Also known as Text Adventures, it has been swiped away from most of the computer world by video games.
But there are existing text adventures.
IF (or text adventures) had been revived some years back when people started talking about their once favorite games. Authoring toolkits were then made to help us all create these kinds of games quite easily.
But - yeah, enough about the history (which you can read more about in Wikipedia) of interactive fiction. Instead, I'll write about what I think can be some of today's easiest toolkits.
Inform 7
I have to admit, I personally think this is one of the best I've ever tried. It may not be as easy as it looks like in certain situations, but it
can get the job done.
It truly is flexible (as it can use certain Inform 6 code as well as "something-like-English" code, and there are many available extensions to make it easier for people to accomplish something.
But I
am worried that it hasn't been updated since December, 2010. More than a year! I'd rather use something more updated. I know that seems a weird reason - and Inform 7
is stable, but... I'm picky about these stuff.
Fortunately for people who uses Inform 7 (or Inform 6), there are many z-code/glulx (the types of games Inform 7 compiles) interpreters for different devices, so that could mean your game will be able to be played in many different devices. Awesome, right?
Glulx is a type of Inform game that allows images and sounds.
A unique feature: There is a content tab that allows you to see the books, parts, and chapters of your project (unless you don't use these).
A downside: You cannot use other text editors to edit the code other than the Inform 7 GUI itself.
Supported OS: Windows, Mac OS X, most Linux distributions, etc. (check http://www.inform7.com/download/ for more info)
Quest 5
It can probably make some of the most modern games out of everything else in here, which the younger people (or those used to playing graphic games) might like to play, with all the clickable links and visual compasses in the interpreter. It supports images and sounds and has a script that allows you to embed YouTube videos.
It, too, is plenty flexible - but I've found things that it cannot do easily while Inform 7 does it well. But - it's up to you guys what you choose.
The downside is that Quest 5 is relatively new, so there may be a lot of features that can be missing and it may be buggy. But I haven't encountered any bugs (yet).
Supported OS: Windows
A unique feature: There is a code editor along with the visual editor, meaning you can choose to either code, or not. Wow.
A downside:
It is relatively new and buggy and it may lack some features. Or it may not.
ADRIFT 5
Maybe the easiest out of all of these, it still is as powerful. With only a visual interface, it is targeted towards beginners, but the more advanced users can use HTML for descriptions and other advanced features.
Supports images and sounds.
If you are used to Inform 7 and Quest 5, though, you might find it hard to use for the first time, but after a few days (or hours), it's fine (like I did).
A unique feature: There's a spellcheck feature!
A downside:
The WebRunner is still in development, and there seems to be no way of running it on a mobile device other than with the internet.
Supported OS: Windows and Linux
The things these three have in similar is that they support images and sounds.
Although these Toolkits I've listed seems to be more for beginners, even professionals use these. They're free, so why not try them out?
Signing off,
Ally
P.S. You could try ChoiceScript for CYOA-like games. These can be hosted in the Android store and App Store.
