About a dozen people tell me they have what sound like significant works
in progress, but how many of these will be finished we must wait and see.
For what it's worth, I'm about 800f the way to my next.
>
> Well I am working on one at the moment. I don't want to say to much about
> it because it don't want to create any unsustainable hype. When I have
> finished it and some helpful volunteers out there have done some beta
> testing I intend to dump it on if-archive, saturate the newsgroups with
> hype and wait for a reaction. It will be freeware.
Well, good for you, Brendon.
> : I'm currently about 75 0one with a game whose working title is 'The
> : Institute: Part 1 - Midnight Deadline' (and is entirely unlike any other
> : games about college life, I hope). I plan to include a very readable
> : manual and plenty of trinkets which will also provide copy protection,
> : and am considering distribution possibilities. Are any other authors
> : considering selling their games, or "jazzing" them up? If so, what
> : methods of distribution, packaging, cost, etc. are people thinking about?
>
> I, personally, would feel uncomfortable charging for a game written with
> inform. If I were to make a commercial game I would definitely use TADS
> instead. This is not because TADS is better but because TADS is a
> commercial product with a definite licensing agreement. Inform and its
> interpreters were written by others who donated their time to a hobby
> freely, and it seems a little unfair to them to make money out of their
> efforts. Also the zmachine specifications are actually owned by Activision
> so their could be serious legal ramifications, although the actual chances
> that activision could be bothered are slim.
I'd just like to say that as the author of Inform, I wouldn't feel
uncomfortable about this (well, it would be kind to send me a copy)
and that I don't believe there are legal ramifications to speak of,
and this has been the attitude I've had from people in Activision
(who in any case consider the format to be dead).
It's not as if one uses any of their code whatever, after all.
What would bother me more, in some ways, would be for people to consciously
avoid Inform for reasons of not wanting to exploit it, with the result that
it falls into disuse. I wrote it to be used! But it's a kind thought.
Graham Nelson