Iron ChIF: Pilot Episode (Pacian vs. Draconis, using Dialog)

[AmandaB]

Mike stole what I was going to say about Europa, so I’ll just quote it:

@DeusIrae

But it’s probably the geophysical aspects of Europa that are most relevant for present purposes; it’s got a liquid-water ocean underneath a surface shell of ice, so has long been one of the solar system’s leading candidates for extraterrestrial life, though admittedly the plankton-y stuff most scientists have in mind probably wouldn’t have much in the way of human-comprehensible language!

I was once a bench microbiologist and finding alien life as complex as plankton would allow me to die happy. It just bothers me that we aren’t going to find aliens in my lifetime. Finding an alien prokaryote (the most likely thing to exist) would thrill me into hyperventilation. I have spent long, rapturous nerd-hours imagining how an alien bacterial genetic code might work, what it might be made of. Exobiology is the coolest thing. Or would be if it weren’t all pure speculation because those annoyingly elusive aliens remain out of reach. I suppose maybe we should fix our planet’s problems before we go lumbering into some other life form’s world.

And agree with Mike that the title Endymion evokes sleeping aliens, and that waking them may be our task in Draconis’s game, using whatever device controls the sleep. AHHHH. This is looking good. I am concerned about where the cake is, though. This doesn’t seem like a promising setup for alien cake.

@Pacian

I can play it from start to finish, everyone else probably needs all the extra implementation that will help you figure out what to do.

This twingled me because getting to this point in writing a game is simultaneously the best and worst feeling. Best, because you have a game! You got the whole skeleton done and it’s something you like enough to flesh out! Hooray! Worst, because the amount of work it’s going to take to flesh it out is crushing.

I sure hope both competitors have off-site testers. If I were in this contest I’d be in trouble because nobody IRL would help me test.

EDIT:

@severedhand

So other judges, I wanna ask you: How do you feel about time pressure? Does it help you or hinder you? Do you turn to habit? And how concerned are you about repeating yourself in general, if at all?

I have to have time pressure or I’ll fart around forever. I doubt I’d ever finish anything if I didn’t have a deadline. I am concerned about repeating myself-- I’ve tabled several projects because they’re too derivative of myself. It’s depressing how the same things come blorping up out of my subconscious time and time again.