I tried Inform 7 once, years ago, and I didn't like it too much. Probably it was me. I remember struggling with different wordings for my stuff, and with different ways the parser would misunderstand me.
So I guess I prefer Inform 6. Z-engine, definitely, because I rely much on my Palm Centro for playing and also for writing. Also, I don't mind the programming.
I started a little thing once, it was (supposed to become) the story of a slave girl in 18th century South America. Of course she would be tied up a lot, too. And then she would discover some super power of hers: When she is tied up and nude, all men are sort of hypnotized and help her with anything she asks, except untying of course, which would break the spell.
I already had programmed some things, e.g. you could have her wade in the swimming pool, which makes her dress wet. This allows her to enchant and befriend the guard, who helps her remove the wet dress. (You don't want to catch a cold, do you?) And then he allows her to go for a little walk outside in the night; a tied and naked girl wouldn't wander far, would she?
Well, I got stuck on this one, because I thought maybe the story might be a little bit corny, after all. Also I fell into the trap of doing all the programming and postponing the writing, thus "facing a pile of 50 room descriptions to write" (
http://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s51.html) which indeed kills enthusiasm.
I found out that I cannot switch between programming and writing all the time. When I'm programming, I'm not inspired to write good prose, and when I write prose, I don't want to think about variables and counters. So this time, I thought I'd start with a "mock transcript" (
http://raddial.com/if/theory/make_if_fast.html) and program the intelligence later.
My new story is a secret agent story, but from the perspective of the bondgirl. It starts with the protagonist on a beach, having a credit card stuck in the back of her swimsuit, which she uses to buy a pair of sunglasses. Then when she swims in the middle of the bay, she has a cramp and seeks help aboard a ship. She climbs up a rope ladder and overhears a conversation of the ship owner, a certain Dr Doe. (Not sure about the name yet, but of course he has a PhD.)
Then, when she climbs onboard, she is struck unconscious and awakes to find herself hogtied in the cargo compartment. After a while, secret agent Jim Bound (dito about the name) appears and starts to untie her. But he is interrupted and runs away, leaving her with her hands still tied behind her back.
There is a sharp stairrail on which she can cut the rope and free herself, but this is a red herring: As soon as she leaves the cargo compartment, she will be caught and sent back to the hogtie. On the other hand, if she walks around with tied hands, people will assume it's supposed to be like that.
In the end, I plan to have her choose whether she helps Jim Bound or Dr Doe, which results in alternate endings.
So far I've written some funny scenes, e.g. the coffee cooking I have already mentioned. Now I'd like to have more of this stuff, to make some neat puzzles.
I want to write tie-up IF because simply there is none. The only thing I know is a brief scene in Anchorhead (terrific game, BTW!). Oh, and "Spider and Web", but this doesn't really count as tie-up IF for me.
So if you write IF too, please go ahead and include some interesting scenes! I agree, a blindfold scene sounds great. It must be fun to fumble around in darkness, only relying on feel, hear and smell.
What kind of IF do you write?