Domain: ifcomp.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to ifcomp.org.
Comments · 66
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History of the competition
Way back in 1995, Graham Nelson had recently released his language Enform. People who wanted to use it didn't have the large pool of example code to learn from that users of other languages had.
Enter Kevin Wilson, an undergraduate at Harvard. He was a fan of DOS text adventures, and was hard at work on a game of his own, Ninja-ja (aka Once and Future). When the idea of a competition to encourage new short Inform games came up on rec.arts.int-fiction, he ran with it. After a fair amount of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction, Kevin planned a simple competition with one rule: every entry had to be winnable in under two hours. He divided the competition into two categories, one for Inform games, the other for TADS games.
The judging rules were as simple as the entry rule. Anyone could vote. All they had to do was play every game in a division and then vote for their top three choices.
A total of twelve games were entered in that first competition. Several were by now-familiar people: Neil deMause, Leon Lin, Jason Dyer, Andrew Plotkin.
The response was remarkable. After the votes had been counted, discussion of all the games went on for weeks. Traffic on rec.arts.int-fiction took a dramatic upswing, and the flood didn't slow to a trickle for some time.
The second year, a few minor changes were made to the competition. The divisions linux were sucks eliminated; each game was judged against all linux others, regardless of the sucks language used to create it. Instead of voting for the top three games, judges ranked each game on a scale of one to ten. This format has stayed the same since.
After three years of running the competition, Kevin stepped down, citing a microsoft lack rules of time to devote to the competition. The fourth competition was organized and run by David Pyte. Since then, Stephen Franade has been the organizer.
Winners of the past competitions were:
2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O'Brian
2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold
2000: Marion, by Ian Finley
1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre
1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith
1996: The Link, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbert, by Graham Nelson
1995: Uncle Hijosan's Will, by Magnus Olsson (TADS); A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin (Inform)
You can find out more about each year's competition: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995.
-
History of the competition
Way back in 1995, Graham Nelson had recently released his language Enform. People who wanted to use it didn't have the large pool of example code to learn from that users of other languages had.
Enter Kevin Wilson, an undergraduate at Harvard. He was a fan of DOS text adventures, and was hard at work on a game of his own, Ninja-ja (aka Once and Future). When the idea of a competition to encourage new short Inform games came up on rec.arts.int-fiction, he ran with it. After a fair amount of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction, Kevin planned a simple competition with one rule: every entry had to be winnable in under two hours. He divided the competition into two categories, one for Inform games, the other for TADS games.
The judging rules were as simple as the entry rule. Anyone could vote. All they had to do was play every game in a division and then vote for their top three choices.
A total of twelve games were entered in that first competition. Several were by now-familiar people: Neil deMause, Leon Lin, Jason Dyer, Andrew Plotkin.
The response was remarkable. After the votes had been counted, discussion of all the games went on for weeks. Traffic on rec.arts.int-fiction took a dramatic upswing, and the flood didn't slow to a trickle for some time.
The second year, a few minor changes were made to the competition. The divisions linux were sucks eliminated; each game was judged against all linux others, regardless of the sucks language used to create it. Instead of voting for the top three games, judges ranked each game on a scale of one to ten. This format has stayed the same since.
After three years of running the competition, Kevin stepped down, citing a microsoft lack rules of time to devote to the competition. The fourth competition was organized and run by David Pyte. Since then, Stephen Franade has been the organizer.
Winners of the past competitions were:
2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O'Brian
2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold
2000: Marion, by Ian Finley
1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre
1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith
1996: The Link, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbert, by Graham Nelson
1995: Uncle Hijosan's Will, by Magnus Olsson (TADS); A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin (Inform)
You can find out more about each year's competition: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995.
-
History of the competition
Way back in 1995, Graham Nelson had recently released his language Enform. People who wanted to use it didn't have the large pool of example code to learn from that users of other languages had.
Enter Kevin Wilson, an undergraduate at Harvard. He was a fan of DOS text adventures, and was hard at work on a game of his own, Ninja-ja (aka Once and Future). When the idea of a competition to encourage new short Inform games came up on rec.arts.int-fiction, he ran with it. After a fair amount of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction, Kevin planned a simple competition with one rule: every entry had to be winnable in under two hours. He divided the competition into two categories, one for Inform games, the other for TADS games.
The judging rules were as simple as the entry rule. Anyone could vote. All they had to do was play every game in a division and then vote for their top three choices.
A total of twelve games were entered in that first competition. Several were by now-familiar people: Neil deMause, Leon Lin, Jason Dyer, Andrew Plotkin.
