The year 2020 was a strange one. Notwithstanding the worsening effects of the pandemic, a chance encounter with Learning ZIL and related news (in 2019), struck a chord. It became the the spark that (re)ignited my interest in gamebooks.
I imagine that anyone who's had any fond memories or nostalgic about the early, text computer adventure games of the late 70's and early 80's, would be excited about the prospect of making similar, Infocom-inspired games. I too, had such dreams of glory. I was confident: I was armed and ready with some newfound ZIL knowledge.
Right in the middle of the year 2020, I set about making such a game, set in the Andrej Sapkowski's Witcher universe. In fact, my prototype was essentially a shameless ZIL-reworking of Witcher 3: TheWild Hunt by CD Projekt RED. For days, I threw myself into this hobby. Then it dawned on me: I couldn't write a story to back up my ZIL game programming know-how. Sure, I could write some "cool" games with ZIL. Without a good story, it'll be a pointless exercise.
Unfazed but hovering over the brink, I stepped back and re-evaluated the situation. I could not drop ZIL. I've learned too much and have gotten far into the hobby already. However, I could not move forward either. But the power of ZIL could not be undone. Having familiarized myself with many aspects of ZIL, I was amazed that it provides a lot of things that would otherwise involve "reinventing the wheel", had I chosen another language.
I would not let my ZIL-fu to go to waste.
Stepping back allowed me, I decided to scale down my dreams... Besides, there was one other thing that intrigued me about ZIL. I entertained the idea that it is possible to create other types of interactive fiction with ZIL. ZIL in the Infocom days was used primarily to make parser based games, the language itself has enough features to make interactive fiction's other sibling: choice-based games.
While choice-based games also needed a good story to succeed, I was more fortunate in this regard: the 80's and early 90's provided enough materials for me in the form of gamebooks.
Note: The story of gamebooks have been recounted in livelier and more detail by people greater than me. I will not make an attempt where others have already succeeded. Instead I will link it here in the coming weeks.
So this is where my story starts: ZIL, Setback, and Gamebooks. This blog will document stuff that I learned about programming game books. It started with ZIL and right now, it continues with Simple DirectMedia Layer Library. This blog will not profess to be the best in its class. What I write here, I will make no claims as the only way to do things. Instead, it will be an exposition of my thoughts, troubles, (shrug) insights (shrugs) as I set about adopting my favourite gamebooks to the digital age.
That said, advanced thanks to those coming along for the journey...
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