2024 IFDB Awards are open!

The IFDB Awards are now open!

Here are the rules:

Full Text of Rules

The IFDB Awards is an annual competition designed to award excellence in creating interactive fiction.It is held from February 1st to the first weekend after February 15th each year on the Interactive Fiction Database, and take the form of polls.

Votes are public but anonymized. Every IFDB member is eligible to vote, except for one special poll, the Author’s Choice Poll. Eligibility to vote in the Author’s Choice competition is determined by having a game linked to your IFDB profile (this can be found by editing a game page and use the ‘Link to Author’s Profile’ feature. Authors added incorrectly to a game will not be permitted to vote (for instance, if someone associates a random game they didn’t make to their account).

Rules for discussion and voting
-Voting must be in good faith and be based on personal experience with the games involved.
-Campaigning or organizing voting for games is not allowed if it breaks the above rule.
-Discussion of games on merit is allowed and encouraged.
-There is no hard limit on how many votes a person can cast in each poll for different games. A player voting for so many games that it makes voting difficult for others (such as voting for every game from the whole year) may have their votes removed, but only after warning.
-Author cannot vote for their own games. Such votes will be removed so that the running tallies are correct. Authors can post about their own games (for instance on intfiction) as long as doesn’t encourage people to break the rules (such as telling people to vote for your game even if they haven’t played it).

Code of conduct

-Voters must abide by the IFDB Code of Conduct. Harassment of other voters (including on other platforms) and creating multiple accounts for one person are prohibited.
Moderation

-Votes that are cast incorrectly (for instance, voting for a Twine game in a Choicescript poll) or fraudulently (for instance, using sockpuppet accounts) may be removed.

Eligibility
-For most polls, games are eligible if they are listed on IFDB and have a publication date during 2024.
-For system-specific polls, games additionally must have the appropriate system on their IFDB page under the specified field.
-Each poll will have a link to an IFDB search listing suggested games. Outside of system-based polls, users can vote for any game they feel fits the criteria.
-Any IFDB user can edit game pages to confirm eligibility. However, malicious editing (such as adding every genre to a game or adding incorrect systems to a game) will be reverted or removed.
-Any game author can opt out of the competition. Adding a note to the game page during the competition may be helpful to let others know not to vote for it, but opting out should be officially done by messaging the organizer (me, for now).

Results
-Results will be clearly visible throughout the poll. However, there will be a grace period of up to 3 days at the end to allow checking of votes before the official announcements, which will be made on Intfiction and IFDB.
-Polls with very low traffic will not have a winner awarded. This is left up to organizer discretion, but low traffic may include less than 5 votes for the winning game or less than ten votes total cast.

Future of Awards
One of the main purposes of these new awards is to be community-owned and regular. They need to keep working even if I don’t keep working.

The awards begin on February 1st of each year. If Feb 1st passes without the current organizer having created the polls, anyone can create the polls themselves.

The community can propose new changes to awards or new organizers via public discussion. A public yes/no poll on intfiction with more than 50% voting yes can be used to add new organizers. Current organizers can also add in other organizers or successors, subject to a public veto.

Answers to FAQ’s:
-You can vote for as many games as you like in one poll, as long as its not disruptive
-You do not have to vote in every poll. It is fine if some polls don’t get enough traffic.
-You cannot campaign for specific games, but you can campaign for people to vote in specific polls (i.e. trying to get people to play games from a specific category).
-You are free to publish what you voted for and why, as long as it doesn’t break any other rule.
-Anyone can vote in any poll except the Author’s Choice poll, whose eligibility is described above
–A good rule of thumb for voting for people coming from other communities is that you should probably recognize at least some games on the linked IFDB searches for the poll you are interested in. If you don’t recognize very many, you should likely play some that you see to get a feel for the category.

