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Jun. 2nd, 2004 09:36 amLatest attention sink: when I started thinking about actually programming my new IF game idea, I quickly realized that I likely wouldn't be satisfied with any existing platform. In 1999 I was still so new to programming that writing Calliope in Inform was actuallly my first real object-oriented experience. Since then, I've gotten rather heavily involved with Perl, and going back to Inform (or TADS, or Glulx) would, I fear, feel like slipping into a straitjacket. What, no network support? How am I supposed to build a realistic newspaper object if I can't access live RSS feeds? Furrfu! That is a semi-silly example, but I know myself well enough to predict that I'd get into a tangential pantybunch soon after starting work on the game.
So of course you know where this is going: I've started work on my own, pure-Perl IF authoring system. I figure its target UI will be the Web, which solves all (well, most) portability concerns, and should let me write both the system and the game rather quickly. Indeed, I've already started to make Cloak of Darkness (the IF community's "Rosetta Stone" game) in this system, which I'm tentatively calling "Perform".
It has also occurred to me that I could enter as a contestant into the 2004 competition (10th annual! wow) if I really wanted some subgluteal combustion, but I don't think it's necessary. I have until September 1 to change my mind, anyway.
Finally bought Origins plane tickets. This will be the first time I have flown since 2000. I was moaning to a friend about all the new and alien security measures I'd finally get to discover, but she assured me that they're less annoying/frightful now then they were a couple of years ago.
And I still hope to have the Volity Web client (and one or two Web-capable games) ready to show off at Origins. Wheee, I'm insaaaaane.