As a convenience, here is an index of all of mathbrush’s posts to date concerning the history of the IF Comp, in chronological order of the year that the competition was held.
Why not create individual pages for IFComp years on standard Wikipedia in addition to IFWiki?
I think adding more links and images would be nice. Eg cover art and screenshots. Many games look and play differently and even if they look the same a screenshot gives an idea of the story and style of gameplay.
Would something like this be useful soon after the competition, not just years later?
The latter question: yes, as a recap of the year in IF.
Speaking of IFWiki, it’s high time to update the ‘history of IF section’. Something along the lines of:
Page: Year
Details: Events in that year, e.g, Spring Thing, IFComp, various other comps and jams (recent years would include Text Adventure Literacy Jam/Parsercomp/Neo-Interactive monthly sessions in addition to things like Ectocomp, Introcomp). Major IF works released.
What else did I leave out that should be included in the History of IF, year by year edition pages on IFWiki? IFWiki experts, any suggestions?
Screenshots are an interesting idea for the later comps, especially for the top 3 games. For the first 16 years or so it would be pretty dull; here are some highlights from that time frame:
The Play was the first choice-based game to hit the top 3. After 2011 Twine comes into play and screenshots become more varied and interesting.
Only half of my IFTF grant was to keep making these history posts; the other half is to finish up the draft of my book that compiles it all. I think I’ll include screenshots in the book, thanks for the suggestion!
(as for doing summaries right after the competition, that’s useful but also lacks the benefit of hindsight, in my mind)
I’d like to strengthen my argument for screenshots even for purely text based games. I’m not necessarily interested in actual screenshots in that case - maybe short excerpts or transcripts that give an idea of the writing and the definitely not uniform types of interaction and gameplay. Especially for a historical retrospective it would be a nostalgic reminder for games that one played many years ago, or a tangible lure to catch a new or belated player.
Yeah, excerpts. Not even just for the top games, but I like seeing these pictures. If its purely text, it could be a notable piece of text, not a screenshot. But I recommend it. For example:
All Roads
Something inside is telling you to wake up. Part of your mind says “Sunrise approaches.”
Underneath your dream you feel a deep shiver… It is a chime, the bell of a clock-tower. Another follows, and another. You count them, fully awake suddenly, counting them down. Six. Five. Four. Three.
Your eyes close, and your stomach tightens in anticipation. The sheets around you feel very safe.
Two. One.
The first ray of sunlight lances through the slats in the window-blind. It strikes your eyes, and you feel yourself go.