List of Polls

Outstanding Game of the Year 2024

Author’s Choice for Best Game of 2024

Outstanding Debut 2024

Outstanding Game over 2 hours in 2024

Outstanding Short Game of 2024

Outstanding Underappreciated Game of 2024

Most Sequel-worthy game of 2024

Trailblazer Award of 2024

Outstanding Worldbuilding of 2024

Outstanding Use of Interactivity in 2024

Outstanding Retro Game of 2024

Outstanding Game for Beginners of 2024

Outstanding Multimedia Experience of 2024

Outstanding technical implementation of 2024

Outstanding NPC design of 2024

Outstanding Puzzle design of 2024

Outstanding Plot of 2024

Outstanding Writing of 2024

Language Categories

Outstanding German Game of 2024

Outstanding Spanish Game of 2024

Outstanding French Game of 2024

Genre Categories

Outstanding Fantasy Game of 2024

Outstanding Educational Game of 2024

Outstanding Travel Game of 2024

Outstanding Historical Game of 2024

Outstanding Horror Game of 2024

Outstanding Humor Game of 2024

Outstanding Mystery Game of 2024

Outstanding Romance Game of 2024

Outstanding Science Fiction Game of 2024

Outstanding Slice of Life Game of 2024

Outstanding Surreal Game of 2024

System Categories

Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2024

Outstanding Twine Game of 2024

Outstanding Ink Game of 2024

Outstanding Choicescript Game of 2024

Outstanding Inform 6 Game of 2024

Outstanding PunyInform Game of 2024

Outstanding Game in a Custom System of 2024

Outstanding Moiki Game of 2024

Outstanding Ren’py Game of 2024

Outstanding Adventuron Game of 2024

Outstanding Unity Game of 2024

Outstanding Bitsy Game of 2024

Outstanding TADS Game of 2024

Outstanding Decker Game of 2024

Outstanding Dialog Game of 2024

Outstanding Game in an Uncommon System of 2024

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I do this by hand each year so typos and omissions are common. If there is a system, language, or genre that has 5 or more games in it and at least some kind of IFDB activity (i.e. not including languages with 0 IFDB ratings on games), let me know and I can add it in.

Thanks for everyone’s help!

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Did my first round of voting for the categories that are obvious/easy for me. I’ll give the other categories some thought, see what others have put up, go through the lists some more and then make up my mind.

Thanks for organising this, Brian!

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Thanks for voting! I appreciate your time!

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By the way, voting participation is great so far in general, and I’m seeing some wonderful games coming up.

If anyone wants to post about a game they like, feel free to. Remember the rules are:

-Voting must be in good faith and be based on personal experience with the games involved.
-Campaigning or organizing voting is not allowed if it breaks the above rule.
-Discussion of games on merit is allowed and encouraged.

This includes talking about your own games, but remember that you can’t vote for yourself (a couple of people have done so, but so far their games aren’t very high up so I’m no in a hurry to remove the votes).

I’ll throw out discussion of one game: I voted for Halfling Dale for Outstanding Game in a Custom System because I enjoyed it when I tried it after Spring Thing (they were offering it as prizes so I bought it to check it out). It’s basically like a chill, low-stakes choice-based game where you live as a hobbit and bake pies and stuff and deal with gossip while romancing a bunch of people (I romanced a witch-girl, I think).

In a separate note, last year by this time there were several polls that didn’t have enough votes to award a winner yet. This year, only a very small number of polls are lagging behind. If these don’t get at least 5 votes for a winner, no award will be awarded. This includes all 3 language polls: French, Spanish, and German. These get low participation each year, so if they don’t make it this year, I’ll just axe them for next year. So if you want these gone, definitely don’t vote!

Polls without enough votes:
Outstanding Ren’py Game of 2024

Outstanding Bitsy Game of 2024

Outstanding Spanish Game of 2024

Outstanding Moiki Game of 2024

Outstanding French Game of 2024

Outstanding German Game of 2024

In the main polls, many categories are very close, and the Game of the Year poll has changed hands several times. Thanks for all who have participated so far, and I look forward to the second half of the voting period!

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Let me do some mild campaigning on the Outstanding Ren’py Game category’s behalf then. The games there are short (from 5 to maybe 25 minutes, I don’t know what your reading speed is) and I know that fellow authors in this category are all incredible in their own unique ways. Special shoutout to Knickknack PJ - their works tend to be quite creative and their Ren’py use is just amazing - and to SkyShard, whose works have this poetic, surreal quality that is really, really inspiring.

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Voted.

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I could write a wall of text about all the games I nominated/voted for, but since the Ren’py category is lacking in votes, I’ll just talk about that for now.

One of the games I voted for was All of us Flames, which I talked about here.

The other was Seascape Paradiso, which is a colorful, lighthearted story about an encounter between a mermaid and an underwater photographer, with notes of budding romance. It’s pretty short, but I enjoyed exploring the underwater setting, finding all the different items, and getting all the endings. It’s got a very strong setting and the mermaid character is charming in a slightly offbeat way.

I definitely think both of these games are worth 10-20 minutes of your time if you want to check out something new and be able to vote in the poll!

(I also voted in the Bitsy poll, for La Dama Blanca del Hotel Arizon, but I’m not sure if it’s worth trying to pitch that on the English section of the forum. Also, it looks like Seascape Paradiso has been nominated for the French poll, but I didn’t play it in French so I can’t speak to that version.)

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I think this is a bad idea because communities come and go. The community fluctuates.

So, I’m okay with having a category labeled deserted but, axe it completely? I think that is too much. You don’t know if next year will be the year of German IF :wink:

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Agreed. Some sections can be axed if they aren’t working, like “Best Puzzle Design”. (That’s just an example. I quite like that one.) But sections like languages (both kinds) should always be added in, unless the category simply doesn’t have enough games. If it has enough games, I say keep it in next year.

Otherwise, sure, axe it.

That’s just my thought, though.

