#Updating projects to database

[tweakingsql]

Creating objects on SSMS and merging with VS project

Next let's create a function in SSMS. Then we can see how to incorporate that into the SSDT project.

This changes a date string into the format of our DateSIDs.

To pull this into the VS project, click on Tools > SQL Server > New Schema Comparison.

We use the database on SQL server as the source, and we happen to already have that as a connection.

Select the connection, and click OK.

For the target, we can use the SSDT Project.

And click on OK.

Now the Compare button above the source is active. We can click that and see what happens. We can see the list of differences between the source and target. You can turn off the items to not make changes to by clearing checks from the boxes. To actually make the changes, we click on the Update button.

We confirm we want the changes made. Then we can drill into the project in solution explorer, and see that the dbo schema now has a function.

OK, now let's go the other direction and push changes to the database. We create a dapac file for our project by right-click on the solution's name, then click Build.

Then we can right-click on the solution's name, and select Publish. We need to select a target database. For now, I'm just reusing the same database, but it could go to a different SQL server for testing.

Now we can click on publish, and all the new items are placed into the SSMS database.

It's one way to keep everything in sync and stored.

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: April 15

"Something in the Way She Moves" by James Taylor

[juuggg]

juggy needs a vacation

[assignmentassists]

Database design and management course and Assignment help

Contact me through : homeworkassists@gmail.com

I will provide advice and assistance in your database and system design course. I will handle everything including;

Normalization

Database design (ERD, Use case, concept diagrams etc)

Database development (SQL and Sqlite)

Database manipulation

Documentation

[hannahwashington]

Vetted fundraisers that have reached out to me

Mohammed Aldeeb @mohammedaldeeb / fundraiser / #212 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €37,252/€55,000

Ahmed Alanqar @ahmedabuyamin / fundraiser / #264 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €50,602/€59,000

Reham Yasr Al Soufi @rehamyasirr / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / $2,007/$40,000 (AUD)

Ahmed Altaban @ahmed4palestine / fundraiser / Line 488 in GoFund(water)Me(lons) database / $15,987/$20,000 (USD)

Mohammad Al Manasra @save-mohamed-family / fundraiser / #192 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / $9,275/$50,000 (CAD)

Mohammed Hilles @hmzamahamed3 / fundraiser / #176 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €27,706/€37,000

Asmaa Ayyad @asmaayyad / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / €8,481/€45,000

Muhammed Atalla @atalah-mohammed / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / €11,789/€82,000

Mahmoud Balousha @/helpfamily @freepaleatine95 / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / $5,335/$50,000 (USD)

Ahmed Abu Al-Rish @ahmadresh / fundraiser / brother of @/mohiy-gaza (here), Mohi reblogged by @/90-ghost / $5,860/$10,000 (USD)

Ahmed Alnabih @ahmedalnabeeh11 / fundraiser / #218 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €22,444/€30,000

Mahmoud Khalaf @mahmoudkhalafff / fundraiser / #151 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €22,635/€30,000

Ahed Alshaer @ahedalshaer / fundraiser / #407 on the ButterflyEffect Project spreadsheet / €4,335/€80,000

Noor Alanqar @noor-alanqar / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / €19,503/€40,000

Youssef Helles @4-zien-yousef / fundraiser / #206 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €13,819/€23,000

Fahed Shehab @fahedshehab9 / fundraiser / Posted by @/el-shab-hussein / €34,491/€50,000

Abed Rahman El-Shaer @abed-rashad13 / fundraiser / Posted by @/el-shab-hussein / $3,745/$50,000 (USD)

Mohammad Taysir @yazanfamilly / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/northgazaupdates / €9,765/€50,000

Oday Adnan Al-Anqar @odayalanqar-2002 / fundraiser / Posted by @/el-shab-hussein / €2,157/€50,000

Ahmed Al Ostaz @momenalstaz / fundraiser / #125 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €19,655/€70,000

Mahmoud Helles @mahmoud0hilles / fundraiser / #198 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / €10,092/€50,000

Adham Ayyad @stupendouswolfearthquake / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / kr9,855/kr750,000

Safaa Jad Al Haq @safaa18mero / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / $8,658/$75,000 (USD)

Haya Alshawish @hayanahed / fundraiser / #26 in the Operation Olive Branch spreadsheet / €72,937/€100,000

Ahmed Halas @ahmeadhilles / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / €6,192/€80,000

Hana Jad Al-Haq @hanaa-yousef / fundraiser / #246 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List / £9,917/£20,000

Aya Alanqar @ayaalanqarsblog / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / €8,643/€15,000

Samar Samia @samarsh97 / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / €3,596/€45,000

Kariman Dohan @karemandohan1999 / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / $5,139/$50,000 (USD)

Nour Ashour @noor-y-ashour / fundraiser / Reblogged by @/90-ghost / £707/£80,000

(Updated 17 August, 2024)

[roksik-dnd]

For everyone who asked: a dialogue parser for BG3 alongside with the parsed dialogue for the newest patch. The parser is not mine, but its creator a) is amazing, b) wished to stay anonymous, and c) uploaded the parser to github - any future versions will be uploaded there first!

UPD: The parser was updated!! Now all the lines are parsed, AND there are new features like audio and dialogue tree visualisation. See below!

Patch 7 dialogue is uploaded!

If you don't want to touch the parser and just want the dialogues, make sure to download the whole "BG3 ... (1.6)" folder and keep the "styles" folder within: it is needed for the html files functionality (hide/show certain types of information as per the menu at the top, jumps when you click on [jump], color for better readability, etc). See the image below for what it should look like. The formatting was borrowed from TORcommunity with their blessing.

If you want to run the parser yourself instead of downloading my parsed files, it's easy:

run bg3dialogreader.exe, OPEN any .pak file inside of your game's '\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\Data' folder,

select your language

press ‘LOAD’, it'll create a database file with all the tags, flags, etc.

Once that is done, press ‘EXPORT all dialogs to html’, and give it a minute or two to finish.

Find the parser dialogue in ‘Dialogs’ folder. If you move the folder elsewhere, move the ‘styles’ folder as well! It contains the styles you need for the color coding and functionality to keep working!

New features:

Once you've created the database (after step three above), you can also preview the dialogue trees inside of the parser and extract only what you need:

You can also listen to the correspinding audio files by clicking the line in the right window. But to do that, as the parser tells you, you need to download and put the filed from vgmstream-win64.zip inside of the parser's main folder (restart the parser after).

You can CONVERT the bg3 dialogue to the format that the Divinity Original Sin 2's Editor understands. That way, you can view the dialogues as trees! Unlike the html files, the trees don't show ALL the relevant information, but it's much easier to orient yourself in.

To get that, you DO need to have bought and installed Larian's previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2. It comes with a tool called 'The Divinity Engine 2'. Here you can read about how to unstall and lauch it. Once you have it, you need to load/create a project. We're trying to get to the point where the tool allows you to open the Dialog Editor. Then you can Open any bg3 dialogue file you want. And in case you want it, here's an in-depth Dialog Editor tutorial. But if you simply want to know how to open the Editor, here's the gist:

Update: In order to see the names of the speakers (up to ten), you can put the _merged.lsf file inside of the "\Divinity Original Sin 2\DefEd\Data\Public\[your project's name here]\RootTemplates\_merged.lsf" file path.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions! Please let me know if you modify the parser, I'd be curious to know what you added, and will possibly add it to the google drive.

[critrolestats]

New Blood, Old Regards

Thanks to @eyeofthenewt1 for this art piece!

Greetings! Although the Stats Team is still in a state of retirement, we’ve periodically updated several of our Campaign 3 Running Stats categories and galleries thanks to the efforts of a new team of data collectors. This team, consisting of Archivists Astral, Ethereal, Fey, and Shadow, have been preparing since the beginning of the year to launch their own site, and that day has come! With that, we’re pleased to present:

The Omen Archive

Although they have been providing CritRoleStats updates for our Campaign 3 records, their site will be its own thing with its own tools, toys, and focuses, such as graphics derived from their own databases of data. Please visit them at their website, reach out to them, and check them out on their various social media pages:

Website: https://www.omenarchive.com/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/omenarchive

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/omenarchive.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omen_archive/

Tumblr: https://omenarchive.tumblr.com/ ( @omenarchive )

CritRoleStats will continue to update our databases and running stats pages with the data we receive from the Omen Archive until the end of the campaign, so that anyone from academics to casual fans have access to a complete catalogue of three campaigns worth of data. After that, our site will be completely (accessibly) archived, and our legacy will be carried on entirely by projects like the Omen Archive.

Thanks Are In Order

Outside of our final livecast, we realize we went out without the proper thanks to the community members who helped us grow. We’d like to take this opportunity to give credit where we feel it’s due.

We’d like to thank the team at Critical Role for their support over the years, with special thanks to Dani Carr for both her wonderful spirit, tenacious work ethic, and the marvelous send-off she gave us.

We’d like to thank the creators in the community. Thank you to the artist community for letting us feature your wonderful talent to give vibrancy to the numbers and words we’ve filled. Thank you to the information gathering community, from the wiki workers to the meta analysts, for giving your time to help make Critical Role more accessible. Thank you to the academics for finding value we didn’t know we had in our work. Thank you to everyone who creates in this community, whether your medium is music, words, stats, or art; whether you share for a large audience or for the joy of your private home or table; whether you encourage others with high presence, or quietly inspire and support from the shadows. Your creation makes the world a more interesting place.

We’d like to thank both our patrons and our Ko-Fi supporters for allowing us to carry on for as long as we have, and to make sure our work can continue to reach those who want to be informed and inspired. Thank you to our regular visitors, as well; traffic is supportive in several ways!

