[rmc]

From what I've read about SCUMM, it was designed to be very similar to writing a regular script for, say, a TV show.

There's a programming language for writing textual interactive fiction games, Inform 7 ( http://inform7.com/ ), which reads as a natural language. For example, here's part of the "programme" of a game (copied from http://www.hpiweb.com/newmedia/i7/cbrk/source.html )

The Forest is a room. "This forest is cold and damp. Sunset is drawing very near and shelter must be found soon. The only apparent direction to go is north." A room called Before the Castle of the Big Red Key is north of the Forest. "The castle looms before you. Its massive front door has a lock that seems to glow a fiery red. You must continue north past that door. The only other exit is to the south." The big_red_key is here. The description is "It's a big red key." The printed name is "big red key". Understand "big", "red", and "key" as the big_red_key. It unlocks the massive front doorway. The massive front doorway is north of Before the Castle of the Big Red Key and south of the Castle Vestibule. The doorway is a door.

It would be interesting to have a graphical equivalent.

[derefr]

I wouldn't call Inform 7 a programming language, so much as a DSL for entering fact-tuples into a graph database (though some of these tuples do attach "rules" [predefined functions] together using AOP join-points). When you actually need to tell it how to "make things happen", you basically break out into a separate, imperative programming language--which happens to be I7's ancestor, I6.

[rmc]

I know only a little of Inform 7. I somehow thought it was as full featured as Inform 6. What can you do in I6 that you can't do in I7?