The audience applauds – and we salute – our superb Premier Challenger, Pacian, whose performance in this contest will surely become legendary. He has already put up a post-competition release of Ancient Treasure, Secret Spider, which received the high score from every judge.
While the victorious Iron Chef Draconis and technical advisor improvmonster retire to the ranks of their colleagues to await future challenges, let’s have a round of applause for our excellent panel of judges: Mike Russo (@DeusIrae), Amanda Walker (@AmandaB), Rovarsson (@Rovarsson), Emery Joyce (@EJoyce) and Wade Clarke (@severedhand)!
Each of them brought their many and varied talents to bear, keeping the broadcast lively and interesting between updates from the competing chefs, and delivering in-depth, insightful analyses of the two dishes that highlight the craft on display.
Almost a dozen other notable forum members have agreed to act as judges, so we’ll probably never see this group together in one panel again – but they’re all invited to return as honored guests in future episodes. The camera turns to our premier judges for some final words, then we’ll wrap up with some updates about next steps for the show…
This has been a blast. It’s just gobsmacking to see what very, very good coders/writers can do in such a short period of time. They may be amateurs in the sense that they don’t make money, but they are not amateurs. They are professionals. It’s ridiculous for someone like me to sit in any kind of judgment on them, but I had fun doing it!
Yes, that’s a cake. You have to click on the recipe link because it’s badass inside, too.
In honor of Ancient Treasure, Secret Spider, here’s a video on how to make spun sugar spiderwebs. I don’t recommend that you enslave fairies with them, but everybody’s gotta eat. So if you’re a secret spider, you do what you have to do.
And a video showing the baker decorating this fairy cake:
I was excited at Pacian’s selection, as that meant two authors I thought highly of would be going head to head, but even then the results of the competition are more than I could have hoped for. Both games were a lot of fun, and it was very cool to get the chance to peer over the shoulders of two experienced authors while they were doing their thing. I very much hope that my analysis was helpful for them, or at least enjoyable to read.
Apropos of the whale shark thing that Rovarsson turned into a running joke, I leave you with this:
This plushie came with a tag proclaiming its name to be “カムカムじんべいさん” (“Bitey Bitey Mr./Ms. Whaleshark”) and touting the “many” (two) things you can do with it, which were to take a selfie pretending it’s attacking you or to nap with it with your hand stuck in its mouth. Sometimes I stick my hand in its mouth when I pass by it, just for good luck(?).
Thanks to the chefs, thanks to my fellow judges and tech advisor, thanks to @FLACRabbit for our logos and flairs and graphics, thanks to whoever recommended me for this gig and thanks to @otistdog for coming up with this concept.
Thanks to Gillian Hirst for being the only Australian chef to compete in the original Japanese Iron Chef; her episode (Ostrich Battle) was never dubbed to English, so you won’t find it on any streaming service. Thanks to that guy who passed me a copy in a brown paper bag in the alley behind the restaurant.
Wow, a nail-biter of a vote, which is to be expected given the beyond-impressive efforts offered up! Even as I was giving the nod to Pacian, I wished Draconis could win too, and in a way the split-decision between the judges and the audience just reflects that reality that both our competitors very much deserved the laurel (in another, more accurate way, though, Draconis is the winner since the audience vote is the important one ).
I’ll give one last round of appreciation to the chefs for setting such a high standard, my fellow judges for their insight and wit, improvmonster for elucidating the ways of Dialog so well that I feel like I almost begin to understand it, otis for bringing us all together, and everyone else who voted, played, and kibitzed along the way!
Stepping out of the role of “chairman” for a moment, I want to thank:
@Pacian, who, as an established author, had nothing to prove by coming here but put his reputation on the line anyway as a challenger. (And after winning the judges’ vote, you’d have a hard time convincing me that he did anything but add to that reputation here.) Despite dubious claims that he’s not really an expert in Dialog, he’s certainly an expert in craft, and he showed yet again that many of the most important parts of the task of writing interactive fiction go beyond consideration of any particular choice of platform. Another great game to recommend to IF newbies has been added to my list!
@Draconis, who set the standard for future episodes as the first defending Iron Chef, and whose efforts as part of the working group were invaluable. This show simply would not have happened without the contributions Draconis made there, and I am indebted. Endymion is fantastic, and I hope that any ideas that had to be cut due to time constraints show up in the post-competition release. I’m betting some new people will show up in the Dialog subforum after this impressive display of its power.
Our entire panel of extremely qualified judges, @AmandaB, @DeusIrae, @EJoyce, @Rovarsson and @severedhand, who, in addition to entertaining and informing us with their eclectic blend of perspectives and knowledge, also comprised the judges’ working group. Though every working group put in substantial effort to plan this out, the judges in particular did much to shape the overall structure of the show. Thanks to their exhaustive prep work, we had ready-made answers for almost everything that came up, and I hope that every future panel has as much esprit-de-corps as this one. Special thanks go to @severedhand, who was one of the biggest cheerleaders of the whole concept and whose insights were valuable in smoothing out many rough spots along the way; he went above and beyond the call of duty many times.
@improvmonster, who was invited to the process late and consequently had to do a lot of winging it – which he did with aplomb. A high standard for the technical advisor role has also been set here, and those efforts helped to make Dialog a star of the show.
All of the challengers waiting for their turn, whose bravery and determination took this thing past the talking phase. (…and in particular @FLACRabbit, who consistently turned my requests for “quick and easy” graphics into elaborate results that are much better than anything I could ever make.)
You, the audience, whose interest and participation are the fuel that powers this whole idea. We hope that you enjoyed the show, and more importantly the games and their written evaluations. If you had fun and learned something, then our twin aims have been achieved. Don’t forget to rate the two dishes on IFDB!
As for what comes next:
The role of Iron Chef TADS is currently open. Challenger jjmcc, who wants to make a challenge in TADS, came in second in the audience vote for premier challenger. That makes a TADS episode the natural next choice, so if any expert in the TADS world wants to step up, please send a PM. It’s a great chance to show off the strengths of your favorite platform, as Draconis demonstrated so amply this week.
Third place in the challenger selection vote was shared by Zed (for Twine) and lpsmith (for Inform 7). Zed has also volunteered for the role of technical advisor for Inform 7, and has graciously agreed to let lpsmith go first as challenger, meaning that if no new Iron Chef TADS can be found, the next episode will most likely be an Inform 7 challenge.
There’s already a core of volunteers lined up for another episode, tentatively scheduled to take place during the second half of Q1 2026, so keep an eye out for further announcements on this subforum before year’s end.
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