#introcomp

[manonamora-if]

IntroComp

IntroComp is an annual competition where participants develop excerpts of interactive fiction, gain feedback from audience reactions, and (hopefully!) use this feedback to release a fantastic final product.

Entrants must submit an excerpt of a new, never before seen work of interactive fiction that is not yet complete. This excerpt can be a short or as long as the developer wishes, as long as 1) the submission is a working, playable game and 2) interactive fiction/nonfiction.

The IntroComp is looking for never-published-before demos looking for feedback.

If you finish your game within a year of the competition's close (and tell us), you might also be eligible to win a cash prize.

Finish your game in a year (starting from the voting deadline) to get the 50$ prize. Since the IntroComp is also a ranked competition, the cash prizes for the podium ranges from 100$ to 200$.

Planned Schedule:

Intents to Enter Accepted: June 5, 2023

Intent to Enter Deadline: June 30, 2023

Introduction Submission Deadline:    July 31, 2023

[Probable] Voting Deadline: August 31, 2023

[Probable] Posting of Results: September 01, 2023

IntroComp is a service of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation.

[manonamora-if-reviews]

The Peter and Paul Case, by jkj yuio

Play the game Read other reviews See other games by jkj

an incomplete interactive mystery

In this pulp-like murder mystery, you play as Detective Picton (the same as in Murder at the Manor), now accompanied by his strangely attired assistant (a sci-fi suit?? in a 70-80s-like setting? the uncanney valley of her face creeeeeps me out), set to solve a new murder! This time around, the suspects are Peter and Paul, the nephews of the victim.

Visiting the murder scene, you get to investigate different rooms of the victim’s home, under the watchful eye and comments of your not-always-so-professional but very competent assistant. After finding a couple of required elements, the game ends abruptly, like it was bugging/freezing - but it is just the end of the demo.

The game does an interesting thing, mixing choice-based actions with point-and-click mechanic on images (I liked being able to “move” around the room and get a different angle)… though it is a bit finicky getting the element to click rather than bringing the image forward (a white outline above bright images are pretty hard to see). The images sometimes disappear when clicking on certain elements (the ones that display a new interactive picture). It would be nicer if those interactive pictures could be set more apart from the text…

[if-confessions]

As a reader, i hate saying this, but I get rather annoyed with all these IFs popping up on my dash with no WIP. I ended up entirely disregarding anything that doesn't have a WIP, because in my experience they put a fancy theme on their tumblr and use dividers in their intro post, answer some asks and never show up again🥲 It makes me kind of sad because I keep thinking about how many good ones I might have missed out on but It just doesn't feel worth it to follow every WIP-less IF with an interesting concept on the off chance a WIP gets posted one day and that maybe I do end up liking it.

Thank you for letting me relieve my soul. I just wanna say I don't want this to discourage people from posting their intro posts. I think maybe this is just something we have to be okay with, because I very much understand being excited to start something and then never finishing it for various reasons. Life isn't always so simple and I get that.

Kind of related, but I've also seen this sentiment shared outside of Tumblr, where one user explaining that until they saw a demo, they pretended the project was just an RP blog for the creator.

It's also interesting to see how different the culture about WIP is on different platforms. The IntFic Forum is all about completed content (unless it's IntroComp season), while the COG nukes a WIP thread if the demo is not link within a week of creating said thread and locks it if there is no posts after 30/60/90 days (forgot which one), or game dev platforms like itch that is all about WIPs on different stages (but with something playable too), and then you have Tumblr... where you have WIP with no demo galore.

[wigc]

Vote on a Handful of Interactive Experiences From This Year's IntroComp

Ah, IntroComp. Where incomplete interactive fiction is given room to breathe, providing their creators with invaluable feedback going forward. That said, for this year's iteration, all that remains is... the voting period!

Continue reading

[solidandsound]

It’s time for my annual video games roundup! 2018 was so fucking long I keep looking at my list and saying, Really? I played that this year?? No, that can’t be right!

I beat a total of 55 games this year, not even counting anything I played for Introcomp or IFComp, which is excellent compared to my goal of 40. However, a not insignificant amount of games were extremely short indie titles, coming in at under an hour each. Still, a lot of games were also long JRPGs, and there’s more that I spent a lot of time playing but will be finishing up next year, so I’m happy with my progress.

