Thursday, November 27, 2003
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
IF Comp03 comes to an end...
It's all over, and RR finished in 2nd, behind Slouching Towards Bedlam. If you're still interested in the game, check out my main IF page or hit Baf's Guide.
I was a little surprised to finish so highly, but it was certainly nice. The prize will come in handy as well, as a couple of days before the competition intent to enter deadline, my employer announced that they were closing their office in Winnipeg... and this was exactly on week after my wife and I had signed up to get a new house built. So the financial situation is a little dicey, as what savings we had are tied up making payments toward getting the house finished.
Anyway, maybe coming in 2nd place is the break in the storm, and things will start looking up for us soon. : )
I was a little surprised to finish so highly, but it was certainly nice. The prize will come in handy as well, as a couple of days before the competition intent to enter deadline, my employer announced that they were closing their office in Winnipeg... and this was exactly on week after my wife and I had signed up to get a new house built. So the financial situation is a little dicey, as what savings we had are tied up making payments toward getting the house finished.
Anyway, maybe coming in 2nd place is the break in the storm, and things will start looking up for us soon. : )
Monday, September 29, 2003
IF Comp03 begins...
It's out! The competition is on! Check out this link if you're interested in downloading and playing the games.
Saturday, July 05, 2003
RR first pass completed...
Well, I managed to get the first pass of the game completed, along with hints and the "amusing things to do" section. It's been sent off to the beta-testers as of July 3/03. A few of them are in the US, so I'm sure they won't be looking at it for a while to come. That's all right though. I wanted to make sure I got the thing off early, so there isn't a lot of pressure to test quickly in order to make it in for the competition.
I also spent some time reviewing all the Inform library patches that I hadn't ever looked at before, and ended up applying the ones that were likely to affect my game (such as looking into containers in the darkness).
Then on a whim, I started looking at the rest of the Inform compiler issues as well, and lo and behold, I found a description of my abbreviation problem, the one preventing me from using the latest abbreviations that -u was providing. So I grabbed the compiler source and patched everything I felt was important enough, and built it for the Linux box.
So this meant I would be able to use my new abbreviations. So I ran the compiler with -u, got a new set of abbreviations, and used them. Oddly, they generate a larger .z8 file than my original abbreviations... so I went back to the old ones.
One change that did make a big difference was the bug that prevented short jumps from being used if the jump was more than 31 bytes... in fact, in the Z-machine, short jumps can be up to 63 bytes. Making this change to the compiler shaved 1.5K off my code size. Okay, not that I needed that 1.5K, but if we ignored every possible 1.5K savings...
I also spent some time reviewing all the Inform library patches that I hadn't ever looked at before, and ended up applying the ones that were likely to affect my game (such as looking into containers in the darkness).
Then on a whim, I started looking at the rest of the Inform compiler issues as well, and lo and behold, I found a description of my abbreviation problem, the one preventing me from using the latest abbreviations that -u was providing. So I grabbed the compiler source and patched everything I felt was important enough, and built it for the Linux box.
So this meant I would be able to use my new abbreviations. So I ran the compiler with -u, got a new set of abbreviations, and used them. Oddly, they generate a larger .z8 file than my original abbreviations... so I went back to the old ones.
One change that did make a big difference was the bug that prevented short jumps from being used if the jump was more than 31 bytes... in fact, in the Z-machine, short jumps can be up to 63 bytes. Making this change to the compiler shaved 1.5K off my code size. Okay, not that I needed that 1.5K, but if we ignored every possible 1.5K savings...
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Risorgimento Represso: An IF work-in-progress
At the moment, the only IF I'm actively working on is my Comp03 entry, Risorgimento Represso.
I think it's too long of a game, really, for the competition, but I'm interested in releasing it under maximum exposure conditions. It's not too long if the players don't go wandering around talking exhaustively to the few NPCs. There aren't really that many puzzles.
How's it going with the game? Well, all right, I suppose. I'm having some trouble making the ending work (literarily speaking, not programming-wise) the way I want it. It just doesn't seem to ring true, and I'm not sure if it's too easy, too short, or what. Well, we'll see. I'm hoping to move it out to beta-test before the end of June (optimism mode now disengaging).
Apart from that, I had a fully-developed plot, puzzles and all, for an entry for the SwashComp, but I haven't had any time to work on it, so I've decided not to bother. I may work on it at another time, but because my Comp03 is a fantasy piece, it has a similar technological level to what's in the SwashComp game, so I think I'd rather move on to something radically different next.
I have a few more ideas from some of my short stories percolating in my head, but I'm not certain how well they'd translate to IF.
I have one other idea that I'm still developing, and I'm not sure whether I'll go anywhere with it. With the initial kicking around in the brain, it feels like it would be very interesting, but a bit of a struggle to write.
I think it's too long of a game, really, for the competition, but I'm interested in releasing it under maximum exposure conditions. It's not too long if the players don't go wandering around talking exhaustively to the few NPCs. There aren't really that many puzzles.
How's it going with the game? Well, all right, I suppose. I'm having some trouble making the ending work (literarily speaking, not programming-wise) the way I want it. It just doesn't seem to ring true, and I'm not sure if it's too easy, too short, or what. Well, we'll see. I'm hoping to move it out to beta-test before the end of June (optimism mode now disengaging).
Apart from that, I had a fully-developed plot, puzzles and all, for an entry for the SwashComp, but I haven't had any time to work on it, so I've decided not to bother. I may work on it at another time, but because my Comp03 is a fantasy piece, it has a similar technological level to what's in the SwashComp game, so I think I'd rather move on to something radically different next.
I have a few more ideas from some of my short stories percolating in my head, but I'm not certain how well they'd translate to IF.
I have one other idea that I'm still developing, and I'm not sure whether I'll go anywhere with it. With the initial kicking around in the brain, it feels like it would be very interesting, but a bit of a struggle to write.
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