Hi everyone!
I’m Francesco from Italy, and this is my first time here. I’ve entered not one but two games (The Reliquary of Epiphanius and The Olive Tree), and they’re actually my very first ones.
I’m super happy to be part of the competition — a year ago, when I first started “playing around” with Inform, I never thought I’d get this far! I hope you’ll enjoy my games, and I can’t wait to try out all of yours!
Good luck to everyone!!
Hello everyone!
Sorry for introducing myself so late, but I only just saw this thread. My name is Pablo Martínez, from Spain. I’m not new to interactive fiction (my first interactive fiction dates back to 2003, when I still used the handle “Depresiv”), but this is my first time submitting to the IF Comp.
Although I haven’t had much interaction with the international community in the past, some of you may remember Aaron A. Reed’s article on “Lieux Communs and El Museo de las Consciencias,” which mentions me very briefly. Or the older folks here may remember a (failed) attempt at international collaboration between non-English-speaking countries called “Rakonto Interaktivo,” in which I collaborated.
In any case, I am very happy to be here and to be able to realize my dream, so many years later, of entering the same contest where so many people I admire, such as Zarf, Aaron Reed, Porpentine, Emily Short, and others, got their start.
My first IFComp! My game, Murderworld, has been in the back of my mind for a long time and I’m glad to have it done amidst such lovely company.
I am a new author in this contest. Space Mission: 2045 is my first game. I’m experimenting with a new kind of “parser” concept. It is explained in some detail in the attached readme file. I hope you try it. Sorry in advance about the slow speed of the game.
I liked your game. Here’s my review
Hi all,
First of all, I’m so excited to be here. I’m Leigh (sometimes online I’ll go by pixie or pixiefang, but I realized I only called myself ‘Leigh’ on the IF site, which is also totally fine lol since that is my name). I am both a first-time submitter to the IF comp and relatively new to IF in general (been dabbling for the last year or so). I’ve always been a fan of choice-based narratives, whether it was choose-your-own-adventure books or video games that were affected by user choice.
I’m a recent graduate of a dual MFA/MA program, and I mainly write short fiction, but I’ve always wanted to write games. Professionally, I do a little of this and a little of that. I’m in between jobs right now, but for the last year, I’ve mostly taught college writing and worked as a receptionist in a hair salon, which is a combination that people often find humorous.
“A Conversation in a Dark Room” is my first completed Twine game and my first submission to IF Comp. It’s an expanded and massively updated version of a short story I wrote a couple of years ago. For that story, I always had trouble with the ending, and I’m a big fan of ambiguity in writing, but this felt like it needed a solid ending. So now, technically, it does—it has several.
The biggest challenge in writing this game was figuring out Twine. I’m a little versed in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, but I definitely relied on other creators for tips. I used a template for my game and tweaked it a little, and I watched quite a few YouTube videos and other tutorials. I dabbled in ChatGPT and Claude for some code, but mostly I had to compare that with other code available online for things like the ‘notes’ section I included. I’m confident that I’ll be able to be a little bit better with coding for my next game (I feel like this needs to be said since I mentioned AI at all–I did not use it for any elements of my game other than clarifying code, which it was not great at, lol, but it did help troubleshoot some lines that I had messed up).
The most enjoyable part of this was the writing. Once I started branching paths, the story just kept expanding. I truly hope that all the decisions in this game feel meaningful, but I’m also aware that, as a new IF creator, I may have missed the mark on some. We’ll see! I can’t wait to hear what people think.
My game is on the list of banned games at the moment (UK guidelines), so I’m sorry to my friends in the UK! I will work on age verification for the future.
All in all, I’m just happy to be here in this community of wonderful writers, game-lovers, and narrative adventurers, and I’m excited to have completed a game!
Seriously, don’t be - and don’t bother. I’m in the UK and can get hold of your game just fine, as can anyone else with the ability to type “VPN,” “Tor Browser,” or “free web proxy” into a search engine. The age verification systems currently used by large companies simply do not work (and never will), and there’s no point in an individual author wasting their time this way. The current situation isn’t your fault or IFComp’s and it shouldn’t be on you to fix it.
