经过再三的确认,尽管有许多证据表明此前已经有不少国内的大佬通读过这本书了,但似乎并没有哪位有雅兴做出来过中文译本。 于是乎lz得已有幸来翻译,lz作为学生难免有诸多错漏,还请读到这篇文章的您不吝斧正。 "writing with Inform"/《用Inform书写故事》(暂译)这本书是tutorial性质的文档,作为Inform7内嵌的两本文档之一,主要起到教程的作用。其第一张主要是熟悉Inform的历史和软件界面,这部分内容lz就不做翻译了。以下的内容会从第二章——源代码文本开始。
第二章——源代码文本 2.1——创建世界 交互式小说的设计,可以被分为两个相关联的行为。一方面是创造在剧本开始时出现的世界:事物都在哪里,它们是什么。另一方面是指定剧本的规则,它决定玩家如何与新创建的世界进行交互。一个新建的Inform项目本身是空白且没有形式的,也可以说,一切内容都还没有被创建:但它仍会遵循预先定义好的数百个标准规则。[1] 创建事物和制定规则之间的划分在inform源文本中也同样可以见到。世界的创建是通过陈述无规则的事实来完成的。例如: The wood-slatted crate is in the Gazebo. The crate is a container. Inform将这样的句子称作“断言”。这里的动词总是用一般现在时态书写的(因此木箱”是“,而不是“将要”)。进一步的例子如下: Mr Jones wears a top hat. The crate contains a croquet mallet. 以"is"、"wears"和"contains"为形式的三个词属于Inform内建的基本动词。内建的断言动词并不多,其中最重要的是"be"、"have"、"carry"、"wear"、"contain"和"support"(如果需要,创建更多的断言动词也是可行的)。 这些断言描述的世界,只是故事的开始的状态:剧本开始时发生的事情就是另一回事了。如果有人捡起木箱把它带走了,那它就不会在露台上了。Jones先生自然也可以脱下他的帽子。 译者注: [1] 见安装文件夹中的Internal/Extensions/Graham Nelson/Standard Rules.i7x
附原文: §2.1. Creating the world Designing an interactive fiction can be divided into two related activities. One is the creation of the world as it appears at the start of play: where and what everything is. The other is to specify the rules of play, which shape how the player interacts with that initially created world. A new Inform project is void and without form, so to speak, with nothing created: but it starts with hundreds of standard rules already in place. The same division between creating things, and laying down rules, is visible in Inform source text. The creation of the world is done by making unconditional factual statements about it. For example, The wood-slatted crate is in the Gazebo. The crate is a container. Inform calls sentences like these "assertions". The verb is always written in the present tense (thus the crate "is", not "will be"). Further examples are: Mr Jones wears a top hat. The crate contains a croquet mallet. The words "is", "wears" and "contains" are forms of three of the basic verbs built in to Inform. There are only a few built-in assertion verbs, of which the most important are to be, to have, to carry, to wear, to contain and to support. (As we shall see, further assertion verbs can be created if needed.) The world described by these assertions is the starting condition of the story: what happens when play begins is another matter. If somebody picks up the crate and walks off with it, then it will no longer be in the Gazebo. Mr Jones may remove his hat.