The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF) is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

charitable organization founded in June 2016 working to maintain, improve, and preserve tools and services used in the creation and distribution of

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

Activities

Since 2016, IFTF operates the

Interactive Fiction Competition The Interactive Fiction Competition (also known as IFComp) is one of several annual competitions for works of interactive fiction. It has been held since 1995. It is intended for fairly short games, as judges are only allowed to spend two hours pl ...

(IFComp), an annual competition for new works from independent creators which has been running since 1995. Since 2017, IFTF operates the Interactive Fiction Archive (IF Archive), an archive preserving the history of interactive fiction which has been operating since 1992. The IF Archive contains websites and documents valuable to the IF community, including the "Inform 6" website and standards such as "the Treaty of Babel",, the

Z-machine The Z-machine is a virtual machine that was developed by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979 and used by Infocom for its text adventure games. Infocom compiled game code to files containing Z-machine instructions (called story files or Z-code ...

, and its successor

Glulx Glulx is a 32-bit portable virtual machine intended for writing and playing interactive fiction. It was designed by Andrew Plotkin to relieve some of the restrictions in the venerable Z-machine format. For example, the Z-machine provides native ...

. Since 2019, IFTF supports the Interactive Fiction Community Forum (IntFiction) at intfiction.org, which has served as a center for interactive fiction community discussion since 2006. Since 2021, IFTF operates the

Interactive Fiction Database The Interactive Fiction Database (IFDB) is a database of metadata and reviews of interactive fiction. In November 2023, the database contained 12,969 game listings, 12,784 member reviews, 51,762 member ratings, and 17,040 registered members. Some ...

(IFDB), a database of metadata and reviews of interactive fiction which was founded by Michael J. Roberts in 2007. Since 2022 IFTF supports the Interactive Fiction Wiki (IFWiki), a community-maintained resource for the history and culture of interactive fiction which was originally set up by David Cornelson in 2004. IFTF supports and hosts the

Twine Twine is a strong Thread (yarn), thread, light String (cord), string or cord composed of two or more thinner strands twisted, and then twisted together (Plying, plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to that of their twist, whic ...

software, initially created by Chris Klimas in 2009.

Organization

Among the members of the Board of Directors are Jason McIntosh (president),

Judith Pintar Judith Pintar is a sociologist and author of interactive fiction. She is also a Celtic harp player and a composer of instrumental music. Professional career Interactive fiction Pintar is the author of CosmoServe, an interactive fiction (IF) th ...

and

Andrew Plotkin Andrew Plotkin (born May 15, 1970), also known as Zarf, is a central figure in the modern interactive fiction (IF) community. Having both written a number of award-winning games and developed a range of new file formats, interpreters, and other ...

. Among the members of the Advisory Board are

Jon Ingold Jon Ingold (born 1981) is a British author of interactive fiction and co-founder of inkle, where he co-directed and co-wrote '' 80 Days'', and wrote ''Heaven's Vault'' and ''Overboard!''. His interactive fiction has frequently been nominated fo ...

Max Gladstone Max Gladstone (born May 28, 1984) is an American fantasy author. He is best known for his 2012 debut novel ''Three Parts Dead'', which is part of ''The Craft Sequence'', his urban fantasy serial ''Bookburners'', and for co-writing ''This Is How You ...

Nick Montfort Nick Montfort is a poet and professor of digital media at MIT, where he directs a lab called The Trope Tank. He also holds a part-time position at the University of Bergen where he leads a node on computational narrative systems at the Center for ...

Brian Moriarty Brian Moriarty (born 1956) is an American video game developer who authored three of the original Infocom interactive fiction titles, ''Wishbringer'' (1985), ''Trinity'' (1986), and ''Beyond Zork'' (1987), as well as ''Loom'' (1990) for LucasArt ...

Jim Munroe Jim Munroe is a Canadian science fiction author, who publishes his works independently under the imprint ''No Media Kings''."Author dumps publisher". ''Peterborough Examiner'', May 6, 2000. Munroe was managing editor at the magazine ''Adbusters' ...

Graham Nelson Graham A. Nelson (born 1968) is a British mathematician, poet, and the creator of the Inform design system for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. He has authored several IF games, including ''Curses'' (1993) and ''Jigsaw'' (1995). Educati ...

and

Emily Short Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer. She is perhaps best known for her debut game ''Galatea'' and her use of psychologically complex non-player characters (NPCs). Short has been called "a visionary in the world of text-based game ...

References

Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation Announced, Takes Over IFComp
, iftechfoundation.org, 30 juni 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2022. Hannah Flynn.
The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation: Interview with Jason McIntosh
, failbettergames.com, 21 July 2016. Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation
, guidestar.org, retrieved 15 July 2022. Legal and Public Documents
, iftechfoundation.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022. Our Mission and Goals
, iftechfoundation.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022. Programs
, iftechfoundation.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022. The Interactive Fiction Competition
, ifcomp.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022. The Interactive Fiction Archive
, ifarchive.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022. Contacting Us
, ifdb.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022. Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation
, ifwiki.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022. twinery.org
, twinery.org. Retrieved 19 June 2022.

External links

* {{official, https://iftechfoundation.org Arts charities Information technology charities