I was just thinking back to when I was building IF games in TADS. I had a couple cool ideas and enjoyed pushing the bounds and the rules of the TADS engine. But I really wasn't learning anything useful. I still love TADS, what an amazing piece of software. I would be delusional if I thought I could ever rival it.
I was thinking about how it was suggested to me that I build my own IF engine. The idea seemed ludicrous. What a waste of time. Why would I want to reinvent the wheel? True, having an IF engine and client that are Java based would be cool. And I could later port the client to mobile OS's etc. Hmm .... And I could later attempt the impossible, a networked multiplayer IF game!
But wait... There's no market for IF, so it will just be another hobby project. How is that any different than sitting around building TADS games?
Well fast forward a LOT of days. I now have a pretty robust client IF application, and an admin tool for interpreting and compiling games. I have written my own data notation language and written an interpreter for that, as well as a parser to turn that data into a game. So my engine can use either XML or Norman to define games - and their help systems.
I've learned a ton about Java, and its weird nuances (Silently crashing etc). And have become a much stronger developer. So even if this does end up being a hobby project forever, I'm at least doing far more than just sitting around building IF games.
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