Looking for author-partnership for a series of 10K Inform ..

Archived from groups: rec.arts.int-fiction,rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Hello all...

Most of you know that I've been working on mInform (latest version is 0.6a -
with the libraries down to just 19K retaining most of the Inform-feel). I
have also been dabbling in a truly minimal parser for Inform that still
retains the verb parsing, object creation and such and have reduced a 1 room
game down to 6K (this is using a special version of INFORM 6.15 that I
compiled that reduces some of the veneer routines and run-time error
checking). The game files still compile just fine under Inform 6.30 with
modern libraries so there is no need to re-learn Inform programming to use
this modified compiler / libraries. I'm hopeful that I can reduce it
further down closer to 5K to start but it's really getting thin at this
point.

Anyway, I've had the idea to reduce a series of Miniventures (or nanoEpics
as Cedric Knight once called them). Z-code games that are all 10K or
smaller utilizing less than 2K of RAM. Now, it's not easy to make a good
game in 10240 bytes - but that's part of the challenge. My first attempt is
called MOONGLOW (Miniventure #1) and is almost ready for beta. It contains
12 locations, 6 objects, 3 puzzles and is currently 9060 bytes long (longer
than 'The Dragon and the Troll' which clocks in at approx 7500 bytes though
I think MoonGlow has a bit more description and depth since it still feels
like a typical Z-code game only much smaller). I hope to expand this by 2
locations and an additional puzzle. In theory, with 10-15 words per location
I think one could squeeze in 15 locations, another 30 interactive objects
and maybe 8-10 takable objects plus a half dozen specialized verbs (on top
of the 8 basic built in verbs that are part of the library) into one of
these MiniVentures. Once I get a set of MiniVentures designed, coded and
tested, I'll probably make official C64 diskettes with these and sell them
for cost of materials (with a little printed booklet Infocom-style).

But while I have enough coding experience to feel comfortable, I don't have
a wealth of ideas (my first game **IDENTITY** was just released, my 2nd
larger game **GAUCHO** is in progress and my MiniVenture **MOONGLOW** is
more an experiment in parser design though it should be perfectly playable
and enjoyable when it's done). I'm looking for someone to partner with in
creating these MiniVentures. Games are small enough that a single game
won't take very long to code and test. But I would like to find someone that
I can share ideas with and help get this series off the ground. Especially
someone who has some short story ideas and good logical puzzles (which are
always the most difficult for me to come up with!).

No coding experience is really necessary (though it helps if you want to
help write and compile the games) as I can code easily enough and the games
will be extremely small. I haven't released microform (my 6K reduced
library) yet as it hasn't gone through the same testing effort as mInform
(the 19K library with most of the Inform basics still in place). If anyone
is interested, please email me.

--
Dave Bernazzani daveber@gisNOSPAM.net (remove NOSPAM to use)
Join the Commodore 32 Inform minigame contest:
http://www.gis.net/~daveber/minform/c32.htm