Two years ago, @AmandaB started a thread for people new to IFComp to introduce themselves, and one year ago, @manonamora did the same thing. We’re a little bit into IFComp right now, but I figured we might as well do another this year.
So, to those who have never submitted IF to the IFComp before, welcome! Share a bit about yourself, a bit about your game, and something interesting that happened during the creation process.
I’m R.A. Cooper. I made Awakened Deeply. I’m into retro games especially the infocom titles and old Atari titles. I enjoy making and learning making games in many different engines via unity, construct etc. During the creation process I realized a text game is much more involved than a graphical game, in my opinion.
Isn’t it crazy how that pans out? Text games are so “primitive” and graphical games are so “cutting edge”, but yeah, the effort involved to make a detailed parser world work right is astounding, and in a lot of contexts makes graphical games seem like child’s play in comparison.
Definitely agree. At this point in time I am more confident I could whip up a game with graphics then to make a parser game without something found by someone that I never would’ve thought of. It shows the power of text to open the imagination it seems.
Hi! I’m Sarah Mak, and I wrote You Can’t Save Her (my first entry to IFComp)! For the past few years, I wrote some interactive poems with Twine, and this the first interactive fiction piece I’ve both written and developed.
I wanted to try my hand at writing something longer and more narrative, and You Can’t Save Her is the result. (I’m hoping to write a more detailed postmortem on it after the comp!)
Hi, I‘m IkeC! A middle-aged guy from Germany doing many different things, but none of them particularly well.
I’m usually not a man of many words, so I hope my game Dust is more interesting than I am!
Is your profile picture the cat from Sam and Max? If yes, that’s awesome.
Yes it is! I‘ve been using this for about five years and you‘re the first to recognize it.
Hi all,
I’m Roberto, but I use the nick «The Strawberry Field» since 1989: it was the name of my Fidonet Point. I started taking photograph half a century ago and still continue.
I’m a professional software engineer and ICT consultant.
This is my first experience in IF and I am very curious as to what degree of interest and enjoyment my game may have.
Certainly developing the game was a very intriguing adventure and to be able to present it at this exhibition is an important achievement for me; whatever the final result in the ranking.
Hello, I’m Riaz, I wrote Metallic Red. I’ve made a few games before for my friends but never entered anything or taken part in the wider intfiction community. I’m excited to play some games!
I don’t entirely agree that a text game is more involved outright: I hear Into the Breach was a nightmare to develop because of all the edge cases for things like units currently on fire getting pushed onto a tile that inflicts acid by a weapon that applies a shield to the target. Graphical games can become incredibly complicated even before you factor in the graphics themselves. Still, I think there’s a pressure for virtually every parser game to get into a Dwarf Fortress level of world simulation simply because you don’t want to mention a lampshade in a description and then have “x lampshade” return “You don’t see any such thing.”
The direct barrier to entry is incredibly low, but the effort required to produce anything remotely polished is high to begin with and seems to explode as soon as you introduce, say, a new tool that the player can try using on any given object in the game.
No debate with what you’re saying… I think the key phrases in my comment were
and
Definitely was not saying that no graphical game is as complex as any parser game!
Which game did you enter? I would like to play all of the newcomers first.
Thanks
Oh, yeah I get that: I was responding more to R.A. Cooper’s point that you were quoting, but I thought what you said about the detail needed to make a parser world work was worth keeping in mind as well.
My silly game is Breakfast in the Dolomites: i hope you will enjoy it!
Hi, I’m Beth! I wrote The Saltcast Adventure. I’ve been lightly dabbling with twine for a few years, but the process of making a longer game taught me a lot. It’s been a really educational process looking at the thoughtful and incisive feedback all the games are getting!
Damon I guess I should clarify graphical games at the level I make them are easier to make than a text game for me personally.
It was a personal statement. Should’ve clarified. It’s hard to ignore the hard work that goes into well made AAA titles and really decent indie games etc.
I agree with what you said on trying to make things dwarf fortress level of detailed.
Oh, same! I mostly do little arcade games myself. They’re maybe a smidge tougher to manage than a Twine game of comparable ambition but nothing like what I’ve found with Inform. No matter how much effort I put into a parser game, it always feels as though it could have done with twice as many words devoted to it. I’m hoping to get better at anticipating how much work it’ll take to flesh out a work of any given size, but so far it seems as though there’s always room for considerably more.
Definitely agree. I started another parser project already. I’ve already slowed down the process to a crawl to consider synonyms, rewording etc. Transcripts are helpful.
I have only tried twine a few times. It looks like a great tool.
Hi! I’m Colton.
I made the game Welcome to the Universe. I’ve been playing IF for years and really enjoy what the medium has to offer. Most of my previous games aren’t accessible (I designed and ran two LARP games with a team at the Savannah College of Art and Design!), but I’m very interested in player experience within narrative confines and what games have to offer as a medium.
My game started out as a writing exercise for a monthly twine game club on the insert credit forums; I liked where development was going enough that I held on to the project in anticipation to release it here. Thanks for having me!