I’ll get straight to it, I’m afraid it’s another health related update.
After chest pains last year I went for a planned scan and heart test a few weeks ago, unfortunately it didn’t go too well - the test didn’t happen because during the preparation they found that I have heart failure (down to 40% ejection fracture, for any science folk who may be interested). It’s not immediately terminal, I’m now on more medications than my 70 year old parents and am on the waiting list for an angiogram to determine why my heart is struggling. So, heart failure at 43, not the greatest start to the year!
For various reasons (minimising stress and pressure mostly) I want to park any commitments and focus purely on day job, home life and health.
Although ParserComp isn’t particularly stressful I wouldn’t want to commit to running something when I don’t know what the next 6-12 months look like whilst they get on top of the heart situation. I’d hate to start something and let people down or have to bail out like last time, I’d rather hand it over upfront.
So - any volunteers please for someone to head/lead/chair the competition for 2022?
The rules are written, the system is in place (itch.io) so essentially it is a case of promotion, admin, fielding enquiries and announcing results.
Hi both, thanks for the message, if its ok then I will hand the reigns over to you? If you could run it as a duo that would be great, I know last year I was glad to have help in the latter half. Thank you!
No problem at all - glad to help keep the show on the road and give you a break to concentrate on more important things. I’ll confer with @fos1 and everyone can be assured ParserComp will run again this year!
Adam, I hope you and the doctors find some good answers that allow you to recover your health. Your decision to request a ParserComp competition leader substitute for the year is understandable.
@fos1 & @ChristopherMerriner, thank you for picking up the reins and best wishes with Parsercomp 2022! I’m happy to belong to such a generous and helpful community
Oh man, that’s really bad news. You’ve had a tough time over the last 12 months or so, so take care of your health first.
By the time I’d read this, @fos1 and @ChristopherMerriner had already jumped in to help, updated the rules, set up the comp page at https://itch.io/jam/parsercomp-2022 and started advertising here and on a couple of the Discord channels that I subscribe to. Great work guys. @Adam_S would be proud.
The one slight quirk of itch jams - itch does not have any specific restrictions about what is eligible to join a jam, and it’s common for people with existing games on the site to list anything with even the most tenuous relation to “interactive fiction” in any jam when they pop up to extend the visibility of their games.
That said, itch is a huge community and there are likely IF creators there who’ve never ventured here nor to any other external IF site we would be familiar with.
Yeah, running the jam on itch runs the risk of attracting people who just want visibility for their game so they spam it to various jams, and also people who have never heard of IF before but find this jam on itch’s jam calendar and suddenly they love IF! I’ve joined many itch jams “cold” in the past, trawling the jam calendar was sort of a hobby to me for a while.
Stay healthy and do what ever is necessary for your own well-being.
