ifcomp

[ifcomp]

IFComp Seeking an Artist for the 2025 Logo

We are looking for art for this year’s IFComp logo! We will pay a $250 commission.

Artists should express interest by sending us a link to their past work/portfolio via email: ifcomp@ifcomp.org by June 30 (incl.); the artist will be selected by the end of July.

More info:

We will request one rough draft for review / edit before the final logo is produced.

We must have the final art in hand by August 25th.

We will need three versions of the logo: one with no text, one that says ‘IFComp’, and one that says ‘IFComp 2025’.

The final image file will be created or scanned at 3600 x 3600 px, and the design should still be clearly legible when reduced for display at 250 x 250 px for the web.

If you incorporate a person (optional) we ask that you make the person’s gender ambiguous.

We ask that you integrate the IFTF logo into the art in some way.

The IFComp logo should imply / be inspired by the many genres of games people make.

We will also request an invoice from the artist that the includes the following terms:

The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation has the right to use the image in whole or in part, in world-wide publishing, print, or on any merchandise for an unlimited time. The artists reserves the right to use or edit the work to be used in their portfolio. The artist will be paid $250 US dollars, sent by PayPal or Venmo, upon receipt of final image file. IFComp will cover currency conversion fees charged by PayPal.

If you are an artist thinking about making something for this year's competition (e.g. cover art or a game), the logo may not be or have an obvious reference to an entry submitted this year. We are still open to artists participating in any way, whether it be submitting a game or doing art for an author, in this year's competition.

Here are the last few years’ logos, just to give you an idea of what we’re looking for…

Please feel free to share this info far and wide - and with any great artists you know! The artist does not have to be part of the interactive fiction community.

[ifcomp]

2024 IFComp Results & Survey

The results of the 2024 Interactive Fiction Competition are now live on the IFComp Website!

If you missed the livestream, it will be available over the coming days on Twitch and will be permanently archived over on YouTube shortly.

Of course, we are already planning for the ‘25 Comp. Please provide your feedback on what went well, what could have gone better, what we should do more of, and what we should consider changing or leaving behind, by filling the Post-Competition Survey:

We are so grateful to everyone who helped make this year’s comp happen.  Thank you!

[ifcomp]

Award Ceremony Tonight!

Greetings, Authors & Judges!

The end of the 2023 Interactive Fiction Competition is nearly upon us! We will announce the top 20 results via live stream at 4:00 PM Eastern on Today! Saturday, October 19th.

The stream will be held on Twitch. To confirm what time the awards stream will be for you in your time zone, visit this website.

Hope to see you there!

[ifcomp]

Welcome to the 30th Annual IFComp!

2024 IFComp Logo, by Lauren Davies

We’re glad you’re here. If this is your first time joining us, welcome! If you’re already familiar with us, welcome back! Either way, we hope you have a great time and enjoy exploring some of the over sixty new games we have for you this year.

What's next? 

Check out the games, now live at ifcomp.org 

You have until October 15, 2023 at 11:59pm Eastern to vote. 

You only have to play & rate 5 games to be a judge! (Yep, just five!)

We would love to expand the number of judges! You can help!

Talk about the competition on social media, and encourage others to check out all these new games. Consider playing with a friend or family member who is new to interactive fiction, talk about the games together, and encourage them to vote as well. Thanks! 

We will do a post-competition survey to capture your ideas for improving the competition in the future, so if you have thoughts about improvements, please watch for the survey in October.

Email us at ifcomp@ifcomp.org if you have any questions.

Thank you in advance for judging!

—Jacqueline Ashwell, September 2024

[ifcomp]

Follow us on Mastodon!

What's that, towering over the lofty pines? It's a Mastodon! Climb on its back and be guided through the forests of IFComp. And don't pay any mind to the sabertooth lolcats, they're harmless.

IFComp is also on Twitter.

[ifcomp]

2024 Approach on the Use of GAI

In past Interactive Fiction Competitions, we have seen the use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) to create cover art and other assets for games, and we took the approach of contacting authors to ask them to credit the site that they had used to generate the art. 

This year, we are asking authors to check one or more of these boxes on their entry form:

Artificial intelligence: ▢ Was used to generate my game’s cover art ▢ Was used to generate art, music, or other non-text assets used in my game ▢ Was used to generate text used in this game (use of spell check/autocomplete excluded)  ▢ Was not used to generate cover art, in-game assets, or text used in my game

This information will be shared with judges, so they can make an informed choice during the voting period.