Final Fantasy XV is still not part of that list despite having come out forever ago. At this point I think I’m done with it, but I’ll let reviews roll in for the last DLC coming out next year before I decide for sure. As much as I enjoyed it when it first came out, its existence since has been nothing but frustrating. I also still haven’t played Breath of the Wild’s DLC, but will probably finish that off in 2019 as well.

My focus was almost entirely on my backlog this year. There are only two games (I think) that I bought day one, and those were Heaven Will Be Mine (which I haven’t played yet) and The World Ends With You: Final Remix (which I’ve gotten to the end of but still have optional content to wrap up in 2019). I got a couple games for Christmas and picked up a few things on sale along the way, but I beat more games than I bought, which means I’m making progress! This does mean I didn’t play much of what came out this year, so I couldn’t do much of a GOTY list. Not much new stuff interested me this year, which is just as well.

The best 2018 release I beat was probably All Our Asias, a free, PSX-styled light platformer that is an exploration of the immigrant experience and the western concept of ‘Asia’. It’s right up my alley aesthetically and the writing is fantastic. It’s only a few hours long, so I highly recommend it. The best (slightly) older game I beat this year was Night in the Woods, a narrative adventure game that is unapologetically political and unabashedly queer. I have no doubt I’ll be returning to it in the future.

One thing I wanted to do this year is dive a little deeper into the Shin Megami Tensei series. I did that with the original Shin Megami Tensei and Digital Devil Saga I. Neither game was perfect, but they’re still great dungeon crawlers that cover narrative and aesthetic ground few other media properties approach. Hopefully I can get around to DDS II in 2019.

I also played through Atelier Sophie and Atelier Firis. These games are so refreshing and delightful. Rarely was I playing these without a smile on my face. They were just the kind of stress-free gaming experience I needed, and I will at least be playing Atelier Lydie & Suelle next year if not the Arland trilogy as well.

Some other notable games I played include Enslaved, which is a great partner platformer; Beat Sneak Bandit and Bumpy Road, the last two Simogo games I hadn’t gotten to yet; Steven Universe: Save the Light, which does some very clever things to fit the franchise into an RPG format; Beyond Good & Evil, which deserves its status as a classic; and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, clocking in at about 300 very good hours with the DLC.

I’m partway through and hope to finish in 2019 Grandia (an oldie but a goodie), The World Ends With You: Final Remix, Bravely Second (which is good, but not as good as the first game), Fire Emblem: Fates (still grinding through Revelations), and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory (also a very good 2018 release). For my backlog, I’ve noticed and lamented this year that there are a lot of games I’ve received as gifts in the past that I haven’t even touched yet, which I feel bad about, so I’d like to burn through some of those in 2019, including games like Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last Guardian, and Tacoma. I’m excited about all of these, I just haven’t gotten to them in the midst of all the other games in my backlog.

Half the games I said I was excited to see released last time didn’t even come out this year, so it would be silly to list them all again this time. The only new game I know for sure I’m getting in 2019 is Kingdom Hearts III, and if nothing else comes out for a while that’ll be fine by me. I will probably have to get a (*shudders*) job this year, and I want to keep up my writing output (I have a game of my own to release!), so I’m keeping my modest goal of 40 games to beat in 2019. I love to talk about games, so chat me up about your own 2018 highlights!

[ifcomp]

Jacqueline Ashwell is the next IFComp organizer

I am pleased to announce that, starting in 2018, Jacqueline Ashwell will be the lead organizer of the Annual Interactive Fiction Competition.

Jacqueline -- long known as "Jacq" within the IF community -- organized IntroComp from 2003 through 2017, handing it off to Xalavier Nelson this past year. She also launched the regular IF group-playthrough event Club Floyd in 2007, acting as its main organizer since then. Among her own award-winning IF work is The Fire Tower, based on her real-life experiences as a park ranger.

Jacq succeeds me, Jason McIntosh, after I led IFComp from 2014 (its twentieth year) through 2017. I feel happy and humble to report that I accepted Jacq's invitation to remain with the project as its technical lead, where I will help maintain the web application that powers ifcomp.org. I also intend to give more attention to the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, the charitable nonprofit which I co-founded during my IFComp tenure, and continue to serve as president.

