Spring Comp results
Adam Cadre
be a judging period, I'm afraid; the winner of the first-, second- and
third-place prizes is Chip Hayes for his game TINSELTOWN BLUES.
The nice part is that this is a full-sized game that's apparently been
in the works for seven years now, so those of you who've been clamoring
for a full-length text adventure reminiscent of the heyday of Infocom
should be in for a treat. And I did get a number of withdrawals from
people who said that their games were only 3/4 done, so perhaps we'll
have a bumper crop of games later on as they finish up.
And since there was only the one entry, I thought the best way to go
would be to let Chip upload and announce his game however he likes, so
keep an eye out for that post. And congrats!
-----
Adam Cadre, Holyoke, MA
http://adamcadre.ac
Papillon
>So, of the 14 comp entrants, one actually got a game in. So there won't
>be a judging period, I'm afraid; the winner of the first-, second- and
>third-place prizes is Chip Hayes for his game TINSELTOWN BLUES.
Cheers to him, of course.
So, we've had two attempts at a spring-based comp this year, and both had
serious difficulty getting entrants together despite having been advertised
since the end of the fall comp... What can be drawn from this? Is spring
just a bad time to have comps? Is it too soon for people to have switched
their development schedules over to spring instead of fall? Were the spring
competitions not seen to be as desirable to enter as the fall one?
Just speculating... thoughts?
Papillon
Emily Short
<papillon_he...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> gri...@drizzle.com (Adam Cadre) wrote:
>
> >So, of the 14 comp entrants, one actually got a game in. So there won't
> >be a judging period, I'm afraid; the winner of the first-, second- and
> >third-place prizes is Chip Hayes for his game TINSELTOWN BLUES.
>
> Cheers to him, of course.
>
> So, we've had two attempts at a spring-based comp this year, and both had
> serious difficulty getting entrants together despite having been advertised
> since the end of the fall comp... What can be drawn from this?
One thing that can be drawn from it, I think, is that if there are too
many comps at once, none will get enough entries to be really viable.
The other point is that May (at least for those of us on university
schedules) is a hellaciously bad time to be finishing a game.
-- Emily
--
Emily Short
http://emshort.home.mindspring.com/index.htm
David A. Cornelson
news:oi6kfuk5omcuaqqaf...@4ax.com...
I think it's a combination. Both the IFLibComp and SpringComp had some
limitations that many people felt uncomfortable with. I also heard that as
you pointed out, late winter is simply a bad time for people to concentrate
on coding. There is likely many people that feel that they would be disloyal
somehow to the community if they entered a game in anything _but_ the fall
competition. If this were true, it's a good indication of how strong this
community really is.
Either way, both competitions were worth attempting and I feel very
comfortable repeating the IFLibComp indefinitely every year. I suspect that
if Adam repeats his as well, we will both have more success than we did this
year. IF is a slow business. Even 6 months notice isn't really that much
time to prepare a game for most people (we're not all Emily ya know).
That's my two cents. Funny that I'm trying to work out the logistics to
getting my wip into the fall comp though....
Jarb
OKB (not okblacke)
> So, we've had two attempts at a spring-based comp this year,
> and both had serious difficulty getting entrants together
> despite having been advertised since the end of the fall
> comp... What can be drawn from this? Is spring just a bad
> time to have comps? Is it too soon for people to have
> switched their development schedules over to spring instead
> of fall? Were the spring competitions not seen to be as
> desirable to enter as the fall one?
>
> Just speculating... thoughts?
Personally, I'm usually pretty exhausted after finishing a game. (I use the word "finishing" loosely;
the past few years have shown that I am, in fact, usually too exhausted to go back and fix the numerous
bugs in my "finished" game.) I usually need a couple of months to recuperate before I can even begin to
plan another game, and then several more months to actually work on it. So if I've just finished (heh
heh, "finished") a game for the IFComp, I'm in no shape to have another game ready by March or April.
(May, possibly, but this year I've had other things on my plate.)
In other words, I don't have the skillz to speed up my game-writing schedule to enter BOTH
comps -- and by the time these spring comps were announced, I was already exhausted from writing
games for the 2001 IFComp. Now, I don't know if anyone else has this same rationale for not entering
the spring comps, but if they do, then it's possible we'll see a gradual increase in the number of spring
comp entries as people realign their schedules to have games ready in April or May rather than
September.
You know, though, I think it's kind of cool to have comps with only a handful of games, if the
games are high-quality. It's sort of like getting together with pals and spending the whole day in the
movie theater, whereas a big IFComp with dozens of games is more like a full-fledged film festival where
you spend the whole week in the movie theater. Both are good, so I hope both continue, and that way
everybody can pick their favorite time of year to enter.
--
--OKB (not okblacke)
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail."
