TADS

What TADS is

TADS is a free authoring system for creating interactive fiction. Authors write in a language resembling C, C++, Java, and JavaScript, with runtime typing, closures, garbage collection, and multiple inheritance. Its Adv3 library provides a game-world model, conversation system, and parser with about 150 predefined verbs. TADS compiles games into portable byte code that can run on systems with a TADS interpreter. Multimedia interpreters support graphics, animation, music, sound effects, hyperlinks, proportional fonts, and formatted text. Games made specifically for Web Play can run in a browser using technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, DOM, Ajax, and HTML 5; the standard library also supports multiple players in a Web game session. Command-line tools are available across platforms, while Windows Workbench combines editing, compiling, running, and debugging in a graphical environment. TADS is free software with published source code, and authors may distribute or sell games they make. The downloads page lists version 3.1.3 as the current release. The project directs questions to an interactive fiction forum and bug reports to its Bug Database.