by bryanb » Fri Apr 19, 2019 7:26 am
More seriously, I was thinking today about how differently the IF scene could have developed if something like ZILF with a better name plus the recently released source code had been available in the 90s. Part of the reason Inform got so popular is because people wanted to create their own Infocom-like games and it seemed like the most authentic option at the time, but ZIL is inherently more authentic. I'm glad we've got it now, but I wonder what it could have developed into.
I'm interested in playing new ZIL games, but will you even see them entered in the competition as it exists now? It just won't have the same impact on the community unfortunately, and other development systems will probably remain more attractive for IF creators who want to create old school games but aren't primarily nostalgic for Infocom. Then again, IF has been a sea of niches for as long as I can remember. Maybe the right people will still write the games and the right people will find them and play them. We can hope.
More seriously, I was thinking today about how differently the IF scene could have developed if something like ZILF with a better name plus the recently released source code had been available in the 90s. Part of the reason Inform got so popular is because people wanted to create their own Infocom-like games and it seemed like the most authentic option at the time, but ZIL is inherently more authentic. I'm glad we've got it now, but I wonder what it could have developed into.
I'm interested in playing new ZIL games, but will you even see them entered in the competition as it exists now? It just won't have the same impact on the community unfortunately, and other development systems will probably remain more attractive for IF creators who want to create old school games but aren't primarily nostalgic for Infocom. Then again, IF has been a sea of niches for as long as I can remember. Maybe the right people will still write the games and the right people will find them and play them. We can hope.