PTT on Make It Good

Forgot to mention when it actually got posted, but my Play This Thing review of Make It Good is up. Its content will not come as a huge surprise to anyone following my blog, I suppose, but I mention it here for thoroughness.

Homer in Silicon for today

On Jojo’s Fashion Show 2. On the subject of which, is Gamelab really gone/completely repurposed? When I wrote this article a few weeks ago, their website was still up and running, but now — as the editorial note points out — it is completely given over to Gamestar Mechanic and there’s no sign of their other work history.

If so, I’m really sorry to see it. They were doing some of the most innovative work in the casual game market.

EnvComp results out

The results for EnvComp are now out, giving the win to C. E. J. Pacian’s entomological fantasy “Dead Like Ants”. They’re accompanied by reviews from a panel of ten judges. This is great stuff — critique from experienced players is worth its weight in… well, it doesn’t weigh anything. Still, it’s worth a lot.

The good news is that this minicomp series still has another three competitions whose deadlines are a little way out: NPCComp, SenseComp, and GameplayComp. (AbilityComp is closing May 1, so unless you’re a demon coder, …)

And while I’m on the topic of things to enter, GunchoComp has a deadline in August, for games written for multiple players on Jesse McGrew’s Guncho system.

Inform build out

Inform build 5Z71 is now out, hosted on a new website, which features, among other things, a new section on education with Inform and reports from teachers in the field; a new introductory screencast by Aaron Reed showing off some of the features of the IDE and how to get your game started; and a revised handling of the extensions allowing authors to view extension documentation online before downloading.

Pliny’s Opinion on Beta-Testing

“That man is spoiled, and no better than a stranger, who prefers to hear his friend’s book in its final, polished form rather than to help him polish it.” (Pliny the Younger, Letters 8.21.)

A followup to that last

Because I’m curious, mostly — this constitutes no promise about my own future intentions, and I have no affiliation with Matt Arnold’s idea of a workshop at Penguicon other than to help publicize the idea — it seems worth asking: