Category: announcements

Speaking of contests

“Citizens for Global Solutions” (about which, I confess, I knew essentially nothing until today) has posted a contest for interactive fiction dealing with global concerns and their solutions. (That includes human rights issues, global warming, nuclear proliferation, etc.) Their definition of interactive fiction is a bit different from mine, but it sounds as though text-based IF would count among the things they’re looking for.

There are cash prizes ($2000 first place, $1000 second place, $500 third place, plus a people’s choice award). Submissions are due November 17th.

Official Release

Cover

The Queen has told you to return with her heart in a box. Snow White has made you promise to make other arrangements. Now that you’re alone in the forest, it’s hard to know which of the two women to trust. The Queen is certainly a witch — but her stepdaughter may be something even more horrible…

There are some eighteen possible endings to this fairy tale.

Some of them are even almost happy.

A fractured fairy tale by John Cater, Rob Dubbin, Eric Eve, Elizabeth Heller, Jayzee, Kazuki Mishima, Sarah Morayati, Mark Musante, Emily Short, Adam Thornton, & Ziv Wities.

Illustrated by Daniel Allington-Krzysztofiak.

Available now from

http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7Downloads/Examples/alabaster/

(Changed because the old site went over its traffic allowance.)

Please note — as the site also points out — that you’ll want the latest available Glulx interpreter to play (Git 1.2.4 for Windows, Zoom 1.1.4 for Mac). Alabaster is processing-intensive and makes use of the latest Inform optimizations.

Another warning: some of the comments here get spoilery.

Inform 7 Extension “Recorded Endings”

Coming out of my fiddling with Alabaster is an extension for multiple-ending games. Designed for Glulx only (because it uses external files), it keeps track of all the endings the player has found and allows him to review them with an ENDINGS command during the final question.

I’ve occasionally kicked around the idea of a similar extension for games that rely on a fixed set of randomized starting parameters (like the “When in Rome” games, or “Act of Murder”). The idea would be that an external file would record which starting parameters the player had already solved and avoid giving him the same scenario again before he had worked through all of the options. But it is hard to come up with a general syntax for this. Hrm.

EnvComp results out

The results for EnvComp are now out, giving the win to C. E. J. Pacian’s entomological fantasy “Dead Like Ants”. They’re accompanied by reviews from a panel of ten judges. This is great stuff — critique from experienced players is worth its weight in… well, it doesn’t weigh anything. Still, it’s worth a lot.

The good news is that this minicomp series still has another three competitions whose deadlines are a little way out: NPCComp, SenseComp, and GameplayComp. (AbilityComp is closing May 1, so unless you’re a demon coder, …)

And while I’m on the topic of things to enter, GunchoComp has a deadline in August, for games written for multiple players on Jesse McGrew’s Guncho system.

Inform build out

Inform build 5Z71 is now out, hosted on a new website, which features, among other things, a new section on education with Inform and reports from teachers in the field; a new introductory screencast by Aaron Reed showing off some of the features of the IDE and how to get your game started; and a revised handling of the extensions allowing authors to view extension documentation online before downloading.