Ok, so I have been dreading this and avoiding it, but Aaron just sent me an email asking if I want my Spring Thing game playable online, and of course I do.
So I did the “release along with an interpreter” and got the “play.html” file. I have not played through it, and I’ve no idea if that actually works. What I do know is that the cover art is smooshed into a narrow window on the left side and it looks terrible.
I could use some guidance here, but it will have to be the kind of guidance you would give to a small child who has never even seen a computer before. Which is a really annoying way to ask for help, but there it is.
I’m not even sure what to ask, since I just followed the Documentation directions like a monkey. But, um, how do I make this work? And do I just send him the play.html file? And how do I make the cover art not look hideous there? And all the other questions that I haven’t even thought of because I’ve been avoiding this for so long.
Send the entire Release folder which contains play.html and the other files. On Mac, you can right-click the Release folder icon and select “Compress” to zip it up. On Windows I’m not sure what the usual procedure is.
That’s odd. I also submitted an inform 7 game with no playable online version included and I haven’t heard anything from Aaron. Maybe he just hasn’t got to everyone yet. I also have no idea how to do this properly and will be following the community’s response very closely.
Edit: Ope, nvm. Just received the message seconds ago. He must be working his way down the list of miscreants.
I just right now got the email, so yours is probably coming. Have you tried adding “release along with an interpreter” in your code? I’m curious if your cover art looks awful, too, or if it’s just me.
When I open the play.html file, the cover art is cropped to a tiny sliver on the left side, with the hyperlink text “Game Name Home page” barely visible over it. It took me a while to see that the hyperlink was there. When I click on that, the cover art is all visible, but with a whole bunch of game info text over it so you can’t see the art or read the text. And below that are the links for “story file” and “play in browser.”
It looks so bad that I’ll have to take the cover art out to send it unless there’s a fix for that.
If your story uses images, then there’s an extra processing step. I don’t remember what the current recommendations are for that. It might be simplest to just skip using I7 to make the website, and instead to use ifsitegen.py.
Thank you. But that thread is way above my pay grade. I have no idea whether to include that stuff in my code or where to find “unpack”… honestly, that’s Sanskrit. So I guess I’ll just either take the art out or not have it playable online.
Honestly, the simplest way would be to simply link to it using iplayif.com, but I don’t know how that would fit with what Aaron wants for the festival…
Removing the larger cover art file results in it using the default art, although it’s sized correctly.
ETA: I can’t remove the cover art without getting the default art. And I’m tired and going to bed, so I’m not ignoring any helpful replies. If I can’t have it playable online, then I can’t. It’s a bummer, but I’ll live.
I’ve tried substituting another interpreter with the “Release with the ‘Gargoyle’ interpreter” line (adding gargoyle to the templates folder), and it simply breaks the release. Also that ifsitegen.py is entirely Greek to me. IMHO, I’m barely content with my game as is; I’m not willing to strip the images from it. Better fewer people play it as intended than more play it worse off.
