The Problems Compound

The Problems Compound
Game
Main links	Play online IFDB
Published	1 October 2015
Credits
Author	Andrew Schultz
Reception
Events	IFComp 2015 24th of 53
IFDB rating	3 out of 5 (11 ratings)
Gameplay
Interaction style	Parser
Language	English
Cruelty scale	Merciful
Technical details
Authoring system	Inform 7
Format	Glulx
IFID	C163600D-F937-431F-9275-320A8537DFD3
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How it begins

You, Alec Smart, find a ticket leading away from your home to a place called Smart Street and the Problems Compound.

Notable features

• Trizbort color map
• Director's Cut area with rejected rooms
• Fake deaths
• Unlockable verbs
  • XP/Explain to explain figures of speech
  • Four jump commands to skip ahead in the story
• Alternate endings
  • Good and great ending implemented in Version 2
  • Existentially bad ending in Version 1, three similar endings in Version 3
• Optional risque text that changes your antagonist's name

Testers

• A + means more than one version. P means post-comp.
• (uncredited person)
• Neil Butters P
• Wade Clarke +
• Marco Innocenti
• Joey Jones P
• Hugo Labrande
• Juhana Leinonen +
• Brian Rushton
• Matt Weiner

Others Who Helped

The author traded post-comp "code tennis" (make a change every couple days, email the other guy, and repeat til someone faults) with Alex Butterfield and Hugo Labrande. Olly Kirk, Paul Lee, Michael Martin, David Welbourn and Al Golden pointed out some good bugs mid-comp.

Versions

Competition version

Date: 1 October 2015

• The Problems Compound (Andrew Schultz; 01-Oct-2015; Glulx).
  • IFID: C163600D-F937-431F-9275-320A8537DFD3
    IFID links: IFDB
  • IF Comp 2015: 24th place of 53 entries.

Release 2

Date: 30 March 2016

• The Problems Compound (Andrew Schultz; 30-Mar-2016; Glulx).
  • GitHub release
  • Release notes with major changes

Future Release Plans

Date: June 2016

The author plans a release 3 in June 2016 to address a serious bug found in the alternate endings. Many character names are changed to something more specific, and many minor features are also implemented.

• Specific issues/tasks addressed
• Release notes with projected big-scale changes

Related games

• Part of "Alec Smart saga":
  • The Problems Compound (Andrew Schultz; 2015; Inform 7; Glulx).
  • Slicker City (Andrew Schultz; 2016; Inform 7; Z-code).

Links

N.B. Many IF Archive games are temporarily unavailable in the UK.

Author's repository

The author's latest changes and planned fixes are [GitHub].

General info

• The Problems Compound - at IFDB.

Spoilers

• Author Commentary:
  • Part 1.
  • A pop quiz on testing.
  • Part 2: testing.
  • Part 3: what was it about?.
• Walkthrough and map by David Welbourn.

Note: To refer to this game from another page, you can type {{game citation|The Problems Compound}}. This will display as The Problems Compound (Andrew Schultz; 2015; Inform 7; Glulx).

Date: 1 October 2015

Date: 30 March 2016

Date: June 2016