WHEN: register now and enter your game by the submission deadline of 30 June 2022.
Last year’s competition (curated by @Adam_S) was a huge success, with 18 games submitted, using many different authoring systems (Inform6, Inform7, Adventuron, TAB, ADRIFT, AdvSys and QBASIC). We’d like this year’s competition to be even bigger and better so now is the time to register and get working on your games ahead of the deadline on 30 June 2022!
The competition welcomes parser games using any authoring system and of any length - so if you’re got a lengthy parser epic brewing that you think might be too long for another competition, ParserComp would be a good place to show it off (and of course, brief games are also welcome!)
This year, stewardship of the competition has passed to @fos1 and @ChristopherMerriner, and there has been a light redrafting and clarification of the rules. You can find those, as well as some FAQ, on the competition page. Please ask any questions that you may have either here or on the community page over on itch.
A minor quibble, the following rule seems to suggest that Gruescript would not be admissible, whereas Gruescript is listed in the recommended authoring systems:
My game is navigable by clicking key words - can I enter it in ParserComp?
Yes, as long as the main game mechanic is text input and output and the game can’t be traversed just by clicking on key words.
My game is navigable by clicking key words - can I enter it in ParserComp?
Yes, as long as the main game mechanic is text input, parsing, and text output and the game can’t be traversed purely by clicking on pre-defined choices to advance through passages of text. For example, a Gruescript or similar style of game would be eligible, a Twine or other purely choice-based game wouldn’t be.
That’s a good point. Should Choice IF be allowed if the game fundamentally parses the input, even when the game provides limited choice of input text as to avoid non-sensical constructs?
That is, the choices are
LOOK APPLE, EAT APPLE
Instead of allowing
KILL APPLE, TELL APPLE TO EAT BANANA
Something like that? As long as players can choose to enter command text directly, it should be fine?
Unfortunately, based upon Gruescript documentation. It does not produce a parser games.
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Gruescript is a scripting language/online tool for creating
point-n-click text adventures.
Gruescript is a tool for creating point-and-click text adventures which feel like classic ‘puzzlebox’ games while eliminating the need for the player to type, making the games friendly to modern devices and players. You build your game online and download it as a playable HTML page.
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True. If we allow Gruescript we should allow Twine and CoG. ???
I know this was discussed last year. It is more conducive to smartphone and tablets and may offer accessibility advantages.
But:
Rule 1. Only parser games are eligible for entry into ParserComp. ParserComp defines a parser game as one where the primary input method is the keyboard, commands are typed in, the computer uses a parser engine to understand commands and then outputs text to screen describing the results.
Yes, as long as the main game mechanic is text input, parsing, and text output and the game can’t be traversed purely by clicking on pre-defined choices to advance through passages of text.
There does seem to be a difference between key word selection → parsing and clicking choices to advance through passages.
Having written both parser and choice-based games, I can honestly say that the process of planning and writing a Gruescript game is almost identical to planning and writing an I7 game, and nothing at all like writing in Twine or ChoiceScript. I’ve even been able to port an unfinished I7 game to Gruescript. It’s far more parser-like than it is choice-like, whatever the documentation says.
Thanks for that. I know this was discussed last year and was bound to come up again. Fos1 and I redrafted the rules but didn’t revisit this point at the time.
I’d say obviously choice-based games (Twine, ChoiceScript et al.) are out, obviously parser games (Inform, TADS et al.) are in, and anything really ambiguous we can make a judgement call on if we need to. But in reality, we’re unlikely to get many of those cases (but it will make it more interesting if we do!)
