We successfully revived the AIF Mini-Comp last year. Everyone seemed to have fun making and playing the games. I'm not sure if it's a good idea for it to continue though.
Although the AIF Mini-Comp provides a good focal point for the community to get together, it also causes a few problems. It distracts authors from their other projects. It sucks up the community's energy and efforts and concentrates them on one event, leaving authors too drained to make games during the rest of the year. As a community, it's much healthier to have authors releasing games throughout the year so that there are always games to play and talk instead of just having the community go dormant except for once during the year.
Before the Mini-Comp was revived last year, the community wasn't thriving, but there were still occasionally authors releasing games throughout the year, which kept the community going. After last year's Mini-Comp though, I don't remember any completed AIF games being released. There was a heroic effort by Letwri to run two simultaneous Live AIF games, a few projects were announced on the Reddit, and there was an outside jam that some people entered, but there weren't any completed games that people shared or talked about. I'm not sure if this lack of activity was caused specifically by the Mini-Comp, but it sure is a strange coincidence. The months before the Mini-Comp were much more alive while the months after the Mini-Comp had little activity.
Would it be healthier for the community if we let the AIF Mini-Comp drift away again? What do you think?
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