ParserComp 2024 is now open for judging the game entries. The submission lamp is now out.
We have a record number of entries this year. Most of the games are traditional IF with a few listed as freestyle. Let’s try to have a record number of ratings this year.
Good luck to all entrants. I am polishing the trophies and ready to order the personalized brass plates for the winners.
Thanks to everyone, fos1
Great news!
I’d like to make a quick general observation. Less than half of the entries appear to be playable in a browser. I think authors should think more about this because I’m sure many of the others could run in a browser.
Best of luck to everyone!
There are still four games that are entered but not available on the submissions page.
If your game is not showing up on the Submissions Page, please set it to public access and released.
Thank you.
I am waiting for these 4 games.
By the way, I rather prefer downloadable games, but I understand people playing online.
Good luck to all entrants.
Thanks to organizers.
Now playing and voting, but I Will have no time to comment the entries becouse I Will be busy at work 24/24.
(… wait, it’s July? Where did half the year go?)
Anyways, I might just have some spare time to play and judge in the coming two weeks, for a change.
Any news on the four missing games?
You might have already done this, but as you know the names of the games, can you send the authors a reminder to make their games public, either in an email to all entrants or a comment on the game page…or both.
Hi Gary,
I do not have access to the game or author, only the fact that 21 games have been submitted but only 17 are available for play.
I have left posts here and on the comp community for authors to publish / activate the games.
Hopefully the four authors will take care of this soon.
My name is Garry, not Gary.
You should see an Edit jam button on each page. Click this, then select Submissions and you should see all the submissions. Can’t you see the missing four games there?
Note to current ParserComp 2024 authors: Due to issues playing submitted games noted by a reviewer, you are free to make your games more accessible if at all possible. Errors in code or playability can be fixed during the judging period. But, please do not add content.
PS. I intend to add a rule or least an admonishment to make ParserComp entries playable through normal means either online or via download.
I apologize for mangling your name. I am afraid it is not the first time. It is not an excuse but I struggle with spelling due to my poor vision. 
Thank you for itch.io tip. I will see what I can do to notify the authors.
The missing games may have been removed by their authors. I have left a message to each author to verify. They are all listed as submitted.
Has anyone been able to get ‘The Postage Code’ to work? For a brief discussion of my issue, see Report Bugs Here - The Postage Code community - itch.io. I’d really like to be able to play this game, as I like the screen grabs.
Works fine for me on Windows 11. Then again, I have a bazillion different development tools installed on my machine.
What OS are you using, exactly?
My game – Mystery Isles – could always be played in a browser, but it seems some people didn’t see the message so I’ve moved it to the top of the webpage.
Apologies for any confusion.
I’m using Windows 7. After downloading the missing dll, I got an error saying:
Failed to load Python DLL 'path_to_game\_internal\python312.dll'.
LoadLibrary: <FormatMessageW failed.>
However, the python312.dll file was located in that folder. As I had already spent way too long trying to get this to work, I gave up.
Yeah, Python 3.12 does not support Windows 7.
Thanks for the info.
I’m using Python 3.8.10 and that works fine on Windows 7. It sounds like the error message is incorrect. It’s not that the file can’t be found, it’s just that the version of Python being used does not support my operating system. If that’s the case, the author should give the minimum requirements on the game page.
The Mysterious Cave seems to be missing its required game category. It’s neither eligible for Classic nor Freestyle.
Off-topic, someone mentioned “Dan’s mountaineering spiel” the other day, it’s peaked my curiosity! By chance, @dfabulich, are you the “Dan” in question? 
Adam
Probably?
I have some standard advice that I share with developers of new IF authoring systems on this forum. (I literally copy and paste it, with small tweaks.)
One particular piece of advice is for developers who come to us with a brand-new parser-IF authoring system, in which the IF author is meant to code their game in a popular general-purpose programming language (a “real” programming language) like JavaScript, Python, or C#, as opposed to a domain-specific language like Inform.
There have been many, many IF dev systems presented to this forum that use a “real” programming language, but none of them are popular. (As my advice explains, I think it’s because parser IF tends to be highly declarative, with a sophisticated rules engine attached.)
My advice concludes by saying:
The path up this mountain is littered with the frozen corpses of others who have tried and failed to reach the top, but I hope somebody manages to climb it, and I wish you the best of luck.
I’ve never called this a “mountaineering spiel,” myself, but I suppose it would make sense to call it that!