Random Celine musings

When I was a teen, my parents had a dog I really loved. She eventually grew old and died, as they do.

It seems like, for whatever reason, she's been in my dreams off and on pretty much ever since. Like, constantly. Enough that it was sad at first but now I'm just kind of used to it. Enough that even my subconscious is somehow aware of how much this is becoming a running thing and is working that into the plot itself; in a series of dreams over several months or years, she has miraculously reappeared and reunited with us, been there in the background for a while, grew old, died again, and... is now back a third time, apparently.

It's getting to the point where I hardly even react anymore other than the sort of vague mild warm fuzzy one gets from hanging out with a friend for a couple hours. "Oh hey, how's things? Cool, cool, that's cool. Anyway, good to see you again. Catch you next time, yeah?"

Why her, though, I wonder? There have been at least a zillion family dogs we've gone through over the years.

Random Sara musings

To be a character seems at first like being a freeloader. After all, you are living rent-free in your creator's mind. While you might not have corporeal needs, your creator may still be spending resources on you, in the form of time/labor in drawing you or telling your story, money for commissions, etc.

But you are not a freeloader. You do have a job: To entertain. To inspire. To arouse, if you're that kind of OC. Maybe you're not contributing in the form of rent money (unless you're part of a published setting that has a monetized fanbase?) but you're helping your creator get through the otherwise dull and lifeless world of capitalism and day jobs. The income your creator earns is how they survive and get through the day; people like you are why.

And all that's assuming you're just a character, of course. If you come to life and turn real... well, then.

COMPLETE: Pas De Deux

IFComp continues.

This is our fifth IFComp game, so unless we feel like hitting any small nibbly ones for fun and extra credit, this satisfies the minimum for IFComp this year! More on how this year's batch turned out overall in the separate post with the number scores, to be done separately. For now, the obligatory log of browsing that led up to this selection and actual review.

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:41]
" The brave companions enter the old wizard's tomb in search of wealth and adventure. Many have done so before but no-one has ever returned. Direct barbarian, cleric, mage and thief towards great wealth and survival of the trials of Arram's tomb.

Content warning: Contains some strong language and graphic violence."

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:41]
is this... is this a Fighting Fantasy book

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:41]
did someone submit a MUD to IFComp

[Cue very long with xyzzysqrl over how apparently, yes, this is a thing in IF! The original Zork had combat, it turns out. I never got far enough in that game to know that. Anyway, I learned something today, but this isn't our genre.]

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:51]
" In the future, robots cater to man’s every want and need. That is, unless you’re a lowly line cook like Irene Turnsole. After Irene travels to her late father’s home, she discovers that her sister has gone missing and nobody is coming to help find her. Turnsole suspects the cultists of The Light of the Future, her own father’s extreme futurist corporation, but proving it isn’t going to be so easy. Irene soon discovers she has just two days to track her sister down before the cultists perform an ominous-sounding ritual. To solve the mystery, Irene must dig into the secrets of her father’s corporation, a world on the edge of the Singularity, and her family's own painful past – all before precious time runs out.

Cyberpunk noir mystery • Two hours • Choice-based • Web-based "

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:51]
Mmmmmhhh probably good but long and kind of bleak, sorry.

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:52]
" An interactive drama in the traditions of Soviet fiction about choosing a profession.

Mother and her teenage son live on the edge of the world amid hot springs, steam, mountains, five-story houses and rusty freight robots. Their present is routine. Their future is under the strict control of Progress-program. Which also means routine.

Making their choice they seem to be on the horns of a dilemma. But it may also be a rare chance to escape the dull grey surrounding them.

If they could only find a way to use it.

Сoming-of-age, science fiction, everyday life • Half an hour • Choice-based • Web-based "

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:53]
Celine: ... Look, I'm not against bleak games? I mean, I have an entire category for Crying Bulbasaur. I love Freebird to an almost evangelical degree. I did not suddenly become allergic to this. I just... I think IFComp has depression.

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:53]
And... I dunno, I guess our first two IFComps this year burnt us out.

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:54]
" Striding into the spotlight, you smile as you look out over the crowd. It's a good turnout tonight. Now it is up to the Bournebrook Rill Community Orchestra and you, maestro Nevada Elmsbee, to deliver a spectacular performance.

