The Stack

So, let’s get down to it finally. There are 35 games in this year’s comp. I see a few familiar names among the authors, but, unless he’s finally decided to start writing under a pseudonym, no Panks. This is encouraging!

Last year, at comp’s end, dismayed by the excessive bugginess of too many of the entries, I made a promise to be a beta-tester for as many games as I could — I set a goal of “at least ten” games. I did not meet this goal, despite an honest effort: I only found eight authors who were looking for testers. Shamefully, I only submitted feedback to seven of them, although I played enough of the eighth that I can’t honorably vote on it. Also, with one exception (which I will not name here), the games I tested lacked the really egregious completely-broken-gameplay bugs that so irritated me last year. Maybe this is a sign that things will be better this year, but more likely it means that the authors of the really broken games never bothered looking for testers. Ah well, I’ve done what I can.