IF Art Show / Festival discussion

Hi @ramstrong & @Norbez,

I haven’t delved into this too deeply so apologies if I’ve missed anything, I did watch Norbez’s video though.

To be honest, the short answer is no but only because IF Art Show (as I’m envisaging it) is more about ambient, relaxing experiences. So the games entered will be super niche but not necessarily fringe in this context. If you think of meditation stories that you find on apps like Calm, then create that as an IF experience, then that’s what I have in mind.

Specifically for this jam/comp (my first time running it) I want to have the theme of exploration; something in the vein of The Fire Tower.

Back to the main topic and game - It does feel like something that typically IFComp itself would be fertile ground for, where experimental pieces can fine a home. Would it be worth reaching out to the IFComp folk ahead of next year to see if a category could be considered?

Sorry I can’t be of more help. By the way, fringe and niche are always welcome in ParserComp providing they are parser games, not sure whether the same challenges would have occured but I certainly welcome all who want to enter their game.

Adam :+1:

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Thank you very much! I would definitely be interested in looking at the IF Art Show. When will it be taking place? And where will it be hosted?

Hmm, that’s definitely something I should think about.
Thanks again for the response!

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Great! More the merrier! Thanks :slightly_smiling_face::v:

At the moment it’s still incubating in my head! But I can already say the high level details are :

  • Likely to run (time wise) across January to March.
  • Hosted on itch.io which means you will need an itch account (but that’s super easy).
  • Theme will be “ambience & exploration”

It won’t quite be the same as the previous incarnation, this is very much my interpretation of it, but hopefully it will be close enough so as to provide a platform for these games.

Adam :+1:

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That’s a great idea. “Fringe” seems like a subjective term, though. Art DiBianca’s games are highly experimental, definitely fringe to me, but he’s a wildly popular author, so does that mean he isn’t fringe? I can easily see someone like Art running off with the prize since everyone (me included) would flock to play a game of his, which I think would prove Bez’s point.

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How about ExploreNation? Play on the word exploration.

Adam

I like that title! Earlier I was pondering organizing such an event, and this song came to mind: I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME - Nobody Likes the Opening Band - YouTube → a game jam called, “Nobody Likes The Opening Jam” perhaps? X) ExploreNation is cool though too. . .

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Whoever runs it gets to name it, of course. I’d be happy to call it the IF Fringe, write broad guidelines, and let authors submit whatever they thought qualified.

That said, I live in the city with the biggest “fringe theatre” festival in the world, and at least half of it is now transphobic standup comedians on their night off BBC2, so maybe some gatekeeping is a good idea.

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Also, I don’t think it should have prizes or rankings. It wouldn’t really be a “competition” because entrants wouldn’t be competing for the same goals - you’d be trying to do something cool of your own, not to do the same thing as the others but better. Maybe there could be free-form Spring-Thing-like “ribbons”, maybe not.

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