IF Tools

I was asked a while back about Interactive Fiction games and why I used Quest instead of Inform 7. I know I looked at both a few years back when planning my Interactive Text unit. I remember thinking that the script block system of Quest was close to the block programming structure of Scratch and thought this might be helpful for my students.

I found this description of someone being helped with an if statement in Inform 7. I have added the bolded objects and am assuming that the player has moved into a room with a Zombie in it. I also changed the last line as my Zombie has no antennae!
if the player is carrying the knife begin;
say "You brutally hack at the zombie until it is an unrecognisable pulp. By some magickal means the slimy puddle left behind morphs into a brass key.";
move zombie to the void;
move brass key to location;
stop the action;
otherwise;
say "The [monster] waves its antennae menacingly. You decide you'd be better not messing with this one." instead;
end if.

In Quest this might look like this.

zombie

Probably, in the end, it really doesn’t matter what you use, an if statement is an if statement. To really get a better idea I would need to try to make a three room game with this basic story in Quest, Inform 7 and Scratch. Next step I guess.