One-Month Intensive Workshop in Interactive Fiction

A Sample Syllabus

Nick Montfort
http://nickm.com


(For use during an independent study period, during a summer
session, or in a college that has one-month intensive classes.)

Using Inform, a free, object-oriented programming language with
C-like syntax that was developed specifically for interactive
fiction (IF), students will create three IF works over four
weeks, while interacting with important works in the form and
discussing them from the standpoint of IF creators -- those who
both write and program of IF works. Students will also read
scholarship about IF.

Prerequisites: Programming experience, familiarity with
interactive fiction.

Texts:

1. Montfort, Nick. Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to
Interactive Fiction. MIT Press, 2003. We will read and discuss 
this during the first several classes.

2. Nelson, Graham. Inform Designers Manual, Fourth Edition. IF
Library, 2001. This will be an essential reference for everyone
as we work in Inform; it also contains some good writing about IF
which we will discuss in class.


A computer lab could suffice for this class, but it would be
ideal if students had their own notebook computers on which to
develop. The possibility of such a setup is made greater by the
fact that very old notebooks (without question, 386- and
486-based systems) are powerful enough for developing IF in
Inform. Even scrounged notebooks (which might be available in
closets around campus) running DOS would allow students to carry
their work around with them at all times and show it to others
during testing.

Licensed copies of all the IF works to be read must be available;
in effect simply this means that the "Masterpieces of Infocom" CD
must be owned by each of the students (they could purchase it as
if it were a required text; it costs about $15 and can be
downloaded from a site rather than shipped to the buyer) or the
department must own a copy of it for each student. The other
works are either free or (in the case of Mindwheel) it is
impossible to purchase licensed copies. We could arrange access
to two licensed copies of Mindwheel owned by the instructor, if
no other arrangements could be made.

WEEK 1
- Interact with Adventure (Woods & Crowther, 1972-77), Zork
(mainframe version, a.k.a. "Dungeon," Blank, Lebling, Anderson &
Daniels 1977-79), and Jigsaw (Nelson, 1995). Student
presentations on each.
- Read Inform Manual (or use it to learn Inform); Read various
articles including IEEE Zork article; Read Chapters 1-3 of Twisty
Little Passages
- Learn Inform with reference to Adventure, Zork, and Jigsaw
Inform source code (after completing readings of the three) and
with reference to the tutorial game, Ruins.
- Write & program a small treasure-hunt in an underground or
indoor setting. This should be a modification or adaptation of an
existing game for which the source code is available -- the goal
here is to learn Inform and see what is easy and hard to do it,
not to create a complete and stunning work.

WEEK 2
- Read Mindwheel (Pinsky, 1984), Wishbringer (Moriarty, 1985) and
A Mind Forever Voyaging (Meretzky, 1985). Student presentations
on each.
- Read Chapters 4-6 of Twisty Little Passages
- Write & program a work in which a character is represented as a
setting (as in Mindwheel) that is transformed over time (as in
Wishbringer and A Mind Forever Voyaging).

WEEK 3
- Read Photopia (Cadre, 1998), Trinity (Moriarty, 1985), and In
The End (Mason, 1996). Student presentations on each.
- Read Chapters 7-8 of Twisty Little Passages
- Begin main project and complete writing & programming of the
"whole" work (so that it can be played from start to finish).

WEEK 4
- Read Little Blue Men (Gentry, 1998), Suspended (Berlyn, 1983),
and Varicella (Cadre, 1999). Student presentations on each.
- Read Chapter 10 of Twisty Little Passages
- Test & expand main project.
- Present additional ideas for future projects for discussion
using programmed mock-ups.

"Interact with" means "play through to a 'winning' conclusion,
reading all the text produced." Students will be asked not to use
walkthroughs or "solves" -- these are ordinary parts of the
game-playing experience, but are not conducive to learning about
the difficulty and ease of puzzles and the types of
puzzle-solving activity that players go through. Instead, they
will be strongly encouraged to consult one another for help.

By the end of the course students will each have had extensive
experience with twelve important IF works and will have created
three works themselves -- one a substantial project (although not
necesarially large in the size of its simulated landscape or
intricate in the organization of its puzzles and plot) that 
should be suitable for release and enjoyment by the IF community 
and other members of the public.