Hi Jason, good to see you here!
I’m also interested in entering EctoComp. Maybe we could have a small testing ring here. I know that testing time counts against the 3 hour time limit whether it’s done by someone else or yourself. That said, 15 minutes of testing from someone else is extremely valuable to find your own blind spot, so maybe people can swap. Maybe we could set up a thread this Friday or something specifically for that.
I’d be up for it…I do know last year I used every second of my three hours on developing (though I did have my son, a non-player, run through it quick and it did help)…I’ve got, what I think is a neat idea, just not sure how to scale it back to fit within 3 hours. Hopefully I can get to it before the deadline!
Well, you’re allowed to write stuff out and to plan. And I think Carolyn VanEseltyne asked if you could include your own extensions of stuff you were going to throw in anyway, so that can be a big help (you can use extensions in general.)
So you don’t have to duplicate technical stuff, and that doesn’t count against the 3 hours. Also, you’ll probably be quicker at programming with experience.
I know that not having a worry about big bugs also helps me focus–though I would include a test command. And a walkthrough for testers (and players) too. I would assume the walkthrough is not code, and it can help you organize the game and so forth.
I’ve been writing stuff out and planning a bit better this year compared to last when I did absolutely no planning. I can feel myself getting a bit too ambitious though, so I’m going to have to scale it back a bit.
I signed up early on, but just now getting around to making this introduction. Cool to see you all here.
I’ve got a few things going…
DPRK - An IF with graphics and sound written in Hugo. Trying to get the finishing touches on a demo of sorts done soon to have playtesters try out and get some feedback from before continuing with the rest of the game.
Interactive Dreaming - An IF with graphics and sound written in Inform7 I started roughly four years ago. Unsure of what the final title of this one will be and when it was even be worked on again, but I hope to revisit it soon. It’s basically a randomish game based on random dreams I’ve had. It’s heavy on Glimmr tricks, and I’ve yet to see how compatible the code and all of the required extensions work in the newest version of Inform.
Bogue - An “oldschool” game I tinker with off and on as I learn and try new things in BASIC/Assembly for Commodore 64, Java for Android, Python, and others. It features a randomized weather forecast and a simplistic fishing game based on the results.
Other stuff I make for games includes custom maps and other content for my private Ultima Online shard amd Doom3 engine stuff (Really need to go back to building a Photon mod for this once I can get a proper model or brush structure for the towers in Photon arenas).
You can find out about all I’m working on at retrolab.servebeer.com
Playing IfComp games lately. Should have some reviews posted to my site soon.
I recently hit 10000 anagrams in A Roiling Original. I’m tightening up the mechanics, too, thanks to Sean Shore! He gave me some great transcripts but I’ve let myself get too busy. So I need to fix that.
Hi, just signed up yesterday (May 17)
I’m a “Drifter” and I’m currently working on a few projects.
D-Day: I started this ages ago but hope that I’ll be finished nexst year June 6. It’s a graphical adventure with sound where you take the role of one of the many Allied soldiers landing at Normandy in 1944. I’ve been working on this on and off and left it for a while when Campbell relased the new Adrift V.5. But I’m at it again and slowkly progressing.
The Lousiana Mystery: This is also a thing I’ve taken down from the shelf and dusted off a little. Here you play a college student who has taken a summer job as a receptionist at an old hotel at the Lousiana coastline to earn a few bucks for his studies. I know this doesn’t sound like an intro that will make people sit on the edge of their seats waiting for the release, but I don’t want to reveal too much at this point… Just let you know that there’s a ghost or two involved 
1940: Another ghost story… What is it with me and ghosts? 
The story begins in present day. Your late uncle served with the RAF during the war and you are therefore invited to the celebration of Battle of Britain day at one of the fighter pilots famous "water holes"
As you are in your room adn preparing for the party, strange things begin to happen.
