One game complete and ready for testing! One game back from testers with valuable feedback! One game just about complete! I think I’m really going to make it this year!
Just ignore the fact that two of these three games were intended for IFComp last year and the third was intended for TALJ and then Parsercomp this year! This time I’m actually going to meet my deadlines!
It’s incredible how fast some people write multiple games! My WIP was intended for IFComp '24…
From personal experience:
Keep finding ones that don’t work. Whether or not you update them at IFComp. I find having to stare at it makes me say “No, not The Quest, I want to refer to (important item X and concept Y) somehow.”
Eventually a decent one will pop up. Then maybe if you’re lucky a better one will. One that makes you feel silly you didn’t see it in the first place.
At least I’ve had that good fortune.
Maybe you’ve worked along the same lines or already got an idea. But I might as well throw this out for general help.
I usually have the opposite problem. I really want to write Galaxy Jones 2: Existential Time Crisis but it’s really hard to live up to that name.
We went through a couple of titles and a couple of stories before we settled at the current one (which we codenamed 342; those who know what it stands for know). Titles are actually one thing that come to me in particular easily, I often have a title in mind fairly early on in the process.
I’ve just realised that a surprising number of my own titles simply state what the thing is. Quest for the Teacup of Minor Sentimental Value is about questing for a teacup with minor sentimental value. DICK MCBUTTS GETS KICKED IN THE NUTS is about Dick McButts getting kicked in the nuts. I can think of multiple other examples not just of the general principle, but following these two specific formats.
I can sadly confirm now that my WIP of 3 years, Climbing Up the Walls, will not be released in this year’s IFComp. I have now scrapped the idea and the game notes are online so if in 2049 or so I want to return and look at it, I should hopefully be able to. I have something I plan on putting into this year’s competition but nothing major. Just a light and fun mini game centered around a simple gimmick…
When does the author’s forum open?
Typically right after the competition opens and the games are available; usually the process is that the organizers hand off the list of entries to the forum team, who’ll manually add anyone whose user name they recognize, and then make an announcements saying anyone who doesn’t have access yet can PM to get added.
Ouch. I’ve scrapped ideas before, though nothing I’ve worked on for that long. I hope you can salvage something out of it eventually. When I scrap something, I often end up using pieces of it eventually. I’m interested in seeing what does get submitted to this year’s comp.
So the compiler is converting to three-address code as its intermediate representation!
Pretty much! Dialog in particular actually needs static single assignment form, because variables can’t be reassigned within a rule.
For the sake of my health I think I’m going to have to pull out of IFComp for this year. I’ll leave my intents in for now in case I want to submit something small, but… as much as I still want to finish the games I’d planned, I think this year I might need to try reducing sources of stress rather than creating them. Still, at least I can look forward to playing all y’all lovely people’s games.
Sorry to hear about Max’s game. It seemed pretty cool when I tested it! But I guess I’d be a hypocrite if I made you finish it at GUNPOINT. In the end you gotta do what you gotta do.
Now you see what I’ve been kvetching about. 
I’ve just concluded that my IFComp '95 entry isn’t going to be ready for this year. One year for a finished game isn’t a big deal.
It’s a shame, too, because this year would have been a pointedly good time to have released it. Of course, so was 2006… and 1995.
So, uh … anyone want to trade potential entries for testing? And is this fair game for this thread?
Because I should have something ready for useful testing by this weekend. It shouldn’t be huge. It has pretty accessible hints, too, but not a full hint system.
I’ll make a formal announcement in the test thread, but I also wanted to check here.
I’ve found even having people just swap a feature to test can be VERY useful.
PM me or whatever! I need some new people to look at my stuff, and I always enjoy seeing new stuff from other people.