Thank you to those who have been with us, whether it’s the very beginning, sometime in the middle, or even if you’re tuning in just now. Your patronage and your expression of value in our work has been a blessing. (Thanks for the 1d4.) We’d also like to thank everyone who has continued to visit the site in spite of the lack of regular content creation on our part, and are grateful that so many of you are still finding use in the previous campaigns’ worth of data, as well as the current one.

We love you all very much. Now, back to retirement!

[dailyrothko]

So here's the deal:

I just want to be transparent with my tumblr Rothko lovers. I applied and got fiscal sponsorship as a non-profit through Fractured Atlas.

Sadly, "Fiscal Sponsorship" is not what it sounds like, I pay them, they don't pay me. What it allows me to do is take donations and make them tax deductible and secure. I hope it's worth it.

I don't expect my poor pals on tumblr to donate, I don't think most of us have any money or we probably wouldn't be here, however, I am letting you know this because there's now a donate button on the blog.

I'm very poor and needed to do this to realize certain projects Rothko related projects. This is just a voluntary thing, i'm not going behind a paywall. Nothing is changing.

I mention this because their tacky donate button makes it look like I made a deal with the devil, but in actuality it's just for everyone's security.

I hate doing this at all but I am spread very thin. I spend a lot of time and money on this project and that's fine when i can do it, it's a labor of love. But some of it is just becoming impossible for me to maintain and so it goes.

Future projects include-

-I am writing a series of (three) articles I would like to publish about Rothko's impact in the modern world. Scholarly material on Rothko from art historians is good and I don't wish to retread old ground. However, there are some sides of the Rothko legacy I would like to cover based on my experiences, including interviews I have done with people on how they have come to the work (some of you guys), coverage of fakes and misattributions, and biographical impressions based on numerous interviews I have read with his family and friends.

-A bigger and ongoing project would be to create a website and central database that art enthusiasts can use to locate travelling Rothko exhibits and find which paintings are in which museums. Many people ask me these questions personally but if there was a place where all this information lived and someone to update it, people could look up available Rothko works in different cities they are travelling to.

We are living in a troubled world with many humanitarian concerns that should rightly take precedence over my little project, but I am trying to survive myself and lately it's pretty hard.

Thanks to all for 9 years of Rothko love.

(I realized no one can donate on the mobile app, so if you wish to, use this link below.)

[stereax]

CapFriendly Alternative Sites MegaPost

(Last update: 07/27 - added CapSized.)

As we are all likely aware by now, the Washington Capitals have decided to ruin everyone's lives by purchasing and sunsetting CapFriendly. The site has gone dark as of July 10, 2024.

While the hockey community has experienced a similar loss before, with the death of Matthew Wuest and the subsequent loss of CapGeek, this is a markedly different situation that sets a troubling precedent - namely, that freely usable, public NHL data is now available to the highest bidder, who can then revoke access to the data at a minute's notice. Two things can coexist: we can be happy for the makers of CapFriendly that they are being compensated well for their services while also scorning the Washington Capitals organization for choosing to turn off CapFriendly entirely.

Under the cut, please find a list of free CapFriendly alternatives and other websites that contain NHL data. (In some cases, they are mostly free - however, most/all important information for lay analysis is available for free.) This list is dynamic and taking suggestions, so please feel free to send me any websites you find at @stereax and check the original post for updates!

PART 1: SALARY CAP TRACKERS

PuckPedia: The New CapFriendly

PuckPedia is the closest replacement to CapFriendly currently available. It contains salary cap information for all teams and players, draft pick information, several calculators including a buyout calculator and a pick value calculator, agent information, and more. They also run PuckDoku! The biggest strike against PuckPedia is its lack of simulators (Armchair GM, mock draft, or trade simulators); however, in the wake of the CapFriendly news, PuckPedia shared that an Armchair GM simulator is under active development. 07/05 Update: PuckGM is here! You can also react to prospective PuckGMs (thumbs up, thumbs down, laugh, think emojis).

CapSized: Labor of Love

Referred to me by @nonslipdoormat and billed as a "solo female developer's project" (nonslipdoormat IS said developer!), CapSized is a site that's designed similarly to CapFriendly. It has some features other sites lack, such as trade histories going back to 2003 (with some entries as old as 1964!) and a detailed transactions page again stretching YEARS into the past. The more you poke around, the more cool things you uncover. Its primary purpose is to be a "visual database", but calculators and an NHL GM mode are on the list of future additions. I'll be dead honest, I think this is my favorite cap-checker site because of all the extra utilities. Super excited to see where this project goes!

Referred to me by @reavenedges-lies. A "baby site" that has some of the basics of salary cap info, plus a buyout calculator, qualifying offer calculator, and trade proposal maker. The trade proposal maker is prone to error and seems to only be useful for graphics. It can be a useful site for some, but it would not be my first choice.

CapWages: CapFriendly Lite

Another alternative to PuckPedia that mimics CapFriendly in design and is more intuitive for users going directly from CapFriendly to an alternative site. Like PuckPedia, it now features a GM mode, but the GM mode is in beta and is not fully functional (it only shows contracts currently existing at the NHL level). Nevertheless, for checking salary cap info, it is very good and I recommend it. Also now has a buyout calculator.

CapSpace: Young Gun

BenchWarmers: Greenhorn

Similar to CapSpace but perhaps a little better in the design department. I like how, if you don't have an account, it acts like you're Kyle Dubas and has you watching Toronto and Carolina. Has a few neat stats (like "core four" which shows how much the four most expensive players are making) that I haven't seen easily replicated on other sites, but functionality is rather limited outside of that, which is why it's also not my first choice.

Spotrac: Another Salary Cap Checker

An alternative to PuckPedia for salary cap information. However, it lacks much of the information and functionality of PuckPedia or most other sites listed here.

PART 2: ADVANCED STATS

NaturalStatTrick: The Holy Grail of Stats

NaturalStatTrick, or NatStat for short, is a site that contains just about any stat you can think of for any team or player. It has a learning curve but is generally understood to be the most reliable stat tracker available for free. You can even view stats for individual games on it!

MoneyPuck: DTWoMeter and More

You know it from the Deserve-to-Win-o-Meter or its playoff odds rings, but MoneyPuck has a lot of useful data as well if you do a little browsing. Generally, I've heard that MoneyPuck is less accurate than NatStat, but is easier to use, especially on mobile.

HockeyViz: "If I Ever Sell, I Failed"

Home of the Simple Hockey Charts, HockeyViz has a visual for just about every stat out there. You've almost certainly seen some of them before. Most of them are completely free to the public! They're super useful for visualizing stats as more than "just numbers", allowing you to see exactly WHERE things are happening on the ice.

HockeyStatCards: GameScore Kings

Again, you've probably seen HockeyStatCards's GameScore charts. Using data from NatStat (see above) and an algorithm created by Dom Luszczyszyn, it provides a simple GameScore number that tells you whether a player is having a positive or negative impact on the ice for every game in the NHL.

PART 3: SPECIALIZED SITES

NHL Armchair GM: Building Rosters

This site allows you to Armchair GM a roster. Notably, it has a steeper learning curve than CapFriendly and does not have a forum or other way to easily save and publicize your Armchair GM moves. However, it can be useful to make Armchair GMs and have visuals for them.

NHL Entry Draft: With the First Overall Pick...

This site contains a ton of draft resources, from a mock draft simulator to scouting reports. Definitely a useful site for those who are interested in the entry draft. I've seen a couple of mock draft sites, but this one seems to have by far the easiest and arguably most expansive way to use it.

NHL Injury Viz: Rulers of LTIR

Here, you can explore the relationship between the injuries of players, their cap hits, and how teams did without them. Very useful when you're arguing that a certain player going down doomed the team.

PART 4: MORE TYPES OF DATA

HockeyReference: The Good Old Days

Hockey Reference is best used for surface level data about older players. It has some trivia sections as well, for if you ever wanted to know all players wearing certain jersey numbers, sharing a certain birthday, or hailing from Alaska.

EliteProspects: Every League Imaginable

Want to know the roster of a third-tier league in Quebec? EliteProspects has you covered. Literally every league on the face of the Earth, currently existing and not, EliteProspects has info on. Any player you can possibly name, EliteProspects has their stats from atom hockey all the way to the end of their career.

HockeyDB: Another Spot for Stats

HockeyDB, referred to me by @reavenedges-lies, is another solid site for looking up basic hockey stats. Also has a ton of leagues, similar to EliteProspects. Has a hockey card feature as well that shows you cards featuring the player you've looked up, which is neat!

PART 5: FORUMS

HFBoards: Hockey Forums

Probably the most well-known hockey forum out there. If you want to talk puck on a more forum-like site, similar to CapFriendly's forums, this is the one for you.

PART 6: CAPFRIENDLY ARCHIVES

SergeiFyodorov's CapFriendly FAQ Drive

Curated by @sergeifyodorov. Originally posted here and sent to me by @fellowshipofthegay. Archives of the CapFriendly FAQs!

Got a site that's not listed here? Let me know at @stereax and I'll add it! Remember: While CapFriendly may be going away, hockey analysis is here to stay!

