Interactive Fiction Competitions

Since interactive fiction (IF) is a very niche interest, and far fewer people actually write games than play them, there are several competitions held during the year that encourage the production of new games for the community to enjoy. Without the competitions, a few people might still produce games for the love of writing them, but many gems would never have been produced.

There are four annual competitions that have been run for several years now, and other, smaller ones that are run occasionally, or when someone decides that another competition is appropriate. The most popular and longest-running of all the IF competitions is the aptly titled Interactive Fiction Competition, or IFComp, which has been held for the last twelve years, most recently completed in 2006.

The IFComp usually receives about 30 to 40 games of varying levels of quality each year, which are then judged by anyone who has played a minimum number of them. The games are written to fit within a reasonably short two-hour playing time limit, which encourages writers to actually finish their pieces. Various people donate prizes that the winners can choose, including money, games, books, and clothing. There are usually enough prizes that about half of the entrants receive something at least. Judging occurs during the six weeks of October and the first half of November, so some people work on their entries all summer to have them ready.

While the IFComp is a fall competition, the Spring Thing is of course a spring competition. Not as consistently held or entered as the IFComp, the Spring Thing gathers intents to enter by March in order to have the judging held during April. Usually there are about three or four games entered, with a maximum so far of six (2005).

There are two factors that generally limit the number of games entered in the Spring Thing. One factor is the lack of a length or time limit on entries. This tends to encourage longer games than those entered in the IFComp. Also, there is a $7 entry fee to discourage bad or substandard games. The quality level of Spring Thing games tends to be much higher than those in the IFComp for that reason. Due to the low number of games and the mandatory entry fee which goes mostly toward prize money, every entrant in the Spring Thing generally receives some prize.

IntroComp is a competition which has been held for the last five years with the intent of inspiring writers to begin a game which will then be finished later. Games are judged on how much they make the judges want to play the full game once it is released. The competition theoretically offers prizes, but only to those entrants who finish their games within a year of submitting their introduction. Out of all forty entries received in the last five years, this has only happened once, however.

Another competition which was held yearly during 2000-2004 but was only revived after that for this year, 2007, is the IF Art Show. This competition generally has no prizes and only a few entrants because the goal is to produce something that is more a piece of art than a game. Categories are taken from standard art terminology such as landscape, still life, etc. Plot is still possible, but takes a backseat to atmosphere and description.

Finally, there are more sporadic competitions such as the Minicomp, which encompasses a number of small competitions held over the last several years on various themes, including dragons, cheese, and romance novels. Many of the minicomps garner only minimal interest and draw only a few entries at best, although there are notable exceptions like the ToasterComp of 2000, which had twelve entries. Most minicomp games are very short, designed to explore just one small theme or idea.

For details on every different competition that has been held in the past twelve years or so, including their entrants and results, check out the IFWiki.

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