[IFComp] The 2011 IFComp has begun!

[Stephen Granade]

The games are all up and available from http://ifcomp.org/ or your
friendly local IF Archive mirror. One change this year: authors will be
allowed to update their games during the competition. I'll be posting
updated games at least once a week during the competition.

Stephen

--
Stephen Granade
ste...@granades.com

[Hannes Schüller]

Hi!

Stephen Granade <ste...@granades.com> wrote:
> authors will be
> allowed to update their games during the competition

That is interesting... what's the rationale behind this? I mean with
regards to consistent scoring. I take it judges don't need to feel
obliged to re-play games as they're updated?

Hannes

[Stephen Granade]

Hannes Schüller <han...@yllr.net> writes:

> Hi!
>
> Stephen Granade <ste...@granades.com> wrote:
>> authors will be
>> allowed to update their games during the competition
>
> That is interesting... what's the rationale behind this? I mean with
> regards to consistent scoring. I take it judges don't need to feel

I wanted to encourage authors to improve their games. As it originally
stood, authors had very little incentive to make games better after the
competition was complete, and given the visibility that the IF Comp has
to the wider world, I wanted us to be presenting the best games we can.

Judges, of course, are under no obligation to re-play updated games, and
are free to limit themselves to the originally-submitted games. The full
competition .zip file will not be updated, so the original submissions
will always be available.

[Hannes Schüller]

One thing which has long bothered me about the website: This game
information page containing the blurbs is unusable in a non-Javascript
browser. Would it maybe be possible to simply have it with everything
'open' in case the client does not support that atrocious technology?

Usually, this is achieved, by simply using Javascript to achieve the
hiding effect as well on page load. So in browser with Javascript, it
will look like it does now and for everyone else, it will still be
possible to use the page.

Hannes

[Hannes Schüller]

Stephen Granade <ste...@granades.com> wrote:

> Hannes Schüller <han...@yllr.net> writes:
> > Stephen Granade <ste...@granades.com> wrote:
> >> authors will be
> >> allowed to update their games during the competition
> >
> > That is interesting... what's the rationale behind this? I mean with
> > regards to consistent scoring. I take it judges don't need to feel
>
> I wanted to encourage authors to improve their games. As it originally
> stood, authors had very little incentive to make games better after
> the competition was complete, and given the visibility that the IF
> Comp has to the wider world, I wanted us to be presenting the best
> games we can.

I like this. How will it be handled with regards to the IF Archive? All
versions in one directory? Overwriting old versions with more recent
ones? Also, in case there is any such plan, shouldn't it be applied
retroactively to download links of past competition participants which
have been published in updated versions?

Hannes

[Andrew Plotkin]

Here, Hannes Schüller <han...@yllr.net> wrote:

> Stephen Granade <ste...@granades.com> wrote:
> >
> > I wanted to encourage authors to improve their games. As it originally
> > stood, authors had very little incentive to make games better after
> > the competition was complete, and given the visibility that the IF
> > Comp has to the wider world, I wanted us to be presenting the best
> > games we can.
>
> I like this. How will it be handled with regards to the IF Archive? All
> versions in one directory? Overwriting old versions with more recent
> ones? Also, in case there is any such plan, shouldn't it be applied
> retroactively to download links of past competition participants which
> have been published in updated versions?

Archive policy has always been that the competition release of a game
is in games/competition$YEAR, and any subsequent releases are in
games/$PLATFORM.

The competition2011 directory layout is up to Stephen, but I think it
makes sense to keep the final in-competition release rather than
storing a version history for each game. We like history, but not
*that* much.

For previous years, I'd rather not change the layout retroactively.

--Z

--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*

[Hannes Schüller]

Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
> Here, Hannes Schüller <han...@yllr.net> wrote:
> > Stephen Granade <ste...@granades.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > I wanted to encourage authors to improve their games. As it
> > > originally stood, authors had very little incentive to make games
> > > better after the competition was complete, and given the
> > > visibility that the IF Comp has to the wider world, I wanted us
> > > to be presenting the best games we can.
> >
> > I like this. How will it be handled with regards to the IF Archive?
> > All versions in one directory? Overwriting old versions with more
> > recent ones? Also, in case there is any such plan, shouldn't it be
> > applied retroactively to download links of past competition
> > participants which have been published in updated versions?
>
> Archive policy has always been that the competition release of a game
> is in games/competition$YEAR, and any subsequent releases are in
> games/$PLATFORM.
>

> For previous years, I'd rather not change the layout retroactively.

I see your point, and yes, I like history, too. However, people
browsing old competition pages will always be lead to buggy versions
which might have long been superseeded. Maybe the easiest resolution
would be to indeed keep the archive as it is, but add additional links
to newer, post-competition releases to the website? Like this:

Game X:
Competition release: <games/competition$YEAR/...>
Post-competition release: <games/$PLATFORM/...>

Hannes

[Stephen Granade]

Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> writes:

> Here, Hannes Schüller <han...@yllr.net> wrote:
>> Stephen Granade <ste...@granades.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > I wanted to encourage authors to improve their games. As it originally
>> > stood, authors had very little incentive to make games better after
>> > the competition was complete, and given the visibility that the IF
>> > Comp has to the wider world, I wanted us to be presenting the best
>> > games we can.
>>
>> I like this. How will it be handled with regards to the IF Archive? All
>> versions in one directory? Overwriting old versions with more recent
>> ones? Also, in case there is any such plan, shouldn't it be applied
>> retroactively to download links of past competition participants which
>> have been published in updated versions?
>
> Archive policy has always been that the competition release of a game
> is in games/competition$YEAR, and any subsequent releases are in
> games/$PLATFORM.

Right, though the online play links are going to the competition
directory, and I don't want to make changes to the code on the fly
during the competition. I think the best solution for updates during the
competition (at least for now) will be for me to move the original files
into an "original" sub-directory and have the latest in the game's main
directory.

For post-competition updates, those could go into games/$PLATFORM or
into the competition directory if we want.

> The competition2011 directory layout is up to Stephen, but I think it
> makes sense to keep the final in-competition release rather than
> storing a version history for each game. We like history, but not
> *that* much.
>
> For previous years, I'd rather not change the layout retroactively.

Yes and yes.

[Stephen Granade]

Sure, though it will take me a bit to get that in place and make sure
it's functioning okay.