The gauntlet has been thrown – and taken up! Premier Challenger Pacian will have his work cut out for him as he faces his chosen opponent:
Daniel Stelzer (@Draconis), Iron Chef Dialog, has authored or co-authored 11 games listed on IFDB, including Familiar Problems, Miss Gosling’s Last Case, Scroll Thief, and most recently The Wise-Woman’s Dog, which took 2nd place in this year’s IFComp. Draconis spins their elegant code as quickly and easily as a spider spins its web, and they are the current maintainer of the Dialog language.
Both competing chefs have already amply demonstrated their ability to deliver high quality works honed to exquisite form. In this battle of craft, however, time will be a critical factor.
Each chef’s accomplishment will be built upon two pillars of capability: vision, to penetrate to the heart of the challenge ingredient and develop a creative interpretation of its essence, and speed to produce the code necessary to transform the full flower of their imagination into a working game for the judges and audience to experience.
Let us now turn our attention to the renowned experts who will be evaluating the completed dishes.
These five individuals have each been chosen for their unique blends of talent and fame in their respective histories as authors, critics and/or players. Together, they will create a crucible of judgment through which the two works fashioned by the competing chefs must pass. Unworthy works will undoubtedly melt into slag under their intense scrutiny, but those of quality will endure unscathed. I now introduce to you the premier panel of judges:
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Mike Russo (@DeusIrae) is an editor of The Rosebush, a free online magazine dedicated to publishing longer form articles about interactive fiction. He is also the third-highest ranked contributor to IFDB, and the author of Sting (winner of 2021 XYZZY Awards for Best Writing and Best Individual NPC) and The Eleusinian Miseries (which was nominated for two XYZZY Awards in 2020). He sometimes conducts Let’s Play threads on the forum for long-form games such as Counterfeit Monkey and Cragne Manor.
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Amanda Walker (@AmandaB) is author of over a dozen works of interactive fiction, including What Heart Heard Of, Ghost Guessed (which earned her the Rising Star Award in the 2021 IFComp), Fairest (winner of Best in Show for Spring Thing 2022 and the 2022 XYZZY Award for Best Story), Of Their Shadows Deep (winner of the IFDB Award for Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2022), and The Spectators (winner of the IFDB Awards for Outstanding Game of the Year 2022 - Author’s Choice and Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice).
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Rovarsson (@Rovarsson) is the #5 reviewer on IFDB and a celebrated beta tester within the IF community (in which capacity he is most famous for his strong advocacy of the command >LICK). His reviews, which cover over 300 games, invariably engage with the works on their own terms and focus on the most positive and unique aspects found within them.
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Emery Joyce (@EJoyce) is a long-time Twine author who has written or co-written over 20 games listed on IFDB, including the XYZZY and IFDB Award–winning Lady Thalia series, whose latest entry placed third in IFComp 2025. Other credits include Winter-Over (winner of the IFDB Award for Outstanding Mystery Game of 2024), Social Lycanthropy Disorder (1st place, Le Grand Guignol - English for ECTOCOMP 2020), and Die Another Day (1st Place, La Petite Mort - English for ECTOCOMP 2024). Emery has also been a prolific IF reviewer since 2011 and is the #17 reviewer on IFDB.
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Wade Clarke (@severedhand) is a devotee of what David Lynch called “The Art Life,” minus the smoking. He is the #12 reviewer on IFDB and the author of Six (which placed 2nd in IFComp 2011 and won the 2011 XYZZY Award for Best Implementation), Leadlight (winner of the Golden Banana of Discord in IFComp 2010), Leadlight Gamma (2015), and Ghosterington Night (1st place in ECTOCOMP 2012), as well as a contributor to Cragne Manor. He is currently working on Andromeda Acolytes.
Please welcome our judges as they take their seats of honor and make their opening remarks.