Beyond all that, though, it's Jacq who will start calling the shots with IFComp next year, and I could not be happier than with her as my successor in this role.

Please direct any questions about this change of leadership (or anything else comp-related) to ifcomp@ifcomp.org.

[knight-otu]

After Action Report - Sherlock Indomitable, by Brian Rushton

On Sunday, May 13th, Clubfloyd played Sherlock Indomitable (), a parser-based interactive fiction by Brian Rushton.

The game

"And that, Watson, is how I finished the business."

Sherlock Indomitable is a large game in which the player solves crimes as Sherlock Holmes. The game, fully released as part of the Spring Thing 2018 Festival (after its introduction version won IntroComp 2017), is naturally set in Holmes' London, initially in a sanatorium where Holmes is living his last days. Watson brings him one last gift, a book collecting Holmes' cases, and the mind of Holmes wanders back to two specific cases...

From here on, there will be spoilers. If you wish to play the game, you should avoid reading on.

The play

(Unfortunately, the ClubFloyd transcripts have not yet been updated, so I can’t link to this one yet.)

Sherlock Indomitable starts out in the aforementioned sanatorium, introducing the concept of linking two topics and saying these to people. After this short introduction, we wander into Holmes's mind, where we can explore his knowledge, or start one of the two cases - The Speckled Band, and The Six Napoleons (Brian Rushton's plans were originally more involved as seen in his postmortem but ran into technical issues).

All of your old mental paraphernalia for solving cases are here. Useless now, of course.

Since we played the Speckled Band case as part of IntroComp, we opted for playing the Six Napoleons. After some initial confusion about Watson's location and Lestrade's speech, we dove into the case, and were reminded that we do not play only as Sherlock - we also occasionally play as witnesses. In this case, we become the assistant in an art shop where one of the titular Napoleon busts gets destroyed, and a Doctor who had two of those busts, one stolen then destroyed, the second just destroyed.

We had to work through three potential motives - Revenge, hatred, and searching something - to cross off the first two while also investigating a murder linked to the busts, which then lead us to a search through a few London shops and the manufacturer of the busts to gather more clues. This leads to us setting the trap and capturing the culprit (in the process the fifth bust gets destroyed). What is left is filling up the slots of Means, Motive, and Opportunity. (Yes, that is literally a mechanic in this case.)

Means and Opportunity were quickly filled, but Motive gave us trouble. We tried every clue that was left to us, linking them, and looking them up in the relevant sections of Holmes's mind, to no avail.

It was unfortunate, but we had to resort to hints. After a few things we had already deduced and some that mislead us a bit, the last one hit us in the face - we had used the LOOK UP command wrong! We had typed LOOK UP (topic) IN (shelf), when the correct command was just LOOK UP (topic).

In conclusion

You grab Watson firmly by both shoulders and give him a smoldering, passionate, intense look of brotherly friendship, which he returns, as you continue your entirely platonic relationship in your romance-free life.

Overall, Sherlock Indomitable was an enjoyable visit to the world of Sherlock Holmes. Though I'm given to understand that the writing was, for a good chunk, Doyle's (with a couple of changes - the culprit was made American, and from a quick look, it seems they were Italian in the original), this did not diminish my enjoyment of the work, as it is clear that Rushton took great effort to complement the text with descriptions for things that would not be described in the story.

Beyond the frustrating end section, we only encountered few and minor bugs, such as Watson claiming that a witness we had not talked to yet had told us something.

We ended up not replaying the Speckled Band to see what changed in that case, at least at the time that I write this. As such, we did not see what the ending of the full game looks like.

[seattleattic]

list of helpful interactive fiction links shared during our recent "Let's Play" event

The Interactive Fiction Database: http://ifdb.tads.org/ The Interactive Fiction Wiki: http://www.ifwiki.org/ How to Play IF Card: http://ifwiki.org/index.php/Starters Tutorial (The Dreamhold): http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=3myqnrs64nbtwdaz 2014 IntroComp Games & Voting: http://www.allthingsjacq.com/introcomp/ 2014 Interactive Fiction Competiton (Oct/Nov): http://www.ifcomp.org/ Xyzzy Awards (next one Feb 2015): http://xyzzyawards.org/ Jacq's IF Voting Methods: http://www.allthingsjacq.com/intficreview_methods.html ClubFloyd Transcripts: http://www.allthingsjacq.com/interactive_fiction.html#clubfloyd

[manonamora-if]

Weekly check in :)

Was really productive this week, so pretty happy about that! Though most of it was put into something secret :P

My second entry to the @neo-twiny-jam (and the Nouvim300, bc that's the theme...) is out! You can play it here or share the post :)

MelS is making really good progress. He's done with the first third of the investigation part, chipping away at the second third, now. iirc the last third should be the smallest. Crossing fingers to get the whole draft by the end of the month so we can start the editing process.

