Introductory (live) Inform workshop?

I got some email this morning from a middle-school teacher who is interested in using Inform in the classroom, but wants some help in getting up to speed with it. Here’s the text of the request:

Do you know of any sources I could check out that might offer workshops,
conferences, etc. (especially in the summer), that I might be able to
attend and get some training on the program? Is there anybody out there
doing that, or is it mainly a “learn it for yourself” situation? I’d
really like to get in a small group setting with an expert who can take
me through the basics while we’re in the same room.

I was about to write back and say, no, no one does that — but it occurs to me that I don’t know that for certain. Does anyone out here know of such a thing?

Passing comment on the latest SPAG

SPAG #54 is out, and is really interesting — there’s a great mix of content, and I continue to be glad that Jimmy Maher is seeking out material beyond just reviews. I especially like reading about game design and creation processes, so the issue with the comp winner interviews is always a favorite with me.

I was a little surprised, or taken aback, or something, by one piece of David Monath’s review of Blue Lacuna (though there was lots else that I did agree with). His comments (as his review warns) are maybe a little spoilery, so I will put them after the cut-tag:

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Unscientific survey

I almost posted about this a few weeks ago, but then didn’t really like the way the post came out, so killed it. But Chris’ post over here made me realize I’m still curious, if anyone feels like answering:

What is the biggest thing getting in the way of finishing and releasing your favorite WIP?

(In my case: I need to finish and release Alabaster before I go back to working on the older, bigger piece that relies on the same conversation extension. Which I guess could loosely be translated “lack of focus” or “bad habit of thinking that I can whip out small projects in between working on big ones”.)

More on Graphics in Alabaster

picture-1 So I’ve been working more on the Alabaster graphics — really the main thing that is still left before release.

(Re my complaints back here, I think I have fixed the very worst speed hangup with optimizations in my own code, and then David Kinder has awesomely put in some work that will lead to the acceleration of all Glulx games produced by I7. Graham and I have discussed some further optimizations in the way I7 handles relations that might streamline the behavior of the underlying conversation library yet further, but that will have to wait until later builds of Inform. I am hopeful that the result will be something that remains usably fast even for fairly large games. As I suspected, that involves approaching the problem at all three levels — terps, I7, and the individual library.)

Anyway, about the graphics, I’ve been thinking more about what graphics should do in this game, and about what I like in successful uses of graphics in other IF.

Continue reading “More on Graphics in Alabaster”