Although I managed to get my game The Z-Machine Matter to a intro-level prototype stage a while back, I realized I needed to take a different approach for the next stage of implementation. I realized I need to take a step back from the mechanics and programming and focus more on the characters and story. Maybe better IF writers can mix and match plot and character development while coding in Inform7, but I found I needed to get out of programming mode in order to focus on the story.
The Z-Machine Matter is an old-school murder mystery --an homage to Infocom's "Witness" and "Deadline" among others. The classic "cozy" murder mystery has more structure to it than the average novel and for that reason, I believe it lends itself quite nicely to IF. To make the story work, you've got to haveclear motives for each of the characters, the requisite means & opportunity, evidence, alibis, clues and, of course, a few red herrings to keep the reader guessing. Scrivener makes it easy to define templates that encourage a consistency and thoroughness when you define characters, locations, puzzles and so on. The templates are flexible though, so you're not locked into them.
Although there's nothing I've written using Scrivener that couldn't be written with Microsoft Word or even a generic text editor, I have found that Scrivener's structured approach and tools lend itself to what is needed in defining the key characters, puzzles that are so important in IF. While it's relatively easy to get started with Scrivener, there's a richness (and complexity) to it with plenty of menus, submenus, obscure icons and advanced features. The good news is, you can safely ignore most of these bells & whistles and just focus on the things that matter in your story.
Scrivener is available for Mac and Windows for $45 with an iPad version in development. However, I found the tutorial to be overly quirky and completely inadequate. So I highly recommend the eBook Writing a Novel with Scrivener
If you've used Scrivener or other tools for writing IF, please let me know your thoughts by adding a comment below.
- Scrivener: Main site
- Amazon: Writing a Novel with Scrivener
. Marlowe wrote over 40 books in his career of almost 40 years. 
on my Kindle and was immediately hooked. His style is certainly gritty, but it's also gripping. He's not necessarily writing about good guys, either. His characters can be pretty nasty, but they are not completely without principles. Marlowe worked as an office manager, bookkeeper, PR agent, salesman, and a gambler before settling in on his career as an author. He also befriended some pretty unsavory characters including convicted bankrobber-turned-author Al Nussbaum. In later years, Marlowe actually suffered from one of the biggest noir tropes ever: he had a serious case of Amnesia. 
by Charles Kelly.
, 
, available on Kindle for $7.99. 
" from $9.99 to $3.95 for the Kindle. It's been on my Amazon wish list for a while and so I went ahead and bought it. 
" on 
. So it's nice to see Textfyre go for a more accessible price point. Hopefully they'll sell a few more than they would have otherwise and more readers will get exposed to Interactive Fiction on the Kindle.
as well as a few dozen reissued books, memoirs and biographies. Still, for me the memory of Mad Magazine is still a strong one. It helped hone my sense of satire and arguably ethics and morality. Mad magazine was funny. But it also encouraged readers to question authority, whether it was making fun of politicians, Holllywood, TV, preachers, celebreties, bigots, the rich or comparing cigarette and booze companies with dope dealers. There were no sacred cows. 
. It includes high quality glossy reproductions of some of the best material from Mad from all six decades as well as a dozen high-quality cover prints suitable for framing (or wrapping fish, as they always say.) If you're a fan, check it out. If you don't have the 
, 
tablets. While all of the devices look impressive, the new 
device deserves special recognition. Here's a quick recap: