Parsercomp?

I know everyone’s big into IFComp right now, but I was actually curious if anyone knew if anyone knew if there were plans for a Parsercomp 2015 later this fall? I haven’t heard anything about it yet and I remembered it wasn’t really given as a sure annual thing at the time, but boy, I hope we’re doing it again this year!

I vaguely recall CVE saying she was extremely busy and couldn’t do it this year. I don’t remember where. I could of course be mistaken.

The first ParserComp was actually this year, in February. So I imagine it’ll be a while before another. Maybe next February.

Unless you just meant the announcement for the next one.

The writing window for the first ParserComp was November 2014 - February 2015. I figured Eaten By A Grue was asking about a November 2015 - February 2016 ParserComp.

(I do think another mid-sized comp of some kind would be fun.)

No ParserComp this year - I’m utterly swamped.

If interest remains, I may run it again some future year.

I’m in favour of a mid-sized, mid-pressure minicomp in early 2016. I’m not planning to run one, though.

I’m not either but I have an idea for a mid-sized themed comp that I’ve been mulling that I wanted to throw out there.

Theme: UNESCOComp (UNESCOMP?)

There are over 1,000 UNESCO World Heritage sites. The competition would “shuffle” different sites (with an even distribution of global regions) for each participant to write a game about, however they see fit. There could be a bonus prize for incorporating more than one place.

There could also be a component in which donations would be collected to give to UNESCO itself.

It would lean towards setting-heavy small-to-mid-sized works. I guess the main problem that I could see with it is making sure that it’s not shallow exoticism for its own sake. Don’t know if that can be helped unless it’s a more curated “festival”/virtual gallery space instead of a comp.

Just thinking out loud. I might put this one in the back pocket until I have more time to help out with it.

It’s funny you should say that because I had been toying with the idea of a heritage site as a setting, or a model for a setting, for a game. But I was concerned about the cultural sensitivity aspect.

Not strictly an IF Competition, but worth pointing out on the horizon: ProcJam is coming in November. It’s a long jam (so not a thing where you have to finish your project in one weekend), and it’s for all kinds of procedural games and artwork, so projects in procedural text would be entirely appropriate. Also, the organizer is a terrific guy, and they’ve put together a bunch of resources and even some kick-off talks for it.

Now that we’re brainstorming comp ideas, would anyone be interested in reviving the One Room Game Competition? It was run by the Italian community, but the last one was in 2010. I liked the one-room theme a lot and it produced some very good games. Not volunteering to run it either but throwing the idea out there along with the others.

Ooh, was that the one that produced Suveh Nux?

Yes, it was (thanks!).

It was very helpful to be given a focus like that. “What can you create within these constraints” is somehow easier for me to handle than “write anything.”

davidfisher.info/if

The thread about Zorkmid makes me think it might be cool at some point to have a minicomp with the premise of writing a game around a pre-existing map with reusable licensing. Like say these.

What a formidable idea. [emote]:)[/emote]

What in entailed in running a comp? It seems common for folks who have organized comps in the past to take a break from it in following years, due to lack of time, resources, inclination, etc. I ask because I (and possibly others) may be interested in running one sometime, but I really have no idea how in-depth of a commitment it will be. Nor do I know if I have the requisite skills for the job. However, I’d like to help out, and frankly I’m attracted to the idea of generating a seed-concept and inviting others to develop it.

ParserComp was significantly more work than I expected it to be, and I expected a lot of work!

Massive kudos to Jmac (IFComp), Jacqueline Ashwell (IntroComp), maga (the XYZZY awards), Adam Cadre (Spring Thing), and JJ Guest (EctoComp), plus all their predecessors where appropriate. I have no idea how they make it look so easy.

Here’s what ParserComp needed. I may be forgetting a few things.

[] Community buy-in on the idea
[
] Writing submission rules
[] Writing judging rules
[
] Posting the rules
[] Advertising the competition to submitters
[
] Answering questions from submitters
[] Setting up a system for participants to upload games
[
] Opening the submission system at the appropriate time
[] Closing the submission system at the appropriate time
[
] Advertising the competition for public judging
[] Setting up systems for judges to download games (or play online)
[
] Setting up systems for judges to register their votes
[] Opening the download system at the appropriate time
[
] Opening the judging system at the appropriate time
[] Answering questions from judges
[
] Answering questions from interested onlookers
[] Closing the download system at the appropriate time
[
] Closing the judging system at the appropriate time
[] Tallying up votes
[
] Announcing the results
[] Uploading all entries to the IFDB (this takes longer than you think)
[
] Documenting the competition in IFWiki (which other people very kindly did for me)
[*] Distributing prizes (okay, ParserComp didn’t have prizes, but if you have them, they need to be distributed)

Itch.io has a system for running game jams (see: itch.io/jams) Caelyn has run game jams there before, and she says it streamlines things considerably. I didn’t use it for the first ParserComp because I wanted to host at Sibyl Moon, but I would seriously consider it for a redux.

I don’t know exactly how this would work, but what about a post-comp jam? Where people fix bugs and make improvements on games they’ve already released, and then release a post-comp version.

Thanks for the detailed list, cvaneseltine! That is quite helpful.

Bump!

Any prospects of having a ParserComp 2017? [emote]:)[/emote]