[blackwidownat2814]

Steal My Thunder (T.Owens)

Pairing: Tyler Owens x female reader, Tyler Owens x shy!reader, Tyler Owens x insecure!reader

Word Count: 462

A/N: Welcome to my first Tyler Owens fic! I was throwing fic ideas around before I even saw the movie. I watched several interviews and other stuff on YouTube and took notes even. Then after seeing it the third time, I started working on this story. I don't anticipate this being a real long story, but I also will be a little slow to update because of work or writer's block or working on a crochet project I really need to finish. What I'm really saying is please be patient with me. Secondly, like in my other works, I'd planned to make this with a plus size!reader in mind, but I decided to go with insecure because I want to try and be a little more inclusive. Also, unless otherwise stated, my readers are always female readers. Lastly, I'm already working on Chapter 1, so keep an eye out for that. However, if you really like this, please let me know and I can tag you in future updates. And as always, I will be crossposting this to AO3. If you see this story anywhere besides AO3 or Tumblr, it's stolen Kthxbye! PS: Thanks to KJ & Jordyn for their help in beta-ing and title/chapter ideas! Love y'all!

Prologue

You were a Lead Meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  You should not be handling school age tour groups.  You were just about DONE with being treated like a secretary.  The rest of them thought that just because Kate was gone that they could go back to treating you like they did before her.

You were quiet, shy, and someone whose love language was acts of service, so you loved to help people out.  The problem was that your co-workers abused that part of you.  They asked to lead the school groups, bring everyone coffee, put together packets for meetings, etc.  Complete nonsense…and you were done.

It was then, as you mentally typed up your resignation, that you received a serendipitous call from Kate herself.

“I believe the sayin’ is ‘No man left behind’.”

“You’re not an US Army Ranger, B.”

“Yeah, well…”  You trailed off, not wanting to burden your friend with your issues.  Kate always told you that it was okay to talk to her when you needed someone, but you were stubborn.  You were very much of the ‘friends aren’t therapists’ mindset.

“Talk to me B.”

“I’m happy for you, ya know?  You’re back to doing’ something I know you loved.  I can see it in your eyes with each video or stream I watch.”

“Okay, keep your secrets…and thank you.  I am happy.”

“So…what can I do for ya?  Why are you botherin’ me on my lunch hour?”

“Damn!  Sorry about that B.”

“You know I don’t actually care.  Tell me what’s up.”

“I’m callin’ with a job off-”

“I’ll take it.”

“Woah, I haven’t even said what it-”

“I don’t care.  Ever since you left, and because I’m a huge push over, everyone’s been walking all over me.  You know I had to do three tours today?”

“We’ve talked about this.”

“I know Kate.  Just…what’s the job anyway?”  Your friend was silent for a moment, before you heard her exhale.

“It’s storm data analysis really.”

“Elaborate.”

“We’re trying to really get down to the nitty gritty with the data from the EF-5 we got to dissipate last season and see where to improve, how to catalog it in our info database, etc.”

“I’m in”, you said.  “Y’all won’t treat me like some secretary, I’ll be close to home again, and I’ll get to spend all my time with you.”

“We most definitely will not treat you like some secretary.  We’re equal opportunity storm chasers out here.”

You tossed your empty sandwich bag into the trash and pulled up Word to start drafting your resignation letter.

“Say, what are the benefits as a Tornado Wrangler?”  Before Kate could reply, you heard Boonie baby! Woo! in the background.

With that enthusiasm, what could possibly go wrong?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tagging: @buckysdollforlife @13braincellsonly

[wickworks]

Lancer Tactics dialogue layout crisis of faith

(from this month's backer update)

Every so often, I'll run into something in development that eats away at me until it pushes me to a crisis of faith and I have a breakdown, burn down a bunch of work, and build something better from the ashes. These are moments of transformation and we're almost always able to come out the other side with something much better than what we started with.

This all sounds very dramatic until you take a step back and see the issue in question is just, like, the layout of a menu. But if medieval priests were able to have schisms over angels on pins I can have strong feelings about graphic design, dammit!

This month's episode revolved around how we're doing character dialogue. For reference the plan was to do a standard 4-slot visual-novel talking heads layout. I call it a 4-slot because there's usually four positions that characters can stand; two on the left, two on the right:

I had it ingame, and it was working. But... something felt off. Do you see the difference between every one of the above examples and this?

It's all about perspective, baby.

Answer: all the character art in those examples are drawn at a slight angle so they can be flipped back and forth to be made like they're looking at each other.

Trying to do this with the perspective we chose early — straight on — makes for a chorus line of weirdos who are looking directly into your soul as they ostensibly chat with each other. Credulity is strained; the illusion of these puppets interacting in the same space is paper-thin.

(I was skeptical of choosing this perspective for this reason, but we ultimately went with it to make the customizable assets in the portrait maker easier to fit together)

We tried a bunch of different layouts, but they all at least one of these problems:

they'd stare into your soul while ostensibly directing comments elsewhere.

they felt like text messages; this would be fine if that's what we were going for, but we wanted something that could represent face-to-face conversations. (Tactical Breach Wizards was able to pull this style off because they had little 3D dioramas to go along with it)

or, most damning of all, they felt like zoom calls.

So, my heart aflutter and spirit in want, I spent a day doing a research dive into various dialogue layouts (bless the Game UI Database!) to see if any other games had managed to pull this character art perspective off. I ended up with this massive non-chronological taxonomic tree:

(fullsize here)

The type of layout that particularly caught my eye was this style where each character had their own little box. These layouts borrow a concept from comic books called "closure" where the space and time between characters are left blank. Freed from the constraints of trying to simulate a single space, these layouts allow the reader to fill in the blanks with something that feels more true-to-life than anything we'd be able to render ourselves.

I was especially impressed with the dynamism of Tales of Symphonia and The World Ends With You; rather than sticking to single slots they would animate the entire panels moving around to indicate motion an relative position of characters.

So we threw out the old code and copied them. Here's what we've come up with:

We'll be able to have portraits interact, like smacking each other (I felt like a kid hitting two action figures together, lol)

We can also apply effects like princess-leia-holograms and full-screen "lighting" effects like warning banners:

Carpenter and I came up with a number of arrangements that the portraits can smoothly transition between:

I've also implemented support for choices during a dialogue, potentially leading to branching paths.

Overall, I feel SO much better about this system than our initial designs. It might feel a little more cartoony, but I think we're making a cartoony game so that's not a problem.

Whew. We bit a lot off to chew with this project. I feel like I just made a second visual novel game engine inside of the first. Fingers crossed that it all ends up worth it.

[cutecipher]

For lesbian visibility week consider boosting visibility for my (Im a trans lesbian) project to bring new, simple, cheap (mostly free), decentralized internet infrastructure to trans women, other lgbt+ people, and other marginalized people at a time when our communications are being severely cracked down on and surveilled. It's called PierMesh

You can also follow me at @utopicwork for updates

Some recent updates:

Cut packet sizes 70%

Prototype of Daisy (a distributed schemaless database) implemented

End to end encryption core nailed down

I'm hoping to get properly funded soon (we're struggling to keep ourselves afloat at the moment) so if you know someone/an organization that might fund this work please let me know

If you would like to support us financially this works best:

Otherwise there are more ways to donate on the website

Oh and one more thing, if you would like to contribute to this project Ive set up a Matrix chat for that:

Edit: fixed the invite link

[redgoldsparks]

Full transcript and links below the cut. All @ links in the graphics are for instagram

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA! 

In the UK, find email templates for contacting Parliament at humantiproject.org

In the US, find email and call templates for contracting Congress at 5calls.org

Americans can also text the White House directly at (302) 404-0880  

DONATE eSIMS

Download an eSIM app, select Middle East as the region, purchase an eSIM but do not activate it. Screenshot the eSIM QR code and email it to gazaesims@gmail.com. If your eSIM isn’t activated after 3 weeks, resend the QR code. Keep re-sending every 3 weeks until it’s activated. Share your referral codes with friends to get discounts. Here are my referral codes: MAIA5367 for $3 off Airalo, MB772 for $3 off Simly, MAIA66GF for $3 off Nomad 

Airalo charges $39 for 3GB, Simly charges $22 for 3GG, Nomad charges $16 for 3GB

Once your eSIM is activated, you can buy top-up packages to make sure the data doesn’t run out. Follow @ connectinghumanity_ for updates, gazaesims.com for more info

Alternatively, donate to Crips for eSIMs for Gaza, run by a group of disabled activists raising money to buy eSIMs: chuffed.org/project/crips-for-esims-for-gaza

If you need more incentive, @cartoonistcoop is offering art rewards for eSIM receipts. Info here: cartoonist.coop/esims4gaza

DONATE TO GOFUNDMES

Find a list of verified fundraisers, FAQs, and volunteer opportunities at linktr.ee/opolivebranch

Follow @ operationolivebranch on instagram for updates. If choosing a single fundraiser off the list is prohibitive, use gazafunds.com, which spotlights one fundraiser at a time. 

CALL FOR ART

Artists can donate posters or coloring pages to @ flyers_for_falastin to add to an international database of free PDFs for use at protests. Requirements: 

-a clear message supporting Palestine

-PDF or PNG file

-A4 paper size 8.27x11.69 inches or 21x29.7 cm or 2480 x 3508 pixels at 300 DPI

-include your own username and @ flyers_for_falastin

-email art to watermelonrecipes@gmail.com 

You can find poster pickup sites or donate for printing costs at linktr.ee/flyersforfalastin

PALESTINIAN & ISRAELI PEACE ORGANIZATIONS

Standing Together: www.standing-together.org,

Women of the Sun: womensun.org

Women Wage Peace: www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/

The Parents Circle Families Forum: www.theparentscircle.org/en/homepage-en/ ,

Roots: https://www.friendsofroots.net/

Mesarvot: linktr.ee/Meaarvot

ORGANIZATIONS OFFERING AID: 

Palestinian Red Crescent: www.palestinercs.org/en

Doctors Without Borders: www.doctorswithoutborders.org,

World Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/

UNICEF: unicef.org/emergencies/children-gaza-need-lifesaving-support

UNRWA: www.unrwausa.org

Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund: www.pcrf.net

ANERA: www.anera.org

[if-whats-new]

What's New In IF? Issue 20 (2024)

By Marjorie, Axelle, Noi. Brij, Dion and Bex

Now Available!

