Announce: Spring Thing 2022

Competitions Spring Thing
1

20 years ago last week, Adam Cadre posted on rec.arts.int-fiction with an idea to hold a spring IF competition. I’m happy to announce today that the site for the 2022 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction is now up and running!

https://www.springthing.net/2022/

Spring Thing is an annual festival celebrating new text-based computer games of all kinds. Originally founded as an off-season counterweight to IF Comp in the fall, the current incarnation of the Thing is a less competitive space with looser restrictions. Without the two-hour judging limit of IF Comp, for instance, longer games are welcomed (though shorter games are fine, too!) There’s no fee to enter, but you do have to submit an “intent to enter” in advance. And there are prizes!

The details can be found at the official Spring Thing site, but in brief:

  • Games must be debuts and in a well-polished state (bug tested, etc.)
  • You must submit an intent to enter by March 1st, 2022, and your game itself by March 31st.
  • Your game must be free to play, and will be archived on the Spring Thing site after the festival closes, although:
  • You can submit to the “Back Garden” to showcase a demo of a game you’re planning to sell, or a polished excerpt of something unfinished.

Entrants to the Main Festival can be nominated for one of two “Best In Show” ribbons, and all entries are eligible for custom “Audience Awards.” Prize donors also gift fun, unique prizes , which Main Festival entrants have a chance to receive.

The festival is always looking for prize donors. If you have a cool idea for a prize that fellow IF authors might enjoy, let me know!

Check out the site for more info, and I’m happy to answer any questions here or sent to aaron at springthing.net. Thanks, and happy writing,

–Aaron A. Reed

28 Likes
3

Excellent! Thank you for hosting the Festival :smiley:

1 Like
4

@Norbez
@robinjohnson

Maybe Spring Thing is good for “fringe” stuff? Cadre was (is) a mould breaker.

5

You mean on the Back Garden submission? Maybe you’re right. Does anyone have any experience to share?

6

Thank you so much for referring the Puddle BuildTools. I am actually considering entering the competition this year as it should go well with my schedule of having Hibernated 2 ready by that time.

2 Likes
7

I submitted a piece in Python last time. Didn’t go down well, unfortunately :wink:
I think there were expectations attached to the Back Garden too.

2 Likes
8

Looking forward to it. It’ll be the second one I’ve voted in.
Also, I love that a part of the page is dedicated to accessibility resources. Making sure your game is playable by everyone is important.

3 Likes
9

Thanks - I hope to enter.

You might consider including the increasingly popular Adventuron in your list of IF resources - it seems a notable omission.

7 Likes
10

Maybe. . .

2 Likes
11

Oh, man, the only tools that I use aren’t mentioned in the resources, viz. Inform 6, PunyInform, Parchment and Adventuron.

2 Likes
12

PunyInform is indirectly mentioned, as there is a reference to my Puddle BuildTools set, which is made for Puny.

1 Like
13

That’s what’s so ironic. Your build tools require an Inform 6 game, but neither Inform 6 nor PunyInform are mentioned.

1 Like
14

I added some of the above mentioned resources to the links list. Please note, though that this list is meant to be more of a brief overview than a comprehensive index, and it doesn’t restrict what tools you can use to make games entered in the festival.

7 Likes
15

Bumping for schedule visibility. Intents for 2022 are due by the end of March 1!

  • March 1, 2022 : Deadline for authors’ intents to enter (by end of day).
  • March 31, 2022 : Deadline for entries to be submitted.
  • April 5, 2022 : Festival opens and entries available to play.
  • May 10, 2022 : Ribbon nominations close; ribbon winners announced.
7 Likes
16

I love the southern-hemisphere name change from Fall Fooferall to Autumnal Jumble!

5 Likes
17

Per Twitter:

Submission instructions have now been emailed to authors participating in this year’s festival. If you expected to receive some and didn’t, please let us know!

https://twitter.com/SpringThingFest/status/1504131260448317452?s=20&t=S13-9LknvrFwZTu4eVXCzQ

1 Like