Graham Nelson
Graham Nelson
Graham A. Nelsonis a British mathematician and poet and the creator of the Inform design system for creating interactive fictiongames. He has also authored several IF games, including the acclaimed Cursesand Jigsaw, using the experience of writing Curses in particular to expand the range of verbs that Inform is capable of understanding. He has been described by The New York Times as "ornately literate."...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMathematician
english-mathematician hold serious
I have been working on a more serious game, called 'Jigsaw', for about 18 months, but don't hold your breath. it'll be a while arriving.
english-mathematician gathering slow
Once the announcements were actually heard, there was a slow but gathering response. by the end of the first year, an avalanche.
beginning critics english-mathematician enjoyed frequently generation watching
It's frequently over-praised now, and I've enjoyed watching a generation of 'angry young men' critics beginning to say, well what's so good?
broken-heart care fortnight
For a fortnight nobody at all emailed me, or posted a follow-up. Doesn't anyone care, I thought? It turned out my newsreader was broken, and hadn't posted at all.
fundamentals way fiction
The 'interactive fiction' format hasn't changed in any fundamental way since the early 1970s, in the same way that the format of the novel hasn't since 1700.
fighting player games
Players very widely disagree with me about what's hard and what's easy. and in a way, 'I won, but it was a fight' is the best compliment a game can receive.
trying way easy
I try to make puzzles range all the way from easy to hard, and to leave many open at once.
april ends curse
At the end of April I archived 'Curses' and Inform, and announced them on the newsgroups.
attic builds continue deliberate division english-mathematician far means middle neat player possibilities prologue rooms though
A deliberate choice on my part was for the player to continue to find new possibilities in the early Attic rooms far into the game. I think this builds atmosphere, though it means there's no neat division of the prologue from the middle game.
english-mathematician grown inform produce
By the new year of 1994, it had grown up into Inform 4 and could produce games twice as large.
alphabet english-mathematician eventually found full hour later rather screen shifting suddenly toy understood until
Eventually I found it had been working all along-but didn't show anything on screen until it had the first full page of text. I inserted 30 new lines, and suddenly my toy said 'hEllO woRlD'. An hour later I understood alphabet shifting rather better!