Resources for Uploading Games

[Jim_Aikin]

I’m adding a section to the Inform Handbook on what to do with your game once it’s finished. (Why didn’t I think to have that section until now? Duh.)

I’m mentioning competitions, uploading directly to the IF Archive, and both itch and borogove. What else to I need to add?

How does the ifdb handle adding games? Does it just get links from the Archive, or is there some other process?

[manonamora (Manon)]

There’s a block in the game page form where you can add the IF Archive link (but it doesn’t have to be just from there)

If you click on Edit, you can indicate more info (and I’m assuming how to make it run from that link?)

[dfabulich (Dan Fabulich)]

It would be fun to have a lot of documentation here for IFDB download links. Here’s the gist of it:

• IFDB just links to uploads elsewhere; you can’t “upload” to IFDB
• You can upload to IF Archive. Once the link is processed, you can grab the link and put it on IFDB.
• When you do, for Inform games, you’ll want to link directly to your Z5 or gblorb file, and check the box, “This is a playable game file or it contains a playable game”
• Then, you’ll want to make sure you pick the right format (“Glulx” .ulx “Glulx/Blorb” .gblorb “Z-Code” .z5 “Z-Code/Blorb” .zblorb)
• If the file is in a zip, you’ll want to make sure you upload to IF Archive, so we can use the archive’s unboxing service to make the game playable online. You’ll need to select “Compression: ZIP” and provide an exact path to the file in the ZIP. When you do, the “Play On-line” button will link to Parchment with the unbox link, like this: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=h23u2hrinwxo2pc7. The “Play On-line” button for that links to https://iplayif.com/?story=https%3A%2F%2Funbox.ifarchive.org%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fifarchive.org%2Fif-archive%2Fgames%2Fcompetition2022%2FGames%2FA%2520Walk%2520Around%2520the%2520Neighborhood.zip%26open%3DA+Walk+Around+the+Neighborhood%2FA_Walk_Around_the_Neighborhood.gblorb

Today, this is so complicated that I think regular mortals kinda can’t figure it out. Part of what makes this so complicated for ZIPs is that we have to link to Parchment and embed an URL in the link to unbox. The embedded unbox URL itself has an embedded URL to IF Archive, plus an embedded relative path to the game file within the zip.

https://unbox.ifarchive.org/?url=https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2022/Games/A%20Walk%20Around%20the%20Neighborhood.zip&open=A+Walk+Around+the+Neighborhood/A_Walk_Around_the_Neighborhood.gblorb

For major competitions like IFComp, I’ve just been manually fixing up all of the IFDB links to point to IF Archive.

[Jim_Aikin]

@dfabulich

IFDB just links to uploads elsewhere; you can’t “upload” to IFDB

That being the case, I think I’ll leave the rest of your description out of the Handbook, or shorten it. My main goal, in that brief section, is to tell people how to make their game publicly available.

[ramstrong (Harry Hardjono)]

@Jim_Aikin

What else to I need to add?

I’d add physical distribution. Mini box containing USB drive + paper instruction + feelies. The drive will contain various formats, including 8 bit versions.

Kind of like your very own Infocom mini gift boxes

[Jim_Aikin]

@ramstrong

I’d add physical distribution.

Thanks. That’s an off-the-wall suggestion, but I’ve added it to the text.