vivdunstan

Reminded of April 1 Source Code Amnesty Day for interactive fiction games, I've just uploaded Inform source code for my IFComp 2024 entry Bad Beer. Source uploaded to IFArchive, and will take some days to process. Maybe ready by April 1st or soon after? Fab initiative.

The third and final thing I bought with my IFComp prize money. A new solitaire card game with a Sherlock Holmes theme. Very happy with my haul!

Got the first thing I've treated myself to from my IFComp 2024 prize money (I have quite a chunk of the prize still to spend). Jeff VanderMeer's "Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction". Reading this book is not going to magically make me a great writer. I know that the important thing is to just write, and stick at it. And I've confidence from my IFComp 2024 game that I can complete new creative writing projects in future. But any tips I can get from the book I will gratefully receive and apply to my own projects. It is a gorgeous book. Lavishly illustrated, very creatively designed. Not a wall of text. So it's accessible even for reading challenged me.

Watched the IFComp results ceremony tonight. Happy with my final ranking, which was in the top half of all the games, in a year with extremely high quality entrants. Compared specifically to last time I entered I finished in a higher position, and increased my average voter score a lot. Comparing the two years and the equivalently placed games and their scores, this year was a much higher standard. So pleased with that! I will also be due a cash prize from the Colossal Fund prize pool for authors. Which will be nice to get. Happy 🙂

IFComp has opened for another year, with 67 different interactive fiction games entered. Ranging from traditional parser text adventure games through to choice based pieces and RPGs. I have a game in the competition this year ("Bad Beer") but would encourage folks interested in new IF games to check out all of the competition entries. All are worth playing, covering a huge range of genres, themes and styles. Judging is open to all comers, and runs until October 15th. https://ifcomp.org

I dug this out again, and had a go drawing some cards. Here are the ones I drew tonight.



Note this is not any standard layout or spread, just something I drew up impulsively. I wanted to draw more than 3 cards, but not too many more. In particular I wanted enough that I could choose to ignore some if I wanted. Equally I don't want cards in particular positions to have any special significance. So it's 5 cards drawn, at random, of which I can choose to ignore several in my musings, if they don't feel right for me now.

The artwork is gorgeous. It's woodblock based, by Spanish artist Tomas Hijo. On the downside the Minor Arcana cards are mostly just pips-style, like ordinary playing cards, so lacking individual illustrations. But the court cards have proper individual illustrations, as do the Major Arcana.

The biggest downside for me using this deck is that the accompanying guide is akin to a foldout map/poster rather than a little booklet as you often get with Tarot decks. I can ignore that guide, using other references for help with interpretations. But I do like the extra information the foldout guide has relating the cards to the Lord of the Rings theme. And I don't want to miss those. I could easily see me getting tired of battling with the foldout poster though.

Here are the 5 cards I drew tonight:

Top left - The World (The Fellowship)
Middle - The Fool (Frodo)
Top right - The Eight of Rings (the deck replaces Pentacles with Rings)
Bottom left - Justice (Legolas)
Bottom right - The Magician (Gandalf)

Of these Eight of Rings relates to study and learning. I'd like to use that to remind me that I need to return to my Gaelic language study. It's easy to keep meaning to do something in future, but never get round to it in a reasonable time. I need to make a deliberate effort to prioritise this.

Frodo's Fool card relates to great opportunities being offered, the chance of an exciting adventure. This doesn't resonate with me at the moment. I am too limited, even considering more cerebral adventures. And trapped for now in a never-ending cycle of many extended neurological flares. But it's a gorgeous card.

The Fellowship card is, if anything, even more gorgeous. The guide with the cards suggest this is about having nearly reached a goal, and a sense of community. Well this does resonate. IFComp 2024 is going to open for judging in a fortnight. I have a new game all finished, entered and ready for the competition. And I am really looking forward to taking part in the closed IFComp authors' community on the IF forum this year. Just excited about it to be honest, however my game fares. Which is a nice place to be in.

Justice - which I thought at first glance was Faramir not Legolas, yes I missed his ears! - seems to be about keeping your vision true and clear. Which I could apply to lots of things. But I'm rather in a muddle of different projects and interests at the moment. And it doesn't really resonate.

The last card, a gorgeous Gandalf illustration for the Magician, reminds me that I need to think of others and not just my own priorities. Obviously paramount in this is Martin, supporting him. But also my friends and family. We hope to have a visit soon from in-laws. Which will be lovely. That's using the interpretation provided in the guide for this deck, rather than a more traditional one.

So 5 cards drawn very loosely, and of those 3 resonated with my current situation a lot. I *adore* the art, though that's on the fully illustrated cards. The simpler pips based cards are disappointing. And I could definitely see the foldout guide becoming a menace. I might have to convert that into a different format. But an interesting experience drawing these.

And yes, I really need to sort out a Tarot/oracle card icon for posts like these!

IFComp have today added new questions that authors must answer about any use of AI generated content in their works for the imminent competition. I was very pleased to be able to tick the “no AI” option for my game. Not even for the cover art, which I did myself. I am not at all a fan of the use of AI in creative fields like this, whether for text content or art. The human cost to creatives working for a living in these areas is too great, as is the environmental cost of running generative AI queries.

Just finished my IFComp game coding, and uploaded a game file to the competition website. 4 weeks ahead of the deadline. But I can now relax. Seeing the preview there, including how it will look to people browsing the competition website, is exciting. It's also nice to see the play online option now works for it.

Down to just 1 thing left on my todo list of IFComp game fixes. That was 107 items long, including some tricky or major changes. I will be signing up to enter IFComp at the start of July, with final game submission due in late August. The competition and judging runs through September and early October - a month earlier than in the past. And yes, I really need to sort out some cover art. I have a design in mind, and have been experimenting with ideas re drawings on my iPad. That O'Grade in Art and Design has to come in useful somewhere 😜

Just quickly coded an afterword for my IFComp game. I always think something like this is nice, to decompress after playing. And for the author to have a chance to say a few more words to the player after playing. In less than two weeks I'll be submitting my intention to enter this summer's competition. Getting real!