Fivebyfivia is the result of combining two things I like: text adventures and a certain board game you'll be able to guess pretty quickly. It was written for the 2021 ParserComp.

The standalone version and web versions should be functionally equivalent. Most interpreters should work with the standalone version. They should also allow you to make a TRANSCRIPT in case you find a bug, or you are in the habit of sending transcripts (even uncommented, developers find them useful for post-comp releases to help balance puzzles, etc.!) You can report bugs here, at my email address in the ABOUT command, or at the GitHub repository.

So my developer side says "use the zblorb file," but I hope the web version is adequate. I'd rather have you play a web version than not at all, of course!

SHORT LIST OF POST-COMP RELEASES:

3.0.0: black and white squares in regular text mode, with some bug fixes/player conveniences as well.

2.0.0: allowed you to type in the next room to go to e.g. c2. Lots of tweaks based on regression testing script. New cover art.

SHORT LIST OF IN-COMP CHANGES:

1.0.3: Well this is embarrassing. I was pulling the zblorb in the zip file from the wrong location. So the web version may've worked okay, but the zblorb inside wasn't identical to the one on th epage. That is fixed now. I also added some clarifications about abbreviations and pumped up the ABOUT and CREDITS sections to let judges know everybody loves transcripts.

1.0.2: TUTORIAL command bug: I didn't reset the entire game state. It also uncovered a bug with stopping the tutorial early and that (due to a degenerate IF statement) I hadn't detected if the two kings were next to each other.

1.0.1: fixed erroneous debug text in a header file, missing cover art in ZBLORB file, and issues with the Parchment template

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Fivebyfivia Delenda Est.zblorb 276 kB
Walkthrough with graphics of final positions 164 kB
Text walkthrough 3 kB
fivebyfivia-1.0.3.zip 511 kB
fivebyfivia-1.0.2.zip 542 kB
fivebyfivia-1.0.1.zip (web browser files) 541 kB
fivebyfivia_release_3.zip 611 kB
fivebyfivia-w.zip 347 kB

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

Hey, I'm a big fan of your past work. there seems to be a bug with the tutorial where the Queen and Rook stay on the board after the tutorial has ended.

Thanks very much for reporting this, and sorry you ran into the bug! I didn't give my testers time to look at this, as it was a response to several really good questions and requests, and I was already late. Then I didn't check a few obvious things. I think I've found a relatively simple and effective fix, but I might not upload for another 12 hours, because I'd like to do a bit of programmer-testing first.

This is fixed now. It helped me find a few other minor things. I'd like to acknowledge you in the credits. It was significant If you'd rather not be acknowledged, no problem, but if you would, how would you like to be referenced?

Thanks again for the kind words and bug report!

(1 edit)

Bug report:
The cover image (link) doesn't load -- gives the error "Anonymous caller does not have storage.objects.get access to the Google Cloud Storage object."

And I'm not sure it's working properly -- the parser box isn't visible in the itch frame, and if I view the game in a separate window, the > prompt does't appear on a new line, and the input box looks like an unstyled html input box, rather than what I'm used to with parchment.

Thanks. I wiped out the updated (working) web template when I mistakenly reinstalled the Inform IDE. I think it should work now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

(+1)

Thanks, it seems fine now!

Thanks for reporting this. I was able to look at ways to make the "release with interpreter" code a lot simpler next time, so that's a big chunk of progress.

One more thing ... I'm planning to tweak the CREDITS command, among other very cosmetic fixes -- I'd like to acknowledge you there as a bug finder. If not, no problem, but if so, how would you like to be referenced as?

(+1)

salty-horse is fine, but there's really no need. I just reported that something is wrong with the itch version, and haven't even played the game yet (sorry!)

No problem whether or not you ever get to it. It's great to have someone doing this sort of sweeper work, though next time around, I'll want to make sure it's someone else who is glad someone did it!