Eight, including the speaker.
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Our next Seattle area IF meetup will be Sunday, May 5, at 2:00 p.m. in Room 374, Thompson Hall, at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. (It’s the same place we’ve met the last few times. Again, the parking lot next to Thompson Hall is available for visitors to park in, and it should be quite empty on a Sunday afternoon.)
This will probably be the last meetup Mathbrush will be able to attend before he moves out of the area in June, so some of us thought it would be nice to play through one or more of his games. Mathbrush, of course, is the most prolific IF reviewer of the past few years, as well as the author of multiple XYZZY-nominated and top ten IFComp games such as Color the Truth and Absence of Law.
We’re thinking about playing Mathbrush’s Ether to start with, and then we can decide where to go from there.
Here’s a link to the list of Mathbrush games on the IFDB: https://ifdb.tads.org/showuser?id=nufzrftl37o9rw5t
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The next IF meetup will take place on Sunday, July 21 from 2-4 PM in Thompson Hall at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. The room we have been meeting in previously is being used for a summer class, so we’re meeting in Room 399.
For this meeting we thought it would be fun to have brief demonstrations* and discussions of some works in progress. Anything from story pitch all the way up to beta testing is acceptable. This is more of a show and tell than a formal critique, but you are welcome to request specific feedback on anything you’d like. If you would like to show your project, please let us know in advance so that we can make sure there is enough time for everyone. If there are too many requests to fit into one meeting, anyone who isn’t able to present on the 21st will get time at the next meetup.
*Note that Mike has confirmed that showing a work in progress to a small group of people does not affect eligibility for IFComp.
If you are going to bring a project to show, I highly recommend bringing your own computer and a backup, either as a private web site or on a Windows-compatible USB stick with any necessary software to run the project. We don’t want technical problems to derail your demo. Mike should be able to share details about the projector inputs available in the new room.
Also, since there has been some discussion at previous meetings about alternating between the Seattle and Tacoma areas, feel free to submit suggestions for the date and location of the next meetup (September?). Ideally it would be someplace open on a weekend, with free or inexpensive access and a projector.
Hope to see you there!
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The next Seattle area IF meetup will be Sunday, September 22nd from 2-4 PM in Thompson Hall 310 at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. As always, there is parking available in the lot next door.
This month David Dunham, the creator of the games “Six Ages” and “King of Dragon Pass,” will give a brief show and tell about his current project. We’ll also play through the newly released game “Renegade Brainwave” by J. J. Guest.
Hope to see you there!
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This year’s Seattle area IFComp meetup will be in Thompson Hall 409 on Sunday, October 27 from 2 - 4:30 PM to play as many games as we can in the time allotted. Usually we will have one person drive / read aloud and the others will suggest what to do next. This was a lot of fun last year, and led to some good discussions about the games, styles, and technologies in the competition. Mike will be limiting his comments because he has an entry in the competition, but ask him all the questions you want about his game Sugarlawn.
Hope to see you all there!
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From Mike:
The next meetup of the Seattle/Tacoma IF group will be Sunday, January 19, from 2:00 - 4:30 p.m. in Room 409 of Thompson Hall at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. It’s the same place we met last time.
The plan is to play Matt Wigdahl’s Aotearoa. It’s the ten-year anniversary of this game, which won IFComp 2010 and seven XYZZY awards - including Best Game.
Hope to see you there!
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The next meetup of the Seattle/Tacoma IF group will be Sunday, March 22, from 2:00 - 4:30 p.m. in Room 409 of Thompson Hall at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.
Given the recent interest on the discussion list, the plan is to play A Beauty Cold and Austere, read by and with commentary from the author (me).
How many people usually show up? I’m in Burlington and it’s a bit of a drive, but doable.
Last month we had six, I think. That’s been about our average.
Burlington is a ways, but we’d love to have you!
Is UPS still open during the pandemic?
Classes have been moved online, but as of now facilities are still open. I emailed the campus schedule coordinator yesterday to ask if we can go ahead with our meetup, but I may not hear back from her until tomorrow or later this week. I’ll send out an update when I know more.
I would suggest not doing an in-person meetup!
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The governor of Washington announced earlier today that “all gatherings under 50 participants are prohibited unless previously announced criteria for public health and social distancing are met.” So we won’t be meeting in person.
The current plan is to try to do the meetup remotely instead. That would have the beneficial side effect of allowing anyone, even those who don’t live in the Seattle area, to join in. More details forthcoming when we nail them down.
As promised, we’ll be having the Seattle/Tacoma IF meetup virtually at 2pm PDT on Sunday, March 22. We’ll be playing A Beauty Cold and Austere. PM me for the link to the meeting. Feel free to join in, even if you don’t live anywhere near Seattle.
We’ll hold our next online meeting of the Seattle / Tacoma IF group on Sunday, May 17th at 2 PM PDT. Paul will give a short talk on the development of his IFComp 2019 game, The House on Sycamore Lane. We’ll also demo a few entries from the 2020 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction.
We maxed out Google Hangouts last time, so we’re using a Zoom account for this meeting. Meeting links will be sent out by email. If you are not already on the email list, please send a message to Paul or to me for the meeting code.
Since there was interest in going to a monthly schedule for the Seattle / Tacoma interactive fiction group, we’ll hold the next meeting by video conference on Sunday, June 14 from 2-4 PM PDT. Please let me know if you would like to attend and I will send out the link by email.
This time we’ll play the other two games that received “Best in Show” awards in Spring Thing 2020: Jelly by Tom Lento and Chandler Groover, and Hawk the Hunter by Jonathan B. Himes. If time allows, we’ll also discuss Ryan Veeder’s Authentic Fly Fishing (including spoilers).
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We’ll hold our next meeting on Sunday, August 16th from 2:00 to 4:30 PM. The meeting will be held via Google Meet; please contact me if you need the link.
We’ll play through Lynnea Glasser’s 2013 IFComp winner Coloratura, with the intent to finish the entire game in one sitting. (I’m told the normal play time is about an hour.) If you would like to volunteer to read/drive, please let me know.
If time allows, I would like to invite any of our members who have IFComp entries or other projects in progress to beta test their game with the group. Please let me know whether you’d like to reserve a spot. This will be on a first-come, first-serve basis and we’ll try to allow at least half an hour for each game.
Note that testers who participate in the IFComp judging may not rate the games which they have beta tested - see https://ifcomp.org/rules/ for more details.
We’ll have the next virtual meetup on Sunday, September 13th at 2 PM PDT. We’ll be finishing Lynnea Glasser’s Coloratura, followed by a discussion of the game’s narrative techniques, unique color-based mechanics, and other topics of interest.
I’ll send out the Google Meet link via email; please contact me if you need the link.
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We’ll be holding a special online meeting for IFComp this year on Sunday, October 11th from 2 PM to 4:30 PM via Google Meet. Five authors - Brian, Jared, Lance, Pace, and Paul - have signed up to present their entries in this year’s competition; we’ll play a sample of each game and take questions as we go.
I’ll send out the Google Meet link by email; please contact me if you need the link.
Since the competition judging period is extended this year, we’ll hold a special second IFComp online meeting on Sunday, November 15th from 2 PM to 4 PM via Google Meet. We’ll play samples of several more games from the competition and discuss them with the group.
As always, we’ll send out the Google Meet link by email. If you are not already on the email list, please contact Greg for a link.
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