I create this post as a place to share with you the development of my idea (as it is not yet a game). I like to see how projects are going, as “XxTheSpaceManxX” does in his “Night Sky (Con TextEngine)” post, so I invite you to create your own project log to tell us how are you doing.

We are now one month away from the submission date, as Christopher reminds in the intfiction forums, so is time to start.

The main Idea:

As I already said in “What’s you game?” itch.io post, the Idea for my game will be a “Scotland Yard detective from outer space”, a detective with an alien swapped mind :)

I start to work in giving that detective a name, and from that premise for the game I get Syd Fox. In fact I slightly change the premise for better match to “Scotland Yard Detective From Outer Xpace”, being that Xpace a cool and copyrighted dimension outside space and time.

The adventure will take place in UK and probably never in that weird Xpace dimension, but I needed the change to use a real and believable surname like Fox :)

Searching in Google I have found that there was a guy also called Syd Fox, that seems to be British racing driver. Not alien mind swapped, as long as I could research.

My Syd Fox will be a weird man, without any other goal in life than life itself: Not trying to take over the world or anything like that. He just does his job and tries not to be discovered as an alien. He is sure that his Union Jack Tiebow will keep everyone fooled about that.

Technology and difficulties:

As I already said in the other post, I’ll be using my own system (will run in browser), Parser Commander, that I already use to create a game for another Spanish Jam some years ago (Rayuela de Arena – Gamejam Narrativa)… ufff, 2018, …

Doing that other game I learnt that the time for this is less than what one can think. In this ParserComp 2022 Jam I have the handicap of language, that will require many help with texts checking and beta testing. I can easily think “strange words” to use to try to fool a parser in Spanish as testing, but in English is very difficult for me, so the final quality of the game will be highly biased by finding or not that people, they work, and my speed to correct the bugs and make the test iterations.

That will leave very little free time for “making” the game, so it will necessarily be very small.

I see in the rules that the size of the game is not a problem and that the voting categories doesn’t reflect size as a criteria for determine the winner, but I wouldn’t like to do something ridiculous.

Let the game begin:

I have started to create the basic files for the project (html, js, …) and a basic empty world, with its settings for English, and at least it runs.

I also have start with some “cosmetical” stuff, but almost nothing of the game itself. I have in mind some ideas for the story, but mainly all on my mind, and I think I should start to put it at least on some paper diagram.

As I also said in other post, the game will have some game dynamics I would like to test with it, and none of this is neither developed.

The general status for the project at the moment is, many work to do, little time to do it, and being very excited to see how it goes.

If I don’t have something “beta testable” in 15 days, it will be time to start loose some hair :D

Very nice idea. Thank you for posting. I'm looking forward to your game.

fos1

Your game sounds brilliant weird! I'm from the UK.  It'll be interesting to see your take on it, and how much weirder than reality your depiction of British life is (it's pretty strange anyway).

Thanks for your support, boys! :D

Today has been a little productive day, and working days will be probably the same.

I have continued with additional cosmetical adjustments, started to define the “intro” story, and wrote the first simple lines of the “parsing stuff”, just as a first contact.

I’ve noticed that for the sake of writing descriptions, the better approach for me would be to write them in Spanish, and then translate and adapt them, as will be quicker for changes in the composition, and my style (good or bad) will be more preserved, as my English style is a bit like “This is a chair”, “My taylor is rich”, “My name is Paul” ¬.¬

However, for the stuff of determine the commands and actions that are possible to take, I thing that working directly in English is the best workflow, as literal translation at that point is not the way to follow (obviously there’s not a 1:1 relation between Spanish and English words and idioms).

Today I also have my first beta tester offer, so I’m very happy. This step will not start yet, as there’s almost no content to test, but is a way to start structuring the following phases of the project.

Nothing else by the moment. I will keep you informed! :)

Captain’s log, star date 20220601

The planet known as Earth crosses one of the imaginary lines on the sky that its inhabitants call “month”.

Little progress here. Some dirty flowchart drawings on paper, with the feeling that this will be too little, too obvious game, and that if I make it grow as I would like I will have problems to arrive on time.

The argument for this game does not seems the kind of story that could be made larger or smaller on the fly. Let’s continue dirtying papers.

