Hello, Sailor! (introduction and project updates)

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#1

I imagine that all of the initial posters on this forum will basically already know eachother, so while an introduction thread isn’t really necessary, I thought it’d be nice if everyone gave an update on the IF projects they’re working on (or would like to be working on if they had the spare time and attention).

Personally, most of my IF attention these days involves Hugo, Kent Tessman’s IF system. I’ve been working on a library extension called “Roodylib.” The latest checked code can always be found here while the latest official release can be downloaded here (and occasionally at the IF Archive). I have two games in the works although to be perfectly honest, I usually forego game-writing for library-tweaking much of the time.

I’ve been writing about my Hugo updates in my blog “Not Dead Hugo” (the awkward name comes from the fact that the system itself was named after a never-produced script written by Tessman called “Dead Hugo”).

The other year, I also dabbled with IF preservation with my blog “Roody’s Old-School Transcripts” which sought out to shine light on some of the better and worse aspects of commercial 80s IF. I don’t have any plans to add any new entries anytime soon, but the next one I do will probably be a milked-for-content playthrough of Infocom’s “Lurking Horror.” Other games I might do: Angelsoft’s The Mist and Forbidden Castle, and the other two games in Peter Killworth’s Doom trilogy.

(Btw, I’d be happy to have guest contributors on that blog if anybody would like to cover something.)

More urgent than the transcript site, I’m looking forward to playing around with ZILF, vaporware’s ZIL compiler, when I next want a break from Hugo stuff. I haven’t even had a chance to look at the latest version yet, but I’ve been looking forward to it for months. Not being a serious coder, much of it is beyond my skill level, but it’s been fun trying to recreate the functionality as described in the ZIL manual and writing a full game in ZIL one day is definitely on my bucket list.

What are my hopes for this board? Well, I’m already excited at that prospect that the first people here will care more about the improvement and continuation of IF than pursuing weird ego feuds and that the signal-to-noise ratio will be pretty high (and even if this board also has a lot of “white noise,” it’ll be more pleasant white noise than what I’ve grown accustomed to elsewhere).

I’ll probably create a Hugo topic at some point for coding tips and announcements and will be posting soon with another topic.

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Andrew S's weekly Progress Topic
#2

I have a few works in “progress”, all open source:

  • Guncho, the multiplayer IF system that one might describe as a MUD built out of Inform 7 games. After the initial release. I got too ambitious with plans for version 2, and development kinda stalled, but there’s still some salvageable code in there. The server was down for a while after I lost access to the Windows system that was hosting it, but I have it running again on a Linux host (yay .NET) that should be more permanent.

  • ZILF, the ZIL compiler. This is pretty usable, at least for V3 games, although the library is still missing a lot of what’s mentioned in Infocom’s guides. Version 0.5 was released in June with significant compatibility/completeness improvements, bug fixes, and internal cleanup.

  • Rellor, a reimplementation of the Inform 6 compiler. The ultimate goal I have in mind for this is pretty crazy, but I think the first big milestone will probably just be compiling I6 code to the Z-machine.

  • Yomin, which started out as an IDE for ZIL and Inform, then morphed into a Visual Studio plugin when I realized (1) I wanted a lot of features that Visual Studio already had, and (2) the Visual Studio “shell” is free to use for custom languages. Haven’t touched this for a while. The code is online for the standalone IDE version (which has a rudimentary editor and a functional debugger), but not yet for the plugin version (which has syntax highlighting and build rules but no debugger).

I also have a blog where I post IF-related technical stuff once in a while.

What are my hopes for this board? Well, I think the IF community has grown to the point where a single discussion forum isn’t enough to serve everyone, so I hope opening up another place that’s conspicuously different will let off some of the pressure.

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#3

Hey there :slight_smile: 28, Eastern European, moving comfortably toward bilinguality, though still not there. Translator of fiction from and to English, master smart-ass on the topics of writing and game design. Firmly settled in the armchair for now.

I work in Twine, and by “work” I mean “creating a prototype for a framework that would allow me to do nifty stuff when I get around to doing some creative work at last.” Not an easy task as it is, since it involves reading up on some general programming algorithms (entity-component systems, utility theory AI) from the position of a literary person. Still, doesn’t stray that far from stuff like Structuralism and Semiology, so not mind-boggling either.

Unlike the shape of this message-board. Have to admit, never seen that interface before and will probably have some issues at first.

So, hi :slight_smile:

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#4

Hello everyone!

I’m currently working on expanding my IntroComp '14 entry, “Scroll Thief”, and rebuilding significant parts of the Inform world model (e.g. the lighting and scope systems) in the process.

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#5

Howdy all!

I am currently working on trying to get an idea for an EctoComp entry and I’m also working on learning the TADS 3 system using Eric Eve’s excellent adv3Lite library.

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#6

Hello, there, everyone. Unlike the rest of you creative people, I’m not involved in any projects because I realised, after a few abortive attempts, I’m not one of life’s gamemakers. It happens.

