Interactive Fiction – An Overview

One complaint that hardcore IF fans have about such derivations from the old school plain text game is that developers often get so caught up in designing the graphics and recording the sound effects that the story line, the most important part of a true interactive fiction game, gets lost in the shuffle.

The difference between such videogames and true IF might be likened to the difference between a book and the movie based on it. You might get some enjoyment out of the flick, but if you want the real story, you pick up the book.

—Interactive Fiction – An Overview (Literary Tease)

My students in “Writing for the Internet” are asked to blog the notes for their in-class oral presentations. Moiria Moira Richardson has posted an excellent overview of interactive fiction.