Category: Competitions

IF Comp 2015: Cape (Bruno Dias)

The 21st annual Interactive Fiction Competition is currently on, through mid-November. Voting is open to the general public; the only prerequisite is that you not be an author, not vote on games that you tested, and submit votes on at least five games. (You emphatically do not have to have played them all! In a year with 55 entrants, it is very unlikely that most judges will get through anywhere near all of them.)

Cape is an Undum game by Bruno Dias, concerning the origins of a superhero in a dystopia with strong divisions between the rich and poor. (Play online.)

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IF Comp 2015: Much Love, BJP (Megan Stevens)

The 21st annual Interactive Fiction Competition is currently on, through mid-November. Voting is open to the general public; the only prerequisite is that you not be an author, not vote on games that you tested, and submit votes on at least five games. (You emphatically do not have to have played them all! In a year with 55 entrants, it is very unlikely that most judges will get through anywhere near all of them.)

Much Love, BJP is a short, photo-illustrated Twine piece about the fictional life of a war correspondent. It takes only about ten minutes to read completely, and contains minimal branching.

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IF Comp 2015: Paradise (Devine Lu Linvega)

The 21st annual Interactive Fiction Competition is currently on, through mid-November. Voting is open to the general public; the only prerequisite is that you not be an author, not vote on games that you tested, and submit votes on at least five games. (You emphatically do not have to have played them all! In a year with 55 entrants, it is very unlikely that most judges will get through anywhere near all of them.)

100Paradise describes itself in its comp blurb as a procedural interactive fiction and multiplayer novel. Neither of those are terms I would use to describe it: there’s not much you’d call plot progression. And when I hear “procedural interactive fiction” I usually assume that there’s going to be some text generation or some procedural narrative structuring or some AI-driven characters or something along those lines. What’s here, I’d be inclined more to call something like “a platform for collaborative textual landscapes”.

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IF Comp 2015: Summit (Phantom Williams)

The 21st annual Interactive Fiction Competition is currently on, through mid-November. Voting is open to the general public; the only prerequisite is that you not be an author, not vote on games that you tested, and submit votes on at least five games. (You emphatically do not have to have played them all! In a year with 55 entrants, it is very unlikely that most judges will get through anywhere near all of them.)

Summit is a mid-length, multi-stranded Twine game with visual effects and a soundtrack. (If you play, I strongly recommend making sure that you’re in a position to play with the sound on — it really is not the same experience without.) It tells a surreal fantasy parable in a world rather reminiscent of Porpentine’s work.

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IF Comp 2015: Unbeknown (A. DeNiro)

The 21st annual Interactive Fiction Competition is currently on, through mid-November. Voting is open to the general public; the only prerequisite is that you not be an author, not vote on games that you tested, and submit votes on at least five games. (You emphatically do not have to have played them all! In a year with 55 entrants, it is very unlikely that most judges will get through anywhere near all of them.)

Unbeknown is a short Twine work of speculative fiction by A. DeNiro.

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IF Comp 2015: Two Short Parser Puzzle Games

The 21st annual Interactive Fiction Competition is currently on, through mid-November. Voting is open to the general public; the only prerequisite is that you not be an author, not vote on games that you tested, and submit votes on at least five games. (You emphatically do not have to have played them all! In a year with 55 entrants, it is very unlikely that most judges will get through anywhere near all of them.)

So this year I’m only reviewing comp games that I can basically recommend. If this makes you sad because you enjoy reading reviews where I did not like something, you might instead enjoy my reviews of Tender Loving Care or Lifeline 2, which have the benefit of being commercial games that can fend for themselves.

Hereafter, thoughts on Untold Riches and Grandma Bethlinda’s Variety Box.

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