Itch.io. - Keep Reading below

If you read the zine, consider liking the post: it helps us see how many people sees it! And sharing is caring! <3

~ EDITORIAL ~

(Re-)Growing Team!

A couple of courageous souls contacted us, looking to make a difference in the IF community by helping us with the zine!

So, we would like to introduce our new members of the team and officially welcome:

Bex, Brij, and Dion!

If you too would like to help us out in a more official capacity, we still have some slots available in our roster. So shoot us a message!

~

This week, we had a very special guest on Small Talk... Author of many IF games, XYZZY winner, ClubFloyd founder and IFComp organizer... Jacqueline A. Lott!

We got to learn about her trajectory in the IF Community since her debut in 2002, from author to event organizer, to community leader!

Check out our interview with Jacqueline A. Lott on Small Talk...

We hope you enjoy this extra long issue!

MARJORIE, AXELLE, NOI, BRIJ, DION, BEX

~ BE PART OF THE ZINE ~

WHAT'S NEW IN IF? HAS EXPANDED!

Since the release of issue #14, we've enacted some changes with the zine. It is now expanded with interviews of creators from all around the IF world, as well as direct contributions from you, our readers!

THIS ZINE ONLY HAPPENS WITH YOU!

Want to write 1-2 pages about a neat topic, or deep-dive into a game and review it in details? Share personal experiences or get all academic?

WRITE FOR THE COLUMN!

Prefer to be more low-key but still have something to share? Send us a Zine Letter or share a game title for Highlight on…!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Excited as we are about next week's interview and have questions for our guest? Or want to see a certain author answer questions next? Message us!

SMALL TALK... IS WAITING!

Came across something interesting? Know a release or an update announced? Saw an event happening? Whether it's a game, an article, a podcast… Add any IF-related content to our mini-database!

EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS!

Contact us through Tumblr asks, Forum DMs, or even by email! And thank you for your help!!

~ EVENT SPOTLIGHT : IFCOMP ~

The Superbowl of Interactive Fiction

The Interactive Fiction Competition (or IFComp) is one of the major yearly IF events, since 1995. It may be even the longest still-recurring yearly game making event!

Started by Kevin Wilson in the IF Usenet Forum rec.arts.int-fiction, submitted games were limited to 2h playtime before being judged and ranked by players.

Throughout the years, the IFComp evolved, seeing a couple dozens of parser entries to a wide and diverse range of IF forms. Still, after ballooning during Covid, with recurring 70+ entries, the event continues to be a key avenue for IF creation

As the submission period ended just this week, the IFComp is now moving to its Voting Period, which will last for 1-1/2 month (until October 15). Starting this Sunday, judges will be able to play and rate entries (minimum of 5 to count).

At the end of the event, if participants rank high enough, they are eligible for prizes and part of the Colossal Fund pie! @ifcomp They are still looking for donations!

Looking for great games to play? Want your voice make a difference? Go create an account and vote!

~ ENDED ~

Nothing of note this week.

~ ONGOING (VOTING) ~

Only a couple of days to submit your feedback to the single entry of this year's IntroComp. You just need to “vote” to send it!

~ ONGOING (SUBMITTING) ~

Today is the last day to submit a campfire-inspired visual novel around a thrilling tale. Tales to Thrill awaits!

There is also about as much time to create a parser, in French(ish), for the Confiture de Parser!

And for the SuNoFes Jam, you will have about three days left to submit a narrative games!

Do you have WIPs on indefinite hiatus? Projects you've started forced to be set aside? Bring Out Your Ghost is a jam to show off your ghosts (and maybe even spruce them up and finish them)! @neointeractives

On the CoG Forum, Halloween is already there! Until Oct 31st, submit to the Halloween Jam - it has funky themes!

Running until Halloween, the Phantasia Jam is a three months game jam to create a fantasy narrative game, with the theme of “Hidden Magic”. It accepts both VN and IF.

Do you understand or write Ukrainian? Until the end of the year, the Ukrainian IF Festival is happening on itch.io!

~ OTHER ~

The end of the Review-a-thon on the IntFiction Forum, whose initiative is to get more reviews for games, is almost there. But you can still participate!Check out this post by Tabitha! This is also a sponsored event, aiming to raise funds for one of the Forum members.

The Interactive Fiction Showcase is still running! If you have completed an IF piece this year, consider submitting it! It is happening only on itch!

~ SMALL TALK… ~

WITH JACQUELINE A. LOTT (website)

~ Joining us this week is IF author, ClubFloyd founder and IFComp organizer: Jacqueline A. Lott ~ Author of “The Fire Tower” and many, many more!

Due to Tumblr's link limit, this transcription does not include any links. Download the zine on itch for the complete list.

⟶ Hi Jacqueline! Welcome to Small Talk..!

Thank you for having me!

⟶ Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into Interactive Fiction?

I grew up in a family that loved to play games of all sorts, and I was a kid during the original era of Choose Your Own Adventure and Infocom. Zork was on our C-64 at home, and also on the IBM PCs in the computer lab at my elementary school. I wanted to make my own games, but I didn't know any programmers and there weren't as many resources for kids like me to learn to code back then; I tried to teach myself with books and by typing code out of magazines, but without any adults who could help it became pretty demoralizing, and I drifted away from the idea of making my own games for ten or fifteen years. In 2002, I stumbled across rec.arts.int-fiction, which at the time was where most of the interactive fiction conversation was happening, and joined the ifMUD. Inform 6 was the hot language at that time, and it came with wonderful documentation. I used that to make my first game, which was an entry in the first IntroComp.

⟶ The Waterhouse Women was this first game. How did you come up with the premise? and why submit it to IntroComp?

I was staying with family for several weeks during that period, helping to take care of my papaw, who was very ill, and I had quite a bit of downtime while he was sleeping. In the bathroom of the house were these eclectic accent tiles, each with a scene on them, that looked like illustrations from a children's book of fairytales. There was a lighthouse, a frog on a rock surrounded by cat tails, a double-masted sailing ship, and a striped koi fish with bubbles. I got to wondering if these scenes were meant to be connected in some sort of narrative, or what else I would see if I were to somehow step into each of these illustrations. The concept of moving in and out of images intrigued me, but I wanted a richer tapestry to work with, so I decided instead to use John William Waterhouse paintings.

I entered The Waterhouse Women into IntroComp because it seemed the perfect way for a new author to share an idea and get a lot of feedback before committing fully to an idea that people might not find interesting (or actively dislike!). I still think IntroComp is wonderful for that and I wish more new authors took advantage of it. Ultimately, I got great feedback, figured out what I was doing well, where I needed to focus more, and that the game needed a lot more plot. I have the plot mostly figured out now (with lots of research, correspondence with the art community, seeing many of Waterhouse's paintings in person, and even visiting his grave). One of these days I hope to revisit this story and share it with others.

⟶ The Fire Tower is your highest rated solo project, and one that you recommend yourself on your website. Can you tell us a bit more about this one?

The Fire Tower was written for a curated competition called the IF Art Show, in the Landscape category (other categories included Still Life, Portrait, and Event). The landscape I chose was my favorite hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the work is grounded very firmly in that actual, real-world landscape. The rules of the IF Art Show let me do what I love to do most in IF, which is to exhaustively craft and implement a natural environment. I didn't realize it at the time, but Aaron Reed wrote a lovely essay about The Fire Tower as part of his Fifty Years of Text Games and pointed out that the game was basically an IF walking simulator, before walking simulators were really even a thing. I absolutely love walking sims, so him writing that really made me smile.

⟶ The Fire Tower led you to receive one of the coveted XYZZY prizes, for Best Setting. How do you feel about this achievement?

I was surprised and delighted and touched. And I was surprised and delighted and touched again when Aaron Reed included it in his recent book. I'm glad that that game, which is about a place I hold so dear, impacted other people in ways I'd hoped for, and in other ways that I hadn't anticipated.

⟶ About a 1/3rd of your publication was created with other authors. How was the experience working in a group compared to your solo work?

Well, I'm an only child and an introvert, so writing, composing, sculpting, drawing, photography… any sort of solo creation work is the sort of thing I generally love to do to unwind and recharge. That said, I'm fond of the games I wrote with my husband because it's fun and memorable to create things with someone you love. For example, we wrote Within a Wreath of Dewdrops while staying with his parents, who live in rural England, and a lot of that game was conceived during conversations we had while walking across the fields and through the woods. For Disenchantment Bay, even though that was more or less a solo project, where I built on an example that lots of people are familiar with from the Inform 7 documentation (specifically from The Inform Recipe Book), it felt a bit like a collaboration because Emily Short based that Inform example on an experience she had when she was visiting me in Alaska, the boat captain is an actual friend of mine, the setting is another real-world place that I know intimately and love dearly... so I showed Emily the place, she wrote an example, and then (with her permission) I used that example to make a game. I smile just thinking about that. And the four interactive fiction exquisite corpse projects I've contributed to are possibly more fun for the authors than they are for non-authors who play the games later, because being a part of those kinds of projects is a bit of a game in and of itself.

⟶ Is there a game that you made you are particularly fond of? and why?

Well, we've talked about a few of them, but one we haven't touched on yet is I Hear the Wind Blow. It's a one-turn game, meaning that you get one turn, the game ends, you start over, and you use what you learned in previous playthroughs to figure out what move you'll take this time. One reviewer said that it was the first one-turn game they'd played which actually had an emotional impact on them, and that they hadn't thought a one-turn game could do that. I'm pleased I was able to pull that off with such a simple story.

⟶ You were also part of the making of Cragne Manor, a cadavre-exquis-like project which hasn't been replicated since. How did it come to be and what was your involvement in the project?

Well, Cragne Manor was a project conceived by Jenni Polodna and Ryan Veeder to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Michael Gentry's Anchorhead. I'm very fond of Anchorhead... my husband and I played it during a road trip across the United States on our honeymoon (I drove, he read the text aloud and entered commands on a PalmPilot!). I think both Jenni and Ryan are amazing, hilarious, technically proficient, and ever-so-slightly unhinged (in the best sort of way). So, when I read what they wanted to do, and I realized the scope they were willing to take on, and the fact that they really did want as many people as possible to contribute (ultimately they stitched together work from 84 different people), I decided to pitch in. It was just too unique and special a thing to pass up. It was great how it was a bit exquisite corpse but also Jenni and Ryan had thought of special assignments to give many of the participants in order to ensure some degree of cohesiveness and a playable end result. It was amazing, honestly.

⟶ With so many rooms in the game, how can we recognize the Jacqueline room of the manor?

Ah! Well, all of the rooms include the name of their author, and my room was “The Dim Recesses of the Forest”.

⟶ Have you yourself played the game? Any room you found interesting to solve?

Yes. I played Cragne Manor from start to finish with ClubFloyd, the interactive fiction group that gets together on Sundays to play games together. We played it a couple of hours or so at a time, so it took us 19 sessions that spanned six months. It's the longest transcript we've ever produced. I loved so much about it, so many of the rooms, so much of the writing, so many of the moments… I'd be hard pressed to pick just one thing.

⟶ If not just one room, what do you still remember clearly about Cragne Manor? something that touched you maybe?

Well, I adored the half-full styrofoam cup of cold and unpleasant coffee in the game. Which sounds terrible out of context, but there we are.

⟶ Is there a game you regret having made or don't look kindly on in retrospect?

I have a Thanksgiving-related speed-IF that I coded in under an hour called You Are a Turkey! that ... well, I don't regret it, per se, but it's just very silly. It takes less than five minutes to play, and contains a joke that is only funny if you were watching the news in the USA in 2012.

⟶ Aside from your two last publications, your games were made through competitions or jams. Were independent releases not as prevalent during the 00s-10s as it is now?

Honestly, now that you ask this, I'm not sure I've ever just released a game independently without some driving event (a contest, jam, group project, or because I wanted an example to share for a presentation). This is also likely part of why almost everything I've released is fairly short. I suppose that I've looked to events to provide me with a deadline and a writing prompt, or I've done a jam because I found the constraints particularly interesting. I think that's just more about me, and not about any overall trend, though I do think a lot of folks out there only produce for competitions because they think it's a way to get more eyes on their work. I've always just written for myself, or my friends, and have never been about trying to win something big. That's why I have never really considered entering the IFComp or SpringThing. The fact that I received a Xyzzy for The Fire Tower was just serendipity. When the time comes (possibly in retirement!) when I do produce the one or two large stories in my head, I don't think I'll release them as part of anything. If they're any good, word will get out, and people will play them.

⟶ For the next decade, you released a bunch of games, almost all of them made with Inform. What made Inform your program of predilection when creating IF? Do you see yourself trying other systems in the future?

I feel like I've somehow done quite a few games, yet also simultaneously not done very much at all. I've made eleven games on my own (all of them rather short), co-written two with my husband, written that game that builds on an example from the Inform Recipe Book, and contributed to four exquisite corpse games that have tons of authors (most notably the epic Cragne Manor, as we discussed).

I started coding with Inform 6, and was an early adopter of Inform 7... I think that's just because the documentation for those languages was/is so well done, accessible, and fun to read. I've explored a couple of other languages as well. I released In Memory in ADRIFT, as part of the Indigo New Language Speed-IF, where the requirement was that you had to write a game in a language you'd never touched before, and I have one short game, Cloud Dreaming, that I wrote in both Inform and Twine, as examples for a talk called If You Can Write, You Can Make Games. I recently dusted off Inform to explore a couple of percolating ideas, and found that my memory of how it works is still pretty solid, so I suspect I'll stick with Inform rather than picking up something new.

⟶ You've praised the Inform documentation for being so extensive, but are there things you wished you knew about the program before starting?

I think it's less about what I would have liked to have known about Inform specifically, and more about ways of achieving efficiency and organizing my ideas. In terms of efficiency, I know my code is not as streamlined as it could be, and that sometimes I go about things in a way that's harder than it needs to be. That leads me to wonder if I could have done more (and better) work if I hadn't spent so much time fumbling around. And not having worked very much in the games industry, I don't have a grasp of all the tools that are out there, best practices, etc, so that's another place where I've sunk a lot of time trying to figure things out for myself, which leaves less energy for writing stuff that people actually see.

⟶ Based on your own experiences of making games, if you could give any tips to future IF creators, what would it be?

Hm... I think this advice is general enough so as to be applicable to anyone thinking about writing IF, regardless of platform/genre/style:

- Don't use your favorite idea for your first piece of IF; you likely won't do it justice until you've had some practice, so save the favorite idea until at least your third or fourth project.

- If you're going to make something for a competition or a jam or some other event that comes with a deadline, start earlier than you think you need to, and build in time for at least two or three rounds of beta testing (i.e. people test it, you correct the bugs, more people test it, you correct the new bugs that crept in when you were fixing the previous bugs, etc).

- If you're making your game for a competition and it's not quite ready by the deadline, there is nothing wrong with withdrawing from that competition and entering your work somewhere else or waiting until the following year.

- If you're not sure what kind of story or game to write, just write the story or game that you yourself would want to experience.

⟶ Was there ever a project you found particularly challenging to create?

Only the projects that I have not yet released, and in all four cases, it's just challenging due to my bandwidth / energy / available time. Two of the four are somewhat grand in scope. I'm envious of people I know who are also incredibly busy but who somehow manage to continue turning out epic creative work… but I also try to place a lot of focus on self care and proper rest for myself.

⟶ Any chance we could get just a hint of your current works-in-progress?

I'm always hesitant to talk about WIPs, because there is this case of imposter syndrome within me that hears people saying, “She's never released anything substantial, so it's all just talk!”. Setting that dismissive internal voice aside for a moment, I have four ideas that have been living rent free in my head for a while, and that I do poke at often enough to keep them from going entirely stale. One is inspired by a favorite book from my childhood, one is inspired by a favorite film, one is a non-sci-fi sci-fi set on a distant planet, and one is a fantasy filled with beauty and unhealthy love and dark magic.

⟶ Aside from creating games, you are also a pretty prolific reviewer, releasing even a rating method advised to be used by judges at the IFComp. How did you come up with this metric?

Hm. I wouldn't say I wrote it for other judges, or that I'd necessarily recommend it for anyone else. I wrote it mostly for myself, and perhaps for authors who were curious what my ratings mean because they often seemed to differ from ratings other people gave on the same game. I like having this descriptive scale for consistency, so that I know what a 7 I gave 10 years ago meant. Oddly enough, I've found the descriptions for each number useful enough that I've adapted the scale for ranking other things, like, um, comparing the various skills of job candidates.

⟶ How did you get to writing reviews? Any advice for players looking to start reviewing?

Just start writing reviews. Try to write them from the perspective of what you'd accept as valid critique if it were your own work and you were on the receiving end of the review. You don't have to be glowing where it's not warranted, you should be honest, but you don't need to be cruel, either.

Some of my earlier reviews were also written to be somewhat humorous, and I blurred the line into cruelty from time to time; I regret that, and think I've matured since then. I've opted not to update old reviews; what's online is online. But I've shifted to an approach that I hope is still honest, perhaps still a bit harsh when that's warranted, but mostly I try to write reviews that are helpful to the author.

I think it's important to focus on the game, its writing, its implementation, its content, and never on the author. Never make it personal. If you can't avoid that, then you probably shouldn't review that particular game. Consider, where possible, offering ideas for how the work could be improved, particularly if you're hoping to see future work from that author. Help them learn how players experienced their work. The best part is, writing reviews leads you to think about what makes a good game, and in turn improves your own work.

⟶ Is there a review of yours that you are particularly fond of?

Not particularly. There are games I'm particularly fond of, which leads me to go back sometimes and reread my reviews, because that evokes some of the memory and emotion that I had during my experience with that piece of IF, but not from a fondness of the reviews themselves. Also, if there is a particularly memorable turn of text in a game that I think I'll want to remember later, I'll often quote it in a review so that I can find that text again easily.

⟶ Following the release of your first game, you took over the IntroComp for its second edition, which you would run for 14 editions. How did you become the organizer of IntroComp? What was your experience with the event?

IntroComp had been so helpful to me, and there was nothing else out there quite like it, so when Neil deMause indicated that it had been a one-off event, I asked him if I could pick it up and make it an annual thing. Some years it gets a healthy crop of entries, sometimes only a few, and while I did start offering cash to people who finished their games within a year, the real prize of that competition has always been thoughtful, honest, and generally empathetic feedback that helps new authors grow.

In 2018, when I was asked to become the new IFComp organizer, I approached Xalavier Nelson and asked him to become the new steward, which he graciously did for five more years. I was so pleased that, when Xalavier's career really took off and he finally needed to step away, he came back to me and we worked together to make sure IntroComp kept going. Eric Brown has the helm now, he's got support from the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, and I'm a member of his advisory committee. We got a normal number of intents to enter this year, but ultimately most of the authors didn't complete their intros, so for the first time ever there's only one entry -- but people should still go to IntroComp.org and play Good Bones and 'vote' (which provides an opportunity to share anonymous feedback with the authors) before Sept 3rd! It's an intro, so it's not a huge time commitment, and I know the authors would really appreciate it.

⟶ As an advisor on the IFTF board, what does this position entail?

It principally entails attending a few meetings a year where the IFTF board brings us together to share general updates and discuss topics that may impact multiple committees, such as IFComp.

⟶ You moved from organizing the IntroComp to handling the IFComp. Aside from the amount of entries per edition, are there differences between the two events?

Yeah, there are ... a *lot* of differences. IntroComp was a thing I thought about perhaps three months a year, at best. It was a light lift. I mostly did it solo, though I had invaluable help from Dan Shiovitz who wrote the website's backend to automate aspects of collecting feedback, reviewing votes, and determining the results.

IFComp, by contrast, is more of an eight(+) month per year endeavor. There are multiple teams of volunteers (and occasionally paid help) to coordinate. There's a team for the maintenance and continuous development of the website and its custom software. There are a couple of folks who collect, track, and help distribute prizes. There's a curation team that reviews entries as they're uploaded to ensure consistency with competition rules so that we can hopefully prevent any disqualifications. There's a social media team that is way more online than I like to be. We work with folks over at the IntFiction forum, who facilitate a private space for authors. Each year there's a different artist who is commissioned to create the competition logo. This year there are some folks offering to help me improve the awards ceremony. And I have an advisory committee, which includes multiple past IFComp organizers, who help me think through tons of things far better than I could do alone.

⟶ During your tenure as the IFComp organizer, have you seen any changes with the event? How has it evolved?

Well, participation has varied annually over IFComp's full thirty-year lifespan. On my watch, we notably had a year with over 100 games [2020], but that had less to do with me as organizer and more to do with a global pandemic. I can't speak for what the atmosphere was like prior to my watch, but one of the reasons that I've stuck with organizing IFComp for as long as I have now, despite having other irons in the fire, and the fact that organizing the Comp keeps me from creating more work of my own, is that the majority of folks who take our annual post-competition survey remark on what a great experience they've had, and that's really important to me. I enjoy being a part of making that happen. I obviously do not (and cannot) please everyone, but that's just how things are anytime you're doing something that impacts this many people.

I brought one thing with me from IntroComp: allowing judges to leave anonymous feedback when casting their vote, feedback that is only shared privately with the author (after we review it to ensure it meets our Code of Conduct). I guess the other major changes that have happened during my tenure are the introduction of a new logo each year, the addition of an awards ceremony live stream, allowing authors to judge in the competition (but only on games they didn't write or beta test), and shifting the competition up one month to let EctoComp have full control of the spooky season. Mark Musante and the Dev Team have also made a ton of great improvements to the website based on feedback from the annual post-comp survey.

⟶ Stephen Grande was the longest organizer for the IFComp. You’re about halfway through. Do you think you’ll break his record?

Oh wow. What a question! Stephen did this for fifteen years, and he's still helping as a member of the advisory committee, for which I'm very grateful. I'm not sure how much gas there is left in my tank, and my day job is pretty demanding, and I've definitely hit the point where if I bowed out I could do so knowing that I'd had a decent run and made the Comp a little bit better for having been involved with it... but I also do still really enjoy doing it, it was a hard thing to learn to do, but now that I've got the boat up on plane it's not that hard to steer. So I guess the answer is that I'm not out to intentionally break any records, but I ran IntroComp for 14 years and have been (sporadically) organizing ClubFloyd for 17 years as of this coming month... so, who knows?

⟶ So many positive changes brought during your tenure! Have there been ideas for change that were discarded or processes that didn't quite work out?

Thanks for saying that, you’re very kind. As to the question, I don't think we've made any changes during my tenure that we've ended up rolling back. There've been a small number of experimental changes that I thought we might end up rolling back, but then based on input from the post-comp survey decided to let stand, such as allowing authors to also be judges. I really do benefit by being the fifth organizer, inheriting a thing that has been running for decades, where a lot of the kinks have already been worked out, and where I personally know all of the prior organizers and can reach out to them to discuss anything.

⟶ Any advice for aspiring gamedev event organizers?

I recommend volunteering to help with an existing event for a year or two, learn from that, and then spin things off using what you've learned if you still see an unfilled niche that needs an event. It's also fine to reach out to other event organizers and ask for advice... for a while I was on a private group chat with a few other IF event leads, and we should probably resurrect that, as it was pretty helpful to everyone involved.

⟶ Is there something you'd like to see happen or implement in the future for IFComp?

I would like to see more mainstream coverage, at least in gaming media; we've done press releases in the past but have been mostly unsuccessful in getting those picked up for news stories; I think we may take another run at that next year, because our parent non-profit, the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, is working to rebuild its communications team. There are folks every year in the post-comp survey who lament that we don't get featured more in the press, or that we don't have folks like Wil Wheaton do a cameo at our awards ceremony, or that we don't have more judges than we do, and I agree with a lot of that (well, all of it, really -- Wil (@wilwheaton), if you're reading this and want to do a cameo, please reach out!).

⟶ Is there anything the community would like to see happen for IFComp that you don't support?

I think there are a fair number of people who look to the IFComp to help make interactive fiction itself more 'mainstream' or more profitable, but I don't see that as our role. A lot of past IFComp participants have gone on to have amazing careers in gaming or academia or publishing... so in that sense, we are having an impact on the industry, but mostly IFComp is about providing a venue for people to share good, well-tested works of interactive fiction and to put a spotlight on the very best of the best among parser and choice (and other IF that may not neatly fit either of those categories). We've got some folks who feel we shouldn't rank all of the games, that no one should come in last (or at least know that they came in last), but there are other venues for that. It’s not a jam, it’s a contest, and we are asking people to bring their best game to the competition.

We've also had repeated requests to reduce the number of entries through entrance fees, or having curated pre-judging, or having multiple rounds of judging with brackets, or splitting the comp by genre or platform, or hosting multiple iterations of the IFComp per year... and for a variety of reasons related to equity or workload, we're not considering those changes. Some folks have consequently created different competitions that do do those things, and that is absolutely of benefit to the community as a whole. It's great for there to be more ways for authors to get their games seen.

⟶ In the past couple of years, the IF event calendar has sort of exploded - you can't spend a month without one happening. Have there been recent competitions or game jams that you thought seemed fun?

It really has exploded, which is pretty great. I'm grateful that there are so many people out there organizing different things to give authors lots of options, and some of the jam constraints are novel and interesting. I'm exploring the Single Choice Jam games right now, for example. It's interesting how people approached the idea of games with only one choice. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm starting to see how, if there's only one choice in a game, you build up to it and make it count.

⟶ You don't just run competitions, you are also the founder of ClubFloyd, a weekly IF-play session. Can you tell us a bit more about it?

Sure. ClubFloyd is a group that meets mostly weekly on the ifMUD. I mentioned the ifMUD earlier; it's an old yet fancy chat room principally frequented by people who are interested in interactive fiction that's been around since 1997. In 2007, a group of us there decided to start playing games together using the MUD's resident bot, whose name is Floyd, inspired by the robot in the Infocom game Planetfall by Steve Meretzky (hence the group's name, ClubFloyd). I post the transcripts of the games we've played on my website. I unfortunately update the site pretty sporadically, in file dumps that happen every six to twelve-ish months. I'm a little over a year behind right now, but there are over 800 transcripts that have been posted, so there's plenty to look at until the next big update.

⟶ Dang! 800+ games played! That’s impressive.

Yeah. There are 811 game transcripts up on the site right now, despite me being a year behind on uploads. Some of the transcripts are of games we've played more than once, either with different players present, or because we just wanted to revisit something after a long time. I have not been present at every session, and I don't play IFComp games with the group until after voting closes (so that I can remain more neutral and unbiased as the competition organizer). But still, yes, it's a lot of games.

I'm grateful to ClubFloyd, because without it I wouldn't have experienced nearly so many works of IF. It has forced me (in a good way) to experience genres I usually don't do on my own, and the group can solve puzzles in a way that individuals sometimes cannot. Definitely in ways I don't usually have the patience for. Having a diverse group means you experience things in a way you wouldn't otherwise.

⟶ Can anyone join ClubFloyd or is it an invite-only type of group?

Yes, anyone can join us at ClubFloyd, and anyone can reach out to us for a playtest. Sometimes, though, we get into the middle of playing a long game (like when we were playing Cragne Manor for six months), and when that happens we're not available for playtesting.

⟶ How does a lambda session of ClubFloyd happen? How are games picked and running?

For years I was very organized and planned in advance and even invited authors to show up when we played their game! These days we only occasionally do that, and it's usually reserved for when we are beta testing someone's work, which we do for folks from time to time. These days we usually just all show up at the appointed time, chat a bit about what's happening, what's new, what jams have happened, or look at the list of things we haven't yet played, and pick something together. It's far more informal.

⟶ Are there restrictions on what type of games played during ClubFloyd?

No, no real restrictions in terms of content, but the bot itself has constraints. It's text only, for example, so we miss out on games (or don't fully experience games) that contain graphics or sound or effects. If a game turns out to be particularly adult in some way, such as violence or sexual content or something along those lines, then we (try to remember to) flag the transcript but we still post it to the website. Some games, like ChoiceScript, require us asking for a special file that will make it work on Floyd. Other games, such as Twine, do not work. We've occasionally laboriously done Twine games using Copy/Paste, but it's pretty intensive. Worth it, though, for the right game.

