The Exciting News About I7

What piece of news caused me to literally choke on a biscuit this afternoon?

Why the release of a new version of Inform 7, of course!

AIF Minicomp 2014

AIF Minicomp 2014 is go!

Reposted from the Yahoo! aifarchive group:

Well, it seems like we might have some interest in the comp after all so let's go ahead and do it.  We'll make the deadline July 14th, which gives all would-be authors exactly 2 months to get their games ready.  The full rules for the comp are listed below.  You can also read them on the 2014 mini-comp page I just added to the newsletter website here.

Emily: Sister Attraction by Palmer

Emily: Sister Attraction by Palmer has just been released. It's a dialogue driven and linear game, with dynamic content and plenty of pictures. The story revolves around the increasingly passionate relationship between the player character and his sister Emily, as well as their love for each other.

It can be downloaded from the author's website.

If you wish to give the author feedback, the discussion thread at his website is here.

Magician's Nephew by Mister Flibble

The full version of Magician's Nephew by Mister Flibble was released today (7 May 2014).

You might remember Magician's Nephew from the demo that was released last year, now the full version is finally here!

The player takes on the role of Peter, who chucks in his job as an accountant (and his forthcoming marriage) in favour of becoming a stage magician.

Available from https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aifarchive/files/Inform%20Games/

Requires an Inform 7 compatible interpreter, such as Windows Frotz or Windows Glulxe for Windows, or Zoom for Mac OS X and Unix. 

May Open Thread: Hottest Sex Scenes

I am a little behind on the open thread summaries and posts I usually write, but while I was reviewing last month's open thread a question/survey/list came to mind: what is the hottest sex scene(s) you've ever played?

There are a lot of lists out there for best game and even best sex in game, but I want to focus on best scene, not the entire game (I suspect that this has been done before, but I am unaware of when). I'm not looking for technical merit or innovation, simply what sex scenes have you played that had the most impact on you (could be scene hit a particular fetish, was well written, or for an unknown reason it was just hot).

Feel free to give your top pick or a list, explanations or not, totally up to you, not asking for a formal 'vote' on best ever, just your personal take.

This month in AIF (April 2014)

April is over (in my part of the world at least) and it was another quiet month for the AIF community, with no games being released. That's not to say that there's been no activity, as to my knowledge there are at least four games currently in testing. However, I'd counsel caution to anyone hoping for a deluge of games in May. Beta testing always takes longer than you think (at least if it's done right), and real life has a way of intervening.

We're also heading into what used to be Minicomp season, although the Minicomp has been held later and later in recent years. No official announcement has yet been made, but if you were intending to enter the Minicomp this year, now would be an excellent time to start work on your entry (if you haven't already).

Elsewhere in the wider world of AIF, over at Shark's Lagoon BobbyTally has released a demo of Room 112, a dating game that he's developing. Unlike most dating games, rather than being predominantly HTML, it's written in JavaScript. Graphically it's quite impressive, although I'm not sure how many university students dress up in a halter top and tie for a study session. English isn't the author's first language so some of the writing is a bit wonky, but if that doesn't bother you I'd encourage you to check it out (http://www.the-new-lagoon.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3207) and give BobbyTally your feedback.

Did anything AIF-related happen in April that we've missed? If so, leave a comment below.

If you have something to say that won't fit in a comment box (or two), why not email editor.aifblog@gmail.com and ask for author access?

Super PAC development

I thought I would post a little bit of a preview for Super PAC here (as I'm having trouble posting pictures on my own site right now) and also maybe reflect a little on the process of developing Super PAC.

Development Diary: Friends and Yearnings

Update 1 (4/11/2014):

I've decided to write the story using Twine. After seeing mustcontainanumber's Test Lab, I realized that it's possible to write AIF in Twine that feel like traditional IF. Twine recently added using variables as links which makes this much easier. I tried writing an initial draft of the beginning section in Twine and the result feels like a menu-based IF. I like it. I might rerelease Nat Dewey using a similar interface.

April Open Thread: Rub/Luck/ Fuck; any other options and/or how could it be better?

AIF has gone through a lot of changes and improvements over the years. Images, better engines, improvements in stories, but one of the (almost) constants has been the sex scenes. You rub the appropriate body parts, then lick them, then fuck (or suck, depending upon the body part). They don’t always need to be done in that order, sometimes the order will play into how each action is described, there may be multiple descriptions (orgasms), and authors may add in other actions (spanking) or body parts (hair). The steps of the sex scene are one of the most constant and similar activities between AIF games.

So, is there anything better that could be done? Cut scenes are an option (the entire sex scene described in one go), but from what I’ve seen in the past people find them less than ideal. Is there a different method that could be tried?

I’ll be upfront that this is one of my least favorite aspects of AIF; in many games I just enter all of the commands in a single go and then go back and read the text. I realize that I might be of the minority opinion here, so if you think the current system is great, but that the content could be improved, feel free to chime in with those ideas.

This month in AIF (March 2014)

There were no new AIF games released in March. However, truemechasonic did release his patch for SD3, which is an impressive piece of work, technically speaking.

Additionally, AnotherWannabe has been quite busy this month, releasing a new version of his AIF Toolkit extension for Inform 7 and overseeing the first major piece of AIF market research: the Big AIF Survey.

As far as this blog goes, there were ten new posts and the blog as a whole got 20,472 pageviews. BBBen's Overlooked AIF Games series continues its popularity, with the March iteration getting more than a thousand pageviews.

If there's anything else newsworthy that we've missed, please leave a comment below. And if you'd like author access, send an email to editor.aifblog@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.