--author unknown
LizM7
> So, we've had two attempts at a spring-based comp this year, and both had
> serious difficulty getting entrants together despite having been advertised
> since the end of the fall comp... What can be drawn from this? Is spring
> just a bad time to have comps? Is it too soon for people to have switched
> their development schedules over to spring instead of fall? Were the spring
> competitions not seen to be as desirable to enter as the fall one?
>
> Just speculating... thoughts?
Hm. For those of us who are still in school or are teaching (and that
seems to be a fair number of us), summer is a time for a relatively
light schedule. The comps were due almost immediately following the
time when most colleges let out -- which is not good timing, as most
students tend to be concerned about getting their finals done and
moving out, while most teachers are going to be worried about grading
said finals. As a result, comp entries tend to fall by the wayside.
That's my theory, at least.
- Liz
Sean T Barrett
> In other words, I don't have the skillz to speed up my game-writing
>schedule to enter BOTH
>comps -- and by the time these spring comps were announced, I was
>already exhausted from writing
>games for the 2001 IFComp. Now, I don't know if anyone else has this
>same rationale for not entering
>the spring comps,
One of the goals of Adam's Spring comp was to *spread out*
the existing comp games across the year a bit more, not to
increase the number of games released per year. (This is
not entirely true--I'm sure he'd be happy with increasing
the number of good games released per year, but this has
been one of the standard reasons that people have wanted
and suggested a Spring Comp: because there are too many
games in the Fall Comp.
SeanB
LizM7
> The other point is that May (at least for those of us on university
> schedules) is a hellaciously bad time to be finishing a game.
Ok, maybe this has been discussed before, but how many people are
attending college? And how many people are teachers (tenure-track or
non)? And what departments, exactly?
FWIW, I'm a soon-to-be sophomore (undergrad) at Grinnell College (in
Iowa); I'll probably be a biochem major.
- Liz
Robb Sherwin
<papillon_he...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>So, we've had two attempts at a spring-based comp this year, and both had
>serious difficulty getting entrants together despite having been advertised
>since the end of the fall comp... What can be drawn from this? Is spring
>just a bad time to have comps? Is it too soon for people to have switched
>their development schedules over to spring instead of fall? Were the spring
>competitions not seen to be as desirable to enter as the fall one?
>Just speculating... thoughts?
I'll just throw this out as a data point, as I have entered the fall
competition the last three years and two of Adam's previous mini
comps: it usually ends up taking me roughly ten months to finish a
game these days. I had released two of them within a couple days of
each other last September 30th, and had nothing else "brewing,"
figuring at the time that any kind of deadline that would be coming up
for me in the future would be that for the 2002 Fall comp. When the
Spring comp was announced I would have happily signed up and tried to
complete a game for it, but I didn't trust that I would be able to
complete and have tested a game in six months.
But again, that's just me: I suspect I am on the extreme slow end of
the curve when it comes to making games. Should a spring competition
be announced for roughly the same time next year, I'd be able to plan
against that and get a game finished, properly tested, and submitted.
Robb
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Robb Sherwin, Fort Collins CO
Jolt Country BBS: www.joltcountry.com/phpBB2
Paul
schedule, or do you also want to count those who aren't also (In
order to put your data in perspective?)
If the latter, you can mark one in the 'out of school' column.
Finished my PhD in Physics 15 years ago. I've been writing my
first IF for about 6 months now. Hope to finsih this summer.
Papillon
>Ok, maybe this has been discussed before, but how many people are
>attending college? And how many people are teachers (tenure-track or
>non)? And what departments, exactly?
Neither precisely, but I *work* at a University, at least for the next
little while... in some ways, summer is worse for me, as we have fewer
student assistants to do our jobs for us. :)
(And it's outrageously hot. And the stupid shuttle between my
place-of-living and my place-of-employment shuts down for the summer EVEN
THOUGH undergraduates aren't allowed to live there so the people who DO live
there are still there in the summer, so I have to walk. So I'm overworked
and heatsick, and in general it was easier to get something done in winter
than now.)
Paul O'Brian
> I'll just throw this out as a data point, as I have entered the fall
> competition the last three years and two of Adam's previous mini
> comps: it usually ends up taking me roughly ten months to finish a
> game these days. [...]
>
> But again, that's just me: I suspect I am on the extreme slow end of
> the curve when it comes to making games.
Well, as another data point, that's about how long it takes me to make
competition-sized games (beta-testing time included.) LASH took more on
the order of two years.
--
Paul O'Brian obr...@colorado.edu http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~obrian
SPAG, the text adventure webzine, is seeking reviews for its 29th issue,
sources close to the zine have reported. The deadline is June 5th, 2002.
Ray
> attending college? And how many people are teachers (tenure-track or
> non)? And what departments, exactly?
I'm an honours student in Oz, and _Autumn_ is bad since
it's the end of first semester for us. Just thought I'd
speak up for all us southern hemisphere people :)
Ray