Gamefic 1.2 and Upcoming Changes
by Gamefic on Dec 16, 2016Version 1.2 of Gamefic and the SDK are on RubyGems. This release features new versions of the CLI executables with inline help and improved error handling. Read more
Blog
Dynamic Entities and Subplots
by Gamefic on Nov 27, 2016A while back I quietly introduced an improvement to dynamic entities. It's always been possible to generate entities at runtime, but for a long time they weren't compatible with snapshots. In other words, any entity created at runtime would be lost in an undo or restore. Gamefic 1.0 was the first release to handle dynamic entities properly in snapshots. The latest version extends this capability with a new feature called subplots. Read more
Version 1.0 of Gamefic and the SDK Are Now Available
by Gamefic on Sep 15, 2016Today I released Version 1 of Gamefic and the Gamefic SDK. This release is significant for several reasons: Read more
Testing Interactive Fiction with Automated Gameplay
by Gamefic on Aug 1, 2016I've been experimenting with player bots for interactive fiction. Besides being a fun exercise, I thought they might be a useful debugging tool. I even thought they might be able to prove the "validity" of a story model, e.g., that the story can never be played into an unfinishable state. I'm not sure that's possible with a non-trivial story, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Read more
Dynamic Conjugation
by Gamefic on Apr 28, 2016The original version of the standard library was hardcoded to use the second person when referring to the player's character, e.g., "You go north." Not anymore. Scripts can access an object that defines grammar rules for the PC through the you method. Read more
Haul and Pull
by Gamefic on Apr 18, 2016The Gamefic project went through a major overhaul this weekend. Most of these changes have been in development for months. Saturday I started merging them into the master branch on the GitHub repo. Read more
Another Weekend, Another Refactoring
by Gamefic on Jun 28, 2015The Director class that handles actions just went through a major overhaul. Most of the changes are internal, so the impact on plot scripts should be minimal. Among the changes: Read more
Reevaluating the DSL
by Gamefic on Jun 21, 2015This weekend I pushed a new repo branch that includes a major refactoring of the plot DSL. The syntax for plot scripts is largely unchanged, but the new code behind it uses a new module called the Stage. I based it on the Clean Room pattern described in Metaprogramming Ruby and further developed by Seth Vargo. Including the Stage module can make any class capable of loading code from a Ruby DSL. Read more
Parsing Questions
by Gamefic on Jun 7, 2015Carolyn VanEseltine's post about parser tutorials inspired me to think about what to do when players ask questions in parser games. From her post: Read more
Gamefic on Pivotal Tracker
by Gamefic on Jun 6, 2015Today I created a public project for Gamefic on Pivotal Tracker. I'll be using it to manage the development of new features and measure progress. Read more
Gamefic is an open-source Ruby framework for adventure games and interactive fiction. Most of the games on this site are playable in your browser for free. Play a game now or learn how to make your own.
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