GameInfoModuleID

A module ID with GameInfo metadata. The GameInfo metadata format is the standard TADS format for descriptive data about the game. The usual way to use GameInfo metadata is to create a file called "gameinfo.txt" for a game, then embed this file directly in the game's .t3 file using the TADS 3 resource bundler (t3res). Once the gameinfo.txt is embedded in the .t3 file, tools will be able to read the game's descriptive data directly from the .t3 file. For example, HTML TADS on Windows can read the information into its Game Chest, which allows the interpreter to show the full name of the game, the author, and a blurb describing the game, among other things.

class GameInfoModuleID : MetadataModuleID

The names and email addresses of the authors, in GameInfo format. This list must use the following format:

author one <email>; author two <email> <email>; ...

In other words, list the first author's name, followed by one or more email addresses, in angle brackets, for the first author. If more than one author is to be listed, add a semicolon, followed by the name of the second author, followed by the second author's email address or addresses, enclosing each in angle brackets. Repeat as needed for additional authors. The list does not need to end with a semicolon; semicolons are merely used to separate entries.

The copying rules for this game. Most text games these days are released as freeware with minimal restrictions on copying, so we use a default of "nominal cost only." Other values defined in the GameInfo format include Prohibited, No Restrictions, No-Cost Only, At-Cost Only, and Other. A modifier indicates whether or not the game may be included in compilations (such as those "10,001 great games" CD-R's that people like to sell on auction sites); we indicate that inclusion in compilations is allowed by default. You can change this to "Compilations Prohibited" if you prefer not to allow your game to be distributed in that fashion.

Note that the restrictions specified here aren't enforced by any sort of copy-protection or DRM (digital rights management) technology. This information is entirely for the benefit of conscientious users who want to abide by your wishes and thus need to know what your wishes are.

The GameInfo bundle is mostly for the benefit of software that can extract the information from the compiled game. So, we recommend that you also put a full notice and explanation of your license restrictions somewhere that users can easily find it, such as in a separate LICENSE.TXT file that you distribute with your game, or in the text of the game itself (displayed by a LICENSE or COPYRIGHT command, for example).

Descriptive text for the game, in plain text format. This is a short description that can be used, for example, in a catalog of games. This should be a couple of sentences or so.

The date of first publication. This can be just a year in YYYY format, or a full YYYY-MM-DD date. This is the original release date of the original version of the game, which is often of interest to archivists. This should *not* be updated when a new release is made - it's always the date of *original* publication.

The forgiveness level, according to the Zarfian scale propounded by Andrew Plotkin on rec.arts.int-fiction. This must be one of these terms, using the exact capitalization shown: Merciful, Polite, Tough, Nasty, Cruel.

the GameInfo filename - by default, we write the standard gameinfo.txt file

The game's web site, if any. If specified, this must be an absolute URL with http protocol - that is, it must be of the form "http://mydomain.com/...".

The genre of the game. Some games don't fit any particular genre, and some authors just don't like the idea of having to pigeonhole their games, so feel free to leave it out. If there's a good fit to a well-established genre, though, you can specify it here. We recommend you keep this short - one word, maybe two - and use a genre name that's generally recognized as such. You might want to use Baf's Guide as a reference (http://www.wurb.com/if/genre).

The game's headline. It's become an IF tradition to use a quasi-subtitle of the sort that Infocom used, of the form "An Interactive Mystery." This can be used to define that subtitle.

Descriptive text for the game, as an HTML fragment. This should have the same information as the 'desc', but this version can use HTML markups (including tags and character entities) to embellish the display of the text. Any HTML markups should be "in-line" body elements only, not "block" or head elements, so that this text can be inserted into a larger HTML document. For example, markups like <i> and <b> are fine, but <p> and <table> should not be used.

The IFID - this is a UUID uniquely identifying the game, using the standard UUID format (xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx, where each 'x' is a hexadecimal digit). You should pick an IFID when you start each game project, and then keep the same IFID throughout the game's entire existence, *including* version updates. Each new version release of the same game - even major new versions - should use the same IFID, so that the versions can all be related to one another as the same game.

If the game has multiple IFIDs, list them here, separated by commas. You should NOT *intentionally* create multiple IFIDs for your game; once you've created an IFID, it should be the unique and permanent identifier for the game. In particular, do NOT create a new IFID for a new version: the whole series of releases throughout a game's lifetime should be identified by a single IFID, so that archivists will know that the versions are all incarnations of the same work.

The reason that multiple IFIDs are allowed at all is that many older games were not assigned explicit UUID-style IFIDs when released. In such cases, the game has an "implied" IFID based on an MD5 hash of the compiled game file's contents. Every release that doesn't contain an explicit IFID will therefore have a different implied IFID. So, for example, if you've already released versions 1, 2, and 3 of your game, and you didn't assign explicit IFID values to those releases, each version will have a different implied IFID. When you release version 4, you should NOT assign a new UUID-style IFID. Instead, in the IFID string here, list ALL THREE of the implied IFIDs from the past releases. Each of the three IFIDs counts from now on as an IFID for the work, for all versions collectively. (By placing the list of IFIDs in version 4, you prevent version 4 from adding yet another implied IFID of its own: the explicit IFID list supersedes the implied IFID.) See the Babel spec for more information, and for instructions on how to calculate the implied IFID for a TADS game that was released without a UUID-style IFID.

The language in which this game's text is written. This is the RFC3066 language code for the main language of the work. For example, games written in US English would use 'en-US', while games written in British English would use 'en-GB'. Note that each language-specific library module should use 'modify' to set this to the default for the library.

The license type for this game. Most text IF games these days are released as freeware, so we use this as the default. The GameInfo metadata format defines several other standard license types, including Public Domain, Shareware, Commercial Demo, Commercial, and Other. Authors should change this if they plan to release under a licensing model other than freeware.

Note that the GameInfo metadata format documentation explicitly states that the license type indicated here is advisory only and cannot be considered definitive. This means that this setting does not take away any of the author's rights to set specific license terms. Even so, we recommend that you pick an appropriate value here to avoid any confusion.

The metadata key mappings. This is a list of key/property pairs. The key in each pair is a string giving a standard GameInfo key name, and the property gives the property (of self) that we evaluate to get the string value for that key.

The recommended "presentation profile" for the game. 'Default' means that the interpreter's default profile should be used. (Some interpreters let the user select which profile to use as the default, in which case 'Default' means we'll use that profile.)

The release date. By default, we compute this statically to be today's date. This means this will be set to the date of compilation. If the game wishes to override this, note that the GameInfo format requires this to be of the form YYYY-MM-DD. For example, December 9, 2001 would be '2001-12-09'.

If this game is part of a series, such as a trilogy, these can be used to identify the name of the series and the position in the series. The series name should be something like "The Enchanter Trilogy"; the series number, if provided, should be a simple integer string ('1', '2', etc) giving the position in the series. Note that the series number isn't required even if a series name is specified, since some series are just groups of works without any particular ordering.