It's an important point not to underestimate though the knowledge required to create a text adventure even with something like Inform, which I think should be a first choice since it creates Z-machine compatible files (the Infocom format). It's still a language with specific syntax. The other issue in text adventure creation is the script. Let's say a typical short story is 20 pages. The script then for a text adventure version might be 60 - 80 pages.

Here's a sample script page for Amnesia, which gives an idea of some of what must be considered: http://cgw.vintagegaming.org/amnesia/IMG_0217.jpg

I would think for a first text adventure project and in the interest of learning the language and the possibilities of the language as well as the ins and outs of the actual writing (and naturally creating a compelling experience), that the actual "story" part should only be three to five pages, so the actual text adventure script could stay in the 15 - 20 page range. That's probably about all that would be manageable on the high end for the first time. I think inspiration for brevity could be taken from our popular one paragraph short story "festival": http://www.armchairarcade.com/neo/node/1173

As Emily Short's "famous" Galatea proved that having a "hook", no matter how short* the game, is the key to IF success: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/galatea/

* While Galatea seems short, it's actually a HUGE script in comparison to most IF works, but the point is one of perception

And a thorough description of Galatea in the Wikipedia format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatea_(computer_game)

Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.