Andrew Plotkin @zarfeblong@mastodon.gamedev.place
An interactive fiction guy. He/him.
http://blog.ifcomp.org/post/176972886304/the-2018-colossal-fundraiser-has-begun
What it says in the URL. IFComp 2018 is accepting prize donations. Line 'em up!
Status: attempting to reinvent the text adventure model from scratch. More news when available.
So, I'm organizing Russian IFComp. That happened.
Cragne Manor room: done! Hopefully the project will be released at the end of August.
But, right now, this is what I am energized about, and I am not going to ignore that.
It may not be obvious, but I have mixed feelings about this. I've spent a couple of years kicking around prototypes for a more experimental, non-Zork-style text game. I would really like to get that moving and eventually publish it on Steam or something. It would reach so many more people than this Anchorhead-style lark.
Writing parser IF! It's still fun for me!
I haven't been muttering about it in public, but I've spent two weeks blazing away on a room for Ryan Veeder's "Cragne Manor" project (https://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=26370) and I am having so much fun.
I got this great metal print made from Cyan's upload of the Myst marker switch model. (Cleaned-up model: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2994365 ) Steel print from Shapeways, 8 cm high, costs about $100.
So Guido van Rossum steps down as dictator for life of #python:
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-committers/2018-July/005664.html
He was apparently pissed about the discussions around PEP 572
Good post about Mastodon's features for dealing with abuse and harassment: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/07/cage-the-mastodon/ I didn't realize inability to search arbitrary strings was a) part of the platform, b) an intentional choice to thwart a lot of bad stuff that happens on the birdsite. It's a bummer for some things (finding a joke you can only remember a few words from) but I understand the value of that decision.
(Last year I livetweeted the IFComp results and probably got myself blocked by everybody on this server. La la la.)
If you're not sure, then try playing games and voting on them when the games are released (Oct 1). Then when voting is over you can say "Wow, I can totally do better than some of those" and think about writing a game for 2019. End of public service announcement.
IFComp (http://ifcomp.org/) is now accepting author registrations! IFComp is exciting, and stressful, and there are cash prizes for interactive fiction, and you should read the rules before entering. Yes, this is an ambivalent sort of reminder.
And, I forgot to mention it here when the Steam summer sale started, but I'm in that. Meanwhile and Hadean Lands are both on sale. http://blog.zarfhome.com/2018/06/meanwhile-and-hadean-lands-summer-sale.html
I have a guest post on "IF in pop culture" at sub-Q Magazine: https://sub-q.com/author-guest-post-if-in-pop-culture-and-back-again-by-andrew-plotkin/
Look, an Anchorhead tribute collaborative IF authoring project! http://www.rcveeder.net/blog/2018/06/22/cragne-manor-an-anchorhead-tribute/
Announcements: Heliopause is up on sub-Q (https://sub-q.com/hoist-sail-heliopause-home/), and I am involved in an upcoming Twine anthology piece called Memory Blocks (https://ghoulnoise.itch.io/memoryblocks).
Since Slack is turning off their XMPP/IRC gateway tomorrow, I had to write a minimal command-line Slack client. http://blog.zarfhome.com/2018/05/a-partial-solution-to-slack-problem.html
I'm not sure what the use case is that this aids, but if it's your use case, enjoy.
