ShuffleComp: Disc Two

Competitions
61

The 17 entries to ShuffleComp are now available at nigeljayne.ca/shufflecomp2015games.html
Voting details are at nigeljayne.ca/shufflecomp2015.html
Please let me know of any problems and inaccuracies.

Thanks to all the participants, and a special thanks to those who found inspiration, took up the challenge, and contributed to a great mixed tape.

I will prepare the IFDB pages early next week with the help of Doug Orleans (thanks Doug). The default description for the entries will be a list of songs that inspired the work. Entrants can send me a different description and a genre, and I’ll use them.

Neil

62

At least one of the authors is listed by actual name rather than pseudonym. Intentional decision or accident?

63

According to the rules, “Entrants do not need to use a pseudonym”. I chose not to use one for the game I submitted-- I was planning to use a pseudonym for a second game, but I ended up bailing on that idea. I am slightly surprised that I was the only one who didn’t use a pseudonym… Embarrassing!

64

Oops, just noticed that Jacques Frechet didn’t use a pseudonym either. Whew, solidarity!

65

Some people chose not to use pseudonyms . I hope I sorted this out properly! Also, I fixed some typos. Can I link to the quixe interpreter via the website? Parchment doesn’t show the status bar, which is important for at least one game.

Neil

66

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this, but we’re planning to review ShuffleComp entries in SPAG. So if you’re interested, shoot me an email/PM!

67

Just a heads-up: the link to the video for Genesis’s Burning Rope is messed up; it’s missing a “t” in its “http”.

Anyway, I can’t wait to play all the games this year! Looks like we have a good crop.

68

Neil, it would be better to use the Quixe on Zarf’s site: eblong.com/zarf/glulx/quixe/
Parchment’s Quixe is out of date, and somewhat buggy. Now that Quixe uses jQuery though, it should be easier to make it reliable.

69

Yes, 100% intentional. I only use a pseudonym for the forum and for ifMUD, apparently.

I’m not sure off the top of my head how you would be able to tell exactly how many people used pseudonyms and how many didn’t – I mean in certain cases, sure, but in general it seems tough. So I would hesitate to conclude at this time that we two are the only non-pseudonymous entrants.

We were talking about this on Saturday at the IF meetup in Oakland and someone (I mean I’m pretty sure it must have been Dan Fabulich?) said something about how in last year’s ShuffleComp there was a rule that everyone had to use pseudonyms which I think he thought was meant to encourage people to enter even if they were scared that some well-known IF author might enter or even if they were a well-known IF author themselves and maybe scared of scaring off other people or otherwise, uh, I don’t know, it sounded pretty complicated? So I guess this year’s rules must be different.

Anyway I apologize in advance for totally intimidating everyone but at least now you’ll have the bonus slash excuse that you can say that you either beat, tied, or lost to well-known IF celebrity Jacques Frechet, celebrated author of HOME SWEETIE-BOT HOME, the one that introduced that nifty ROTATE/AMBULATE navigation mechanic that everyone’s been writing their doctoral dissertations about ever since. Or I mean I assume they must be. It can take a while, right?

Wait, no, I think I get it – it must be that everyone’s going to vote for my game now without playing it because… no no, they’ll be favorably disposed to seeing it as being brilliant rather than as dumb because… or maybe people will just complain a lot? Those all seem plausible. Well, whatever, at this point I’ll take what I can get I suppose.

This doesn’t count as a review, does it? That… that was supposed to be a joke, you don’t have to answer, or laugh, sorry, I know it’s… hmm, I hope this isn’t like standing in the line at the airport, where even if it was a joke they still count it as a vote in your favor.

70

Oh, I totally missed the rules change. Disregard, sorry!

Not complicated. It was just meant to be fun, with the side effect of leveling the playing field a little (so that well-known IF authors didn’t have an edge over unknowns in the judging.)

71

You can now enjoy Genesis. I’ve tried to link to quixe, but it doesn’t seem to work.

72

Who is planning to write reviews of these games? I think I can manage a couple.

73

Here, I’ve done one.

http://marshaltennerwinter.blogspot.com/2015/05/shufflecomp2-when-land-goes-under-water.html

74

Out of curiosity, what’s so special about Texas Instruments (which I’ve already downloaded and have verified that it’s playable offline) that it doesn’t come in the zipped folder? Feel free to use spoiler tags if you’re about to spoil it, I don’t mind.

75

Oh wow I just got the pun in “Texas Instruments”, well done.

76

The author of Texas Instruments seemed to suggest to me that there is a tacked-on component at the end of the game that may not download properly. The author told me that a downloadable version could be made, but it hasn’t been provided yet.

Neil

77

Good enough for me. [emote]:)[/emote] Thanks for clearing that up.

78

From Cosmic Hamster:

I wanted to give players a heads up about a bug with the keywords in Molly and the Butter Thieves. The default setting for keywords (blue text) should work as expected if you leave it unchanged. But if you change the setting, it’ll show a different option in-game than the one you’ve picked. If you choose an option from the #1 group, you’ll get the next option (for instance, if you choose green text, you’ll get the bold black text in-game). If you choose an option from the #2 group, it’ll change to the default blue. Sorry!

79

So, just to be clear, even if you’re an author yourself, you can post reviews, right?

80

Yes, entrants can write reviews as well. I don’t think the rules prevent you from reviewing your own game, but I won’t give your game an extra “yes” if you review it. Remember that you can also vote on your game, but you also then need to vote on at least two others.

Neil