2003 IFComp Award Winners Announced

An anonymous reader writes "The 9th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition has now announced its winners - the start of the judging was previously covered on Slashdot." There are a number of sites with reviews of the competing text adventures, which are all freely downloadable, and winner 'Slouching Towards Bedlam' ("a game of multiple paths... set in a steampunk universe with Lovecraftian overtones"), and runner-up 'Risorgimento Represso' ("on a par with most Infocom games, and exceeds them at many points", but paradoxically too long to be played through within the 2-hour judging period), both get plenty of kudos from judges.

Comments

no time limit

[LeninZhiv]

although paradoxically too long to be played within the 2-hour judging period

It's not actually a requirement that the game be playable within two hours; the rule is that the judges only will play the game for two hours before scoring it, whether they've completed it or not. (And now that the comp's over, it's so much the better to have two such high-quality games that go above and beyond in terms of length.)

Congrats to the winners.

Re:Why not use Z-Code / TADS?

[lightspawn]

I don't understand why anyone would enter a Windows-only (or other proprietary formatted) game.

Because some authors are familiar with a certain programming environment, and lack the time / skill to learn a new one?

As an extreme example, a couple of games over the years were submitted in HTML (+Javascript).

I'm not saying it's the best way to go about it, just offering a motive.

Besides, it's enough if only half the judges (or less) play your game, since the results are based on average scores, not popularity.

And in fact, some judges may enjoy trying out new engines. Yes, so far none of them even came close to Inform or TADS, but one day they may face competition.

Slouching Towards Bedlam

[vsync64]

I started playing "Slouching Towards Bedlam" yesterday evening and I'm quite impressed. The way it handles computer interfaces is quite innovative although it might fall a tiny bit short of realistic.

So far I'm intrigued enough by the concept to try to beat the puzzle(s); other works of IF often seem far too contrived. My only annoyance is that some idiot posted a spoiler of what I'm guessing will be a major plot point on r.g.i-f with no warning. I've declared a personal moratorium on reading anything related to games I haven't played to my satisfaction yet.