I tardily mention that my video introduction to modern IF makes a guest appearance (alongside a salient M.C. Frontalot video) in Juhana Leinonen’s online demonstration of Vorple, a JavaScript UI library for browser-based IF that he plans to finish and release later this year. In his own words:
Vorple aims to provide a simple way for IF authors to
- add elements that the underlying authoring system might not support, from custom fonts to animation effects to YouTube videos
- access external user interface elements from the game and let the game react to user’s actions in the user interface
- modify the web interpreter’s look and feel for the game’s purposes
- provide supplementary material within the game’s web presentation (manuals, hints, links, maps, feelies etc).
Another goal is to enhance the web interpreters with capabilities like folding away illegal commands, transcript recording, and easy embedding inside other web pages and services. The player would be provided with a set of widgets they could use during the game, for example a notepad or mapping tools.
The tiny demo shows off a number of these features, along with some other very impressive bits of IF-appropriate chrome. Make sure to EXAMINE LAMP and then watch subsequent commands’ text flow around the resulting illustration — sexy stuff.
