The idea came in my mind in mulling this year’s selection of old source to be amnestied; some sources are actually half-baked good ideas (at least IMO) which I’m uncertain if should remain in the backburner or should be amnested (there’s good source there) so the idea came in my mind:
why not a sort of specular version of the amnesty day ? that is, an exhibit of sort where authors put out their more or less incomplete story files, like a may day exhibition fair (hence the proposed name) and see what story and narrative is more liked by people. and can be an occasion for comparing author’s ideas. and if it ignites a major collective debate on new, alternative or improved ideas design & storytelling, well, should be a sort of IF may dance, a fertile ground for new ideas (hence the date and tentative name)
what is not: isn’t a collective betatesting, isn’t a demo showcase, ISN’T ANOTHER COMP !, isn’t a poll on one’s ideas.
I like the idea a lot, but considering many people like to enter games into competitions, especially if the game’s long enough that a half-finished game would be significantly different from a finished version, then doing so could prevent them from entering the competition. It’s less of a “bad idea” thing (which it isn’t, I like the idea) and more of a thing of “how many people are actually going to do it?”.
I think you should keep your ideas to yourself in case you decide to use them later. If you’re absolutely certain that you will never use them, then you must question whether they’re good ideas. If you believe they are, then enter them in the SeedComp seeding round next year. I know, I know, you don’t like using itch.io because it’s too “nosey” (which it’s not), but you could always ask someone else to enter them on your behalf.
seems to me that both Max and Garry have missed the core point…
aside that I will never enter again into the IFComp, so de facto the rules of the IFComp don’t apply to my works, my point is not related to my lesser works, but other people’s abandoned works.
I 'fess up that I actually have embarassing bad code in some lesser/experimental/abandoned work around my HDs, and I guess that I’m at least a decent coder, so, I can’t exclude that at least some fellow has around interesting concepts worth of the amnesty day, but with bad/unreadable/messed-up sources, so why not establish a sort of “binary amnesty day”, which is the actual point ?
(re-read thrice… I’m unsure if I have well-clarified my point, so feel free to ask )
personally I like the idea of having a day where we release old or abandoned source code and create a little environment where we all talk about the little doohickeys and tools we made to accomplish this or that thing. I have some silly code for rotating text in a circle, for instance, and I think erstwhile’s combination system is cool. @\Hituro also whipped up some really fascinating code for me for a game that updates in multiple windows which I hope to use someday… It sounds fun to discuss together and improve upon ideas/execution of code.
The old/abandoned source day is already established (it’s the amnesty day, the first of April) and the thread on the amnesty day is the little environment for talking about these sources & the trickery & tools used in these. as Zarf noted, I propose a binary equivalent; I think that not few fellows feel embarassed about their sources (an understandable feeling, IMO) hence my idea of a “binary amnesty day”, tentative date, first of may, that is, a month after the source amnesty day, hence the tentative name.
I think the issue with a “binary amnesty day” is that unfinished source is a lot easier for players to take an interest in than unfinished binaries. There’s a lot of good IF out there that is finished, and not enough time to play it all; playing through a buggy, unfinished project that won’t ever be improved or completed is less appealing to me, compared to testing something that will be improved, or playing something polished.
Skimming source code to see interesting new techniques often takes only a couple minutes by comparison.
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