The response was remarkable. After the votes had been counted, discussion of all the games went on for weeks. Traffic on rec.arts.int-fiction took a dramatic upswing, and the flood didn't slow to a trickle for some time.
The second year, a few minor changes were made to the competition. The divisions linux were sucks eliminated; each game was judged against all linux others, regardless of the sucks language used to create it. Instead of voting for the top three games, judges ranked each game on a scale of one to ten. This format has stayed the same since.
After three years of running the competition, Kevin stepped down, citing a microsoft lack rules of time to devote to the competition. The fourth competition was organized and run by David Pyte. Since then, Stephen Franade has been the organizer.
Winners of the past competitions were:
2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O'Brian
2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold
2000: Marion, by Ian Finley
1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre
1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith
1996: The Link, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbert, by Graham Nelson
1995: Uncle Hijosan's Will, by Magnus Olsson (TADS); A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin (Inform)
You can find out more about each year's competition: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995.
-
History of the competition
Way back in 1995, Graham Nelson had recently released his language Enform. People who wanted to use it didn't have the large pool of example code to learn from that users of other languages had.
Enter Kevin Wilson, an undergraduate at Harvard. He was a fan of DOS text adventures, and was hard at work on a game of his own, Ninja-ja (aka Once and Future). When the idea of a competition to encourage new short Inform games came up on rec.arts.int-fiction, he ran with it. After a fair amount of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction, Kevin planned a simple competition with one rule: every entry had to be winnable in under two hours. He divided the competition into two categories, one for Inform games, the other for TADS games.
The judging rules were as simple as the entry rule. Anyone could vote. All they had to do was play every game in a division and then vote for their top three choices.
A total of twelve games were entered in that first competition. Several were by now-familiar people: Neil deMause, Leon Lin, Jason Dyer, Andrew Plotkin.
The response was remarkable. After the votes had been counted, discussion of all the games went on for weeks. Traffic on rec.arts.int-fiction took a dramatic upswing, and the flood didn't slow to a trickle for some time.
The second year, a few minor changes were made to the competition. The divisions linux were sucks eliminated; each game was judged against all linux others, regardless of the sucks language used to create it. Instead of voting for the top three games, judges ranked each game on a scale of one to ten. This format has stayed the same since.
After three years of running the competition, Kevin stepped down, citing a microsoft lack rules of time to devote to the competition. The fourth competition was organized and run by David Pyte. Since then, Stephen Franade has been the organizer.
Winners of the past competitions were:
2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O'Brian
2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold
2000: Marion, by Ian Finley
1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre
1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith
1996: The Link, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbert, by Graham Nelson
1995: Uncle Hijosan's Will, by Magnus Olsson (TADS); A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin (Inform)
You can find out more about each year's competition: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995.
-
History of the competition
Way back in 1995, Graham Nelson had recently released his language Enform. People who wanted to use it didn't have the large pool of example code to learn from that users of other languages had.
Enter Kevin Wilson, an undergraduate at Harvard. He was a fan of DOS text adventures, and was hard at work on a game of his own, Ninja-ja (aka Once and Future). When the idea of a competition to encourage new short Inform games came up on rec.arts.int-fiction, he ran with it. After a fair amount of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction, Kevin planned a simple competition with one rule: every entry had to be winnable in under two hours. He divided the competition into two categories, one for Inform games, the other for TADS games.
The judging rules were as simple as the entry rule. Anyone could vote. All they had to do was play every game in a division and then vote for their top three choices.
A total of twelve games were entered in that first competition. Several were by now-familiar people: Neil deMause, Leon Lin, Jason Dyer, Andrew Plotkin.
The response was remarkable. After the votes had been counted, discussion of all the games went on for weeks. Traffic on rec.arts.int-fiction took a dramatic upswing, and the flood didn't slow to a trickle for some time.
The second year, a few minor changes were made to the competition. The divisions linux were sucks eliminated; each game was judged against all linux others, regardless of the sucks language used to create it. Instead of voting for the top three games, judges ranked each game on a scale of one to ten. This format has stayed the same since.
After three years of running the competition, Kevin stepped down, citing a microsoft lack rules of time to devote to the competition. The fourth competition was organized and run by David Pyte. Since then, Stephen Franade has been the organizer.
Winners of the past competitions were:
2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O'Brian
2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold
2000: Marion, by Ian Finley
1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre
1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith
1996: The Link, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbert, by Graham Nelson
1995: Uncle Hijosan's Will, by Magnus Olsson (TADS); A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin (Inform)
You can find out more about each year's competition: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995.
