{"id":6077,"date":"2019-11-16T17:08:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T01:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/?p=6077"},"modified":"2019-11-16T17:08:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T01:08:33","slug":"ifcomp-2019-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/6077","title":{"rendered":"IFComp 2019 wrap-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The voting period of the 25th annual IFComp is over, and the results will be announced tomorrow. I managed to play all but one of the games <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_6077_1('footnote_plugin_reference_6077_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_6077_1('footnote_plugin_reference_6077_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_6077_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_6077_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">The one I skipped, <em>Alice Blue<\/em>, only runs on Linux. I do have an old Linux machine around &#8212; once upon a time, it served as my web server &#8212; but the game has a bunch of requirements beyond that: the Gnome desktop, a list of packages, certain terminal preferences. It didn&#8217;t seem worth the effort.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_6077_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_6077_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> , but I didn&#8217;t write up as many games as I intended, and those that I wrote up weren&#8217;t necessarily the best of the Comp. I think the randomizer shuffled a bunch of the best games toward the end for me, and I basically wimped out for the last few days due to my failure to adequately describe Hanon Ondricek&#8217;s <em>robotsexpartymurder<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>So here&#8217;s some brief comments about just a few of the remaining games I&#8217;d recommend most highly:<\/p>\n<p><em>robotsexpartymurder<\/em>: As a work of sci-fi, deeper than the title suggests. As a web-based interactive experience, amazingly dense and varied, mixing dialogue and locations with in-game computer interfaces. As erotica, not really my thing, but at least it&#8217;s sensitive to the fact that not all the Comp judges want erotica and makes it fundamentally optional.<\/p>\n<p><em>Zozzled<\/em>: Steph Cherrywell&#8217;s prose is always a treat, and it turns out to be even moreso when mixed with a dose of 1920s slang. You play as a boozy flapper hunting ghosts in a hotel. Classic adventure-game tomfoolery.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hard Puzzle 4 : The Ballad of Bob and Cheryl<\/em>: Somehow I managed to miss the first three games in this series, but the fourth is right up my alley. In content, it&#8217;s post-apocalyptic wacky. In form, it&#8217;s meta shenanigans. Puzzles are largely based on exploiting bugs. Does some very nice indirect hinting, where things mentioned in the changelog or whatever aren&#8217;t directly exploitable but suggest things that are. Still haven&#8217;t finished this<\/p>\n<p>But my prediction for winner is still <a href=\"\/stack\/archives\/6001\"><em>Turandot<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m guessing that the Golden Banana of Discord (the unofficial prize for the game whose ratings have the highest standard deviation) will go to one of the <a href=\"\/stack\/archives\/6065\">&#8220;But is it IF?&#8221;<\/a> pieces, of which there are several.<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_6077_1();\">&#x202F;<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_6077_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_6077_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_6077_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_6077_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_6077_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_6077_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">The one I skipped, <em>Alice Blue<\/em>, only runs on Linux. I do have an old Linux machine around &#8212; once upon a time, it served as my web server &#8212; but the game has a bunch of requirements beyond that: the Gnome desktop, a list of packages, certain terminal preferences. It didn&#8217;t seem worth the effort.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_6077_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_6077_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_6077_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_6077_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_6077_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_6077_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_6077_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_6077_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_6077_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_6077_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_6077_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_6077_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_6077_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_6077_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The voting period of the 25th annual IFComp is over, and the results will be announced tomorrow. I managed to play all but one of the games 1The one I skipped, Alice Blue, only runs on Linux. I do have an old Linux machine around &#8212; once upon a time, it served as my web [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,53,636],"class_list":["post-6077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-if","tag-ifcomp","tag-ifcomp-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6078,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6077\/revisions\/6078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}