Today I also contact with an old friend, professional musician, who volunteered to compose some new music for the game, so this is a little breath of joy that can help a bit in that 15% we all know :)

He composes “Gloomy Vals” piece for Call of Cthulhu’s Masks of Nyarlathotep  role-playing game we played years ago, that I reused in another Lovecraftian Spanish parser game some years ago. He says that it is a rough unpolished music, but every time I hear it I stay hypnotized. Bloody Nyarlathotep!

http://www.legendoides.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Vals-En-Penumbra-BSOLas-Mascaras-De-Nyarlathotep.mp3

Time to close now. Don’t type too hard.

I continue going forward very slowly. I have work here for at least 3 months but must have something ready in ten days for the first Beta Testing. This doesn’t look as a promising success ¬.¬

There are many details to polish, and the story is just slightly outlined, with many gaps to fill. Weekdays left little time for the project, so weekend will be precious. However this one starts with one day less, because I will need it for personal issues that have arisen (happy ones, but less time for the game anyway X.X)

I see people continues to join to the JAM (104 by now! Hurrah!). Don’t know the conversion rate in final real games you had other years in ParserComp, but for other Jams I would say that this means 25 finished games. I hope I could be finally in that set!

And this also means that there are other 24 silent guys out there working without losing time chitchatting here. Oh, you clever! :D

That’s all for now. I will continue a little more before bedtime. See you!

Love the music! And keep chattering away if it helps (as long as you don't chatter so much you miss the deadline...). I'm following along closely.

Hi. Thanks for the callout. Sorry for not interacting with your post. I have been really obsessed with my own, even forgot my dailies FF events and leveling. :P
I will read your post more indepth, but keep up the good work. :)
I won't use javascript in my project, but if I get the time I consider making my virtual console in a webview. This might encurage me to try to do more day by day updates, to cover changes or standstills etc. :D

Very tired here.

Anyway, I will keep that updated.

After a weekend working hard in the game, I have very little progress in the story side. This Jam is mainly about that stories side, so this is a problem.

If the Jam were in Spanish, I would be able to write and test all the stuff in the remaining time, but being in English its required to have things finished earlier for native testers to have time to check, report, and make modifications.

All the time for this weekend has gone in solving some technical problems and making improvements to the working flow.

Technical boring stuff only for techies:

From my other game in Spanish I have a Word Document where I can write (with some little“codification”) the main text for locations and actions there. That was a very useful idea because it allows me to spell check the text directly with a Word Processor, to avoid misspells.

For that game in English, this is even more important for me. The problem I was solving is that some of the improvements in the Parser were not implemented in the Word to ParserCommander (Paco for friends) exporter. Although not being too difficult is the kind of thing that can take hours testing and checking that all is correctly exported.

This is work that I will be able to reuse and take advantage of in future improvements and for working more in this story, but the calendar is losing its sheets too quick this month.

“Special” Game Mechanics

I also have some advance in the side of the special mechanics this game will have. However, having mechanics without story was not the plan.

Testing and Story

The limit I have set for send something to beta test was this Wednesday the 15th. Everything suggests that there will be not too much to test. Anyway, that testing will help me a lot to see the amount of “badness” with my English, and to evaluate the amount of work to do the next days.

The story will continue growing the following days, more or less, but I’m conscious that the longer it grows, the less quality it will have, as less time for further tests will be available.

At this moment I have clear that the game will be growing after the deadline, in its own branch, but I would like to send the best I can for this competition, not for the sake of high rank on it (it would be great, of course) but my realistic goal is just to be able of take part in a Jam in English, and learn from that. The first lesson: Start a month earlier.

Creator vs Audience

What Garry Francis says in his previous comment makes me think in this process of creation. Things with an audience, like these games, should be created with the goal of make them enjoyable by them, I think (another thing is if you reach your goal or not).

It’s easy to fall in a kind of “creator black hole” where you can only see the creation side, forgetting about the public.

But it is also easy to fall in situations where you start to make decisions based on what the players will like the most, that is in fact “what you think, or were told the players will like the most”.

I’m trying to make the game I would like to play. Having this in mind, I  took some “risks” with mechanics that perhaps will not work too much, mixing in the texts bad sense of humor with a little of poetry and sadness in a blend that perhaps will not like other than me.

