IFDB can be a little finicky about it, especially when there are links to both the archive and Itch.io, but as long as the Itch.io link is the first link, and as long as the “This is a playable game” checkbox is is checked on the Itch link, the Play Online button will will just link to Itch.io.
(Often people forget to check the “playable game” box on the Itch link, but and do check the box for the archive link. In that case, IFDB thinks that the Itch link is just a non-playable homepage, and so the “Play Online” button will link to the archived version instead.)
Of course, if Itch.io is the only link, as is the case for “Poetic Justice,” then of course IFDB simply links to Itch.io, and that’s that.
FWIW, my main objection to IFDB hosting is lack of ease of update. If I have an update, I want to update it!
Itch has this really handy “butler” thing, which takes care of all updating and making things live with just one command. I don’t even have to login to Itch to update.
That’s the sort of update I’d like to see at IFDB.
Huh? If you’re the author, you 100% need to be logged in on your account to update your game. You can’t change the state of a game, whose files are hosted on itch, while not being connected to your account. It might not be on the itch website itself, but the butler still need access to your account.
I have been following this thread and the argument on whether comp games should be archived automatically on the IFArchive / IFDB.
It comes down to community participation vs author’s rights. I need to give this more thought and potentially set up a poll for ParserComps author’s feelings on this subject.
PS. Author’s rights in addition to a dedicated website…
You can upload your file right there. IFDB does ask you to sign in, but, if you check the box to “Remember me on this computer,” you’ll only have to login one time, ever. Quick and easy.
If you really want to do it from the command line, you certainly can. No login required! (Please do update the email address below to your own, actual email address, so the IF Archive team knows how to contact you.)
I don’t recall what I opted for last year, but I’m not opposed to putting my games on the archive. I think the bigger issue for me is that I tend to write games in straight html5/JS, which means you’re not really downloading a single file to be run in an interpreter–you’re getting a bunch of web files which run in a browser. ParserComp submission last year was actually designed to run on itch because I thought it made some sense.
I guess I wouldn’t mind submitting my games’ source to the archive. (It’s terribly written code, so maybe I do mind.)
I have entered two games into jams, one written with Punyinform and the other Inform 7. My code certainly isn’t inspiring but they are both in the basement on IFDB.
Since your code is not written with “main stream” IF development systems, it may be more study worthy than mundane code like mine.
There are lots of HTML/JS games on the IF Archive!
The only sort of games that really can’t be archived are those that require a custom backend server. But the great majority of HTML IF games don’t. (But even for them you could consider archiving the server software, so that future people could try running their own server if the original one goes down.)
No, but if you’re updating a game that already had an IF Archive link that already had the “playable game” checkbox checked, then the Play Online button will keep working.
IF Archive hosts zips, and has a tool “unbox” than unzips zips and hosts the files unzipped on a separate domain. The zip can contain a whole file subtree. Your top-level file can be called anything, but index.html is often a good choice. It’s best to have just one HTML file at the top level, and then the unboxer will know to open that.
When updating a game, I believe your old zip will be moved to an old directory.
You can specify a version number by typing it in the “about this file” box on the upload form, or, if you’re using curl, in the filedesc line of my sample scirpt.
We can submit old games as long as they haven’t been published anywhere before, right? I made a tiny thing years ago that’s been sitting on my hard drive for ages, so I figured I might finally put it online for this, if it’s allowed.
