Releasing unfinished games?

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FYNDR
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Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

I haven't posted to this forum in over ten years, but recently I've been going over old game development notes and reviewed what I have submitted for ZZT games in the past, and stumbled upon two games that I started back in 2007 but never finished:

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From a previous post that I had done back when I began working on these games:
I recently have rediscovered ZZT and am working on the sequel to my last game, Myseri [called War of Myseri]. In unrelated news, I had an idea for a game featuring ridiculous superheroes [Marksman] several months back and started work on it, but this strikes me to be a little too much like the movie Mystery Men, so I'll probably scrap it.
My question is, would it make any sense to zip these two (unfinished) ZZT worlds and submit them to z2? Although incomplete, I see there are some interesting mechanics/humor in them which might be useful to somebody (read: nobody).
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Appetite4
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by Appetite4 »

Unfinished games? Perhaps...just as long as we're aware they're unfinished. There are some breathtakingly short games hosted on the site now, so being only partially done is hardly a dealbreaker.

Dr. Dos has been in the process for a while now compiling games at https://museumofzzt.com.
FYNDR
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

That's really interesting! I saw that archive.org has the vast majority if not all of the games hosted here in their section of the ZZT software library (I actually found out about it from playing Ruins of ZZT the other day) but I was not aware of any parallel efforts to that.

Regarding War of Myseri/Marksman, I should be able to upload that following the normal submission guidelines along with a note in the .txt file stating these are known incomplete? Or given the current state of the community does it need to go through other channels? I've been trying to catch up on a few things since rediscovering z2 but a decade is a lot of ground to cover :0
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by Commodore »

Welcome back! Yes, just upload as normal. There's a backlog I need to address. Will update to archive when my sole means of internet is not my phone.
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FYNDR
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

Thanks Commodore! I went ahead and uploaded Marksman.zip and War-of-Myseri.zip which contain the necessary .zzt and .txt files per the submission guidelines. Hope those get into the archive soon, though I'm in no hurry - it's been over ten years, so what's another few weeks?

I saw that Dr. Dos' site Museum of ZZT also accepts uploads, so I will put those on there later today as well. Unless there is some connection between the two archives? Also for the archive.org ZZT software library I assume that they are not accepting any further submissions?
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by Commodore »

Yes, upload there as well. It will soon (possibly) become the defacto zzt archive, but can't be too cautious about archiving. I'm not sure Dos's site has what's in our uploads yet. I only have weird admin status in main page so can't update news, clear recent uploads etc, but can upload games.. it's a sinking ship but it's our sinking ship.
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FYNDR
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

Okay I have gone ahead and uploaded both games to Museum of ZZT.

As far as I can tell, the Archive.org ZZT archive at http://tinyurl.com/zzt-online does not appear to support direct uploads, so I am leaving that as-is.
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

Sorry for the double post, but since there's a wait on the upload queue for both the z2 and Museum of ZZT archives, I figured it would be worthwhile to share some screenshots from Marksman and War of Myseri and provide some background information on them.

Marksman was set up to be an action/comedy game in which you, as the title character, decide to join your local chapter of the Heroes Club:

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Upon entering the club and meeting its members, it immediately becomes clear that no one in the club has any talent whatsoever. The game has you go down the line and profile each of the members in turn:

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Regardless, you are tasked with helping the Heroes Club in their ongoing struggle against their arch-nemeses, the League of Ne'er-Do-Wells, who are similarly profiled:

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Like I said, the plot was pretty much lifted directly from Mystery Men (though inadvertantly!) so I ended up scrapping the project.

