Broadcasting IF Comp 2015 on Twitch

Competitions IFComp
1

Just in time for the IF Comp

I’m going to take the time to play through games and broadcast them on Twitch, Friday at 4pm Central. It’ll be my first time trying out twitch Twitch, so it’ll be a fun experiment! Come watch at the address below:

http://www.twitch.tv/lglasser

Here’s my randomly generated playlist. I’ll try to ping authors when I’m getting to their games:

Seeking Ataraxia
Pit of the Condemned
Grandma Bethlinda’s Variety Box
GROWBOTICS
The Speaker
The Man Who Killed Time
Scarlet Sails
Grimm’s Godfather
Untold Riches
Brain Guzzlers from Beyond!
Cat Scratch
Nowhere Near Single
The Sueno
Map
I Think The Waves Are Watching Me
Onaar
The Insect Massacre
Taghairm
Arcane Intern (Unpaid)
Final Exam
Unbeknown
Kane County
The King and the Crown
Questor’s Quest
Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory
Second Story
To Burn in Memory
In The Friend Zone
Much Love, BJP
Capsule II - The 11th Sandman
Pilgrimage
Duel
Cape
5 Minutes to Burn Something!
Gotomomi
Switcheroo
Sub Rosa
The War of the Willows
The Baker of Shireton
TOMBs of Reschette
Midnight. Swordfight.
Ether
Forever Meow
Koustrea’s Contentment
Summit
Darkiss - Chapter 1 - the Awakening
Life On Mars
Birdland
A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood
Recorded
Crossroads
SPY INTRIGUE
The Problems Compound

2

Whoa! Cool! I’m gonna have to miss the beginning of it, looks like, but if you make sure to turn on the “record VOD” option (or whatever it’s called) before starting, then I and any other latecomers/schedule-conflict-ers will be able to go back and catch up?

Also, when do you plan to stream until, stopping-point-wise? Because I don’t think it’s actually possible to finish that entire whopping list of games in one evening (unless maybe you use walkthroughs for all of them and read very fast!).

3

Are you going to be playing a few minutes of each game at a time then moving on to the next, or do you plan on playing each thing to completion (hopefully not in one sitting!)

4

I plan to play as long as I can (hopefully until 10pm, with a dinner break) each game to completion.

I’ll take stabs at it over multiple days: Probably Fridays, around the same time, but if I’m feeling moved, I might make a weekend out of it.

5

ooh, awesome! thanks so much!

6

Awesome! fistbump I’ve been (veeeeery slowly) Youtubeing some of my favs. There need to be more IF videos.

Also I am (gulp) at the top of your list. I’ll be stuck at work when you’re streaming but I might try to sneak in if I can to say hello.

7

Haha, such weird RNG!

I’ll definitely be archiving the streams, so you all can catch it all later, if you want.

8

Wow! This is awesome; I look forward to it! [emote]:D[/emote]

9

i on the other hand seem to have been…

puts on sunglasses

laid off from the RNG factory

10

Starting in 2 minutes. :3

11

Well, that went pretty well. Except it didn’t archive like it was supposed to. [emote]:([/emote] Sorry. Not bad for the only major technical difficulty?

I’ll do another round next week, Friday at the same time.

Here’s a quick recap:

I really loved Seeking Ataraxia : It did a great job of conveying the emotions and the popup was my favorite mechanic. Just really perfect when it came up. (I covered my mouth with my hand). One mechanic I got stuck on was the "see the therapist [you win!] / don’t see the therapist [you lose] button. It’s a difficult design problem, because not seeing the therapist is tempting in real life, but not at all in a video game where you’re removed. One game that it reminded me of was a game (name forgotten) about dealing with microaggressions when black, and you have the option of calling out shady behavior or letting it pass, and every time you let it pass, your stress rises, making it more likely that when you get called out the next time, you get arrested.

I beat Pit of the Condemned : had fun mapping it out, and was pleasantly surprised to find I only needed one trap to take down the monster. I found the setting interesting - the whole town got taken over by the monster?

Grandma Bethlinda’s Variety Box : wished it had graphics? Tapped out early since I didn’t like pure puzzle.

GROWBOTICS : Really loved this game. Did 2 playthroughs. Really liked seeing something unique come to IFComp.

The Speaker : Really interesting. It pulled me in a lot of different ways and I always felt uncomfortable with all of my options, in a good way. The game ended a bit before anything played out, though.

The Man Who Killed Time : Felt like it ended just as it was starting. Pretty interesting setting though, “A Gritty Dr. Who.”

Scarlet Sails: Oh, so much fun! I failed miserably at being a good pirate, trying too hard to be Lawful Good, and then I got eaten by mermaids. But this was thoroughly implemented, well-written, and well-paced.

Grimm’s Godfather: Great for a class piece. And pictures! I chose death as my godfather.

Untold Riches: Great pacing, super cute voice, loved that it was so quick and easy. And that the map was simple enough to easily keep track of.

[left off there…]

12

I was able to sneak on at work and catch most of you playing my game (Seeking Ataraxia) and I just want to say THANK YOU for doing this, watching someone play it was so incredibly helpful to me and I got great feedback.

I said this in my post-mortem, but basically what happened is I had originally planned it to be much more of a resource management sim (stress vs energy), but I got bogged down in technical details with state-tracking…it was just too ambitious for a first game. So I ended up submitting sort of the ‘neutered’ version (because I really wanted to just have SOMETHING in the comp). But it was super interesting to see you go through and what you were thinking and how you made the various choices. Thanks again :3

13

@GlassRat

Yeah, I could see those sim element and I think it was fine they were cut. Not everything needs to be sim!

What I think could have been another ending is for you to have always gone back to the therapist, and he asked you about each triggering event you witnessed, with multiple answers. This ties it back to the “quest” from the beginning. Those answers could be “how do you feel?” open-ended questions. (e.g.

[code]How did you feel about your mom calling and then listening to you?

Angry: Angry that it took her so long.
Relived: Relived that she finally listened.
Nervous: Nervous that her listening was only superficial.
Exhausted: Just exhausted about it all.[/code]

As the game is, it really stuck with me as good and memorable. A great game at all, and especially amazing for a first! Definitely a great start to the game.

14

damn. I was hoping to catch an archive of this.

15

Don’t worry: I’m continuing this Friday at 4pm. I’ll make sure it archives this time.

16

Just a heads up that now that Xmas is over, I’ll be resuming playing. 4pm central, Friday. Woot.

Also, I played (DM’d) Brain Guzzlers from Beyond with my family on the car trip. They all loved it!

17

Oh wow, neat! I’m so thrilled that it was played in such august company. : )

I am working on tweaking some things for a revised version now. I don’t think anyone found any really serious bugs, but there’s a lot of little things that can be improved, such as making the perforated silver membrane easier to find (too many people got stuck on that.)

18

In case anyone’s interested and doesn’t know, this is still going on. The stream on Twitch is live right now! Today Lynnea is trying to do:

In the Friend Zone
Much Love, BJP
Capsule II-The 11th Sandman
Pilgrimage
Duel

19

Yeah I didn’t necessarily want to keep pinging this each week, but I’m keeping it up! Planning to get through them all. And also everything’s being archived.

20

Even the first one? Did it stick after all? [emote]:D[/emote]

Let me know on my twitter when you do Baker of Shireton. [emote]:)[/emote]

And because of your habit of drawing maps (even for my one-room game) I’m considering (if possible) to add maps to the game itself. So you don’t get lost. Or do. I might cheat. For science.

Good luck!