To start things off, I have narrowed down my options for a platform.

I am trying to choose between parser based IF (Inform) and hyperlink/CYOA style IF (Twine).

Each platofrm comes with it's own expectations about world building, but they also have very distinct play styles and will conjure differing expectations from the player.

If I do things in Inform, I'll be building a map first and foremost. I will then populate that map with NPCs, and objects. I can have certain events happen on timers, and have other events happen when the player is in a specific location and meets certain criteria (enough spoons, right item, specific knowledge.)

Building the game this way would be more like traditional programming. It's something I'm quasi-familiar with. Parser IF, though, carries expectations with it, and this game wouldn't meet them all

Specifically, I don't actually want to care about inventory beyond a few key items. I don't want to have to code up interactions for unexpected verb//noun combinations. I'm not looking to simulate the whole spaceship. I'm looking to tell a specific story in a way that a computer game can do better than a regular novel.

I'm worried that the traditional conventions of parser based #interactivefiction would get in my way.

OTOH, I'm not even remotely sure how I would structure this game if it was not structured around rooms.

I said that it would be "Event" structured in a previous toot. That's not exactly wrong, but I think it may carry with it a little bit of railroading, which I don't want.

I want the world to feel fairly well developed. I want the player to be able to explore. To look around. To wander.

To that end, if I build it in Twine, I'm concerned that I will lose some of the openness that I would be afforded from a parser based game.

I have no idea how a Twine NPC would work.

(Fabricationist DeWit Remakes the World has a location based topography, and an excellent NPC in it. It can be done, I just don't know how.)