#Spring Thing

[itsphantasmagoria]

Did a quick little springy thing with a hint of sex pollen (suggested by @romaine2424)

(btw I started a ko-fi, that's a thing people do I guess)

[manonamora-if]

Vote for the SpringThing!

The Spring Thing form is now live! You can vote to nominate entries for the Best in Show Award as well as giving special personalised ribbons to all entries!

Come play some great games!

[twinegardening]

Alltarach, by Katie Canning and Josef Olsson

An illustrated interactive novel about family, folklore, and grief, set in a semi-historical version of 6th century Ireland. Author's Comment: "This game is part character study, part playful take on Irish mythology, part love letter to my home country. I'm really proud of what our little team has managed to accomplish with enough hacking of Harlowe. Bainigí sult as — enjoy!"

[norbezjones]

(Cover art by YDN!)

I’m excited to announce that I have a game in the interactive fiction event Spring Thing! It’s a mini-sequel to #yancygame (Yancy At The End Of The World!).

Mack is concerned for his friend Yancy. A three-card tarot reading reveals some inner truths, and gives Mack the opportunity to ask some questions.

This is a kinetic game, so no choices/branches.  Here's a direct link to play the game on the Spring Thing website (it’ll be uploaded on my itchio soon!): https://www.springthing.net/2025/play.html#ThreeCardReading

And here’s a link to play the first game, the original Yancy At The End Of The World! https://norbez.itch.io/yancy-at-the-end-of-the-world

Three-Card Reading was originally made for Ectocomp, but it wasn’t spooky enough, so we decided to submit it to Spring Thing instead!  It fits there much better, so thanks to the team for the feedback that drove that decision! <3 Y’all are great!

The programming was done by YDN, who made the game (especially the UI) look spectacular!  And the sprite art was done strikingly by @l0stw00d -- my babies look so amazing in his art style! <3

And of course, I can’t end this thread without thanking the wonderful voice actors: Shaden Blake aka CaioBlackwoodVT voices our moody main character Mack, HattyVA voices the amateur tarot card reader Yancy, and Eri Astral voices the supportive Caleb.

[golmac]

Thanks to everybody who played, voted, or hell even read my posts about it. Wow wow wow

[eggsdoodz]

spring mode is now activated 𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔

[wigc]

The 2025 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction nominees await

A cold wind is blowing and the temperature is barely creeping past single digits, and yet, spring is here—in a sense. By which I mean this year's Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction. But what's it all about? Oh, so many interactive tales of textual entertainment!

Continue reading

[atissi]

i don't really like when people say dungeon meshi is accidentally good autistic representation, because while i understand not wanting to make conclusions without explicit confirmation from the author, there's always the weird assumption that non-western authors somehow don't know about things like neurodivergency/queerness/etc. (on top of the assumptions that east asian authors are somehow more naive or oblivious to "western" social issues).

given that dungeon meshi started being published in 2014, it's not really a "work belonging to its times"—it's as contemporary as any other media we discuss on this site, which means it should be fair to assume it engages with contemporary topics (and at the very least, you shouldn't say that the representation is accidental with so much confidence)

but anyways, the chapter "perfect communication" in ryoko kui's "terrarium in a drawer" is some of the most straightforward autistic representation I've seen, and from now on I'm going to assume that laios's character writing is absolutely intentional in that regard:

[monstermonger]

Napping under a blanket of cherry blossom petals…

Itty Bitty Spring Dragon Stickers ♡

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[diaryofaleo]

when the weather is warm, my heart feels warm too. 🤍🧸💐

[ailelie]

Prosper.0

In this short fiction game, you are a cog in a corporate machine given a sudden, strange opportunity to save poetry. But you can't save everything.

As the poems delete, you must click on words to save them. Then, you re-arrange those words into new formations. Sometimes you have extra limitations to work within.

I admit, once the worldbuilding hit, it was mildly upsetting to watch the last words of this lost civilizations be deleted forever, the long-gone people finally silenced.

After you finish playing, you're given an opportunity to copy your poems.

Here are mine. I look forward to reading yours.

Assignment 447: Lleanee

and dreaming many die, and dreaming many indescribable dead lying bright suffer, their bright moon, emotional bright moon, Natural midnight, Natural dreaming

Assignment 459: Mol'ztor'lorian

Could Hope the feathered hit the sweetest song without the strangest

Assignment 465: Olkuts-pons

Between the mother and the flowers, Between the forests and the spring, faint joy and mute beauty play. When absence was hope, You. When the wood spirits Buried the Windflower, You. You, sad like mother, still like the silver wood

Assignment 471: Horrnann

As the sun sets, hungry Life is dancing brightly.

Assignment 475: Okiansfor

don't cry. I stopped. don't cry. the summer sun will rise. don't cry. winter will be gone.

Start

OVERRIDE Auth-Level-One OVERRIDE Pf-SIGMA-AUTH OVERRIDE Auth-Level-Two. ACCEPT Current-Authorization. PERFORM Civilization. TERMINATE CORPOTECH. INITIATE GREATER Civilization.

[manonamora-if]

lol u wont win the psringthing again

Well...

Have you seen the other entries submitted to the Spring Thing this year? It's packed of well-known creators* who did amazing things! And even the new entrants did really cool things! So many glowing reviews for so many games! *At least a third of the authors have participated in a previous edition of the event, or other big competition like the IFComp.

There's the sequel of The Bones of Rosalinda (which had won best in show that year, seriously that game was so good), Social Democracy: An Alternate History (who's gone viral at release), Studio (by another heavy hitter), PROSPER.0 (whose gameplay is so different and interesting!), Ink and Intrigue and Dragon of Steelthorne (from beloved published CoG authors), Voyage of the Marigold, Rescue at Quickenheath, Loose Ends, Alltarach, You Can Only Turn Left, Provizora Parko, Nonverbal Communication, Luna Gardens.... well you get what I mean. At this rate I'm listing all the games, this year is just that good!

The original version of my entry didn't do well at the French Comp, so I'm not delusional about how it will do in this competition, anon. I've played the other games, I know what to expect here. I think my game is good, but not that good it will win Best in Show. I'm just hoping for some funny Audience Awards from voters (personalised ribbons written by voters in their voting form) and neat reviews (I had a few already, so I'm happy).

Anyway, instead of spamming my inbox (because you're becoming annoying), go play the other games of the Spring Thing and vote for them. They deserve all the love!! And the tallies are super tight right now, so you bet that your vote will count!

[twinegardening]

A Dream of Silence, by Abigail Corfman

A monster has its teeth in your companions. It builds nightmares out of their worst memories and drinks their pain. One of your companions has a particularly bad worst memory. But you can interfere. You are a single thread of contact in a dream where to despair is to be devoured. A game about solitary confinement and hope. Author's Comment: "This is a fanwork based on the game Baldur’s Gate 3. If you have not played that game, I've included a synopsis of the relevant story that should be enough to bring you up to speed."

[golmac]

Back when Spring Thing was still going on, I got together with Callie Smith, who did the illustrations for Repeat the Ending, to discuss our collaboration. The video content is limited to the images, it's more like a podcast than anything else. We didn't know that RTE would get the ribbons that it would ultimately get. If you're curious about Callie's great art or how we worked together, you might enjoy this conversation.

LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS!

[alisairina]