Announce: IFBeginnersComp
David Fisher
Create a game that is suitable for beginning IF players.
This comp is being run in parallel with the "Interactive Short Fiction
Competition". Games may be entered in both competitions (assuming the
requirements for both are met). The deadline is February 15th, 2008.
There is an IFWiki page describing the competition here:
http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/IFBeginnersComp
See that page for the most up to date information. The rules are copied
below.
---
1. Entries may be in any language, but preferably in English.
2. Entries are not restricted to any particular IF language or platform.
3. The intended audience is beginning IF players. This implies that:
(a) The (initial) goal should be clear from the start of the game, or
within the first few turns;
(b) The puzzles should be as fair as possible, and be well clued;
(c) Things that put off beginners should be minimised (missing synonyms,
shallow implementation, etc.);
(d) Help / hints should be available in some form.
4. The game should not be able to be put into an "unwinnable" state, with
the exception of "end of game" conditions (eg. dying) that can be
immediately recovered from using Undo.
5. The game must have at least one puzzle. Puzzles should fit in naturally
with the story / setting.
6. Games may be any length, but as a general guideline, beginning IF players
should have a good chance of completing the game in one or two hours.
7. There is no particular audience age range; games are simply for
"beginners".
8. Deadline: February 15th, 2008. No "intent to enter" is required.
9. Assuming more than one entry is submitted, there will be a public voting
period lasting one month. As an experiment, public discussion of games
during the voting period will be permitted.
10. Judges should aim to play as many games as possible for at least one
hour each. If a judge votes on less than half of the games by the end of the
judging period, the votes will not be counted.
11. Votes will be publicly displayed on the IF Wiki. If judges do not want
to edit the IF Wiki themselves, or wish to remain anonymous, votes may be
sent directly to the organiser, who will then update the voting page.
Some trust is needed here, but I think this would work ... -- DF
12. Games must not have been previously released (but are permitted to be
entered in the Interactive Short Fiction Competition at the same time as
this contest).
13. The organiser reserves the right to enter the competition as well; if
any prizes are donated, he will not be eligible for them.
14. Submissions may be sent to david...@australiaonline.net.au
(compressed if possible, please!).
David Fisher
Chivalrybean
my site (http://www.thebeandom.com), and I've been playing around with
IF for a white now, but the projects I come up with a very complex to
write and I'm still learning a lot. Entering a contest aimed at games
for beginning IF players would suit me. The beta I have is not really
beginner aimed. It has some pretty nasty puzzles and would most likely
not be easy for someone new to this type of game.
I'm glad I found this thread. Is there a mailing list for contests
like this?
-Justin
David Fisher
news:b93ea5e6-d6db-4b62...@s12g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> I'll be trying my keyboard at this contest. I just posted a beta from
> my site (http://www.thebeandom.com), and I've been playing around with
> IF for a white now, but the projects I come up with a very complex to
> write and I'm still learning a lot. Entering a contest aimed at games
> for beginning IF players would suit me.
Great!
If you would like more information about IF design, there is a collection of
quotes from IF Comp reviews at:
http://dfisher.serverspeople.net/ifgems/gems.html
Sometimes the server for this web site plays up; if so, you can also get it
from:
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/programming/general-discussion/IFGems.zip
> I'm glad I found this thread. Is there a mailing list for contests
> like this?
Not that I am aware of ...
Some other sources of IF competition announcements are:
The "Competitions" section of http://www.intfiction.org/forum.
The main page of the IF Wiki: http://www.ifwiki.org.
David Fisher
David Fisher
http://www.tads.org/t3doc/doc/techman/t3des2.htm
("IF Design: In Theory", from the TADS 3 technical manual by Mike Roberts).
The whole thing is useful, but the section entitled "Educate your audience"
might be particularly helpful for writing games for new IF players.
David Fisher
Chivalrybean
Hmm... seems my game was set to be 'on rails' quite a bit, which is
annoying because I don't like games like that {:0D
For instance, I had one point where I said to the playing trying to
reenter a room "You don't feel like going back there" to a game losing
situation (fixable with a single UNDO). So, they can now go back if
they want, thus giving them more choice.