Comments on: IFDB statistics, part 2: Development systems

By: Eriorg

Eriorg — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:34:01 +0000

If you don't know them already, you might find these two blog posts by Emily Short interesting:

http://emshort.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/scraping-ifdb
http://emshort.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/more-ifdb-data

By: Dannii

Dannii — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:29:43 +0000

I think these two graphs are very interesting too (they have the same data as some from above, but with different graph settings, can you pick which ones? :P)

http://nitku.net/if/ifdb-statistics/index.php?id=509a3c4718d47&chart=Area&stacked=1
And its simplified Inform vs everything version: http://nitku.net/if/ifdb-statistics/index.php?id=50a50f882e8fe&chart=Area&stacked=1

Those worried about Inform apocalypse should consider that 2012 has been a similar year to 1999-2000. 2001 was the peak year in total publications, as well for Inform. Yet just two years later the total publications was almost as high, but Inform's proportional was significantly smaller. Who knows what will happen next year!

By: Juhana

Juhana — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 06:57:19 +0000

Dannii: Thanks, the link is now fixed.

By: Felix

Felix — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 06:14:38 +0000

I remember being shocked at the revelation that 22 out of 26 games in the IFComp 2010 were written in Inform 7. At the time, I expressed fear that IF is turning into a monoculture. Since then, of course, we've seen the massive rebirth of CYOA, but there you have it. That said, it's interesting to see that Inform 6's all-time popularity is still unequaled. Sure, it's been used as a compilation target, but I suspect that's not the main cause...

By: Dannii

Dannii — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 02:25:53 +0000

The fourth pie chart links to a line chart, which doesn't work for the data.

By: S. John Ross

S. John Ross — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:53:26 +0000

Anecdotally, I made an early attempt to learn IF programming with both TADS2 and I6, giving both systems a shot, and failed equally and miserably at each. Later, I tried again with I7, and I7 worked so well for me that my plans to give TADS3 a spin have fallen into my "one of these days" bins of vague intent. So I am at least a single isolated case of I7 attracting "people into IF who would otherwise not have done so," even to the point where I tried to get in prior to I7, and found myself unable to.