I7 Thing Creator manual

The Thing Creator (I7TC) is a web form where you fill fields and tick boxes according to the properties of a thing you want to create. The form then gives you the basic code to use and to build on in your I7 coding project. The Thing Creator creates the basic defining code and responses to actions only – it doesn't code the game for you. Anything more complex and the final functionality must be coded in the Inform 7 IDE.

Another way to look at the tool is to see it as a checklist of things that need to be implemented. You are then less likely to forget to implement a reasonable response to something players might try:

Inform 7 is a programming language for creating Interactive fiction games.

Please note that this tool or its author are not affiliated in any way with the Inform 7 development team.

I7 Thing Creator has been released to the Public Domain by its author. This means you can do whatever you want with it without asking a permission first. Though if you re-publish it (with or without modifications), it'd be courteous to credit the original author.

Yes, just save the page (File->Save Page As..) and the file prototype.js to the same directory and it should work as a local copy. Change the main file's extension to .html if it is something else. If you want it to be pretty, save creator.css to the same directory.

Yes you can! Click here for instructions.

Well now that you happen to ask, from the same author there's the IF Transcript Beautifier you can use when your game is in the testing phase to make transcripts look nicer.

Clicking on "doc" takes you to the appropriate page of Inform 7 documentation where you can read more about the property in question.

When you add a property to a thing or make it a certain kind, other properties or kinds might conflict with the new selection. The form automatically selects those properties that must be used with the new selection and deselects those that can't be used with it.

For example a thing cannot be a container and a supporter at the same time, so if you select either one of those, the other will be deselected. Similarly if you mark the thing openable, it will be automatically made a container since only containers are allowed to have that property.

Kinds have properties that are implicitly attached to them, for example a supporter is fixed in place unless otherwise stated. Redundancy is avoided to keep the code readable.

Some actions are very similar and they are often likely to be handled as a single action. You can mark them being grouped so you have to write only one default message that is applied to all actions in the group, instead of writing the same description for each individual action.

It means that the command TIE A TO B is considered to be the same as TIE B TO A.

Write each synonym group on its own line, i.e. each line will become its own "Understand..." sentence:

No, at least not at the moment. If you use a custom kind, you'll have to edit the code by hand.

An "instead of"-rule is usually the safest bet for actions that should always fail with a custom message. For some actions you might want to override the implicit taking action if the thing is fixed in place; for those (e.g. eating) you should use "before...instead"-rule. The form warns you if it thinks your choice is not the best possible. You should always test every action to see if the rule works.