⟶ Your own games were playtested by ClubFloyd. How does that experience compare to being a player?

Oh, I often find it maddening to watch people play my games in real time. But it's also interesting to watch how people approach your work, what they try, how they react, etc. I think that's why a lot of authors appreciate our transcripts - it's not just the game, you can also see the side conversation that's happening about the game as it's being played, which gives you more information about player motivation than you get from transcripts alone.

⟶ Is there a ClubFloyd session (or tested game) you remember the most?

Hm. There are a few. I think the games that make the most memorable ClubFloyd sessions are games that build tension over a long time, put the whole group on edge, and then suddenly release the tension or surprise the whole group at once and leave us a little (or very) stunned. Those are fun moments. The game Once upon a winter night, the ragman came singing under your window did that, despite being a SpeedIF.

⟶ You've participated in many editions of the Speed-IF, which ran also on ifMUD (none since 2016). How was your experience with them?

They're fun. Just writing a Speed IF is a sort of game (for the author, I mean). Speed IFs don't expect quality, they're meant to be done in a short period of time, and they give you interesting writing constraints. It's fun to see others work within those same parameters and what approach your friends took.

⟶ How did a Speed-IF event go? How did you know there was one happening? Was there really a 2-hour limit?

Well, back in the day there'd be a bulletin board post on the ifMUD and/or a post on rec.arts.int-fiction. The 2-hour limit was always a suggestion, never seriously enforced, though a couple of my games were made in less than two hours. And you can definitely tell that they were made in under 2 hours! But that was part of the fun.

⟶ If you were not currently organizing the IFComp, would there be an IF event you would want to be part of?

I've long wanted to make something for EctoComp, and have two ideas for that. Maybe one of these years. I've also always wanted to enter le Concours de Fiction Interactive Francophone (i.e. the annual French IF Comp).

⟶ Speaking of the French IF Comp, which you've also previously reviewed, is it as cut-throat as its original counterpart?

Hm. By that, do you mean is it as cutthroat as IFComp? Gosh, I don't know that I think of IFComp as cutthroat... Serious, yes. Competitive, yes. I guess for some, serious and competitive is how you might define cutthroat.

⟶ Yes, the IFComp seems like very scary and serious event -- kind of like authors wearing armor and battling for the prizes!

Ha. I think both competitions have a high degree of comradery among authors and judges. I mean, there are prizes. But the authors are pretty great to one another. There are wonderful private forums [on IntFiction and on Discord] where authors come together and share their jitters and hopes and talk about their experiences being part of the competitions. It's lovely, really. No armor, no swords.

The main differences I see between the two are that the French comp has an annual theme (though admittedly it's within their rules to completely ignore the theme), and there are aspects to their awards that, in the English speaking community, have generally been addressed by other events outside of IFComp, such as specific qualitative awards for literary excellence, technical achievement, etc… [similar to the Xyzzies].

⟶ A fun thing we found out during our research: you appear as an NPC in Yay Games by David Welbourn. How does it feel to see yourself in someone else's game?

Ha. I did not realize this (or had forgotten). I just went and played the game. It is indeed a little weird to see yourself as an NPC that you did not write. (I'm pretty much the PC in The Fire Tower, for what it's worth, but that's a very different thing.)

⟶ You gave a talk called If You Can Write, You Can Computer Make Games. Can you tell us a bit more about it?

Yes. I gave that talk a few times, back when I was living in Seattle and a part of various coding meetups and actively going to conventions. It was a talk targeted at general, non-IF audiences, to introduce them to the concept of text based games, and to show what the learning curve was like in a couple of different development environments (specifically Inform and Twine, though I mentioned other authoring systems like Ink, ChoiceScript, Undum, and Texture). I also provided some resources to get people started.

⟶ What Interactive Fiction games would you recommend to our readers?

Hm. I've played so much over the years. I like a lot of the games that lots of other people like, but let me recommend a lesser-known game that I loved experiencing that apparently is not universally loved but which I don't think has enough reviews. (How's that for a strong sell??) Anyway, if you're up for something a bit dark... wear headphones, turn off the lights, and play Ms. Lojka or: In Despair to Will to Be Oneself by Jordan Magnuson. Love that game.

⟶ Thank you, Jacqueline for sitting down with us!

Thank you for the fun interview! Before I go, I just want to put in a plug for this year's IFComp (@ifcomp). I hope anyone reading this who hasn't been a judge before swings by our site to play a few games. We really want more new judges -- and you only have to play 5 games between Sept 1 and Oct 15 to be part of the fun. If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us at ifcomp@ifcomp.org and ask!

Huge thanks to Jacqueline A. Lott for letting us take some of her time during the very hectic period that is the week before the opening of voting of the IFComp!

~ NEW RELEASE ~

Terminal City (Unity) is a text-based adventure inspired by the 80s games like Space Quest. In this retro setting, you play as a street kid trying to right some wrongs and rescue his friends.

Anastasis (Twine) is a short-ish game based on The Talos Principle, where you explore the history of civilization and decide on its future.

hiraeth and hwyl (Twine) is a fantasy fan-inspired text adventure set in the world of “Howl's Moving Castle”, in which you explore a mysterious house

As always, don't forget to check out the submitted entries to the events mentioned in the previous pages. They deserve some love too!

~ NEW RELEASE (WIP) ~

The Gladiator's Oath: Blood and Sacrifice (CScript) is a Rome-inspired project where you play as a gladiator.

Lament (Twine) is a horror project in which you explore a mysterious town in hopes for a cure from your tormenting nightmares. @lament-if

Bastard (Twine) is a fantasy project where you play as a bastard heir to a tense kingdom on the brink of war. @plotplay

For King and Country (CScript) is low-fantasy project inspired by many world (like LOTR), where you must work through the intrigue of the capital. @forkingandcountry-if

War of the Divines (CScript) is a modern-fantasy project with a hero reborn trope, where you must to everything in your power to save your world.

One Hærfest Day (Ren’Py) is a prequel to Myrk Mire (in re-writes) where you follow multiple characters over the span of one day. @catt-nuevenor

Final Sunset (CScript) is a slice-of-life project, following an aspiring e-Sport professional hoping to find success in Battle Royale/FPS games.

Ballad of the Cosplayer (Ren’Py) is a yaoi isekai project, where you enter a cosplay contest, only to get more than you hoped for in return.

~ UPDATES ~

Boyband Hell (Ren’Py) has now been released on Google Play.

FFS, Another Northern Duke?! (Ren’Py) released the complete version on Steam. @chthonicchromestudio

Grey Swan - Birds of a Rose (CScript) added extra content to the demo. @reinekes-fox

Vestiges of the Hallowing (Twine) updated the demo with a second chapter. @buttercupfiction

The In-Between (CScript) made the previous update available to all. @dalekowrites

Creation: Book 1 (CScript) added Chapter 6 to the demo. @creation-if

The Night Market (Twine) 's latest release is now available to all. @night-market-if

Starways Saga (CScript) added the Navy path to the demo.

Dance of the Night (CScript) added a second chapter to the demo.

The Cordillarian Revolution (CScript) added the Police path to the demo.

Shepherds of Haven (CScript) updated the Patreon demo with extra content. @shepherds-of-haven

Peninsula Campaign (CScript) updated the Patreon demo with extra content.

Defiled Hearts: The Barbarian (CScript) updated the Patreon demo with new scenes. @defiledheartsblog

Velocity: The Race Begins (CScript) added 2 new chapters to the demo.

Blood Legacies (CScript) added extra content to the demo. @bloodlegacies

The Thousand Of Us (CScript) completed a major re-write of the demo and routes. @ivanwm-05

Press Play (CScript) added the second part of Chapter 1 to the demo. @pressplay-if

It Takes Three To Tango (CScript) has been released to the public. @when-life-gives-you-lemons-if

Thicker Than (CScript) added extra content to the Patreon demo. @barbwritesstuff

Saturnine (CScript) updated with Chapter 20. @satur9-if

Dear Diary, We Created a Plot Hole (CScript) returned with a whole lot of new content. @ddwcaph-game

Aquarii (Twine) added chapter 3 to the demo. @aquarii-if

~ OTHER ~

The Humble Detectives Bundle includes a handful of IF games, including Inkle's Overboard!, with its profit going to the Direct Relief charity.

To celebrate its anniversary, Wayfarer (Twine) is doing a Giveaway where you can win an Alpha Build key if you submit fanwork. Check the rules! @idrellegames

Not Your Mother's Shire (CScript) is looking for beta-testers ahead of submission.

The Rosebush Magazine published the first article on a ZIL series: Studies of ZIL - History of Infocom and the Z-Machine. @the-rosebush-mag

Lost in Limbo (Ren'Py) has just launched its Kickstarter. @ravenstargames

Gold Machine published a new article for its series on Infocom's Trinity. @golmac

The IF program PunyInform has updated with major bug fixes (Log).

~

As always, we apologize in advance for missing any update or release from the past week. We are only volunteers using their limited free time to find as much as we can - but sometimes things pass through the cracks.

If you think something should have been included in this week's zine but did not appear, please shoot us a message! We'll do our best to add it next week! And if you know oncoming news, add it here!

~ MAYBE YOU NEXT? ~

We did not get a submission this week. But if you have an idea for a short essay, or would like a special space to share your thoughts about IF and the community...

Shoot us an email!

~ HIGHLIGHT ON ~

A couple of games that we thought were cool.

Leechcraft by Ainsley Sunday @addersmire (Ink - itch.io - IFDB)

This relatively horror short game is steeped in dark fantasy with medieval inspiration, mixing dark urges of vampirism and duty for care during a plague spread. Though it is not in its fully completed form, the current release creates a very intriguing build-up.