But after all, this is the goal: Try to make something that an “AZ” (me) in the other Xpace mirror dimension would like to play. Perhaps he will not like. I’m not saying that I’m good on it. Is just the line that I think I must follow in the creation process. But if I achieve that, I would be glad thinking that perhaps any other AZ-like soul would also enjoy it.

If nothing of this happens and is an enormous failure, well… ¡Que me quiten lo bailao! :D

Focusing on making something that you'd like to play yourself, rather than something that you think will please your notional audience, is definitely the best idea! Of course, achieving both is the happiest outcome. 

Plenty of time left to get this done. Keep going!

Well, as I told in the intfiction.org forums, I will give up for presenting that game to this comp, as time goes faster than me! :D

I want to spend more time and love on that “Syd Fox: Scotland Yard Detective From Outer Xpace”, that will be presented in other comp in the future.

Does this mean that I will not bring a game to this comp? In no way!

My game Factory is now working at full capacity, to have on time my stupid and tiny alternative.

A lesson from life: Work as hard as you can for your objective, but if you must fail, fail fast!

See you!

About the new project for the JAM:

Well, we are now about 5 days and some hours from the deadline.

The new project is taking shape quickly, and I’m very proud of it :D

Will not be the best game in the world, but It and I know that this is not its niche, and being just something short and funny will be enough.

I already have a title, but still need to make some consultations to the beta-testers to see if it sound right in English. Beta test phase will start on Monday, so I must have the game mainly finished during this weekend, and I see it very feasible.

Nothing else about that project by the moment.

About Syd Fox project:

The original project is in stand by and I will continue working on if on July. Anyway, my musician (Fran Mod), has sent me today a new version of the intro music. Oh, man! Coooool! :D

I think I took the right decision here, so thanks again to all who help me to take it.

Well, lets see how the weekend ends. I’ll keep this updated for future generations.

See you!

Less than 4 days to deadline.

The "Plan B" project is becoming more time consuming than the original project XD. I’m starting to think that the problem is not in the project but in the developer… ¬.¬

I fall in love with each project I begin, and start to add things and make it grow in ways that are outside the scope of the time available, but this new project has born to be sacrificed in ParserComp 2022, and that will be its destiny when the countdown reaches 0:00:00:00

Anyway, I have almost ready an Alpha version fully playable, that I will send tomorrow to the Beta-testers, to see if they are able to solve the puzzle stuff, and to record all the unimplemented actions they could think.

I will not have too much time available for the game the next days, but I will spend the available time in solve bugs that could reach, add some help if puzzles are too difficult, and add unimplemented actions.

I have been working in this game for 5 days, and there are 4 days available, but you know, the final 20% of the project spends the 80% of the time…

I’ll try to do my best. And after that, my deserved rest.

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

Hello,

Here, working in that soooo time consuming task of making a parser game XD

The game has been sent to beta testers and they started to send their first reports, so things are moving on.

The bad side is that the more tester reports, the more work to do ¬.¬

I have been working also today in a help system, because it seems that things that appear clear as glass in my mind, once outside it are not so clear and a bit more glassy than expected… U.U

I hope that with the help system they could complete the game.

Nothing else for now.

See you

AZ-- if you don't have time to make a working in-game hint system (which is really hard to do well!), you could make an html walkthrough that has clickable hints in it so people can use that. Far less time-consuming than putting a hint system in!

Well, it has been a long journey to arrive here. And finally, here we are.

The game is on time, and I have been working on it until now. But time has arrived for it to take fly, far away from my lovely hands, and the gentle handling of the beta testers team.

Each one of them has test it in its own way, and it has been so great great to see how different and unique they are, as the approaches and comments to it.

Now It will met other games, will play with them in the school yard, will fight perhaps with some of them, and as the time passes the time will come to met another game that it likes the most. Perhaps I don like so much, but I will learn to accept it.

Videogames grow up so fast!

Have a nice life, Gent Stickman vs Evil Meat Hand, even when the bad times come, and try to make other videogames life happy life.

That’s life. That’s what all people say.

One of the non-betatesters players has just finished the game!

Well done, man!!!

[Confetti and fireworks here]