This is my first post before diving deeper into both my thoughts and efforts around interactive fiction. It will provide an overview of where I am and where I’d like to go.

Let me begin by saying that my definition of “interactive fiction” may or may not be the same as anyone else’s. The term has been applied to such disparate concepts as parser-based “text adventures” and hyperlink-based “choose your own adventure” or “gamebook” creations. In fact, if you look at the Wikipedia entry for “Interactive Fiction”, it begins with the definition that IF “use[s] text commands to control characters and influence the environment.” It states later that the term “can also be used to refer to” gamebooks. There has always been a bit of a divide between those two camps.

For my own purposes, I consider “interactive fiction” as hewing closely to the name – fiction that is interactive. That’s it. It can include all of the above and more – where “more” can include new ways to make fiction interactive that might not even have been conceived yet. If it’s not clear yet, I have my own ideas about the types of IF works (“games”? “pieces”?) that I’d like to create.

I won’t define IF for you, but I hope the things explored under this umbrella can provide food for thought, if nothing else. The majority of ideas discussed here will be in relation to my “ResponsIF” system, a response-based interactive fiction engine written in JavaScript, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be applied to other systems or just considered in general. You don’t have to use ResponsIF or even have a desire to do so in order to take something from all of this.

With that, I’ll end this general overview, and we can get down to business.

(For those interested, the latest version of “ResponsIF” can be found here: https://github.com/jaynabonne/responsif)