AIF Minicomp 2014 is now live!

[ExLibris]

Reposted from aifarchive:

Sorry about the delay folks, been busy like usual. Well, when all was said and done there were 8 entries this year and here they are (in alphabetical order):

- Amy the Slut by Lost Trout (Twine)
- Dinner Plans by AOneHitWonder (Adrift)
- Friday Afternoon by Shannon O'Donnelly (Twine)
- Fucking Monster Bash by Hanon Ondricek (Inform7/Glulxe)
- Lark Rise by Dr. Realgood (TADS)
- One Last Pay Day by Louys Bilitis (TADS)
- Slim Spady Detective - The Case of the Missing Box by nowherecity24 (Twine)
- The Snowstorm by Anna Nee Moss (Twine)

You can download the games here:

http://newsletter.aifcommunity.org/index.php?id=2014minicomp.html

The voting will start in a couple of days. I wanted to have it ready when I released the games, but I don't have it done yet and I didn't want to make you all wait any longer. I was expecting 3 or 4 games so I had planned on just doing the voting in a poll like last year. But with 8 games it seems like we should do a full round of voting. I'll let you know when it's ready. It should only be a couple of days so that should give you all time to play through them all. When it's ready you can vote here:

http://newsletter.aifcommunity.org/minicomp

Thanks to all the authors who submitted games and to everyone who downloads them and votes.

Okay, that's it, go play them. Go...go...

[TheBrain]

The download link still says 2013

[Cochise]

Anybody else experiencing some technical difficulties with Slim Spady Detective?

I've tried it on both FF and IE and after a while nothing happens when I click on the available options.

[ltpika]

Yeah, that game is full of bugs like the links going dead or getting stuck in loops.

[redle]

Anybody else experiencing some technical difficulties with Slim Spady Detective?

I've tried it on both FF and IE and after a while nothing happens when I click on the available options.

For the most part it seems like the game just doesn't end cleanly. If you reach a point where you've failed to do a prerequisite to continue, rather than popping up the "game over, you lose" that you should get, it just hangs.

Although there are some other bugs as well. The worst is the fish. Clicking it at any time will instantly jump you to the ending sequence. If you weren't ready to go to the end, well, too bad...

Lark Rise is the one that has me rather baffled

Can't figure out any way to interact with the mom. Game says to make her leave, but darned if I can figure out how.

[Cochise]

Lark Rise is the one that has me rather baffled

Can't figure out any way to interact with the mom. Game says to make her leave, but darned if I can figure out how.

Apparently the author was going for a full game, but had to do some substantial editing for it to be minicomp-legal (and he added quite a lot of gripes about it in the game). I do hope he finishes it though, 'neighborhood' games are my favorite. I'd even offer to proofread his script, coz there were typos all over the place.

I did manage to finish it.

I went to the kitchen and asked her about sex, then it prompts you to ask "what about me" so I just kept trying "ask mum about me" until it worked and she moved to her room, where the boom-boom ensues. The magic wand isn't useful for anything, you can pick up the olive oil without it.

[nvtsbamf]

dinner plans is good

nothing else stood out. the other games had bad writing/ridiculous stories or severely unfinished gameplay

[Cochise]

Dinner Plans definitely takes the cake IMO, but I wouldn't say nothing else stood out. I can only gripe that Monster Bash was unfinished, even says so in the notes, which I should've read before giving it a try, and that I can't get Slim Spady to work on any of the browsers I use.

The twine games were all nice enough. Pay Day was more like an IF game than an AIF game, but still enjoyable to a degree, and you can see potential in Lark Rises, which again I do hope the author will finish.

[redle]

Lark Rise is the one that has me rather baffled

Can't figure out any way to interact with the mom. Game says to make her leave, but darned if I can figure out how.

Apparently the author was going for a full game, but had to do some substantial editing for it to be minicomp-legal (and he added quite a lot of gripes about it in the game). I do hope he finishes it though, 'neighborhood' games are my favorite. I'd even offer to proofread his script, coz there were typos all over the place.

I did manage to finish it.

I went to the kitchen and asked her about sex, then it prompts you to ask "what about me" so I just kept trying "ask mum about me" until it worked and she moved to her room, where the boom-boom ensues. The magic wand isn't useful for anything, you can pick up the olive oil without it.

Thanks for the assist.

Ah, so I see. It wasn't so much I didn't try all the necessary commands at some point, I just hadn't realized I needed to keep repeating myself over and over until something different happened.

[ExLibris]

The voting page is now available: http://newsletter.aifcommunity.org/minicomp/

[Eligarf]

I hate to say it, but this thread is a great illustration of why AIF games have no future.