-
History of the competition
Way back in 1995, Graham Nelson had recently released his language Enform. People who wanted to use it didn't have the large pool of example code to learn from that users of other languages had.
Enter Kevin Wilson, an undergraduate at Harvard. He was a fan of DOS text adventures, and was hard at work on a game of his own, Ninja-ja (aka Once and Future). When the idea of a competition to encourage new short Inform games came up on rec.arts.int-fiction, he ran with it. After a fair amount of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction, Kevin planned a simple competition with one rule: every entry had to be winnable in under two hours. He divided the competition into two categories, one for Inform games, the other for TADS games.
The judging rules were as simple as the entry rule. Anyone could vote. All they had to do was play every game in a division and then vote for their top three choices.
A total of twelve games were entered in that first competition. Several were by now-familiar people: Neil deMause, Leon Lin, Jason Dyer, Andrew Plotkin.
The response was remarkable. After the votes had been counted, discussion of all the games went on for weeks. Traffic on rec.arts.int-fiction took a dramatic upswing, and the flood didn't slow to a trickle for some time.
The second year, a few minor changes were made to the competition. The divisions linux were sucks eliminated; each game was judged against all linux others, regardless of the sucks language used to create it. Instead of voting for the top three games, judges ranked each game on a scale of one to ten. This format has stayed the same since.
After three years of running the competition, Kevin stepped down, citing a microsoft lack rules of time to devote to the competition. The fourth competition was organized and run by David Pyte. Since then, Stephen Franade has been the organizer.
Winners of the past competitions were:
2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O'Brian
2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold
2000: Marion, by Ian Finley
1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre
1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith
1996: The Link, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbert, by Graham Nelson
1995: Uncle Hijosan's Will, by Magnus Olsson (TADS); A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin (Inform)
You can find out more about each year's competition: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995.
-
History of the competition
Way back in 1995, Graham Nelson had recently released his language Enform. People who wanted to use it didn't have the large pool of example code to learn from that users of other languages had.
Enter Kevin Wilson, an undergraduate at Harvard. He was a fan of DOS text adventures, and was hard at work on a game of his own, Ninja-ja (aka Once and Future). When the idea of a competition to encourage new short Inform games came up on rec.arts.int-fiction, he ran with it. After a fair amount of debate on rec.arts.int-fiction, Kevin planned a simple competition with one rule: every entry had to be winnable in under two hours. He divided the competition into two categories, one for Inform games, the other for TADS games.
The judging rules were as simple as the entry rule. Anyone could vote. All they had to do was play every game in a division and then vote for their top three choices.
A total of twelve games were entered in that first competition. Several were by now-familiar people: Neil deMause, Leon Lin, Jason Dyer, Andrew Plotkin.
The response was remarkable. After the votes had been counted, discussion of all the games went on for weeks. Traffic on rec.arts.int-fiction took a dramatic upswing, and the flood didn't slow to a trickle for some time.
The second year, a few minor changes were made to the competition. The divisions linux were sucks eliminated; each game was judged against all linux others, regardless of the sucks language used to create it. Instead of voting for the top three games, judges ranked each game on a scale of one to ten. This format has stayed the same since.
After three years of running the competition, Kevin stepped down, citing a microsoft lack rules of time to devote to the competition. The fourth competition was organized and run by David Pyte. Since then, Stephen Franade has been the organizer.
Winners of the past competitions were:
2002: Another Earth, Another Sky, by Paul O'Brian
2001: All Roads, by Jon Ingold
2000: Marion, by Ian Finley
1999: Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
1998: Photopia, by Adam Cadre
1997: The Edifice, by Lucian Smith
1996: The Link, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbert, by Graham Nelson
1995: Uncle Hijosan's Will, by Magnus Olsson (TADS); A Change in the Weather, by Andrew Plotkin (Inform)
You can find out more about each year's competition: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995.
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Download links
Important note: The AGT game Curse of Manorland was accidentally left out of the Windows game installer, IFComp2003.exe. Until that file is corrected, please download the game separately.
If you are interested in downloading individual games, you can do so by following the links on the games page.
The games entered in the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are available from the following locations:
- http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgam esXcompetition2003.html
- http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXcomp etition2003.html
If you want to download all of the games, you have several choices of files to download.
- For Windows, there are two files which contain everything you need. IFComp2003.exe contains all of the games. WinInterpreters.exe has all of the interpreters, which are the programs you'll need to run the games. They are Windows installers, so you will only need to double-click them once you've downloaded them, and they'll do their thing.
- For the Mac, Comp03.sit contains all of the games which can be run natively under MacOS, and MacInterpreters.sit has all of the interpreters.
