The IFComp - Does Anyone Here Care?

[David Whyld]

In case people haven't noticed, the IFComp 2011 has been running for a week now and there's been quite a bit of discussion about it over on the IF Forum (http://www.intfiction.org/forum/index.p ... a18ad810d5) but another place I expected to see some discussion of it was here. And there hasn't been. Not one bit. Does no one here care about the single biggest interactive fiction competition in the world? There are three ADRIFT games entered in it, y'know.

[Duncan_B]

Of course I'm aware and I care. But October is also the month I'm expected to get a thesis committee and proposal together, so I'm busy. I will make an effort to get to them, but it cannot be immediate. I apologize. Do expect to hear from me, though.

[rotter]

Busy playing - the games that is!

[Campbell]

Absolutely! Btw, I updated WebRunner, fixing quite a few v4 compatability bugs. Haven't tested it on your game, but I'm sure there can't be too much wrong with it now.

[phkb]

I'm in the comp, so I have to be careful what I say about the games/comp/etc.

[Campbell]

I'm in the comp

You certainly are...

[Po. Prune]

I've been down with a sore throat most of this week (Still not 100% recovered)

I've only been looking throught the website once or twice, but I'm not sure if I'm too happy that it's allowed to update your game(s) during the comp.
If someone plays a game and gives it a low score or a high one for that matter, and the author then changes the game, that score may not be "correct" anymore.

[Lazzah]

The above question stung me a bit, although I am primarily a game programmer and have not actually played a text/I.F. adventure for many years. I have enough trouble finding the time to work on my own games, let alone play games written by other authors! However, I thought I would give it a go, but I have a question:

Are the ADRIFT games meant to run under ADRIFT 5? I downloaded "Cursed" and whilst playing it there are various Keydown Errors occuring and some odd things appearing on screen. Also the cursed_hints program will not work when I make the appropriate inputs.

[Po. Prune]

The above question stung me a bit, although I am primarily a game programmer and have not actually played a text/I.F. adventure for many years. I have enough trouble finding the time to work on my own games, let alone play games written by other authors! However, I thought I would give it a go, but I have a question:

Are the ADRIFT games meant to run under ADRIFT 5? I downloaded "Cursed" and whilst playing it there are various Keydown Errors occuring and some odd things appearing on screen. Also the cursed_hints program will not work when I make the appropriate inputs.

I know for a fact that RtC is the only game created using the V.5 developer.
All games, as I understand it, should be playable online. I played Cursed using the V.4 runner and had no problems.

[Campbell]

The two v4 entries don't run properly on 5.0.20. They run reasonably well on 5.0.21 (which WebRunner is currently on), but I haven't yet released as exe's yet.

[Po. Prune]

The two v4 entries don't run properly on 5.0.20. They run reasonably well on 5.0.21 (which WebRunner is currently on), but I haven't yet released as exe's yet.

And when are you releasing the 5.0.21?
Impatient? me? Never!!

[David Whyld]

Only Prune's game is V5, the others are V4. Unfortunately, if you try to open them with V5 it doesn't warn you of this.

And yes, I can't say I think it's fair that authors can update games during the comp. What's likely to happen is that people will criticise a certain aspect of the game and the author will go and change it accordingly before the comp deadline is reached. I think the intention behind the rule was so that bugs could be fixed during the comp*, but I see on the IF Forums that people are actually introducing new features in games. Bad idea. Out of sheer spite, I'm going to play the first version of each game and write my reviews based on them. If bugs have been fixed, features added, etc, tough.

* Which I still think is a bad idea. Shouldn't bugs have been fixed BEFORE you even submitted your game to the comp in the first place?

[Campbell]

I agree. That's what testing is all about. I daresay if it doesn't go down too well they'll change the rules back again for next year.

[Campbell]

And when are you releasing the 5.0.21?

Well I could do whenever. I was waiting to see if there were any other biggish bugs to fix from the v4 games before doing a new exe release. If I can't find any others, I'll probably get this out fairly soon.

[Lazzah]

I don't actually think I have v.4 on my laptop any more.

I also agree that games should be playtested before inclusion in a competition, I would not dream of releasing a game that had not been playtested to my satisfaction. Mind you, how easy - or hard - is it to get playtesters for ADRIFT games? I am going to have to ask for volunteers when I finish "Fortress of Fear".