Virtual Meeting May 17

[Greg Frost]

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]

Did the Zoom account info get emailed or posted? Because I didn't see it if it did.

[Greg Frost]

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]

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]

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:

https://intfiction.org/t/spring-thing-2020-napier-s-cache-post-mortem/45653

Mike