//recommended by Marjorie [Team]//

In the Flesh by Raziel Razmattaz (Narrat - itch.io)

Ranked first in the second NarratJam, In the Flesh asks you to investigate strange reports from an old house. Though pretty ordinary, the house arbors many dark secrets. Will you solve the mystery before it is too late?

//recommended by anonymous//

Spider and Web by Andrew Plotkin (Inform 6 - itch.io - IFDB)

One of the most revered parser game from the late 90s, winner of many xyzzy, and showcasing the best of IF. Though it might be more on the challenging side, it is still an interesting experience with pretty intricate implementation. Walkthrough

//recommended by Axelle [Team]//

Your favourite game here?

Do you have a favourite game that deserves some highlighting?

An old or recent game that wowed you so much you spam it to everyone?

Tell us about it! And it might appear here!

WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU ALL! WHETHER IT'S GOOD OR BAD, OR EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN...

HOW?!?! DO YOU?!?! MANAGE?!? TO GET?!?! ALL THESE SCOOPS?!?! WHAT ARE YOU?!?! THE IF SCRET WHISPERER?!? A new E. Jade Lomax (@ink-splotch) game?!? coming soon?!?! I AM SO FREAKING SOCKED!!! - raving anon

That last Column was really conflicting, because I get how demotivating it can be to get very negative messages about your writing, but on the other hand, do we really want to coddle people who purposefully and publicly put their work out there? - a reader

i hope it's ok! cause i'd like to use my shoutout for a non-author friend~ Jessica, you devilled egg, thank you so freaking much for introducing me to IF! - Patate

Have something to say? Send us a message titled: Zine Letter!

As we end this issue, we would like to thank:

Our new awesome team members (Bex, Brij, and Dion), @franzinyte-writes, Patate, raving anon, a reader, and a couple of very helpful anonymous users!

For sending news, interview questions, helpful tips, cool links, filled form, written Sheet line, even emails... all these help us so much to make this Zine possible!

And as always, huge thanks to all you readers who liked, shared, and commented on last week's issue! What might be tiny actions are huge support and motivators to us! Thank you for cheering us on this journey!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We also hope you join us again next week, for we have a very special guest on the zine:

Surrealist Twine author, multimedia creator, Tumblr sensation: We'll be talking to Kit Riemer (@adz) next week!

Want to know more about their work? How they found IF? And everything in between?

Send us all your burning questions!

And see you again next week!

MARJORIE, AXELLE, NOI, BRIJ, DION, BEX

WHAT'S NEW IN IF? 2024-ISSUE 20

[mariacallous]

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella has hailed the company's new Recall feature, which stores a history of your computer desktop and makes it available to AI for analysis, as “photographic memory” for your PC. Within the cybersecurity community, meanwhile, the notion of a tool that silently takes a screenshot of your desktop every five seconds has been hailed as a hacker's dream come true and the worst product idea in recent memory.

Now, security researchers have pointed out that even the one remaining security safeguard meant to protect that feature from exploitation can be trivially defeated.

Since Recall was first announced last month, the cybersecurity world has pointed out that if a hacker can install malicious software to gain a foothold on a target machine with the feature enabled, they can quickly gain access to the user's entire history stored by the function. The only barrier, it seemed, to that high-resolution view of a victim's entire life at the keyboard was that accessing Recall's data required administrator privileges on a user's machine. That meant malware without that higher-level privilege would trigger a permission pop-up, allowing users to prevent access, and that malware would also likely be blocked by default from accessing the data on most corporate machines.

Then on Wednesday, James Forshaw, a researcher with Google's Project Zero vulnerability research team, published an update to a blog post pointing out that he had found methods for accessing Recall data without administrator privileges—essentially stripping away even that last fig leaf of protection. “No admin required ;-)” the post concluded.

“Damn,” Forshaw added on Mastodon. “I really thought the Recall database security would at least be, you know, secure.”

Forshaw's blog post described two different techniques to bypass the administrator privilege requirement, both of which exploit ways of defeating a basic security function in Windows known as access control lists that determine which elements on a computer require which privileges to read and alter. One of Forshaw's methods exploits an exception to those control lists, temporarily impersonating a program on Windows machines called AIXHost.exe that can access even restricted databases. Another is even simpler: Forshaw points out that because the Recall data stored on a machine is considered to belong to the user, a hacker with the same privileges as the user could simply rewrite the access control lists on a target machine to grant themselves access to the full database.

That second, simpler bypass technique “is just mindblowing, to be honest,” says Alex Hagenah, a cybersecurity strategist and ethical hacker. Hagenah recently built a proof-of-concept hacker tool called TotalRecall designed to show that someone who gained access to a victim's machine with Recall could immediately siphon out all the user's history recorded by the feature. Hagenah's tool, however, still required that hackers find another way to gain administrator privileges through a so-called “privilege escalation” technique before his tool would work.

With Forshaw's technique, “you don’t need any privilege escalation, no pop-up, nothing,” says Hagenah. “This would make sense to implement in the tool for a bad guy.”

In fact, just an hour after speaking to WIRED about Forshaw's finding, Hagenah added the simpler of Forshaw's two techniques to his TotalRecall tool, then confirmed that the trick worked by accessing all the Recall history data stored on another user's machine for which he didn't have administrator access. “So simple and genius,” he wrote in a text to WIRED after testing the technique.

That confirmation removes one of the last arguments Recall's defenders have had against criticisms that the feature acts as, essentially, a piece of pre-installed spyware on a user's machine, ready to be exploited by any hacker who can gain a foothold on the device. “It makes your security very fragile, in the sense that anyone who penetrates your computer for even a second can get your whole history,” says Dave Aitel, the founder of the cybersecurity firm Immunity and a former NSA hacker. “Which is not something people want.”

For now, security researchers have been testing Recall in preview versions of the tool ahead of its expected launch later this month. Microsoft said it plans to integrate Recall on compatible Copilot+ PCs with the feature turned on by default. WIRED reached out to the company for comment on Forshaw's findings about Recall's security issues, but the company has yet to respond.

The revelation that hackers can exploit Recall without even using a separate privilege escalation technique only contributes further to the sense that the feature was rushed to market without a proper review from the company's cybersecurity team—despite the company's CEO Nadella proclaiming just last month that Microsoft would make security its first priority in every decision going forward. “You cannot convince me that Microsoft's security teams looked at this and said ‘that looks secure,’” says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and now the VP of R&D at the cybersecurity consultancy Hunter Strategy, where he says he's been asked by some of the firm's clients to test Recall's security before they add Microsoft devices that use it to their networks.

“As it stands now, it’s a security dumpster fire,” Williams says. “This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen from an enterprise security standpoint.”

[manonamora-if]

Interactive Fiction Showcase 2024

Showcase your Game!

The Interactive Fiction Showcase is a year-long "jam" meant to collect and showcase Interactive Fiction games completed in 2024, and show how diverse the Interactive Fiction scene is! And maybe: build more bridges between the community, help people finding their new favourite game/author...

Whether it is long or short, an easy adventure or a complicated puzzle, a strange experiment, a quick creation, or a years-in-the-making game, come show off what you've made!

Are you more of a player? Then, come check this page regularly for new submissions! Maybe leave a rating or a comment too :)

This is an unranked event.

Rules:

The Showcase is open to IF games in all of its forms: kinetic, choice-based, hyperlinks, parser, visual novels... As long as it is Interactive Fiction (there is interactivity and the focus of the game is on the text), the entry will be accepted.

The Showcase is open to IF games in any language.

Entries must be playable and in its complete form when submitted. Completed games in 2024, whose demo was previously public, are welcome. Games submitted to other events (jams/competitions) are welcome.

Entries can include NSFW content, as long as it is indicated in the submission.

Entries should not include any generated AI content - or it will be removed.

Spam or hateful content will be removed.

Creating Interactive Fiction:

Interactive Fiction is a text-based narrative medium, where players can interact with the story in some fashion (input commands, click a link/button, press key). There are many different ways of creating IF, and many different programs to do so. You can find some mentioned below:

Primarily HyperText/Choice-Based: Twine,  Ink, ChoiceScript, Dendry

Primarily Parser/Input: Inform 6, Inform 7, PunyInform, Adventuron, ADRIFT

Other: Bitsy, Binksi, Ren'Py

and many more can be found listed in the IF Wiki.

If you are looking for other Interactive Fiction Events, discuss general IF, or ask question, you can visit the IntFiction Forum. (we also have monthly IF events over at @neointeractives)

Interactive Fiction Database and Archive:

IFDB

The IFDB, or Interactive Fiction Database, is an IF game information catalogue, creating a historical record of the IF landscape. The database is a community project, updated by its members, by adding titles to the directory, ratings games, writing reviews... If a listing has not yet been created for your game, please consider making one!

IF Archive

The IF Archive is an archive of Interactive Fiction games, and IF-related elements (walkthroughs, interpreters, articles, collections...). The Archive’s mission is to preserve the history and practice of interactive fiction and make it freely available to the public. If you wish to, you can upload a copy of your game to the IFArchive, through the IFDB listing of your game (recommended) or directly to the archive.

The IFDB and IFArchive, as well as the IntFiction Forum and Twine, are managed by the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation. These programs are funded through individual donations.

Visual Novel Database

The VNDB, or Visual Novel Database, is a community project that strives to be a comprehensive database for information about visual novels. The database is updated by its members, by adding titles to the directory, ratings games, writing reviews... If a listing has not yet been created for your visual novel, please consider making one!