Your attention please, members of the audience.
Lancelot has posted an announcement regarding his dish, Time Swap.
As you know, the fixed time limit for development is perhaps the single most important premise of Iron ChIF. While what is being evaluated and voted upon are a pair of games (the “dishes” produced by the competing chefs), it is vital to the competitive aspect that each participating chef have exactly the same conditions and limitations with respect to development.
This is a significant difference from IFComp, which in recent years has allowed authors to submit mid-competition updates to fix bugs. While I agree that this policy creates a better average experience for those playing and rating games, it cannot be adopted for Iron ChIF without the loss of its distinctive character. This is a multi-faceted competition for which preparation, time management and execution discipline are essential skills.
For this reason, the rules of the competition are clear that the dish that is turned in by each chef at the end of the match will be the basis upon which the contest is decided. Consequently, the revised version of Lancelot’s game will not be made publicly available until audience voting closes at noon UTC on Tuesday, June 2nd.
The revised version has been made available to the panel of judges, so that they can optionally use it as input while preparing their written evaluation; this will allow them to better understand Lancelot’s vision for the game and offer feedback based on a complete version. Judges have been asked to refrain from viewing the revised version until after they have submitted their numeric scoring and their choice of winner.
Although this is the third episode of Iron ChIF, we’re still learning as we go. Lancelot’s updated version will be included in the episode archive, and the events of this episode will inform revisions and clarifications of the rules and processes by which the show is run. For this episode, we ask audience members to, like the judges, cast their votes based on the dishes as presented at the end of the match, and we encourage interested players to try the updated version once it has been released.
Thank you for your interest and participation in Iron ChIF. We salute our challenger, Lancelot, along with everyone else – yourself included – whose time and effort have made this episode possible.