There will definitely be more to see in this chapters than the previous one... that is if you know where to look ;)

Neo Twiny Jam!

Soooo happy to see we are getting close to a hundred submissions for this jam. With less than a week left, I think it is attainable. Maybe I'll do one small entry (and be at 3/3)....

If you have an idea and can write 500 words, consider submitting something! It's for a good cause!! Check @neo-twiny-jam for more info :) If you have played the small entries, consider leaving a comment or rating them! I've been playing them all and reviewing them at @manonamora-if-reviews.

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Text Adventure Literacy Jam!

One week left to vote for the entries. There are 9 entries total (includes An Eggcellent Preparation), and are supposed to be for beginners in mind. If you want to try some parsers, consider leaving a vote :)

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Intro Comp!

Want some feedback on an unpublished demo and an extra incentive to finish the project (there is a cash prize…), check out the IntroComp! The deadline to submit an intent is at the end of this month!

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Orifice Jam!

The Jam has officially started! Come hang out in the discord!

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Secret Project

The word count has more than doubled on the secret project. We might be looking at a pre-release by the end of next week! I have a few more pages to include, and then organising the links between those.

The goal is to have this downloadable when it is complete....

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I am now in the top 50 reviewers on the IFBD :P (thank you Neo Twiny Jam!) Write 75+ reviews to pass me :P

[manonamora-if]

The week started well, then it went a bit down the toilet... Anyway, progress was still made!

Collision is now available in French! You can choose the language at the start of the game, or in the settings!

And we are sooooo close to 60 submissions with the @neo-twiny-jam! Consider submitting yourself, it's only 500 words! If you have played the small entries, consider leaving a comment or rating them! All entries also have an IFDB page, for reviews!

MelS has finished the exploration bits, and is halfway one of the three investigation bits, and has passed the 20k word mark on the draft! There's going to be some strange meeting... ;)

I've been working on a secret project the past week or so. I think it will take me a few more weeks to complete fully (research needed). But I might upload it when the base is solid enough (I may or may not have a header already...).

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

Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2023 is still under the voting period. If you want to try out parsers supposed to be for beginners in mind (including tutorial and walkthrough), you should check out the 9 entries ~! (that also includes An Eggcellent Preparation)

And leave a little vote too :) I've played them all... :P

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Want some feedback on an unpublished demo and an extra incentive to finish the project (there is a cash prize…), check out the IntroComp! The deadline to submit an intent is at the end of this month!

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The Orifice Jam has now a discord!

[manonamora-if]

June Check-In

Life has gotten a bit... errr... weird. Hopefully things calm down soon and I manage to write more than a sentence somewhere without wanting to throw the computer at the wall...

In the meantime...

The game is now available in English here. This is temporary, just until the Text Adventure Literacy Jam's voting period ends. Then it will go back to the main one.

Anyway, try out some fun and easy (?) parsers. The whole jam is meant for beginners, and all includes at least a tutorial to play.

MelS has made some decent progress on the next chapter, about at the half-way point? Almost done with the small exploration, still need to go over the investigation and puzzles.

And the map is drafted (can't finish it until the chapter is done :P )

We are hoping to be done with drafting by the end of the month. But that depends on MelS's schedule.

Honestly not much. IRL's been in the way of things. Probably will be for a few more days.

What can you expect this month? I dunno... Me taking a break, maybe?

Anyways...

At least, I am being somewhat productive by reviewing games I've played (see @manonamora-if-reviews - you can submit a title if you want my take on a game btw)

The confession box has truly risen from its grave and had some spicy takes lately (@if-confessions)

In the jam/comp corner we have:

the Anti-Romance jam 🖤 is slowly approaching its half-way point. Start the summer by hating on romance or flip off Cupid or something...

