More updates from behind the scenes: Things are still progressing steadily at a rate that should meet the planned timeline and may even allow an earlier pilot episode than anticipated.
The final expected “cast” members have been confirmed; these are the technical advisors for each development system that will act as the equivalent of “Fukui-san” by providing quick and effective answers to judges’ questions about the platform in use. They will be:
- Inform 7: Zed
- Twine: Greyelf
- Dialog: improvmonster
- TADS: johnnywz00
- ZIL: vaporware
- Inform 6: fredrik
- Adventuron: ChristopherMerriner
Please thank all of them for their generosity and dedication to spreading knowledge of their chosen systems. Their contribution will go a long way toward making this “show” something of long-term value to the community.
Additionally, the total pool of judges is now 15 strong (including the five already announced), which – assuming that the pilot is a success – will be more than enough to hold a series of “season one” episodes with an interesting and varied mix of judges for each. I’m keeping the identities of additional judges a secret for now to maintain some surprise value later, but each of them has my own sincere thanks, and I’m certain that everyone will be pleased to see the expanded lineup.
The judges’ working group has identified some short games to use for a “test run” of the draft scoring rubric to make sure that it is fit for purpose, and initial results seem promising. Please extend a special round of applause for this working group, which has covered the most ground of the three. (Thank you @AmandaB, @DeusIrae, @EJoyce, @Rovarsson, and especially @severedhand, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty on several occasions.)
The challengers’ working group has established some proposed flair icons with an overwhelming yea vote, and these should be shared soon by @caleb, the group’s official spokesperson. HanonO has graciously agreed to allow two groups for this event, one for chefs (both Iron Chefs and challengers) and one for “tasters” (both judges and audience), for those who want to use the flair.
The Iron Chefs’ working group is occupied with refinement of the template for challenge ingredients. At this point, “code-like” challenge ingredients as originally proposed have been definitively ruled out in favor of “seed-like” (i.e. conceptual) challenge ingredients, in order to ensure maximum flexibility and room for creativity on the part of chefs. At least one sample challenge ingredient seems to be meeting with high approval from some chefs, and, since it cannot now be used for Iron ChIF, will probably be submitted to SeedComp next year. Other samples have been deemed anywhere from acceptable to good. Both Iron Chefs and challengers have made it clear that they are more than happy to deal with “tough” ingredients, so the focus is on identifying the red zones of technical unworkability for each platform.
So the short version is: Everything is going pretty well. I’m expecting to be able to post a FAQ laying out the various decisions that have been made no later than next month, even if it’s only in draft form. Keep your fingers crossed, and stay tuned!