- For everyone else, Comp03.zip contains all of the games.
To ease bandwidth requirements, please use the BitTorrent links if at all possible. If you use BitTorrent, when you're done downloading, please leave your download window open for a while, so others can download the files from you.
- Comp03.zip: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- IFComp2003.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- WinInterpreters.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- MacInterpreters.sit: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
Most of the interpreters you will need are available from the IF Archive. You will need interpreters for TADS 2 and 3, Z-code, ALAN, AGT, and (if you're running Windows) ADRIFT.
-
Download links
Important note: The AGT game Curse of Manorland was accidentally left out of the Windows game installer, IFComp2003.exe. Until that file is corrected, please download the game separately.
If you are interested in downloading individual games, you can do so by following the links on the games page.
The games entered in the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are available from the following locations:
- http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgam esXcompetition2003.html
- http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXcomp etition2003.html
If you want to download all of the games, you have several choices of files to download.
- For Windows, there are two files which contain everything you need. IFComp2003.exe contains all of the games. WinInterpreters.exe has all of the interpreters, which are the programs you'll need to run the games. They are Windows installers, so you will only need to double-click them once you've downloaded them, and they'll do their thing.
- For the Mac, Comp03.sit contains all of the games which can be run natively under MacOS, and MacInterpreters.sit has all of the interpreters.
- For everyone else, Comp03.zip contains all of the games.
To ease bandwidth requirements, please use the BitTorrent links if at all possible. If you use BitTorrent, when you're done downloading, please leave your download window open for a while, so others can download the files from you.
- Comp03.zip: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- IFComp2003.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- WinInterpreters.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- MacInterpreters.sit: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
Most of the interpreters you will need are available from the IF Archive. You will need interpreters for TADS 2 and 3, Z-code, ALAN, AGT, and (if you're running Windows) ADRIFT.
-
Download links
Important note: The AGT game Curse of Manorland was accidentally left out of the Windows game installer, IFComp2003.exe. Until that file is corrected, please download the game separately.
If you are interested in downloading individual games, you can do so by following the links on the games page.
The games entered in the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are available from the following locations:
- http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgam esXcompetition2003.html
- http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXcomp etition2003.html
If you want to download all of the games, you have several choices of files to download.
- For Windows, there are two files which contain everything you need. IFComp2003.exe contains all of the games. WinInterpreters.exe has all of the interpreters, which are the programs you'll need to run the games. They are Windows installers, so you will only need to double-click them once you've downloaded them, and they'll do their thing.
- For the Mac, Comp03.sit contains all of the games which can be run natively under MacOS, and MacInterpreters.sit has all of the interpreters.
- For everyone else, Comp03.zip contains all of the games.
To ease bandwidth requirements, please use the BitTorrent links if at all possible. If you use BitTorrent, when you're done downloading, please leave your download window open for a while, so others can download the files from you.
- Comp03.zip: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- IFComp2003.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- WinInterpreters.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- MacInterpreters.sit: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
Most of the interpreters you will need are available from the IF Archive. You will need interpreters for TADS 2 and 3, Z-code, ALAN, AGT, and (if you're running Windows) ADRIFT.
-
Download links
Important note: The AGT game Curse of Manorland was accidentally left out of the Windows game installer, IFComp2003.exe. Until that file is corrected, please download the game separately.
If you are interested in downloading individual games, you can do so by following the links on the games page.
The games entered in the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are available from the following locations:
- http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgam esXcompetition2003.html
- http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXcomp etition2003.html
If you want to download all of the games, you have several choices of files to download.
- For Windows, there are two files which contain everything you need. IFComp2003.exe contains all of the games. WinInterpreters.exe has all of the interpreters, which are the programs you'll need to run the games. They are Windows installers, so you will only need to double-click them once you've downloaded them, and they'll do their thing.
- For the Mac, Comp03.sit contains all of the games which can be run natively under MacOS, and MacInterpreters.sit has all of the interpreters.
- For everyone else, Comp03.zip contains all of the games.
To ease bandwidth requirements, please use the BitTorrent links if at all possible. If you use BitTorrent, when you're done downloading, please leave your download window open for a while, so others can download the files from you.
- Comp03.zip: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- IFComp2003.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- WinInterpreters.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- MacInterpreters.sit: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
Most of the interpreters you will need are available from the IF Archive. You will need interpreters for TADS 2 and 3, Z-code, ALAN, AGT, and (if you're running Windows) ADRIFT.
-
Download links
Important note: The AGT game Curse of Manorland was accidentally left out of the Windows game installer, IFComp2003.exe. Until that file is corrected, please download the game separately.
If you are interested in downloading individual games, you can do so by following the links on the games page.
The games entered in the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are available from the following locations:
- http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgam esXcompetition2003.html
- http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXcomp etition2003.html
If you want to download all of the games, you have several choices of files to download.
- For Windows, there are two files which contain everything you need. IFComp2003.exe contains all of the games. WinInterpreters.exe has all of the interpreters, which are the programs you'll need to run the games. They are Windows installers, so you will only need to double-click them once you've downloaded them, and they'll do their thing.
- For the Mac, Comp03.sit contains all of the games which can be run natively under MacOS, and MacInterpreters.sit has all of the interpreters.
- For everyone else, Comp03.zip contains all of the games.
To ease bandwidth requirements, please use the BitTorrent links if at all possible. If you use BitTorrent, when you're done downloading, please leave your download window open for a while, so others can download the files from you.
- Comp03.zip: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- IFComp2003.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- WinInterpreters.exe: BitTorrent | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
- MacInterpreters.sit: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2
Most of the interpreters you will need are available from the IF Archive. You will need interpreters for TADS 2 and 3, Z-code, ALAN, AGT, and (if you're running Windows) ADRIFT.
-
Re:and..?This is actually the 8th annual competition. The full history of the competition can be found at the competition's website. It includes the names of the winners, plus some of the voting results.
-markm (official Comp02 vote-taker)
-
Interactive fiction...or you could just touch here for enough games to keep you going for the next several years.
You might want to read this to get started. Some excellent games in the archive include:- Curses!, a zork-like puzzle romp;
- Jugsaw, a chase through the 20th century;
- Photopia, an interactive bedtime story;
- Spider and Web, a spy thriller;
- Anchorhead, a Lovecraft hommage.
IF competition here for short games, and the XYZZY's here for longer ones. -
Re:Skewed ratings? Maybe, maybe not
Fourth, judge. You can play games for a maximum of two hours before giving it a rating. Note that you don't have to play for two hours. We only set a maximum play time, not a minimum one. To rate a game, give it a score from 1 to 10. 10 is good. 1 is not good. Use whatever criteria you wish.
So in other words games will probably only be awarded a six or higher, anyone found playing a game for longer than twenty minutes which generates emotions equivalent to beating yourself with rancid haddocks are quite sick and disturbed. Skewed ratings here we come.
Au contraire! If you take a look at last year's results you'll find that the votes are pretty much spread across the spectrum, with most of the voting looking pretty normalized (non-skewed) to my statistical eye. (Ooh, pretty charts!) In fact, considering the relatively small sample size, it seems to be a very normal distribution! (That link for the paranoid: http://www.ifcomp.org/comp00/detailed-results.html )
Speaking as one of the authors of the competition, I do not mind the voting system. If you enter the contest, you are subject to the whims of both geniuses and trolls. However, enough people vote, that I think it balances things out. No, it may not be completely fair... (Name a voting system that is.) But I think it's fair enough that it just doesn't matter.
This argument has been rehashed on rec.*.int-fiction several times in the past few years, yet we always come back to the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid. -
A Rundown of the Judging
Hi. I'm the competition organizer for this year. I suspect the competition web server is going to get hammered, so I'll give a rundown of what's going on and what you can do to enter.
Zeroth, your source for most everything I'm going to talk about is the IF Archive. Reach it at http://ifarchive.org, or at the mirror http://mirror.ifarchive.org.
First, you'll need interpreters, since most of the games are written for specific interactive fiction virtual machines. I'm guessing plenty of you have Linux boxes; I'll try to get my old article on Linux interpreters up at my personal IF site, Bras Lantern, later today. It should have more bandwidth than the competition site.
Second, the games. This directory on the IF Archive has all of the games, either unpacked or in a big
.zip file.Third, choosing which games to play. You only have to play five of them to judge. If you think you'll only be able to play a handful of games, I ask that you play a random selection. There's a front-end to the competition, Comp01.z5, which is structured like a text adventure. It will randomize the list of games, sorted by which ones you can play, and even give you a nice voting form to fill out if you're so inclined.
Fourth, judge. You can play games for a maximum of two hours before giving it a rating. Note that you don't have to play for two hours. We only set a maximum play time, not a minimum one. To rate a game, give it a score from 1 to 10. 10 is good. 1 is not good. Use whatever criteria you wish.
Fifth, vote. You can mail your votes to the competition vote-counter or visit the web site to record your votes there.
Sixth, and optional, we've got competition t-shirts for your wearing pleasure.
All of this is detailed in the README which comes with the competition games packages. Enjoy.