Note that Judge’s Rule #7 still applies:

Judges must make a good-faith effort to play, as intended, every game that they submit ratings for. Conversely, a judge who did not or could not make a good-faith effort to play a certain game must not submit a rating for that game. The competition organizers reserve the right to disqualify any ratings that appear to have been submitted under any other circumstances.

GAI platforms used to generate cover art, in-game assets, or in-game text must be credited within the game. As always, we will welcome feedback after this year’s competition in our annual post-competition survey, which will be shared at the awards ceremony, in our news blog, and over various social media.

[ifcomp]

The 2024 Colossal Fundraiser has begun!

Hello, friends. We are just under a month out from this year’s IFComp games being released. SO EXCITING!! (Unless you’re an author who is furiously testing and revising and recompiling and testing and revising and recompiling and… yeah. Good luck, authors!)

While we eagerly await the new games to come, we’d like to ask for your help with the Colossal Fund. If you already know about the fund and are able to contribute, please go to ifcomp.org and hit the blue “Donate with PayPal” button.

If you’d like more information first, keep on reading…

The Colossal Fund raises money for the cash prizes that are awarded to the top two-thirds of IFComp entries. We use 80% of the funds for that, and the remaining funds are used to provide support for the programs and projects of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, including the Interactive Fiction Competition, the IF Archive, the IFDB, the forums at intfiction.org, and other projects.

This year, as in prior years, we are shooting for $10K.

We’re now accepting donations for 2024! The donation button is live at IFComp.org. See your name listed on our donor page (or listed as “anonymous” if you prefer)! Our fundraising deadline is October 15th - the last day of competition voting. 80% of the proceeds ($8K+ if we hit our goal) will be distributed among the top two-thirds of IFComp finishers. 

What does this mean for authors? Because we’re dividing the money among the top two-thirds of games, the exact numbers depend on how many entries there are. If we have 75 entries, then we will divide the money among the top 50. If we have $10K, that would mean that the winner of the competition will be offered a prize of $451, second place will be offered $433, third prize $416… and so on and so forth until 50th place, which will be offered $10.  Our goal is to distribute prizes across a broad range of IF styles and ideas. Any game which does even moderately well is offered a decent prize.

How do I donate? Please go to https://ifcomp.org and push the big blue Donate button.

Is my donation tax-deductible? Yes, to the extent allowed by law. (Consult a tax professional.)

Does the Colossal Fund replace the usual IFComp prize list? Nope! These cash prizes will be in addition to the usual IFComp prize list. We do need more of those non-cash prizes as well! Please visit our prize page to see what objects and services others have donated, get ideas from donations given in previous years, and see how you can contribute.

How will the cash prizes be distributed? Via PayPal or Venmo. (The IFComp entry form has a field for your Paypal address.) If you can’t accept PayPal or Venmo, we can mail a US check to a US address. If that doesn’t work for you, or if you wish to decline the cash prize, we will roll the money into next year’s prize fund, which means it will continue to support authors and IFTF programs.

[ifcomp]

IFComp 2024 Now Accepting Prizes

Prizes are an important part of the IFComp. Since 1998, the Interactive Fiction Competition has every year distributed a variety of prizes to the authors of games that score well in the annual rankings. These prizes come from the IF community, and vary in shape, from cash to books to food to professional services.

If you would like to donate a prize for this year’s competition, you can email us at prizes@ifcomp.org — no prize is too humble or too grand.

Check out for more information on how to donate prizes, whether it be simple tokens or practical presents:

Need some ideas for prizes? Here's a list of previously awarded prizes. Or, if you would prefer to donate money, check out our Colossal Fund!

[ifcomp]

IFComp Seeking an Artist for the 2024 Logo

We are looking for art for this year’s IFComp logo! We will pay a $250 commission.

Artists should express interest by sending us a link to their past work/portfolio via email: ifcomp@ifcomp.org by July 15; the artist will be selected by the end of July.

More info:

We will request one rough draft for review / edit before the final logo is produced.

We must have the final art in hand by August 25th.

We will need three versions of the logo: one with no text, one that says ‘IFComp’, and one that says ‘IFComp 2024’.

The final image file will be created or scanned at 3600 x 3600 px, and the design should still be clearly legible when reduced for display at 250 x 250 px for the web.

