I know there have been threads about this in past years, although the only one I was able to re-locate was from 2021. What are some similarities you’ve noticed between Comp games this year?
So far, I’ve found:
Two Miss Waterfowl titles (Miss Duckworthy’s School for Magic-Infested Young People and Miss Gosling’s Last Case.)
No McBoat coefficient this year 
There are a good number of road vehicles, though. And a few spacecraft!
Three Dialog games, which is more than in any past year!
I was amused by the thought of the massive multi-author collaboration with “only” 8 authors thinking “ah, we must have the IFComp collaboration record now” or “uh oh, is 8 authors too many” seeing the one with even more and thinking aw shucks or “what were we worried about?”
In reality they probably just had a lot of fun cooperating and so forth.
I’m looking forward to them both as there are author names I recognize favorably in each.
The rest are more superficial:
Did nobody else throw in a secret boat mode?
Isn’t parochialism nor national pride, but I note that there’s three Italian authors…
Aschultz: also “Breakfast in the Dolomites” tributes the 80s Italian light comedy flicks.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
I count four Italians…
Where Nothing Is Ever Named and A Very Strong Gland both revolve around manipulating unknown objects, ala The Gostak.
That was my favorite graphic, I think. Along with the giant fireball when you brew tea.
Both BOSH and Miss Gosling’s Last Case have root cellars.
At least two games (I believe maze gallery and dragon of silverton mine, iirc) contain the “what walks on four legs in the morning, etc” riddle!
Add Verses to this list as well, but with “interpreting” rather than “manipulating.”
No McBoat coefficient this year
Did nobody else throw in a secret boat mode?
If you run 2,401 laps around the sushi counter in “Rod McSchlong Gets Punched in the Dong” and collect all of the leprechaun’s gold coins, you can unlock “Goat McBoat Gets to Float in the Moat”
McBoat is real 2401
Edgar Allan Poe references:
There are probably a lot more that I didn’t notice, even in games that I’ve already played. For instance, I feel like Maze Gallery has especially high odds of having such a reference somewhere in it, given the subject and scope of the game.
Dang! The original version of BOSH featured Ezra Gaunt, winner of the Baltimore County Edgar Allen Poe Trivia Contest. Now I wish I’d left him in.
I wondered if there would be this year another entry overtly about Poe, since he and his works are such popular subject matter.
Also, I worked hard to have it ready for last year’s comp. I’m glad I didn’t, for no other reason than my title and Dr. Ludwig and the Devil both involve, well, the Devil.
Both A Dream Of Silence: Act 3 and First Contact include a “teddy bear” in high fantasy settings.
In my test report of the latter I noted that the name looks very 20th Century Earth and suggested using something like toy bear or plush bear. The author provided solid reasons for keeping it, and even without them it’s not a big deal, it seems.
I was going to say ditto A Death in Hyperspace for sci-fi, but on going back and looking, Mr. Num-Nums is a plush rabbit.