I am one of life’s players, and most importantly collectors. My collection of IF is sizeable, as complete as I could possibly make it, and constantly updated. So if you ever have trouble finding a game, let me know, I might be able to help you out.

I’m also currently very proud to say I’ve been beta-testing iFrotz, which has done amazing progress and is becoming one mean terp.

Finally, I occasionally have a few things to say about IF, and then a few more things, and some others after that. Just slap me when you get bored and we’ll get along fine.

My hopes for this board (which looks somewhat psychadelic in a streamlined way)? That we can discuss games and IF for themselves, judging them by what they are and what they achieve instead of judging them by the pressures of whatever’s the current hot topic.

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#7

Hi, I’m Hanon. I currently have a game entered in the IFComp (quickly ducks, scanning for launched projectiles). I love trying out new IF systems. My current obsession is AXMA StoryMaker, which is essentially a Russian-developed, walled-off version of Twine.

I’m here because I can’t get enough talk about IF.

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#8

It certainly looks interesting. Before I invest a lot of time in trying to collect its works, pack rat that I am, let me ask - is there a place where these games can be found? A place where they’re usually published?

#9

Hi Peter! I was sad to see your account deleted at the other forum, and I’m happy to be in a place where we both have accounts again! 8)

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#10

Of course, the IF community needs all of its enthusiasts. Sometimes I take a look at the IF Archive and think, wow, we could still use many more maps and solutions, and your reviews on IFDB were always much appreciated. Good to have you around!

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#11

Well, to be honest, what happened a while ago - and let’s bygones be bygones, I was just caught in the crossfire - left me unwilling to share some things with the community at the time.

I am still not too keen on posting much elsewhere, or even at IFDB. But I might take up reviewing over here, because I sure as heck still have things to say!

Also, on a more personal note, Laroquod and Robb - thank you very, very much for your support. You guys are something else.

#12

I only read that thread today for the first time after finding out that it had such an effect. Not to dig up old wounds, but while I feel it is beneficial for a game designer to keep those issues in mind when creating a work, I don’t really think it’s particularly helpful to demonize an existing game or its supporters just because it’s not that next great step towards more inclusive gaming. At best, it can be helpful to acknowledge how things could be better, but outraged mobs just don’t really help anything.

Btw, this is Roody aka Jonathan Blask, but yeah, Robb should be showing up here one of these days, too.

#13

Gah. I always got you too mixed up. Yogurt, Icecream…

Oh, Blask? “Death To My Enemies” Blask? You’re awesome too. I e-mailed you at the time, I think; I just love DtmE. It’s fun, it’s quirky, and above all it’s very solidly implemented, I love the various scenarios it allows for.

#14

Thanks, yeah, really glad you liked it! :smile:

#15

All right, for whomever follows A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones:

I’m doing the official translation of The World of Ice and Fire and I’m at the riverlands, the Tullies more particularly. There are three generations of lords at some point, and their names are Grover. Elmo. And Kermit. This is canon. Official. Also, Kermit is unequivocally stated to have been the greatest Tully lord ever. So there.

#16

Good morning, everybody. It’s great to see everyone here.

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#17

There is a library of games at http://ifiction.net/lib.php, however there is not a lot in it. I was searching for information and stumbled via a blog post onto the Russian version of the site, where their library had a lot more, and they seem to have an active community along the lines of Choose Your Story.

I was a little curious when I discovered the system nearly a year ago because the English google group had very little activity and I assumed the software was not supported. It turns out they have been actively developing it and have a new Beta of version 3 available. It just takes a bit for the information to filter across the language barrier. On the google group, the user Double Dragon seems to be the one who relays the info to English speakers, so I get the feeling it’s more popular with IF writers in their country.

#18

Hi there. I guess most of you know me… …waves…

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#19

My name is Andrew Schultz. I’ve written a few games, and I’m pleased with them, and I’m pleased with the updates I made to them, too.

I prefer the term “text adventure” but I won’t get into holy wars on the subject.

I have several projects in the pipeline, but right now, I’m trying to mop up version 3 of my Spring Thing 2013 entry, A Roiling Original. It’s currently at 1.75 million bytes of Inform source. The process of improving, or getting rid of something that I have to admit was probably just a decent placeholder, is very hard, but it’s been worthwhile.

I enjoy trading testing transcripts and just ideas in general. I’m still amazed by being able to get something out of a game with an idea I don’t like.

It’s good to see some familiar names here, and it’s also good to have one more place to discuss things.

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#20

My name is Jason Lautzenheiser. I’m a long-time player (picking up Zork 1 on my C64 back in the 80s) and in the last year or so began to author a few games (I, like Andrew, prefer the term “text adventure”), releasing my first in last years EctoComp, then one for Shufflecomp and finally entered one into IntroComp this year.

Currently I’m trying to clean up my past releases and really want to finish up my IntroComp. I do however have a few ideas that I’ve been working on that have distracted me from working on any of my old stuff.

I seem to know a few of you already and it’s great to see another place to discuss this great past-time of ours.

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