Relatively recently the IF community has experienced a bit of a renaissance because of the release of Inform 7, which allows you to program games in the most na

Relatively recently the IF community has experienced a bit of a renaissance because of the release of Inform 7, which allows you to program games in the most natural sounding English I've ever seen in a programming language. Here's a sample: --- "Cave Entrance" The Cobble Crawl is a room. "You are crawling over cobbles in a low passage. There is a dim light at the east end of the passage." A wicker cage is here. "There is a small wicker cage discarded nearby." The Debris Room is west of the Crawl. "You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface. A low wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris here, but an awkward canyon leads upward and west. A note on the wall says, 'Magic word XYZZY'." The black rod is here. "A three foot black rod with a rusty star on one end lies nearby." Above the Debris Room is the Sloping E/W Canyon. West of the Canyon is the Orange River Chamber. --- As you can see, it reads just like regular English, and it's very easy to understand what's going on here. Here's a more complete example: http://inform7.com/learn/man/ex74.html#e74 http://inform7.com/learn/man/ex74.html#e74 And here are some full, playable games (with source): http://www.hpiweb.com/newmedia/ http://www.hpiweb.com/newmedia/ http://inform7.com/learn/complete-examples/ http://inform7.com/learn/complete-examples/ A couple of quick tutorials: http://www.brasslantern.org/writers/howto/i7tutorial.html http://www.brasslantern.org/writers/howto/i7tutorial.html http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beginners_Guide_to_Interactive_Fiction_with_Inform_7/Getting_Started_with_Inform_7 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beginners_Guide_to_Interactive_... The full manual: http://inform7.com/learn/manuals/ http://inform7.com/learn/manuals/ Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inform#Inform_7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inform#Inform_7