FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

What is ADRIFT?

ADRIFT stands for "Adventure Developer and Runner - Interactive Fiction Toolkit". It is a Microsoft Windows based system for creating and playing interactive fiction. The system was created and is still supported by Campbell Wild. There are two programmes, developer and runner. The runner (current version run500.exe) is used to play Adrift games, and will work with most games written with Adrift 3.9 and 4 as well as version 5. The developer (current version dev500.exe) is used to create new Adrift 5 games, and can also convert most older version games to version 5.

What is interactive fiction?

A fictional story in which the player becomes one of the characters in the story and controls their actions, changing the way that the story progresses. They are also called "adventure games" and are largely text based, although graphics and sound are often used. Interaction can be limited to examining objects, talking to characters (often called NPC - non player character) with the story. In some games you can be involved in fighting, though not normally to the extent of a role-playing game.

What other systems are available for writing I.F.?

• TADS 3

Acronym for the Text Adventure Development System, created as a shareware package in 1987 and then released as freeware in 1996. It uses a programming language which resembles C and Java. TADS is a powerful object-oriented language with high-level string and list datatypes.

• HUGO

Hugo is an abbreviation for the Hugo Interactive Fiction Development System, a freeware programming language developed by Kent Tessman for creating IF games. Its structure and style of programming is similar to Inform 6 and TADS 2, making use of both attribute-setting/clearing and class inheritance in defining objects. It inherits Inform's strong "object tree" structure in dealing with manipulation of objects.

• Inform 7

Inform 7 is an interactive fiction authoring system. It is notable for its use of a subset of natural language and for being rule based, rather than object based.

• ALAN

An acronym for Adventure LANguage, Alan is an authoring system designed to make it easier for people unfamiliar with programming to write IF, or text-adventure games. The language features a self-documenting, English-like syntax similar to COBOL, and several built-in classes of objects commonly used in IF. Version 3 of Alan comes with complete object orientation, inheritance and an extensive library.

Why should I use ADRIFT?

Most of the other systems for writing I.F. are very similar to programming languages, and hence need to be learned before you can start writing I.F. ADRIFT has a graphical user interface (GUI) which allows you to create adventures quickly and easily by filling in text boxes, selecting checkboxes, and choosing items from drop down lists. It is unique in that no programming is required, yet it is very powerful allowing the creation of complex adventures. ADRIFT is very simple to understand and learn.

Adrift 5.0 is currently in Beta. What does that mean?

Some of the more advanced features have not been finished yet or may not work as expected. The current version can however be used to create complex adventures

How much will it cost me?

Adrift 5.0 is completely free. If you do want to contribute to further development you can make a donation using paypal on the Adrift web site