If you incorporate a person (optional) we ask that you make the person’s gender ambiguous.

We ask that you integrate the IFTF logo into the art in some way.

The IFComp logo should imply / be inspired by the many genres of games people make.

We will also request an invoice from the artist that the includes the following terms:

The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation has the right to use the image in whole or in part, in world-wide publishing, print, or on any merchandise for an unlimited time. The artists reserves the right to use or edit the work to be used in their portfolio. The artist will be paid $250 US dollars, sent by PayPal or Venmo, upon receipt of final image file. IFComp will cover currency conversion fees charged by PayPal.

If you are an artist thinking about making something for this year's competition (e.g. cover art or a game), the logo may not be or have an obvious reference to an entry submitted this year. We are still open to artists participating in any way, whether it be submitting a game or doing art for an author, in this year's competition.

Here are the last few years’ logos, just to give you an idea of what we’re looking for…

Please feel free to share this info far and wide - and with any great artists you know! The artist does not have to be part of the interactive fiction community.

[ifcomp]

IFComp 2024 Now Accepting Intents & Entries

Hello, everyone, and happy (slightly belated) start of July! With a new July comes a new season of the Interactive Fiction Competition!

From now through August 1st, 11:59pm Eastern (23:59 EST), the IF Comp website will be open for authors to declare their intent to enter this year’s competition!

Final entries are due on August 28th, 11:59pm Eastern, but you must register by August 1st! That’s right… everything is one month earlier this year!

If you miss it, there’s always 2025… If you register and then can’t complete your game in time, you may always back out of the competition and enter the game elsewhere or next year.

As with the previous iterations of the IFComp, authors will be allowed to participate as judges, vote, and review entries other than their own.

If you have any questions about the competition or its rules, you can contact us at ifcomp@ifcomp.org

In addition to entries, we are also accepting prizes to award contestants! If you would like to donate a prize for this year’s competition, you can email us at prizes@ifcomp.org — no prize is too humble or too grand.

If you would prefer to donate money, our Colossal Fundraiser will launch by August. Another announcement will be made then.

Thank you, everyone. We’re looking forward to another fun year.

[ifcomp]

2023 IFComp Results & Survey

The results of the 2023 Interactive Fiction Competition are now live at https://ifcomp.org/comp/2023

If you missed the livestream, it will be available over the coming days at https://www.twitch.tv/interactivefictioncomp and is permanently archived over on YouTube at https://youtu.be/N8AxhLAoEMg

Of course, we are already planning for the ‘24 Comp. Please provide your feedback on what went well, what could have gone better, what we should do more of, and what we should consider changing or leaving behind: https://forms.gle/1gFEwhmFAaszB4Tx7

We are so grateful to everyone who helped make this year’s comp happen.  Thank you! PS - We made an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT during the awards stream: next year's IFComp is bumped up one month so that IFComp no longer overlaps with ECTOCOMP. If you are thinking of entering the comp as an author in 2024, your game is due at the end of August instead of the end of September! Plan ahead!

[ifcomp]

End of Voting Draws Nigh! Awards Nov 19

Greetings, Authors & Judges! The end of the 2023 Interactive Fiction Competition is nearly upon us! Voting will end on November 15, 2023 at 11:59 PM, Eastern time. You only had to vote on five games to be a judge, but make sure you got all of your votes in! We will announce the top 20 results via live stream at 4:00 PM Eastern on Sunday, November 19th. The stream will be held at https://www.twitch.tv/interactivefictioncomp To confirm what time the awards stream will be for you in your time zone, visit https://everytimezone.com/s/d8d1dedc Hope to see you there!

[ifcomp]

A little over halfway...

We're at the halfway mark for this year's Interactive Fiction Competition! Plenty of time left, but don't let the days get away from you: play, review, vote and leave feedback for authors. And, if you have the means to do so, please show them some love by contributing to our Colossal Fund, which will pay out to the top two-thirds of entries once the voting dust settles. Thanks for judging!

[ifcomp]

Game Withdrawn

At the request of the author, the game "The Library of Knowledge" has been withdrawn from the competition.

[ifcomp]

Welcome to the 29th Annual IFComp!

2023 IFComp Logo, by Etheroxyde

  We’re glad you’re here. If this is your first time joining us, welcome! If you’re already familiar with us, welcome back! Either way, we hope you have a great time and enjoy exploring some of the over seventy new games we have for you this year.