Nobody is willing to make one that performs reliably in all environments. Nobody is willing to take the time to do comprehensive beta testing and rework to make their games playable in multiple environments before releasing it.

To be fair, this isn't only an AIF issue. It is programmers in general. But as this is an AIF thread, I thought I would point out that AIF (a GREAT gaming platform, IMO) Minicomp is missing out on a golden opportunity here by not enforcing strict standards of acceptance and thereby encouraging game makers to excel rather than just "get by".

My .02

[ExLibris]

Nobody is willing to make one that performs reliably in all environments. Nobody is willing to take the time to do comprehensive beta testing and rework to make their games playable in multiple environments before releasing it.

I think, in this instance, that that's an unfair criticism. I agree that a lot of the games in this year's Minicomp are buggy, but that's got nothing to do with any unwillingness on the part of the authors. The Minicomp is a competition, with a deadline. That deadline is why a lot of authors didn't have time to betatest their games. It's a problem that particularly affects first-time authors (which the Minicomp is mostly oriented towards), because they're less able to judge how long writing a game is actually going to take.

As for whether untested games should have been allowed to be entered, as I'm not the Minicomp organiser that's not my call to make. However, I do see a problem in that working out which games need testing would require testing, which would slow things down a great deal. There's also the fact that Minicomp participation has been very poor over the past couple of years, so there's a motivation to allow as many games as possible to ensure a good turnout.

Outside of the Minicomp, comprehensive beta testing is pretty much the norm. In fact, there's an argument to be made that increased audience expectations in terms of quality are part of why the number of new games being released has dropped so precipitously. So it's not quite as simple as enforcing strict standards.

[xravensfan]

Oh, I disagree wholeheartedly.

The AIF is well and alive. The competitions are a good source of pushing out new material, but it can be rough around the edges. Some times the authors clean it up and make it purr....

Otherwise, it is like any other market. Some games are good, some aren't, but the reviews of peers is huge!

[artorawley]

I hate to say it, but this thread is a great illustration of why AIF games have no future.

Nobody is willing to make one that performs reliably in all environments. Nobody is willing to take the time to do comprehensive beta testing and rework to make their games playable in multiple environments before releasing it.

To be fair, this isn't only an AIF issue. It is programmers in general. But as this is an AIF thread, I thought I would point out that AIF (a GREAT gaming platform, IMO) Minicomp is missing out on a golden opportunity here by not enforcing strict standards of acceptance and thereby encouraging game makers to excel rather than just "get by".

My .02

This seems a bit unfair when you consider the Minicomp games need ot be completed in about a month's time. I think the problem this year was that most of the new creators this year didn't really know what they were getting into with the Minicomp and ended up with buggy or unfinished games or just submitted a piece of a larger game idea. I think if these creators kept working on their minicomp entries to flesh them out and make them fully-featured, bug-tested games then they could be good to great entries into the AIF field. I've been interested in making a TADS game for awhile but I always steered clear of debuting in a Minicomp because it seems like a tall task for a rookie developer. From what I've gathered from this year's entries it seems that some didn't share this opinion and their entries suffered because of it.

[bigchief]

Voted.

First time I've caught the comp while 'live' and not come to it later in the year.

My thoughts on each:

Amy the slut - very simple premise and easy to complete. Didn't get much enjoyment out of it and it lacked any real interactivity.

Dinner plans - the best of the bunch but too easy to get the best results. Puzzles needed a bit more challenge or variety. I felt it didn't need the final scene with Anna (in terms of the story). Would like to see the fleshed out with multiple girls and endings.

Friday afternoon - odd game which ended too soon if you chose the wrong options. Felt it was a bit too random in choices.

Fucking monster bash - err, what was the point in this? Get inside and I could find nothing to do.

Lark rise - not the expected sex encounter when the game started! Not much challenge and a very odd premise, even for an adopted child.

One last pay day - I liked this and it had some variety. Could be a good game to be fleshed out into a full one. I disliked the ending (her turning pyscho) and the constant 'she wants to jump on your cock' comments were annoying. Otherwise, engaging if short

Slim Spady - too buggy. Played a few times and never got anywhere due to links dieing. Never found a use for anything I picked up (or it never worked?).

Snowstorm - replayed this a few times. In general I liked although I couldn't find the endings for the gape or the plug (or find a use for the weed in her bag?).


Overall - nice to see some new stuff although most had the feel of being rushed. I really hope the developers of all the games go back to them and expand them into fuller games. While I'm not a fan of the CYOA style games personally, it's still nice to play one every now and then.