IF Comp 2007

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: October 7th, 2007

Just a friendly reminder that the 13th Annual IF Competition is underway. As a recent convert to IF myself, I gotta say, I’m excited!

Now, if only I had enough time to play through all the games and vote before the November 15th deadline… Oh well — hopefully you loyal readers will pick up my slack!

Download all the games here.
View the complete list of entries (with individual downloads) here.

EDIT: Don’t know where to start?
IF author Emily Short is currently reviewing each entry on her blog. (Thanks Terry!)

Posted in Competitions, Interactive Fiction | Tags: IFComp

http://www.distractionware.com Terry

Yey!

If you’re not sure where to start, Emily Short is doing a great job of reviewing the individual entries over at her blog:

http://emshort.wordpress.com/
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Ah, sweet, thank ye sir!
Karzon

Always check if each game has an interesting response to the commands “xyzzy” “plugh” and “plover” (the magic words in Adventure). Sometimes they’re easter eggs or just really amusing. Or not.
Shih Tzu

Yay IF!
Advenith

I should write an IF game one of these days. It’s one of the few things I actually know how to code. >.>
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Do it, man! I’ve been thinkin’ about writing one on the side myself. :)
Derek

TIGForums collaborative project? :O
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Hm. Maybe!

It wouldn’t hurt to have a Guide to Writing IF on there, that’s for sure…

I’ll look into it. ;)
Naught

@Advenith: Yeah I’ve been meaning to start writing an IF game for the past couple weeks, but I haven’t gotten around to it. There are many new technologies being developed for the medium, such as storytron and playdreamer. IF, which at one point seemed to be dead, is on the verge of coming back with a vengeance. To read about more tech in the works, check out http://grandtextauto.org/2007/09/29/updates-on-the-pursuit-of-interactive-story/

About IFComp07, I’ve been working my way through them and so far the most compelling one is An Act of Murder. Others have been poorly written, constructed, or buggy. I really didn’t like the Good things/Bad things in Ferrous Ring.
Naught

If a collaborative IF is started, how would it work? Round robin style?
I Like Cake

I might collaborate on an IF, depending on what it’s written in.
http://gnomeslair.blogspot.com/ gnome

Lots of interesting i-f offerings…
Pacian

It seems a bit unfair to direct players (and possibly votes) to certain games, but it’s apparently no longer against the competition rules, so let me just say that my favourites so far are Lost Pig (which is very entertaining), Varkana (which is rather pretty) and Orevore Courier (which is witty and interesting).
Stephen

Pacian, it still is a little unfair, especially without the ability to leave any spoiler space in your comments.
Prio

If you want to try to keep things fair(-ish), try going to http://ifcomp.org/info/info.php (you’ll probably have to sign in) and click the “random order” button. Then just play games in that order, so you aren’t directed to particular games.

Just a suggestion, though. Me, I’ve found that I start getting pissy and throwing things before I get all that far down the list, so this year I’m probably going to jump around, play stuff that looks fun, and carefully avoid the entries by “Dunric”.
Pacian

Stephen, I would have thought that a comments thread for a post on IFComp would essentially come with its own “People may be discussing IFComp games in here” sticker, but I have no issues with the mods of Mount TIGlympus smiting my comment into oblivion(or editing it) if they (or the community at large) feel that it’s inappropriate.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Eh. :P
http://ifcomp.org/ Stephen

Pacian @ 16: My main concern was over the “may be discussing games” aspect, since there’s no way short of reading through the comments to discover that whoops! the games really are being discussed, and with no ROT13 protection or similar. But it’s not like I’m going to burst a blood vessel over it.