Meanwhile, War of Myseri was set up to be a direct sequel to my earlier adventure/puzzle game Myseri, taking place seven years after the events of the first one. Gameplay for the first half of the game was set up to be split between the two heroes Thorn and Arcrius as they seek to take down the Northstar Rebellion at the behest of the King:

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The game starts by following Thorn the wizard as he leaves Castle Desser in search of a mystic artifact that will bring back the third hero (the player character from the original Myseri) to the realm of the kingdom:

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Unfortunately, he runs into some resistance along the way, courtesy of the Rebellion:

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Meanwhile, Arcrius is given a mission to infiltrate the Northstar Rebellion's base in the mountains to the north. A former thief, he must use stealth to sneak in and plant explosive charges at strategic points of the structure and then make his escape before lighting the place up:

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I had most of a stealth system worked out - including a lockpicking system and part of a guard alert system - but I ran into a major technical hurdle. Basically I wanted to set it up such that a guard can only see the player if they 1) have line-of-sight, and 2) are facing towards the player. I had some problems with guards incorrectly noticing the player when they are behind them, which I tried to resolve in various different ways before I decided to put the project on hold. Shortly after that, I went to college and then forgot all about it. I checked the code recently and it's doing something with torches/gems to try and achieve a sight-blocking effect, but honestly I don't know what the hell is going on there.

Anyway, feel free to take a look at them once they're up in the archives (or just go to the uploaded games section I suppose, if you're impatient).
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by Dr. Dos »

I've been dead from a cold recently and haven't had a chance to reply to this!

The Museum is based on a direct copy of z2's database and files, but there was an official cutoff point for this, so they are two separate collections now. (Though unless asked not to there's no reason for anything uploaded here to not get uploaded and added there by me at some point.)

Archive.org's collection was done by scraping the site, and I did some database cleanup on the Museum so things aren't quite 1:1 there, but generally anything on the Museum from 2016 or earlier should be on archive.org's collections. It is possible to add to archive.org's collection as well, and they actually have an api so I would love for the Museum at some point to just have a "also put this game on archive.org thanks" button on the upload form and do it automatically.

These old games are always useful! They are snapshots of their author at the time they were produced and at the very least are a time capsule into a forgotten era. Definitely upload any old material you have to as many sites as you like.
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

Nice to see you online again Dos! I've already uploaded both games to z2 and the Museum of ZZT so those are just awaiting processing. For the archive.org collection, is there a specific set of instructions for adding games either using the API or otherwise? I registered an account there and it gives me an option to upload general files but I don't see anything about adding it to an existing archive that I can tell.
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

Sorry for the double post, but it's been a couple months since the thread was last updated.

I saw that Marksman and War of Myseri were both added to the Museum of ZZT (Thanks Dos!) and is in the uploaded games queue for z2 (not sure when that will be processed but it sounds like it might still be a while yet).

The only remaining stone left unturned is the archive.org collection, to which I have still been unable to find a way to upload. Does anyone have any specific instructions on how to add these two games to the ZZT archive there?
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by Dr. Dos »

I recently finally got around and learned how to myself:

https://blog.archive.org/2015/05/08/mak ... t-archive/ explains how to upload MS-DOS software to automatically run with their in browser emulator.

You can compare your data with the file I tested with here: https://archive.org/details/drdos-window-ia

I am not yet sure what specifically needs to be done to get screenshots. I think once the item is created you need to add them then as I didn't upload anything other than a zip file.

Also remember that unlike with z2/MoZ, you'll need to actually include a copy of ZZT inside your zip file! You'll want to include ZZT.EXE, ZZT.DAT to ensure help exists, and ZZT.CFG with the following two lines:

Code: Select all

FILE
REGISTERED
Where file is your .ZZT file. This will make ZZT load it automatically and let the user just press P rather than bringing up the world menu and selecting your world.

Edit: Also note that you can't actually submit it to anything more specific than "Software", as the ZZT Software Library collection can only be modified by the person who created it. Once I get automatic uploading to archive.org working on the Museum I'll definitely get in touch with staff there and see about getting access to it.
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FYNDR
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by FYNDR »

Thanks for the info! For now, I think I'll hold off on any uploads there unless it can be put into the ZZT Software Library collection specifically. I'll check the Museum periodically to see if there are any updates on that front since it sounds like you are working on an uploader.
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Re: Releasing unfinished games?

Post by Dark-Star2018 »

Welcome back oldtimer! I too haven't been around in years and got brought back by the rights being bought. We'd really prefer if games were posted finished even if they are short...how "unfinished" is it?
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