HUGO v1.1--A better announcement


7 Jul 95 16:22:50 -500

A couple of people have e-mailed me to ask exactly what Hugo is and where
they can find it. Here is a better answer than I've given in the last
couple of posts:

Hugo is an interactive-fiction design system, including a custom
programming language, compiler, and interpreter/engine. In the past,
I've suggested that Hugo is to Inform and Logo is to Pascal. What this
means is that it includes many ideas from the basic intentions of
Inform (and the Infocom Z-machine, as well as other similar systems)
with the idea in mind that it is possible to design a more accessible,
less daunting way of designing text adventures. (There were other
considerations, such as the fact that Hugo v1.1--the current version--
is about halfway to an integrated, CD-ROM-based commercial game
engine, and that it is rather expandable upon demand.) Hence Hugo
was born.

It can be gotten via anonymous FTP from ftp.gmd.de in the directory
if-archive/programming/hugo. Right now only a PC executable is
available, but all sources for both the compiler and engine are
posted, so ports should soon be available to other systems as
interest demands. You'll also need the .H and .G files from the
/library directory, and the .HUG files (i.e. the actual programs
written in Hugo) from /examples, as well as MANUAL.TXT in the main
/hugo directory.

Hugo incorporates a number of touches which are intended to
increase interactivity with characters and other game elements in
order to make a game more of a story. Its parser is powerful,
pre-programmed, and customizable, and it includes a number of
powerful engine functions and pre-packaged object classes.

Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Kent Tessman as400477@orion.yorku.ca