749703808, "item_id": 46856488, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856488", "by": "mwigdahl", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I really enjoy the syntax of Inform 7", "excerpt": "Personally I really enjoy the syntax of Inform 7, but tastes vary and I certainly understand not liking it. TADS 3 is another option if you prefer a more object-oriented, ALGOL-ish syntax with equivalent power. The IFComp has run for decades now. If you are interested in good adventures, running through the highly-rated games from over the years is a good idea. The IFComp website is at https://ifcomp.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}, {"id": 749660032, "item_id": 46853752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853752", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Inform 7 has annoying syntax but an amazing IDE", "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": [{"by": "michaelbuckbee", "context": "Has written games and run workshops", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584044", "date": "2026-06-18"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["interactive fiction authoring", "developing text adventures", "making text adventures"], "compared": [{"slug": "inform-6", "name": "Inform 6", "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": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49943637", "title": "Infidel goes wild", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48576395", "title": "Loreline \u2013 Tools for writing interactive fiction", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48291225", "title": "All of human cooking compressed into 2 megabytes", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46125963", "title": "What is \u201cliterate programming\u201d? (2024)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 799382976, "item_id": 49961436, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49961436", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It does have a great IDE though", "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": 777344704, "item_id": 48584044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584044", "by": "michaelbuckbee", "date": "2026-06-18", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "This, more than anything else I'd ever read about Inform, really makes me want to give it a try.", "context": "Has written games and run workshops", "use_case": "Interactive fiction authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Loreline \u2013 Tools for writing interactive fiction"}, {"id": 772839984, "item_id": 48302499, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48302499", "by": "dhx", "date": "2026-05-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Also have a look at Inform 7[1] (domain specific language for interactive fiction)", "excerpt": "Also have a look at Inform 7[1] (domain specific language for interactive fiction), specifically the \"Stone\" example section[2] which explains edible food and the effects different foods may have on the adventurer. It's similar concept to OPM with some modelling basics already built on top for player movement throughout a world, player interaction with objects (looking at, lifting, moving), and many other primitives ", "context": "", "use_case": "Interactive fiction authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "All of human cooking compressed into 2 megabytes"}, {"id": 749703808, "item_id": 46856488, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856488", "by": "mwigdahl", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I really enjoy the syntax of Inform 7", "excerpt": "Personally I really enjoy the syntax of Inform 7, but tastes vary and I certainly understand not liking it. TADS 3 is another option if you prefer a more object-oriented, ALGOL-ish syntax with equivalent power. The IFComp has run for decades now. If you are interested in good adventures, running through the highly-rated games from over the years is a good idea. The IFComp website is at https://ifcomp.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games"}, {"id": 749701216, "item_id": 46856326, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856326", "by": "perryprog", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "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": 749660032, "item_id": 46853752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853752", "by": "kqr", "date": "2026-02-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Inform 7 has annoying syntax but an amazing IDE", "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"}, {"id": 738940257, "item_id": 46183766, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46183766", "by": "tehologist", "date": "2025-12-07", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Inform 7 is arguably one of the largest programs ever written in literate style.", "excerpt": "Literate programming is alive and well in 2025. https://leo-editor.github.io/leo-editor/ https://kaleguy.github.io/leovue/#/t/2 https://ganelson.github.io/inweb/inweb/index.html Inform 7 is arguably one of the largest programs ever written in literate style.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What is \u201cliterate programming\u201d? (2024)"}]}