Best of luck for the comp! I’ve found that there’s quite an appetite for workshops on interactive fiction and writing for games, so if you’re teaching at the moment then the extra experience opens some doors.
Howdy, everyone!
I’m JC, credited as curricle in our entry for this year, Retrograding. I was responsible for the initial concepting, programming, the graphic design (cover/main menu art, GUI), and the little bit of flavor text present in the GUI in the updated version of the game. Oh, and I drew the sprites for the character Castor as well.
This is the first time myself or my team have participated in IFComp – we actually only found out about it a few months ago. We were originally working on Retrograding for the Otome and Josei Jams on itch, but decided to pivot to getting it done for IFComp instead. The production process was… challenging, at times, but I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish. A lot of hard work went into putting this thing together and I’m still kind of riding the wave of its momentum.
The game itself is a sci-fi visual novel about a woman working in galactic waste management, which is a polite way of saying the company where she works is responsible for the disposal of artifacts from fallen civilizations. While on duty, she’s assigned to work with one of two ‘problem employees’ who are facing disciplinary action for going off-book during their time at the company. Also she’s got a voice in her head who may or may not be God? It’s a lightly branching narrative with two separate routes and choice-based endings. It is also, allegedly, a romance.
I’m super excited to play through as many other entries as I can! I’ve already been having a blast with some of the parser-based ones. It’s lovely to meet you all, as well.
Hey! This is such a nice idea 
Sorry I’m late to the party, been a hectic week at work.
I’m not new to interactive fiction, but this is my first year entering IF comp! I’ve wanted to enter for years but timing/projects never quite aligned.
This year a pure procrastination project actually became my entry (as they do…). I was trying to avoid writing a screenplay, and here we are!
I primarily write horror and sci-fi. I’ve joked with my friends that all my work contains “you’ll regret getting what thought you wanted” and “the sea is evil” and The Witch Girls is no exception to this rule! Unfortunately it’s been blocked in my own country due to the Online Safety Act but I really hope people will overlook that and play anyway. There’s nothing explicit in there, but it does deal with some heavy topics in a horror context–I’d like to hope I’ve been sensitive enough while still accurately portraying the teenage experience.
This was my first twine game that really went further than an experiment or prototype and I was surprised at how much of my time was spent with UI, layout and design vs writing. At first glance, compared to other engines, twine very much feels like somewhere you can “just write”, but getting that last 5% QoL, visual polish and (most importantly) player understanding really does take the bulk of development time.
Hello. Just played A Rock’s Tale, got the ultimate ending and want to thank you for great one and half hours of my life.
What I especially liked is that you walked a fine line between explaining too much and explaining too little. The game world is cozy and full of wonder.
Please make more games.
And the cover art is good, too.
Thank you so much for your kind words, I’m very glad you enjoyed your experience!
Hello! I’m very late to this, but better late than never…!
I’m HY, I’ve known about IF and Twine for a while but only really started seriously working with it earlier this year. I’m in my third year of university and write mostly short queer science / spec fiction (which my entry, INPUT PROCESS, also falls into.) Everything I really want to introduce my game with is in its blurb; I will say though it’s about an AI, but it was Not made with GenAI. Also, sorry about the delayed text.
Creating Twine stuff has honestly been a really helpful motivator for me to learn HTML / CSS / JS (I’m a social sciences major so I don’t get much exposed to it otherwise). I’m the sort of writer who loves finding new ways to present stories that aren’t just plain text, so IF has been right up my alley. I’ve kind of just been trying to outdo myself with each new game or prototype I make regarding what fun stuff I can narratively portray with the elements onscreen.
I almost didn’t submit my entry at all, but I’m glad I did, and also glad to be here
I’ve been meaning to say hello here for the past two weeks and I guess this is symptomatic of my relationship with both this forum and the IFComp : I’ve been meaning to enter the competition ever since I discovered IF a decade ago but never thought my works were worthy enough. Then time passed.
This year, I’m pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone in every direction of my life and decided it was time ! The work I presented is far from perfect but at least it has a beginning, a middle and an end, has puzles and it has been more or less beta-tested. It was originally in french, I translated it for the occasion.
Even if it ranks badly in the end, I’m glad I took the plunge !