Right. It’d probably be better as a submitted “side contest” IFComp prize “best short game as determined by prize donator” which indicates subjectivity where people aren’t going “the winner was 14 minutes long and mine was only 12!”
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No, I wasn’t thinking about an official IFComp award. I was thinking more along @jwalrus’s idea that it would be a side thing, possibly by a prize donor. For reasons detailed above, an official IFComp category probably isn’t feasible.
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So as one of the runners of the Short Game Showcase I’m obviously biased here, but this was our rationale for starting it rather than trying to work within the IFComp framework. I like the Comp as it is, but it can’t be everything for everyone and I don’t think it should be either. I also think that adding more judging tasks within IFComp is going to be counter-productive since as mentioned in other threads the best way to deal with a lot of other potential issues is to simply get more people judging. The fiddlier the process is, the fewer people are going to engage with it.
This is the kind of thing I worry about when it comes to fiddliness that could turn away potential judges, especially if it’s just for one award. (Keep in mind that all the other awards leverage the current voting system!) That said, now that people have the ability to submit updates to the IFComp website I think any voting changes will be way more likely to be accepted if someone codes it up and submits it this way first. This didn’t exist last year (and I don’t have the technical skills to do it regardless) but you have a way stronger argument if the hard work’s already done!
This is currently one of the issues with the SGS that we’re looking to improve upon - having it at the end of the year means it’s pretty far away from IFComp so a lot of people won’t be looking at the forum when we announce it. (And we are both, frankly, awful at social media promotion.) I don’t want to derail this thread but if anyone has any kind of suggestions feel free to drop us a line elsewhere.
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I’m new here, but I feel like SGS would be where I would submit a game that I felt was both short and strong.
Comparing 15min games to 2hr games is like comparing poetry and short stories: both can be powerful writing forms but are vastly different experiences for both the writer and the reader.
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As much as I love the short game showcase (don’t get me wrong, I entered last year and plan to again this year 
) most of the games in it are going to be previously released, so you just don’t get the same anticipation and hype surrounding it as a whole lot of new games coming out. It seems more of a showcase to highlight the shorter games released that year (which is great and I hope it continues as it’s really nice to look through and see games I might otherwise have missed.) The bump in views (+/- comments) for the games in the SGS on my itch was smaller than for ectocomp, neo or seedcomp which I’m guessing is because they were new releases there.
Having a short game award in IFComp would personally increase the chances that I would enter. (I love making short games and have some longer projects that I just can’t justify stopping working on at the moment to make a long IFComp game as much as I’d like to or I’ll never get anything finished.) Not sure whether encouraging some shorter game entries would be a plus or minus for the IFComp.
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Is there any chance you could simply open for submissions during IFComp? Even right at the end would be a handy nudge to pop any relevant entries in there as well.
(Apologies if there’s some totally obvious reason this wouldn’t work - it just strikes me as the simplest solution.)
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Actually, “a few months after the Comp” is not bad timing, especially if you announce and promote it during the Comp when a lot of the community is engaged, and often people get the bug to write something if they’re not participating, especially if it’s short. Ectocomp I’m sure benefits from a lot of people getting the urge to submit something with it’s lower-stakes buy in and time-commitment for both categories. And SGS has an advantage that entries need not be horror/seasonal-themed.
Let us know if you need help! When you post the announcement we can pin it for you, and I’d recommend entering “event” code in the initial post for the comp duration (under the gear - you only have the option to include an event in the original post) and that code will put make it visible on the site calendar.
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You know what? This is a great idea and we’ll implement it for next year (probably opening right after IFComp voting closes). This year we had/have a lot going on IRL so it straight up didn’t occur to us!
We absolutely will need help, and we’ll reach out about pinning stuff etc. once we’re ready! Thanks so much.
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Oh, fantastic! That’s great to hear. If I have a short game in next year I’ll definitely submit it. (I’m also planning to submit this year, I just have to remember while the showcase is open for entries.)
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For you or anyone else who’s worried about forgetting this year, perhaps we can DM you a reminder once the Showcase opens? I believe you can configure the forum to email you if you don’t open it within a certain time, so it wouldn’t be entirely dependent on checking back here.
(In the interest of not clogging up this thread, if anyone else would like a reminder please DM us or post in our announcement thread.)
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There’s also Outlook/Google/your program of choice calendar reminders! I use them all the time for things that aren’t actual appointments—e.g., putting “Short Games Showcase” opens at 9am the day of.
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If you’re happy to do this, that would be really helpful! Personally I’ve already got a lot of stuff that I absolutely have to keep track of on my usual calendar (and it’s a struggle to juggle even just the essentials), so a message here would be a handy reminder without risking crowding out anything more essential.
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