Dear Alex Warren, manowar, and the entire textadventures.co.uk team,
From an educational perspective, Squiffy is brilliant for several reasons:
The well-scaffolded bottom-up progression of the learning curve: Squiffy Links > Squiffy Commands > Markdown > HTML > Javascript. No other IF engine does this so masterfully. Not even Twine or Inform 7.
The top-down motivation (i.e. "I really wanna make a game! But how? Start with Squiffy! Learn to code while you're at it!) In contrast, code academy assumes that the learner is already motivated.
Obviously, Squiffy naturally integrates with the language arts.
It would be really wonderful if there was another rung at the top of this learning ladder (#1 above). Could you design some way for Squiffy to feed seamlessly into parser game design?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Quest allow Gamebooks similar to those produced by Squiffy?
Presumably once and individual had mastered the concepts in Squiffy, they could apply them to a Gamebook in Quest. This would then dovetail quite nicely into parser based games?
Yes, thetruespin, I agree that's a good way to go. I should have been more specific and explained that I want to make a Mandarin language parser game. The trouble is that Quest and Inform 7's parsers only seem to be available in English and Spanish. Squiffy is extremely versatile, and does not require almost any English.
It is easy to place a responsive textbox in Squiffy. But turning that into a 2-word parser is a much more complicated matter.
I respectfully disagree with the idea of adding parser capabilities to Squiffy.
Quest does exactly that, and Squiffy is a lot easier and more intuitive just because of that.
I am very happy with Squiffy maintaining its Choose-Your-Own-Adventure orientation, and would in fact be turned off it it were ever turned into a parser system.
Ah, I see what you're saying, paravantis. I don't want Squiffy to become a parser system. Rather, I want a manageable way for Squiffy to take information from text input boxes and interpret it. I already do this with "{if text_input=PreciseKeyword:You guessed the correct word to type. Here's the game's response.}" I'd like Squiffy to be able also to understand "precisekeyword" or "precisekeyword." or "Imprecisekeyword!" without having to make {if} statements for every foreseeable variation.
Pipe dream, I know.