The Stack

OK! Let’s do this! First game on my randomized list! Spoilers follow the break.
Read more »

The judging period of the annual Interactive Fiction Competition has just started, and unless you’re an entrant, you are eligible to judge. Even if you don’t want to do that, you are welcome to just play the games. There are 58 this year, and people are already saying it’s an unusually good assortment, with a mix of established authors and newcomers in a wide variety of forms and styles.

It’s been a few years now since I’ve tried to blog the Comp. I feel like I’ve kind of fallen out of the IF world — apart from Hadean Lands, I’ve played precious little lately, and written less. But IF is my home. It’s where I come from. And it’s about time I visited, if only for a little while.

One thing: This time around, I don’t intend to blog about every single entry. Partly because there are 58 games to get through, and partly because I’m reconsidering whether the negative reviews are actually a force for good or not, but mainly because I still don’t feel like I have enough of a handle on most choice-based stuff to discuss it intelligently. But we’ll see how it goes.