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I agree with @Ruber_Eaglenest. The foreign-language authors and players have their own communities and may not feel welcome in the IFDB/IFWiki/infiction.org communities. Either you make this community English only or you do everything you can to encourage foreign language support so that the foreign language communities feel welcome and join in. Axing foreign language awards is not the solution.

It’s the same with all the retro and indie game development communities. I’d say the vast majority of them don’t even know that IFDB exists. I see it all the time in various Facebook groups and Discord servers.

Not once have I ever seen the IFDB or IFDB awards promoted outside of this community. Promote and advertise to get the foreign language games in the database and the foreign language votes will come in. Of course, IFDB itself needs to provide-foreign language support for any of this to happen.

EDIT: Actually, I just remembered that @fredrik promoted the IFDB poll on the PunyInform Discord server. (Thanks, Fredrik.) I guess it’s up to individuals to provide that promotion in their own communities in the same way that I try to promote the Text Adventure Literacy Jam more widely.

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This is a good point. I recently visited the Choice of Games forum to make a drive for them to come and vote on IFDB for choicescript game of the year. With their influence, the top contenders went from Choicescript games that were entered in IFComp and Ectocomp to commercial choicescript games from the last year, which is more what I’d expect from the larger community.

A drive among other retro communities like you’re discussing might be useful, where people are asked to vote just in the retro or punyinform categories (or any other category where they are familiar with most of the contenders). I’m not sure where to find such groups though, but I’d be happy if someone else organized that kind of outreach.

As for languages, several people have made good points, and it does vary from year to year, so I won’t do anything rash!

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I see votes on the Ren’Py poll are still lagging, so I will shout out some of the games I nominated! I found let the lights bleed and its two sequels super hard-hitting emotionally, in the best way. Written for the Neo-Twiny jam, each one is under 500 words, so very quick to play—and the compactness makes the emotions hit all the harder. And then A Winter Away is super cute, with gorgeously crafted illustrations. Liminal by the same author also has beautiful art and is another emotional piece in a Neo-Twiny-size package.

Re: the Bitsy poll, I haven’t played the Spanish game because I can’t read Spanish, but I can say that all three of the English games on the list are excellent. the sea god is a beautiful game about a whalefall, I PROMISE I AM WORKING ON THE GAME is a relatable narrative about procrastination and pressure, and LIMBO is an almost-real-life horror story about the creeping claustrophobia of endless waiting.

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This might have already been suggested, but could we add an Outstanding PC Design category in the future? I wanted to nominate L from SEXTUPLE L at the XYZZY Awards, but they’re still in limbo, and the IFDB Awards don’t have an equivalent category (unless I’ve missed it).

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Ah, you’re right! I’ll definitely add that next year.

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The Ren’py category still doesn’t have enough votes so let me say something on my own behalf, since I already spoke about others. To those who wanted to play All of Us Flames to make an informed vote, saw that it requires a download and bounced off: you can now play it in your browser. It won’t take more than 15 minutes of your time (average reported playtime is from 10 to 12 minutes). I can’t in good conscience recommend reading through the two other entries of mine that are nominated in this category (as they’re very heavy thematically), but you can give this one a shot if you want.

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Just wanted to thank people for the above posts as well as to point out that the main race (Outstanding Game of the Year) is neck and neck, and three different contenders have taken and lost third place back and forth.

So everyone’s vote definitely matters, but also if someone ends up 2nd or 3rd in one of these contests, know that you probably could have won if things were slightly different! Just being nominated is great imo

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It’s understandable that the non-English language categories don’t get as many votes from this primarily English-based audience. Myself, I can’t vote for the German or Spanish categories as I would be struggling so hard with the language, juggling dictionaries and thesauri, as to completely miss the game.

However, I can vote in the French category, and there are some absolute gems to be found there.

  • Le chaudron d’Anaritium is a great story with illustrations and a very original storylet-based exploration mechanic.
  • La Fabrique des Princes has you exploring a prince-making factory, peeking behind all the curtains to uncover the secrets of this place before the final showdown.
  • Les lettres du Docteur Jeangille is amazing. It’s available in English too, but I adored immersing myself in the wonderful French original, even though (or maybe exactly because) it was a harder reading experience. To me, this is the best game of the year, regardless of language.

If you feel up to it, play some games in French and discover these and other beautiful pieces of IF. I’m going to study a bit more on my Spanish and/or German so I can vote in those categories next year.

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Apologies if this has been covered already, but what day exactly does judging end? I see that it’s the first weekend after the 15th, but since the 15th is part of a weekend this year I’m not sure if that means people have until the end of the day on Sunday 16th, or if it would run until the start of Saturday 22nd, or the end of Sunday 23rd (or some other option). I’ve been meaning to spread the word about the awards but I’d like to make sure I’m giving people the right deadline.

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In my original announcement, I said it would go to February 16th, so I’ll go until midnight Eastern time on that day.

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