What's next? 

Check out the games, now live at ifcomp.org 

You have until November 15, 2023 at 11:59pm Eastern to vote. 

You only have to play & rate 5 games to be a judge*! (Yep, just five!) * We would love to expand the number of judges! You can help! Talk about the competition on social media, and encourage others to check out all these new games. Consider playing with a friend or family member who is new to interactive fiction, talk about the games together, and encourage them to vote as well. Thanks! 

We will do a post-competition survey to capture your ideas for improving the competition in the future, so if you have thoughts about improvements, please watch for the survey in November. Any questions? Email us at ifcomp@ifcomp.org Thank you in advance for judging! —Jacqueline Ashwell, October 2023

[ifcomp]

The 2023 Colossal Fundraiser has begun!

Hello, friends. We’re just under a month out from this year's IFComp games being released. SO EXCITING!! (Unless you’re an author who is furiously testing and revising and recompiling and testing and revising and recompiling and… yeah. Good luck, authors*!) * If you're not yet a registered author for 2023, but you'd like to be, please do not forget to register! The deadline to register for the competition is coming up fast - September 1st, 11:59pm Eastern (23:59 EST)... then you have an additional month to polish your entry. But you must register by September 1st... Sorry, where were we? Oh right! While we eagerly await the new games to come, we’d like to ask for your help with the Colossal Fund. If you already know about the fund and would like to contribute, please go to ifcomp.org and hit the blue “Donate with PayPal” button. If you’d like more information first, keep on reading… The Colossal Fund raises money for the cash prizes that are awarded to the top two-thirds of IFComp entries. We use 80% of the funds for that, and the remaining funds are used to provide support for the programs and projects of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, including the Interactive Fiction Competition, the IF Archive, the IFDB, the forums at intfiction.org, and other projects. This year, as in prior years, we are shooting for $10K. We’re now accepting donations for 2023! The donation button is live at IFComp.org. See your name listed on our donor page (or listed as “anonymous” if you prefer)! Our fundraising deadline is November 15th - the last day of competition voting. 80% of the proceeds ($8K+ if we hit our goal) will be distributed among the top two-thirds of IFComp finishers.  What does this mean for authors? Because we’re dividing the money among the top two-thirds of games, the exact numbers depend on how many entries there are. If we have 75 entries, then we will divide the money among the top 50. If we have $10K, that would mean that the winner of the competition will be offered a prize of $451, second place will be offered $433, third prize $416… and so on and so forth until 50th place, which will be offered $10.  Our goal is to distribute prizes across a broad range of IF styles and ideas. Any game which does even moderately well is offered a decent prize. Let’s see… what other questions might you have? How do I donate? Please go to https://ifcomp.org/ and push the big blue Donate button. Is my donation tax-deductible? Yes, to the extent allowed by law. (Consult a tax professional, that’s all we can say.) Does the Colossal Fund replace the usual IFComp prize list? Nope! These cash prizes will be in addition to the usual IFComp prize list. We do need more of those non-cash prizes as well! Please visit our prize page to see what objects and services others have donated, get ideas from donations given in previous years, and see how you can contribute. How will the cash prizes be distributed? Via PayPal. (The IFComp entry form has a field for your Paypal address.) If you can’t accept PayPal, we can mail a US check to a US address. If that doesn’t work for you, or if you wish to decline the cash prize, we will roll the money into next year’s prize fund, which means it will continue to support authors and IFTF programs.

[ifcomp]

IFComp 2023 Now Accepting Intents & Entries

Hello, everyone, and happy (slightly belated) start of July! With a new July comes a new season of the Interactive Fiction Competition! From now through September 1st, 11:59pm Eastern (23:59 EST), the IF Comp website will be open for authors to declare their intent to enter this year’s competition! (Final entries are due on September 28th, 11:59pm Eastern, but you must register by September 1st! You may back out from the competition at any time. ) As with the previous iterations of the IFComp, authors will be allowed to participate as judges, vote, and review entries other than their own. If you have any questions about the competition or its rules, you can contact us at ifcomp@ifcomp.org In addition to entries, we are also accepting prizes to award contestants! If you would like to donate a prize for this year’s competition, you can email us at prizes@ifcomp.org - no prize is too humble or too grand. If you would prefer to donate money, our Colossal Fundraiser will be begin in August. Another announcement will be made then.