I have many, many works in progress right now, but most of them aren’t really going anywhere. The one I intend to go somewhere is a game called Meld which will be my entry in this year’s IntroComp.
I’m not sure about the IntroComp’s rules about discussing games prior to the comp beginning so I can’t really go into a lot of detail about it, but at the most basic level it involves changing (melding) objects into other objects.
Hi. My current projects include learning to use Git and Bitbucket, and trying to update a bunch of things on IFWiki.
(Very belated) hello Finn! I recognize you from 2011 IFComp. It’s good you’re still writing. It’s cool to read about your projects–I seem to remember D-Day in your sig at intfiction.org. So this is a poke to see if you’ve done anything in the past 6 weeks–which, well, I haven’t done as much as I wanted, but I hope you did.
I sort of went in a black hole for a while but am climbing back out…I posted some source and am putting regular updates to github.com/andrewschultz & I know I need to get back to 1 or 2 people here. Sorry for that.
But I was able to make a fix in Threediopolis that a tester–someone who’s been on this board, I think suggested & I deferred as too hard. Turns out it wasn’t.
I don’t think I’ll be able to respond to a testing cycle before IFComp, but if possible, I’d really like to have them to work on during IFComp so I keep my mind off looking for reviews. Thing is, though–the most likely candidates to test will (and should) probably be playing the IFComp games themselves. So I am thinking by end of year.
By the way, is there anything (hard or soft reasons) against us all splitting off our own threads for project updates as opposed to introductions? I would be really interested/receptive to see what other people have to say, and as long as we didn’t spam (e.g. once a week) it might be a good way to help some people progress. I don’t think intfiction has that, and though some of us have blogs/source control, it’s still neat to have a thread. I gain a lot of inspiration just seeing what other people have done.
(Also I feel a bit tacky replying to myself in thi thread 
)
No, it sounds like a good idea. Feel free!
Hello!
My local interactive fiction meetup here in the DC / Baltimore area mentioned this little community, so figured I’d come by and check it out!
As with most fans of the genre, I too am working on some interactive fiction!
It’s a digital gamebook inspired by the work of Choice of Games, Sorcery, and Tin Man Games (Fighting Fantasy). It focuses on adventure, replayability, and strategy. Perhaps what makes it most unique is the mini-card game used for combat.
Lately I’ve been reaching out to IF fans to see what they hate/love about it. Conventions have gone really well, but real fans of the genre have been hard to find! If you have time, I would love to get your feedback during the upcoming beta!
I’m a programmer by-trade, but trying my hand at art and writing. The writing is particularly the hardest part…
Welcome! I think I recognise your avatar. Enjoy your stay here, feel free to… er… discuss freely. (Quite the wordsmith, aren’t I?)
I’ve registered an intent for Spring Thing. Looking at Inform 7. Never published anything before. I probably won’t have enough motivation to finish it. Guess I will be relying on extensions to get it done in time.
Story bias watch
I noticed that the ST entry form requires a work “telling an interactive story with words”.
I’m Paul Lee, and I like interactive fiction. I don’t do much regarding IF anymore, but for now I’ll hawk my seven reviews that I managed to get written for the competition that just ended.
This is a really cool discussion forum platform. I haven’t seen anything like it before, although that’s not really surprising.
I recently–finally–took the initiative to learn how to use Git. I’m not really much of a developer, but version control is more-or-less necessary for a lot of things, I’ve learned.
Great to see you here, Paul! If you’re still looking at git clients, I’d suggest trying Sourcetree. That one has been working pretty well for me.
Welcome. I agree that SourceTree is a pretty decent tool.
Hey, great to see you stop by, Paul, and thanks (again) for your review. I tried to ignore them throughout the comp and by the time yours came around I was knee deep in other projects.
Source control has been wonderful for me as I am 99% less worried about losing stuff than before. I can try experiments. I can check changes to make sure I changed what I really wanted. This is all relatively non-technical. It’s left me free to make changes big or small.