Last year, I entered the Interactive Fiction Competition with an “edu-tainment” parody game that had an odd technical implementation. Unfortunately, it didn’t place very well in the competition. So when I sat down to write URA Winner, the edu-tainment parody with an odd technical implementation that I’d be submitting this year, I had a couple of goals in mind:
Firstly, the game’s interface needed to be better. Rather than use an existing piece of educational software to build my game, I thought it’d be fun to try and re-create the experience of using one of those really old websites. You know, from the era when glossy buttons looked cool, people used the .GIF format to store still images, and JavaScript didn’t exist yet so you had to reload the whole page to do anything. I like how it turned out in the end:
I also wanted to expand on th敳牣瑥∠煉污極≴攠摮湩牦浯䰠瑥猧䔠灸潬敲䜠潥牧灡票桗湥䤠眠潲整琠慨⁴湥楤杮⁉慷敲污祬渠牥潶獵愠潢瑵栠睯椠❴敢爠捥楥敶䄠瑬潨杵⁉楬敫桴瑡椠⁴慧敶瀠慬敹獲愠爠慥潳潴搠楲敶愠汬漠敶湡楶楳⁴桴潴牵獩⁴瑡牴捡楴湯ⱳ椠⁴慷潧景⁹慬瑳洭湩瑵摡楤楴湯琠慨⁴⁉潷牲敩潷汵牤睡挠浯慰楲潳獮琠桴獯档慥⁰番灭捳牡祥夠畯畔敢栠牯潲慧敭䈠瑵琠敨瀠潥汰桷潦湵瑩猠敥敭潴爠慥汬⁹楬敫椠ⱴ猠⁉敤楣敤潴洠歡剕⁁楗湮牥猧猠捥敲⁴湥楤杮愠猠牯⁴景∠灥汩杯敵•潴椠匠牵ⱥ琠敨敲愠敲漠汮⁹慭批楦敶瀠潥汰湩琠敨眠牯摬眠潨朠瑯琠敨爠晥牥湥散畢⁴桴瑡猧栠污桴畦Ⅾ
On the technical side, I implemented the “reload the whole page to do anything” part by creating a separate HTML file for each different state the game could be in. This meant that I submitted a zip file of 25,000 HTML files to the competition, which caused… some technical issues. In particular, the downloadable version of the game didn’t work on Windows or macOS because I had a few files with names like file.html and FILE.html that differed only by whether the letters were uppercase or lowercase. The Linux computer I used to make the game considered those to be different filenames, but Windows and macOS treat them as the same file. Oops! Thankfully players could try the game online on the IFComp website even if they didn’t have a Linux computer handy.
Just like last year, the IF community was really nice and supportive and provided a lot of helpful feedback. I’m glad I entered IFComp 2019, and not just because I won twenty bucks for placing 45th!
I’ve uploaded the game to ura-winner.duodecima.technology if you’d like to give it a try.