Even though it’s still freezing here, spring has arrived in other parts of the world, and with it, the 2019 edition of Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction (there’s a mouthful for ya) – a celebration of interactive fiction. Text adventures, as depicted above, from this entry, is just one of many forms these can take. There are also those in which players simply click through a series of choices rather than, you know, input commands. Good stuff.
That said, the time for new entries is long over, and now it’s time to play the no less than twenty submissions. Once that’s done with, why not nominate one or more, either for a Best In Show ribbon, or the ‘custom’ (as in, ‘make up your own ribbon and give them to games’) Audience Awards? Just be sure to play at least two prior to making your picks and get your nominations in before 11:59 PM EST on May 6th, 2019.
Much as I do absolutely love Twine, it is quite pleasing to see at least one entry use Ink and Ren’Py this year. Ah, how I wish more would use those for interactive fiction, the latter mostly utilized for the creation of visual novels and the former… well, it’s a seriously underappreciated language for writing interactive fiction, really.
Note: While all are eligible for Audience Awards, those not listed in Best In Show are not eligible for such a ribbon. Confusing, sure, but I don’t make the rules, I just reiterate them as clearly as humanly possible.
(Thanks to Emily Short’s Interactive Storytelling for the heads up.)
Best In Show
- Among the Seasons, by Kieran Green – Twine
- Bullhockey 2: The Return of the Leather Whip, by B F Lindsay – Inform/Glulx
- Darkness, by Jeff Schomay – Elm Narrative Engine
- Dashiell Hamlett: The Blue Dane Meets the Black Bird, by Tony Pisculli – Ink
- The Devil and the Mayor, by Jonathan Laury – Twine
- Do I Date?, by Aurora Kakizaki – Ren’Py
- The Empty Chamber – A Celia Swift Mystery, by Tom Sykes – Inform/Glulx
- Escape!, by Marnix van den Bos – XVAN
- Founder’s Mercy, by Thomas Insel – Inform/Glulx
- I Will Be Your Eyes And Hands, by Cam Miller – Twine
- The Missing Ring, by Felicity Drake – Twine
- Our Darkest Thoughts, by Jesse Villa – Twine
- Porter Cave Adventure, by Cam Miller – Inform/Z
- Quiet, by Martyna “Lisza” Wasiluk – Twine
- San Francisco, 2118, by Leah Case – Twine
- WE R THE WORLD, by Dan Hoy & Mike Kleine – Twine
- Writing Program Five, by Dan Cox – Twine
Audience Awards
- 69105 More Keys, by Andrew Schultz – Inform/Z
- The Ballroom, by Liza Daly – Windrift
- a short walk in the spring, by Amorphous – Twine