@neo-twiny-jam has passed the 20 submissions mark! 🥳

If you want to make your summer spicy, there is the Orifice Jam starting soon. Make it a Summer of Holes... (and share the post)

Want some feedback on an unpublished demo and an extra incentive to finish the project (there is a cash prize...), check out the IntroComp!

[manonamora-if]

Another week, another check down. Some good news: I wrote this week 🥳

My entry for the Neo Twiny Jam is out! Made in like... 24h? (and I slept for half of that in between), using about 200 words (out of the 500 allocated).

Play it here or share this mess of a ride to other people :P

~~~~

In other Neo Twiny Jam news, reviews! (@manonamora-if-reviews).

Also, we are so close to reach 50 entries! This is so neat! And there are still 3 weeks left... Still time for you to whip out something ;)

MelS is about one passage away from being done with the exploration, leaving him with just the investigation left to write. I snooped at the document, and the word counter stands are 18k+ words (incl the repetition in variation).

A chunky chapter ahead...

Progress is slow but there was progress this week. A couple of hundred words of it. It's not much, but it's still something.

I've submitted a silly thing to the Anti-Romance Jam. It's more of a prompt than a game: Mission: Anti-Romance. Like my other prompts, it is under a CC-BY licence (use, abuse, transform as you will - but don't forget credit it).

The Anti-Romance Jam 2023 has also made its entries visible! Consider checking them out!

~~~

Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2023 is still under the voting period. If you want to try out parsers made specifically for beginners in mind (including tutorial and walkthrough), you should check out the 9 entries ~! (that also includes An Eggcellent Preparation)

And leave a little vote too :)

~~~

Want some feedback on an unpublished demo and an extra incentive to finish the project (there is a cash prize…), check out the IntroComp!

~~~

That's it for this week? ~Toodles...

[manonamora-if]

July Check-In

Welp... I'm late. Also it's already the half-year mark and I don't have my usual Mid-Year recap review, so we're doing this for now, and we'll see if I can squeeze a proper MYR later this month.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I FORGOT LAST MONTH????

Celebrating my 3-year anniversary of publishing Meeting the Parents, my first IF game ever. I wanted to do something special and then... I FORGORRRRRR ; _ ; I'm buuuuumbed about it :((((

Anyway... Onto the usual index:

Recap of last month’s progress

Plan for the next month

The mega to-do-list tm that hasn't really changed.

Still long post under the break. If you want a mini version, head on over to itch.io as usual!

May Progress

Pulling out THE LIST from last month and checking the progress:

Play more games ✅

Well, that's always a check, because there's no month without a @neointeractives jam lol. Anyway, June was Neo-Twiny Jam month, so was mainly that (unfinished thread). And of course, I finished the REALLY BAD IF jam (Review Thread and Ranking). But, I didn't manage to play more than that.... :(((

Almost 700 reviewwwwssssss. Dang.

Code Chapter 6/Endings❌

I've done another round of comment with MelS, but we're still missing a branch before I can code it. But I'm not too worried about that bit, since Chapter 6 will have pretty basic coding.

Fixing an older games. ❌

Lololol, listen... I tried, but only managed 1/3rd of the Tomato game to be done.

Write the next Chapter/Scene of a WIP❌

Lololol pt2 The writing of Exquisite Cadaver stalled this month. But I picked it up again.

What else happened this month????

Wayyyy too many distractions this month. First IRL (which is good). But also... events.

This months, we had the Neo-Twiny Jam (@neo-twiny-jam) which we are wrapping up, and I've been reviewing, and also participating in. There was also the Nouvim3000 (so I don't forget how to write in French), and a bunch of smaller jams which I jammed into some entries.

So, what does it look link in terms of releases:

The Lady with the Camellias (NTJ - Infrom 7 - prototype)

L’Incombustible 3000 (Nouvim/Marmelade - Twine -FR)

machina caerulea (4 jams - Twine)

Bon Dieu ! Et une lessive aussi ? (NTJ - Moiki - FR)

I've been looking back at previous releases of mine, feeling a bit nostalgic. Thinking of writing some stuff (post-mortem) about them. I don't know...

