Before anything else, a little housekeeping:
I’m back from the Hawaii honeymoon! Here’s a picture of far too many rainbows. We also have a picture of far too many dolphins. Hawaii was like that. (It was sort of like visiting a … Keep reading →
Brief note to authors:
If you’re uploading your Inform-based game as a website that uses the Quixe interpreter, then you may have noticed that the website seems to load Parchment instead of Quixe if you try to preview your game. This is due to a mistake on my part, regarding some secret server-side sauce that reaches a little too far when it comes to Inform games.
I am going to give this some attention over the weekend; will update the blog further when it’s fixed. Thanks for your patience, and my apologies for the inconvenience.
I was in a lousy mood when I walked into the Armenian bakery this morning. Last night was hectic and miserable, because my fiancee’s birthday party was interrupted by a trip to the ER. She is okay, but many frustrating things happened, and we were both feeling exhausted and abraded … Keep reading →
Hi everyone!
Today has been pretty busy here (eaten by wedding plans, etc), so I don’t have a new post for you. But I do have some great recommendations to check out in the meantime.
IntroComp is going on right now! This interactive fiction competition’s twist is that the … Keep reading →
“My name is Carolyn, game dev of games: look upon my screwups, ye Readers, and learn more!”
In other words: I recently made an interesting scheduling error, so it seemed like a good time to talk about how to repair scheduling errors.
I’ve heard this question hundreds of times, both on Twitter and in person. Motivation is one of the biggest common problems for solo indie game devs. If there’s no one beside you to cheer you along, it can be really hard to keep going.
In … Keep reading →
The results of the 2014 XYZZY Awards for excellence in interactive fiction were announced this evening at the usual gala ceremony on ifMUD. Congratulations to all the winners!
I am very pleased and proud that three IFComp entries — all top-ten finishers from last year, and all very different examples of IF — took home awards. In alphabetical order:
Creatures Such as We, by Lynnea Glasser (2nd place, IFComp 2014) won the Best NPCs award.
Fifteen Minutes, by Ade (6th place, IFComp 2014) won the Best Puzzle award.
With Those we Love Alive, by Porpentine and Brenda Neotenomie (5th place, IFComp 2014) won the Best Single NPC and Best Writing awards.
The larger nominees list honored other IFComp entries as well.
I offer especial congratulations to inkle’s amazing 80 Days as the winner of the coveted Best Game XYZZY award. This isn’t the first time a commercial game has taken this prize, but I would hazard a guess that it’s the most commercially successful game to do so, having received mainstream recognition in quarters far beyond the hobbyist community. As inkle co-founder (and 2001 IFComp winner) Jon Ingold said while accepting the award,
I’ve been making IF in this community and its fringes for 15 years or so, and it’s pretty remarkable how much the landscape has changed since those days - back when choice games were considered childish, simplistic. And a lot of us had the feeling that there was something really interesting in interactive fiction that was worth plugging away at despite the fact lots of people said there wasn’t.
We all said there was a thing here. And maybe there’s a thing here. And next year there might be another thing. And that’s a great place to be.
So — we got this. It’s going to be fine.
I agree. With just over five months to go until IFComp 2015, I look forward to our own next crop of great things.
Last August, we modified Author Rule 4, extending the period of time authors are forbidden to discuss entries from “during the voting period” to “before the end of the voting period”. This effectively barred authors from talking about their entries in public at all until the competition ended. An author discussing or writing about their game in public at any time before the competition’s end — even months prior to the competition’s start — could find themselves in violation of this rule.
I hereby undo this change, and have simplified the text of the rule accordingly. The updated rule now reads as follows:
Authors of a competition entry may not discuss or promote any of the entries in a public forum, blog, or social network during the judging period.
Feel free to encourage the public to participate in the competition, playing your entries and others, either casually or as judges. However, you may not engage in public discussion or promotion about any of the games in particular — including your own — during the competition judging period.
This rule does not disallow private correspondence about the competition. Furthermore, authors may use the authors-only discussion forums on intfiction.org without restriction.
Effectively, this gives authors the freedom to discuss their intended IFComp entries however they please until October 1, when (as has been the case since the third IFComp in 1997) authors must clam up about all the comp games until the comp ends.
Please note that this modification does not lift or otherwise change the restriction against public releases of intended entries prior to October 1, as outlined by Author Rule 3. So, do continue to show caution there.
You could, for example, write a development blog about your competition entry, right up through the summer of 2015. However, if you did end up entering it this year, you would need to avoid publishing any posts about the game between October 1 and November 15. You’d also need to avoid sharing any early releases of the game on the blog prior to October 1.
As for why this change, and the one before it: 2014’s IFComp was arguably the first one to fully embrace social media, and therefore the first meeting of IFComp’s rules with certain communication platforms that, when those rules were first drafted, were still years away from existing. These platforms allow authors to get their voice out about their work, the IFComp, and IF in general in ways inconceivable during the 1990s — and that’s great! That also forced me to make some snap decisions about how to interpret the spirit of these rules in 2014. Last August’s change to rule 4 was one such outcome.
In the months since then, and in fielding questions from (and observing public writing by) some of 2015’s hopeful entrants, I have come to conclude that, while I can stand behind my decision for 2014’s contest, the rule change conflicts with the natural energy of modern social media, and sows too much confusion and worry to justify keeping it in place for future competitions. So, back in the box it goes.
As always, feel free to contact the organizers with any questions about this or any other IFComp rule.
