Virtual Meeting May 17

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Greg Frost

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May 3, 2020, 8:14:39 PM5/3/20
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We'll hold our next online meeting of the Seattle / Tacoma IF group on Sunday, May 17th at 2 PM PDT. Paul will give a short talk on the development of his IFComp 2019 game, The House on Sycamore Lane. We'll also demo a few entries from the 2020 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction.

We maxed out Google Hangouts last time, so we're using a Zoom account for this meeting. Meeting links will be sent out by email. If you are not already on the email list, please send a message to Paul or to me for the meeting code.

Lance Campbell

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May 17, 2020, 3:14:57 PM5/17/20
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Did the Zoom account info get emailed or posted? Because I didn't see it if it did.

Greg Frost

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May 17, 2020, 3:31:15 PM5/17/20
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I sent out the meeting information by email. I'll forward it to you to make sure you have it. If anyone else needs it, please let me know.

Greg Frost

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May 17, 2020, 8:04:14 PM5/17/20
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Thanks very much, everyone! Here are my notes from today's meeting. Paul, feel free to correct or clarify anything I've summarized incorrectly.

Location: Zoom meeting
Attendees: David D., David G., David L., Gene, Greg, Lance, Mike, Paul, S. Paxton

2:00 Introductions and opening discussion.
 -Brief discussion of NarraScope 2020 schedule.
 -David G. discussed updates for the new release of Frotz.

2:15 Paul gave a demonstration of his tool for generating Inform 7 code.
 -The tool was created using Kotlin, with types corresponding to Inform 7 objects, attributes, actions, etc.
 -Each Kotlin command and its corresponding output rules were created manually, one by one.
 -The tool allows the use of IDE functions like predictive text, refactoring, and inline debugging.
 -The Inform 7 code generated is relatively verbose but unambiguous.
 -Paul used this tool to create the code for his IfComp entry, The House on Sycamore Lane.
 -The tool and the game were created in about a month total, starting in September 2019.

3:00 Played Agnieszka Trzaska's Spring Thing 2020 entry 4x4 Galaxy.
 -Discussed procedural generation of locations and random encounters.
 -Discussed stat tracking in Twine and author's previous games, Lux and Chuk and the Arena.

3:30 Played Vivienne Dunstan's Spring Thing 2020 entry Napier's Cache.
 -There was general appreciation for a story based on actual events.
 -The author's 2018 IFComp game Border Reivers was also set in pre-1600 Scotland. 
 -Mike tested this game and provided feedback about puzzles in Part 1.
 -Discussed types of puzzles and other non-puzzle interaction that add to gameplay or atmosphere.
 -Discussed the game's polish and the value of thorough testing to the experience.
 -Discussed accessibility considerations for players who use screen readers or other tools.

4:00 Final discussion and wrap-up.
 -There was interest from several participants in going to a monthly format for online meetings.
 -The next meeting was tentatively scheduled for June.
 -Lance suggested continuing with Spring Thing entries and playing the game Jelly by Tom Lento and Chandler Groover.

4:15 Adjourn

Mike Spivey

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Jun 4, 2020, 12:30:23 PM6/4/20
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Since we discussed "Napier's Cache" at the last IF meetup, I thought folks might be interested in Viv Dunstan's postmortem on her game:

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