Keep an eye on your score—or don't!—in this multi-layered parser/choice hybrid. Casually explore the interactive scene, or tackle the full puzzle lurking underneath to reach the best ending. Available for the web (recommended) and as a traditional Z-machine story file.

An hour and a half • Parser-based • Z-code (See guide) • Download includes additional content "

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:54]
Celine: God if this were shorter I would be all over it. This sounds GOOD. Like, you have my attention.

Celine & Sara Kalante, [25.10.19 00:54]
Even at an hour and a half, I'm strongly considering.

---

And then we sat on that for a while and then decided, yeah, you know what, sure. This looks good. And so, we conclude this year's IFComp (maybe? Unless extra credit?) with Pas De Deux by Linus Åkesson.

It was really good and I'm glad the time to complete didn't scare us off. Emphatically worth it and highly recommended.

( Read more... )

Final IFComp scores 2019

Five games have been vanquished, and so IFComp 2019 comes to a close. All that remains is to give them number scores, provide some closing thoughts about IFComp itself this year, and submit everything. We still have a couple weeks to play an extra game or two for extra credit, but I'm confident calling this this "Final IFComp scores 2019" post because if we play more, I'll just go back and edit them into this one.

Please refer back to last year's scores to put this year's in perspective. I stand by almost all of them except that, in hindsight and as they've aged and such, I wish to retroactively bump Animalia up from a 9 to a perfect 10. Otherwise, I feel comfortable putting all of those against these.

Thus, in the context of how everything compares to last year and to the overall judging guidelines, I am scoring this year's games as follows:

Pas De Deux by Linus Åkesson: 8
(LATE EXTRA CREDIT EDIT) Out by Viktor Sobol: 6
Skies Above by Arthur DiBianca: 6
Remedial Witchcraft by dgtziea: 5
Abandon Them by Alan Beyersdorf: 4
The Milgram Parable by Peter Eastman: 3

This means that Pas De Deux is about on the same level as Re: Dragon and just barely shy of Basilica de Sangre, Skies Above is about on the same level as that stealth parody dumb-on-purpose edutainment game I embarrassingly fell for and thought was real and earnestly defended anyway, my least favorite game of last year matches up with Abandon Them this year, and The Milgram Parable is (barely, by one point) the new official worst IFComp game I have ever played.

Honestly, all of these factoids scan. So yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right.

So.

IFComp.

Whew.

This year was... a bit draining, on all of us. Last year, xyzzysqrl, swordianmaster, and Sara and I all got through at least five each, and we all had at least a fair amount of enthusiasm for the better ones in our respective piles. Animalia was a genuine delight, but honestly, Instruction Set was the only game from last year I didn't enjoy overall (and even that was an "I like the idea" effort weighed down by flaws.) IFComp was fun and we were greatly looking forward to having more fun this year.

This year was a lot darker. Real life happened and knocked Xyzzy and Sword out of the competition almost entirely (Xyzzy did play one game) and we got some really downbeat draws to start off our end. I started including the chatlogs as we were browsing for our final three to show off the copies of some of the ones we rejected, and while I definitely recall being choosy last year as well, I don't remember there being this much of a sense of "Surely there must be something good in here that can save IFComp."

Fortunately, our increasing choosiness did seem to pay off, and the games did get better as we persevered. In fact, the scores versus the chronological sequence in which we played the original five (3, 4, 5, 6, 8) are in eerily perfect order. Pas De Deux (and later Out in the extra credit round) did save IFComp, and Skies Above and Remedial Witchcraft were at least okay to decent.

So... I don't know. I guess there was a miasma this year after all. Clan Sugardoom has depression, IFComp has depression, maybe it's a miracle that at least one (or two, hi Sara) of us were able to pull even this much good out of it. But with a last second buzzer-beater of a final pull, I do consider this to have been a worthwhile thing to do and an enjoyable experience overall, and I do still look forward to doing this again.

(And, of course, you the reader are welcome to join in as well, if you'd like! Play at least five IF games, do writeups, submit scores, help make Dreamwidth the somehow active mutual gameblogging circle it has become.)

IF is good. IFComp 2019 may or may not be, but I think that's the "2019" at fault more than the "IFComp." Huge thanks to Xyzzy for getting us into this, as always. See you in IFComp 2020! Hopefully everyone is okay by then.