...and welcome to the 24th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition!
I'm pleased to say that last year was not an anomaly — the competition once again has nearly 80 entries. To you completists out there (and you know who you are), better get crackin'! In all seriousness, we know that having so many games was actually a tad overwhelming for some folks last year. To make it less overwhelming this year, we've included some more meta-data: in addition to estimated playtime and content-warnings, we've asked authors to define their entry's genre and what type of game they've created (choice, parser, or 'other'). The hope is that this will help you focus your efforts on games that fit your available schedule and mood when you sit down to play.
A reminder: You really are only required to play five games. Like, seriously — just five. More than five is excellent, but if everyone who knew about the comp played five games, focusing on the types of games they generally enjoy, we're pretty sure that all authors would receive scores and feedback in sufficient quantity.
So this year, a new request: There's one more way that we can all collectively ensure that every game gets some attention and feedback, even if not all of us play all of the games — encourage others to be judges. Stress that they only have to play five games, and that they get to pick which kind of games they play. Please encourage all the game-lovers in your life to consider judging this year, even if they aren't "into IF".
On a final note: We'd like to dedicate this year's competition to the memory of Stu Galley, who passed away in August. Along with a few of his colleagues from the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, Galley was part of starting up a software company called Infocom. As recently noted by Gamasutra, Galley was the driving force behind Moonmist, Seastalker, and The Witness. Thank you, Stu, for your work.
And thanks to everyone who made this year's competition possible.
Jacqueline Ashwell,October 2018
A complete summary of all this year’s competition entries, including each game’s cover art, blurb, and author information, is available on the ifcomp.org website. We encourage you to visit this page to get a full overview of the directory you’ve downloaded.
You can also read an offline “cover sheet” with an alphabetized index of all this year's games, including their author-supplied cover art and blurbs.
If you’re reading this on or before November 15, 2018, then that page will contain all the links and information you need to join the IFComp as a judge – and we hope that you do! As stated above, judging the IFComp simply means playing and rating at least five entries by November 15. Anyone can rate these games, and more judges make a better comp.
After that date, the above link will take you to IFComp 2018’s permanent results page. From there, you will still have the opportunity to rate and critique these games on the IFDB, which houses community-reviewed entries for all the IFComp games going all the way back to 1995 (as well as every other IF work of note ever written).
If you’re playing these games on or before November 15, 2018 with the intent to rate them as a judge – well, first of all, excellent! We’re sincerely glad to have your help.
Please take a moment to read the rules for judges before digging in. You may also wish to read the FAQ and the judging guidelines. We ask especially that you keep in mind that your ratings must reflect only your experiences of the the first two hours of play (at most).
When you’re ready to vote, head on back to the online ballot and use the controls found there to enter your ratings before 11:59 PM Eastern time on November 15. You can revisit that page as often as you need to, right up until the deadline. So long as you submit ratings for at least five games, we will count (and very much appreciate) your contribution.
Join the conversation about the competition and its entries in the IF forums. You can trade hints, share your thoughts about the games, and read other folks’ reviews.
Of course, we also encourage you to discuss the games on social media, blogs, or wherever else you’d like. If you have a website where you plan to write reviews, consider adding it to the Planet IF news aggregator so that more of your fellow interactive fiction fans can follow along!
The official Twitter hashtag for IFcomp is, as always, #IFComp.
As the competition progresses, we’ll post pertinent links and other news and updates to both the official IFComp twitter account and our own blog.
Finally, if you need to contact the organizer for any reason, feel free to email ifcomp@ifcomp.org, or send a direct message to @IFComp on Twitter.
So who helped make all of this happen in this, the twenty-fourth year of the competition?
Jacqueline Ashwell served as your humble organizer with assistance from former-organizer-and-still-tech-lead Jason McIntosh.
Reprising their volunteer roles from previous years, curator Line Hollis vetted each of the four-score-and-more entries before judging started, and vote counter Carolyn VanEseltine will run the numbers afterwards and assist the organizer with feedback distribution.
Thomas Mack joined the IFComp team this year as prize coordinator.
The IFComp web application was maintained and extended by Jason McIntosh.
Special thanks to IFTF's IFComp advisory committee and, of course, to all authors, judges, prize-donors, reviewers, and other participants of the Annual Interactive Fiction Competition.