So... I didn't stick TO THE PLAN AT ALL. Which is a big bummer... because the stuff I wanted to do in July will need to get postponed again. I'm not happy with myself about that. Even if I think I made some killer tiny games this month and played some hella dope stuff... But, it's done. I can't change the past... So I'll try to do better in July instead.

Also, I did have some great relaxing days where I essentially napped or walked outside all day, and just... not being online. That was v nice!

The PLANtm for July

Obviously first is to wrap up the NTJ properly (admin), and start off the SingleChoice Jam and the SeedComp! again. The Anti-Romance Jam is ending soon as well, and the IFComp has just started. So, you'll probably see me on the IntFiction Forum more this month for all of that. And the next two weeks I still have some IRL obligations.

BUT, here's THE plan for the month:

Play more games: Which will be done v easily: 30+ NTJ entries left to review, the Anti-Romance Jam, Love/Violence Jam, the Nouvim, and the ParserComp also just ended. So that's a bunch!

Code Chapter 6/Endings: I don't think we'll be able to code that last chapter, because MelS's July is packed, but if we can manage another round of edits, it would be great!

Fixing an older games. I'm 1/3rd to 1/2 done with Tomato Tomato. I'm trying to finish fixing it for the FIX IT JAM. And if I can manage some proper progress for Exquisite Cadaver, I'll be ECSTATIC!

Write the next Chapter/Scene of a WIP. And if I could manage to write one more game round for EC, I'm buying myself some cake!

I may or may not have sent an intent for the IntroComp... So I might send something. Puzzly probably.

Progress... I can do that... I think... I hope... We'll see/

~

The 2024 To-Do List:

LOLOLOL June just decided to avoid all this.

The hopefully maybe easy to handle To-Do:

fix the bugs in EDOC (FR waiting for Adventuron)

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces

fixing the interface of LPM and the popups + check animal interactions

figure out the One-Button JavaScrip/jQuery issue...

edit the loading screens of the completed tiny games to include the program/format logo at least.

The 'Need a Bunch of Content to update but it's planned!' To-Do:

Update my website (bunch new title - also I don't think the logo clicky thing work...) + redo my itch page (un-stricking cause I need to update it)

Finish TTATEH (MelS dependent)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (half-way mark by this summer - manif)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (main path at least)

Update CRWL (it's been almost two years... I'm ashamed)

The Unlikely But it Would be Dope To-Do

Finish The Dinner as it was planned (and translate)

Finish In the Blink of an Eye as it was planned (and retranslate)

Finish The Rye in the Dark City

Fixing TTTT (at least fixing, maybe try adding some storylets)

And finally The 'It's impossible, but one can wish' TO-DO:

Remaster SPS IH (if I managed to start this after completing the rest... I'm going to eat a whole sheet cake).

Start the IFComp project (I think ST 2025)

[manonamora-if]

August Check-In!

July has been a bit more chill? I was kind of forced to slow down cause sickness (and other personal stuff), which made progress rather slow... On the other hand, it was nice to have a bit of a break.... and kind of needed, seeing how my body just didn't want to cooperate... I have honestly not written a thing in about a month (I don't count editing/coding/fixing), so I'm half-looking forward half-dreading getting back to it.

Long post ahead:

Start with what has been done this past week (hella busy).

Some other me and IF-me-related stuff

Some IF events to participate in

What I'm planning this month

A little re-haul of the templates and guides, getting some much needed TLC:

fixing typos/errors (mainly guides),

editing the credits with more resource links,

and some reformatting/re-organising the code (mainly templates).

Update your games with the latest version! Or re-download the guides!

ALSO ALSO, this was still technically last Sunday (late), but the SugarCube Guide has been fixed of its broken links, bad formatting, and explanation errors. But as a bonus, I've found some time to add some extra passages:

The other Engine API

Localization and Translation of a game

Events to trigger code at specific rendering moment.

Some of my older Coding In Twine asks, especially the CSS ones

(Version 1.1.0)

MelS finished checking my comments on the investigation part (still needs to add the missing part), and is processing the ones I left on the exploration side (there are a lot, he's doing his best).

Fixed some minor typos in the French version. BUT most importantly, the code is now available on my GitHub! Also will be shortly on the IFArchive.

Clarence Street, 14 est maintenant disponible en Français!

