There's now less than three weeks left until the closing date for submissions to ParserComp 2021. 48 people have registered, yet the community forum has been surprisingly quiet. I guess everyone is using other media, such as intfiction.org and various Discord servers, to discuss any issues they have.

I was wondering how everyone is going with their entries. For myself, I was planning to enter two games - a small game and a medium-sized game. I have finished the small game and had it beta tested. I just need to incorporate the test comments. (I've had some wonderful testers, by the way.) The medium-sized game is actually something that I wrote about five years ago. I thought it only needed some tweaking, but when I got back into it, I realised that I'd only finished the opening sequences and the bulk of the game was somewhat sparse. So I need to work on that this weekend and (hopefully) have something ready for testing in the next few days.

I know of at least a dozen works in progress and there have been a few requests for testers on intfiction.org. I've tested two games myself - one small and one HUGE.

So, how are you going with your entry? Will you get it finished on time?

I will get my game finished on time. :) I'm writing it in AdvSys, completed the basic classes and now writing the storyline while easily adding items and locations using great object-oriented class/method system. I learnt AdvSys much time ago, but never written a bigger game. Now I'm having a chance. The plot was ready a while ago and now the story is divided into Prologue and 3 Chapters. At least 1 chapter will be ready for a submission. I'm testing it myself but don't have big issues, thus don't need to create a discussion thread. I hope the players will have great time playing my entry, and also I could play other entries in the ParserComp! So good luck to all. :)

I'm struggling to get mine finished. If I don't, it'll probably go in IFComp, but it's better suited to Parsercomp. Too many distractions, and now I'm coding for my day job again there's less codey-brain left over, but I'm pushing myself when I can, and I'm still somewhat hopeful.

I heard a tip from a game designer recently that's going to stick with me: when you start work on a new game, the FIRST thing you do is make a complete playable game as quickly as possible. It won't be big or very good to begin with, but it must have a beginning and an end and a way to play through. From that point on, *you have a game*. The rest is editing, and when the deadline is looming you can reduce the scope if you need to without rushing things to tie up with the ending. And I wish I'd heard it before I'd started this project.

EDIT: Having got my mojo back over the last day or two, I'm now feeling much better about my game, have worked out how the endgame is going to play out, and am a lot more confident that I'll get it submitted :-)

I'll be done with the several-hours-Adventuron-epic in time, just. Still to do: hints (nearly finished those), a hunt through transcripts for final bugs (I had a dozen excellent testers), and some graphics (currently inchoate - there's no telling what they'll end up looking like).

Aay, my game is now feature-complete! A week ago I really didn't think I'd get there. Now to get it torn to bits by testers :-) 

I did my usual :O

I worked solidly for three months to finish my IntroComp entry from last year... and then last week decided (a) that it was too big to finish just now and (b) that I've worked too hard on it to release it as a rush job.  Marie: now coming to Spring Thing 2022 or possibly even ParserComp 2022 if it runs again next year!

In the meantime I've made a new short game for the current ParserComp instead.  It's been a breath of fresh air to make something so short after working on a couple of big projects recently.  It'll be ready for last-minute testing in the next day or two, I hope!

I have something complete. Originally, it was going to be a longer, more straightforward game, but I never really got control of it. So Dee, you're not the only one!

I'd be willing to trade last-minute testing. My game is a bit technical, so people may need a walkthrough. But I do enjoy having a walkthrough to help with testing so I can help others polish certain bits. Is there a better place on itch.io to ask than here? Is a "test swap" topic a good idea?

In general I think having ParserComp reminded me of other projects I had. It even got me to fix a 2-year-old bug in another game.