vivdunstan

Firing up Twine to figure out a plot/geography puzzle/state transition diagram for my current interactive fiction parser game. I don't usually do this but since this will require coding a lot of mini scenes and timed actions in Inform 7/10 I want to design first. Sort of like in pic (not this game).

And several minutes later after updating my Twine version I've made a good start. The Twine plot/puzzle diagram for just part of my new parser game is already vastly more complex than the example in the picture below. I've lots more to figure out before I can start coding it properly in Inform 7/10.

Finished loads more books, and just wrapped up my 50th book of the year. I'd set a very modest Goodreads reading goal of 25 books this year. I knew I was intending to read a lot of lengthy books. But I've more than doubled it.

Among the new books, Steeple Chasing was a fun glimpse into church architecture, history and people. Though probably overlong. It did feel like a slog after a while.

Of course I reread Roger Zelazny's Halloween delight! And enjoyed it as much as every year.

Clanlands, by two Outlander actors (one also a hobbit) was fun, and often really insightful into Scottish history. But overly blokey for me.

Mario's Butt was an entertaining perspective on video game characters and design. Though an easier read for those games I was familiar with, having played myself, or watched Martin play.

The Insomniacs After School manga series continues to be enchanting. I already have the next two volumes in hand, ready to continue reading.

Travis Baldree's followup (well more a prequel) to Legends & Lattes was fun, but didn't quite hit the high spots of his earlier book. But a charming fantasy setting, with added bookshop content.

( earlier books... )
1. Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church by Peter Ross
2. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
3. Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish
4. Things I Learned from Mario's Butt by Laura Kate Dale
5. Insomniacs After School (manga) volume 4 by Makoto Ojiro
6. Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Another 3-card past/present/future spread, using the Urban Crow oracle deck. And musings on how these might relate to my current circumstances.

Gifts / Commitment / Play. Generally the guidebook for the cards suggests viewing them non literally, more symbolic/metaphorically. But in this case I'm just going to go for the literal approach.

It's my birthday imminently, and I've already started getting some treats. Today I got an almost birthday present for self, that I would have asked for as a present, but it was selling out so quickly on a limited print run, so I ordered it anyway. It's a book about Commodore 64 SID music composer Rob Hubbard, famed for legendary 1980s British computer music such as "Monty on the Run". There are still some copies left to buy, but it is selling well, and won't be reprinted.

Looking simply at the Commitment card I'm reminded of our upcoming 30th wedding anniversary. I have been extremely lucky with my choice of husband, and despite my ill health it's been a happy 30 years together. It hardly seems any time, certainly not that long! To be fair I still feel 21! But we will be remembering the day 30 years ago in September when we eloped, aged 22 and 23.

And Play, well I need to still make an effort to have fun. I am severely disabled from my progressive neurological disease, and largely bedbound now. Happy working on academic research projects and journal papers. But I need to have fun too. That's important.

Here are the main books I'm reading at the moment, all on my Kindle. Gareth Brown's contemporary fantasy "The Book of Doors", "Murder Isn't Easy" about the forensics in Agatha Christie's stories, "50 Years of Text Games" and just started Wheel of Time book 8.

Back to Inform interactive fiction text adventure coding, and there's something really magical about trying early stages of the game myself as a player, thinking "This is the experience I want the player to have here", then coding it, replaying to try it out myself, tweaking and so on. Like alchemy! It is a phenomenally iterative process, and it does take time. But it's stupidly fun. I never had this much fun with programming during my computer science degree, when we learned loads of languages and IDEs. This is just brill.

This is a children's book, first published in 1992. Though I'd read most Terry Pratchett books - including all the Discworld ones - this series of three books is new to me. The main character is a young school boy, Johnny Maxwell. Who in this first book gets caught up in a computer video game crossing into the real world, and a desperate fight for survival. All set against the backdrop of the 1990/1991 Gulf War. Johnny has a gang of friends who help him to various degrees, and the book is a vivid insight into a school boy's life in the period, and computer gaming culture in Britain at this time. It's also a powerful anti war novel, and extremely contemporary to its time. There are also moments that struck me as familiar from now - one particular visual image is phenomenally reminiscent of the Covid era. Really good stuff, that I wish I had read long ago. And I will definitely read the sequels.

Just played my final game of IFComp 2023. Here's my final score distribution. I played 30/74 games. Note the competition continues its judging period (anyone can be a judge!) for another week and a half. But I'm calling time on my play now. My play rate has slowed over the last week, and I was already going to have to stop early as it was. And 30 games seems like a good point to pause and take a well earned rest.

Briefly sitting up, and just played my 5th IFComp 2023 game. This one was written by someone in Russia, and is a powerful message against war in Ukraine, crafted in the form of a tale about a stuffed toy trying to save its little person. I had some critiques re the user interface, but it was a moving piece. The other person in the intfiction forum who's reviewed it so far also found it powerful.

The 2023 IFComp for interactive fiction games is open for judging. Come and play/judge a wonderful mix of games both choice based interactive fiction and traditional parser text adventures. Judges have until the middle of November to rate. You only need judge 5 games total for your votes to count. https://ifcomp.org

I will have great fun soon drawing up my own list of games to start playing. There look to be about 75 entries this year, but again judges don't need to play them all. I look forward to playing, judging and reviewing those I can get through.

Quite sleepy tonight, so postponing new Babylon 5 movie watching to tomorrow evening. Will post non spoilery thoughts after. Martin is playing Spyro on the PS4. If I can wake up enough I might do some game coding, but low level stuff, that doesn't need too much brain power or attention.