Stale Tales Slate: post-comp releases

Playing Project Announcements
1

I’m happy to announce that I have re-released versions of Shuffling Around and A Roiling Original, the two games in my Stale Tales Slate.

They feature a lot of bug fixes and features, and while bugs are lurking, I think the main things are:

  1. puzzles are fixed so as to be sensible
  2. major bugs have been paved over
  3. there’s increased user-friendliness
  4. Color trizbort maps! Visit bit.ly/trizbortjl if you want to draw up your own. They’re a nice addition to any release, big or small.
  5. the total source code is over 3 megs. This is a bit ridiculous, and a lot is due to the random text, but–I’m proud of my perseverance, even if sometimes I didn’t attack the VERY highest priority bugs.

Many people helped with Roiling version 3, including Mr. Patient, who was–err–patient about me dawdling on some very good transcripts. The complete list is included in the change log. Matt Weiner helped with Shuffling version 4. If any bugs are left, there were a lot worse bugs before.

The games are submitted to the IFArchive but until then there are dropbox links.

Shuffling: dropbox.com/s/4kbj5vy3tu3uu … 4.zip?dl=0
Roiling: dropbox.com/s/z0isqt874lsdv … 3.zip?dl=0

The change logs are here:

Shuffling: dropbox.com/s/5k6bfey3siz0s … s.txt?dl=0
Roiling: dropbox.com/s/6l143giywshs4 … s.txt?dl=0

2

Here are notes for Shuffling Around. The notes for Roiling are about 20 KB, so I won’t cut and paste them.

Shuffling Around release 4 is largely a maintenance release. It has far less scope than release 3. But I think there’s still some good stuff in there! If you were intimidated or annoyed by the introduction, I really thing I cleaned it up for release 4, and if you give it another shot, I’d be grateful. The introduction was something I never quite felt at home with, and once I saw a way to make it less rocky, I felt like it would fit with the technical stuff.

[spoiler]TECHNICAL
–Shuffling Around now allows object-based hinting, e.g. HINT ATTICS. HINT still jogs the game to try to figure what to do next, and it works best outside Store M. Inside M, there are so many alternate paths that the game can only direct you to a different room
–you can now have the game list “Current/min to solve-max to solve” with POSS, just like A Roiling Original

BUG FIXES
–fixed “BUG” text when you scan something that has no scannability
–the saltine now gives better hints and isn’t consumed for stuff you should already know. It also adds certain clues to the flips section in your notepad
–fixed runtime error for feature I forgot I put in (GO TO ROOM X)
–You can’t re-peel something once it’s in the grinder

PUZZLE SWAPS, ETC.
–The introduction to Store F is now different and a bit more mazy. It incorporates random puzzles, which you’ll probably see the theme of pretty quickly
–The intro section now starts with easier puzzles, including one where you have an option of two to solve, and the two puzzles to enter the gate are collapsed to one. This one has several clues that can help you figure the word(s) by process of elimination.
–The intro section has an additional LLP which is not trivial. It is in the additional room between the yard and the section

AESTHETIC
–2000 random text bits, including 700 poem codas and 800 other job searchers
–the job searchers were moved from “X WAS HERE” in the Strip to the Name List in the intro. They are now listed five at a time, with “interesting” text that changes the first ten times you read
–fixing room descriptions like in the northeast room of Store I before and after Cedars is available

OUT-OF-WORLD
–CREDITS are labeled more clearly, and they branch into release information, technical information, and so forth
–Trizbort map now has colors. Thanks to Genstein for Trizbort originally and Jason Lautzenheiser for picking the project up!

Transcripts are welcome. A bug database is at bitbucket.org/andrewschultz/shu … tatus=open[/spoiler]

3

What format are these games in? So many times I read about IF I like the sound of only to discover that it’s in Glulxe, Adrift, or even online.

4

Glulxe is probably currently the most popular format, you know.

To answer your question, these games are Glulxe.

And by the way, I kept meaning to say - well done on the updates! I’ve already downloaded them and in a few days I’ll update my collection. :slight_smile:

5

Thanks, Peter! It’s been a task to update, and I hope I didn’t leave any howler-bugs in there. I think I checked, and my testers checked, and at any rate, the severity of bugs has decreased along the way. Aaron Reed’s rough formula that complexity varies as size squared feels right, or possibly conservative.

That said, there will be another maintenance release. Testing turned up a bug that I just couldn’t fit in, more of a “yeah, that’s a bummer if discovered” bug than “this messes things up.” Not really spoilers for any one puzzle, but it discusses the hint mechanisms.

[spoiler]Basically if you use the HINTS in both games and then use a one-time hint item, it doesn’t recognize if you plowed through the hints.

Also if you figure a puzzle before it’s fully solvable, the game tracks this. But if you use the one-time hint item later, the game may use it to reveal the puzzle you already solved.

So 2 conveniences run up against each other.[/spoiler]

These are a great excuse to put out another release (like, post-IFComp) but I’m not going to lose sleep over them, and I hope prospective players don’t, either. I’ve roughly outlined how to work them through, but again, precise testing is a bear.

Sheogorath, unfortunately, there’s no way the game fits in z-machine. I have to admit, I see a way to do this in twine–but I can’t invest the time to program it, and Twine will miss out on many silly responses I enjoyed putting in. I hope you find a way to reliably play glulx games so you can enjoy them more smoothly. Here’s to the technology coming sooner rather than later.

I’ve probably waited too long to move to the next game as it is.

6

What about TADS 3? It easily allows games as large as Glulx format does, but has the distinction of being accessible on all platforms.

7

I’m afraid it’s the same thing as the other games you asked about - they are completely different systems, TADS and Inform. You just can’t easily port a game; you have to learn the very different language, the different way of doing things, and rewrite the whole game.

It would probably be better if you contacted the author of the mobile interpreters you use and gently nudged them towards supporting Glulx.

Anyway, TADS being accessible on “all platforms” is… something I find hard to agree with. Possibly it’s accessible on all the platforms that you use.