So I've been judging IFComp 10. The games have been interesting--even the bad ones seem to have a spark, or somthing I wish I'd thought of, or something I think I could add my own twist to.

The one that made me think the most, though, is decidedly mediocre: "Ninja's Fate" by Hannes Schueller. It's a memorial game for an IF writer. We're not very good at the concept yet, because the Internet was largely developed by younguns. Even the original IF writers from the 80s--were young. About the only IF writer who died is Douglas Adams, who was more than an IF writer.

Paul Allen Panks, the IF writer memorialized, was apparently not a very good writer--the "about" section mentions this. He apparently had mental troubles, and he clashed with a lot of IF personalities. He stayed with BASIC and a two-word parser for his games, often submitting only slightly updated versions of old games to new yearly competitions. His magnum opus, Westmont, apparently spanned 1700 rooms. 400 were too many in Sir-Tech's stinkbomb, Mines of Qyntarr.

So the game about him is, well, purposely stilted. And it's difficult to see if this is making fun or not. All sorts of silly copouts and room paddings are on display. Maximum score=1000 points. You can lose after one move. One puzzle gives 10000 points, then takes them away. A whole complete area has random rooms and a random map. You get points for the same activity done three times in a row. You get 203 points for examining a bust.

Yet there are several different endings--each a bit sad and a bit silly. It's not hard to figure out because there's not that much to do. It's not a perfect tribute to bad IF, but it made me laugh at my own. And made me scared of what a tribute to me might be--or if anyone would bother.

And the games in general have made me want to enter for '11--the good and bad, for different reasons.

The resources out there are free and wonderful:

http://www.musicwords.net/if/InformHandbook.pdf
http://inform7.textories.com/sand-dancer/