I've also added the source code to my GitHub, as well as sent them to the IFArchive.

I made some minor fixes in the UI for the title page and the Restart one (issue with text size). The source files are also now available on my GitHub and sent to the IFArchive.

Quick list on other IF-me related stuff:

I've finally started AND finished reviewing the Anti-Romance IF/VN entries. That was 20 new reviews (4 I had already done with the NeoTwinies, 1 was mine :P ). If you are interested, check out @manonamora-if-reviews, they are all there. Otherwise, play the entries! I'll prob go back to finishing replaying the IFComp entries and update those reviews... Or you can submit one for me to play!

@if-confessions closed last Monday - well, the asks box did. You can still read and interact with the posts. Just because I won't be answering for a while doesn't mean the discussions are closed.

Another player has been going through the @neo-twiny-jam entries, and gave me some some lovely reviews on IFDB ! That was a nice surprise!

Some IF Events:

The IntroComp entries are out! While voting is set to start out shortly, you can already check the entries (and maybe think of feedback for the author?). Note: the stories submitted were not complete games. Also I missed the deadline... I didn't have a working WIP...

There is still one month to submit your intent to the IFComp (@ifcomp). If you don't plan on submitting a game, you can already create an account to vote. I'm not participating this year, so you might see some reviews of mine this autumn.

Over at the @neointeractives, the Single Choice Jam will be ending in about 2 weeks. There is still time to add your story to the dozen already available!

If you are looking to make something a bit more NSFW, the Orifice Jam might be for you! There is a bit more than 2 weeks to add something hole-y!

THE PLAN (for August):

This is what I'm aiming to do, probably not what I'll end up achieving.

Play some more IF games. Maybe not 7/day like this week, but a few of them/week to add to my review pile. I'm getting closer to the top of the Reviewer List... I don't think I'll ever be number 1, but I need 137 more IF reviews to get to the front page (as of today - after the IFComp this year, probably will need more...). Also I want to be better at reviewing, so practice... Also I want to bring more attention to the French games...

I'd like to swing at least a jam entry for the SingleChoice. Something either silly, or related to one of my WIPs (toying with that...). Maybe testing a new engine for funsies. I have two weeks to think about it...

In the meantime, I need to fix my website. It's a bunch of games behind, and missing some important links too! Also been toying with having a more Web 1.0 vibe to it...

Maybe try to take one one of the WIPs and add a chapter or something (haven't decided which... the folders have been side-eyeing at my complacency).

Add more pages to the SugarCube Guide.

Code the update for TaTEH (dependent on MelS)

And if I can't write a single world, I can pick from the following pile pr probably not too much brain power needed:

translate Escape Goncharov! into French.

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (mayyyybe translate into French?)

fix the formatting of DOL-OS + translate into English

update LPM with the missing content + translate into English

The rest of the To-Do pile is (not month specific):

Finish The Rye in the Dark City (and maybe translate?)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (and try to translate)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (translation unlikely, current gameplay too complex to port for French)

Add a chapter to CRWL

Re-working TTTT to its originally planned state (lol, not likety)

Re-working SPS Iron Hammer (samesies)

Emptying my inboxes

Let's see what can be accomplished this month! I would like to check some more boxes of my new year resolutions.

[manonamora-if]

Another week, another check-in

I have completed the base of the French translation for Goncharov Escapes! and just need to do a few edits and recode some things. Update possibly happening somewhere today or tomorrow.

I will post about it separately.

MelS has made quite a bit of progress, going through all my original comments. He's managed to add some variation, but there is still quite a bit to go through... He's also had some very good progress of for the last chapter tho. Like added 1k words in an evening.

But.... his work assignment has been extended until the end of the year. While he's ecstatic about this (he loves his job), it does mean he has less free times for... well, anything. He'll try to spend as much time as he can on TTATEH, but it will be limited.

It is very likely that: progress will be super flow from now on until at least the end of the year, and we won't be able to complete the game by the end of October as we wished. So because of this, we're discussing whether to just update the game when it is full complete and how much help I can give him.

The game will be completed, just not at the date we hoped...

I've been re-wroking my website. It's looking pretty nice, with more of a Web 1.5 vibe but retro enough for me with the colour scheme I used. But also, I am missing the largest component: the project pages. I haven't decided how they should look just yet (and I need more since I've made more games). I think I'll start updating it bit by bit...

I've spent the start of this week doing some IF archiving, completing the addition of French Comp/Jam entries to the IFDB and the IFWiki. If you understand some French, you should check them out. There are some really cool gems in there. (I'm planning on reviewing them at some point :P )

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Some IF Events:

The IntroComp entries are out! While voting is set to start out shortly, you can already check the entries (and maybe think of feedback for the author?). Note: the stories submitted were not complete games.

This is the last month to submit your intent to the IFComp (@ifcomp). The IFComp does have monetary prizes as well as physical/online ones depending on your placement in the comp... If you don't plan on submitting a game, you can already create an account to vote. I'm not participating this year, so you might see some reviews of mine this autumn.

Over at the @neointeractives, the Single Choice Jam will be ending in next weekend! There is still time to add your story to the dozen already available! I've drafted a thing, maybe it will pan out before the dl...

Another @neointeractives jam will also be starting this week: the Bring Out Your Ghost, to showcase WiPs in indefinite hiatus, or abandoned projects. Expect the official announcement soon ;)

If you are looking to make something a bit more NSFW, the Orifice Jam might be for you! There is a bit more than a week as well to add something hole-y!

Know how to write some French? There is a contest on Moiki where you can win a T-shirt! I really shouldn't try this one... but free t-shirt tho xD

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The plan for next week (starting now):

Finish updating my website

Finish the Goncharov Escapes! update + add the old source code to GitHub

Fix a bug I re-added last time I updated MtP (I just found it out, so annoyed at that...)

Finish hopefully my Single Choice entry

Start working on the next {Finish your damn projects} task

[manonamora-if]

Oh I almost forgot it's Sunday.... And the start of a new month... and it's been 6 months since Jan... I'll do the whole 6month check in later this week... Welps a small one for now!

Because work and other stuff, progress has slowed a bit. MelS is on the last investigation part. And I should be starting the first round of edits next week. Time willing, we maaaaayyyy be looking at a end of July/start of August release???? MelS free time is super limited unfortunately. He tried to add words when he can....

Not a template... BUT AN ACTUAL SUGARCUBE GUIDE!

Making its premiere debut, 85% complete... the Twine SugarCube Guide, covering from the basics of the basics to start out with the format, to ALL the macros, some customisation, and more advanced stuff.

Get your guide today!!!!

Did you know I've been pretty much working on it only for the past... three weeks or so?

My final entry for the Neo Twiny Jam: Clarence Street 14. Completed in 3hs (and I had dinner in between). It's pretty ugly, and the story is not much brighter...

I wasn't thinking much when I wrote it. It came pretty much by itself while I was struggling to create a 500-only parser for the jam (next year!).

An Eggcelent Preparation ranked 6th at the Text-Adventure Literacy Jam. While it is in the bottom-half of the ranking, I received an overall of 3.510/5 (or 7/10 ~with 17 votes), which is crazy high for a ranked jam! Lots of really good entry indeed!! Very tough competition, with mainly experienced creators!

And for a first proper parser try, I'm pretty happy with myself. I received 2 glowing reviews as well! This is a proper win, right there!

I'm going to do a post-mortem to wrap up this project, sometimes this month....

NOTE: the game page of the English version might disappear, in preference to the French/OG one (which I need to update). I will notify it here as well, but just in case, here's a head's up!

A few hours left for latecomers to submit to the Neo Twiny Jam..

And then I will be wrapping it all up :)

In the meantime, all entries have been played ! and reviewed on @manonamora-if-reviews (it might be in the queue if not posted). I've been so busy this week...

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Some random stuff:

I need to update my website at one point, I haven't since may, and EDOC doesn't have a page yet (neither are the other jams mentioned....)

I may or may not have sent an intent to participate in the IntroComp to test out an idea that has been floating in my brain for a while. Whether it happens is another story.

You can submit an intent to the Intro Comp (I won't this year, really can't).

Anti-Romance Jam is ending in less than 2 weeks!!!! Get your submissions in!!

A bit less than 2 months to submit to the Orifice Jam as well!

Another non-ranked SFW jam will be popping up soon-ish.

Also another thing this week will be dropping (in relation to jams)

I think that's IT!

~toodles~