For the past few comps all authors have been able to fix bugs.
During the comp, please submit updated versions to the ifcomp site. That way the download and online versions will stay in sync.
(After the comp, new releases will appear in /games/ rather than /games/competition2013/.)
Hm, that game didn’t get uploaded at all. Different problem.
The other index pages are in place now.
I like this idea.
(That is, dividing up the “web-based games” category on ifcomp.org/comp13/games.php.)
Maybe clearer labels would be “javascript games” and “web-only games.”
This was a double-barreled mistake on my part: first, not kicking off the archive’s indexer before making the game links live on the IFComp site, and second, missing the upload for Mrs. Wobbles.
If I’m an author then how should I update my web-based game which is hosted on a separate website without breaking any rules?
Does “update” mean “to fix bugs only” or does it also include expanding the game during the competition, to add new areas and new gameplay, etc. ?
What about a post-comp release after the competition has ended? Where should I submit such a final/full game version in order to be archived?
- u.
I think any web-only game has an inherent advantage in that there is no “build” that is compiled and given out. The creator can fix things instantaneously and have it live for everyone from that point on. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, because it works like that in a non-Comp situation as well. It’s similar to the difference if something is wrong in your disk copy of Civilization which you need to wait for a patch for, and something wrong in World of Warcraft that someone at the controls can just flip a switch and correct instantaneously if they know what’s wrong.
Since updates are allowed during the comp, is there any difference between realizing on 9/29 that you spelled your name wrong on the title page and fixing it and submitting another build, or going to the game’s title page online in the Web UI and fixing it? The only difference is the moderator has to receive the re-compiled build and sync it on the site, so there’s a bit of a delay.
Since the judging rules only allow each player a two-hour timespan to judge a game, they’re likely not going to see any major changes in a web-game unless somehow twenty new rooms are added by the author during that timespan.
At this moment in time, it’s looking on this end like the IFcomp site has been, hm, Slashdotted from somewhere. Which is, in a sense, good news, even if it’s inconvenient. There’s no kind of failure quite like unexpected success!
Appears to just be the home page. If you google search and go to one of the sub pages it works.
I first noticed it when I submitted some votes on the vote page and got error messages about the total connections to the server being maxed out.
I can’t access any IFComp pages right now.
Yeah, that’s the case for everyone. From ifmud:
While the powers that be work on it, here are alternate links to the games:
ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive … n2013.html
ifdb.tads.org/viewcomp?id=g4gogbp7lx683yfe
The site seems to be back in working order.
I’m getting 404 errors when trying to access the Inform games by “play online”.
Confirmed, conveyed to inky, and fixed.
If there is a traffic problem, I can volunteer my was server which is currently unused.
It was less a traffic issue and more a backend database issue, specifically with one of the indices on a table. All should be good now.
I am greatly, but greatly, disappointed that Moquette, a Quest 5 game by the Quest 5 author, which looks and feels more professional in its first five seconds than any other Quest game I’ve seen, is released only in its online-play form, when Quest is an engine that perfectly allows offline, downloaded gaming. I would not at all mind it if a downloadable version had less features, or were crippled, if it said so on the readme.
Final Girl and Moquette, two web-only games released in the comp… I suppose times really are changing, then.
EDIT - And “Legend of Robin Hood”. Another Quest 5 game, too, which means it could be distributed offline. Not to mention "Autumn’s Daughter and “Mrs. Wobbles”, the Undum games, despite it being very clear that Undum games can be distributed offline very easily.
EDIT - And “The Challenge”, a game which, as far as I can tell, could have been distributed as a series of HTML pages, much like “Reels” does.
I’m sure Alex will respond after the comp or PM you, but my information is that Moquette is written using an unpublished version of Quest so releasing the offline story file now would be pointless because there are no interpreters that could play it. I assume it’ll be released when the new version of Quest is released.