Thanks for the vote of confidence in Fairest, but I predict Bones of Rosalinda and Computerfriend, if number of reviews and amount of chatter (and my personal preferences) are any guide.
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FAIREST
I really liked how the author woven these fairy tale threads into the whole finished tapestry.
The game is well-written, newbie-friendly and almost every character (and there are a lot of them) have their own story to tell. As in many fairy tales there is cruelty in it (not so much) but I could not find a way to prevent it. So not every character gets a happy ending. Anyway, this is a good example of how traditional fiction could be turned into interactive.
No doubt this is one of my most favorite games in this comp. Highly recommended.
One question I couldn’t answer: is there true end of this story?
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Thanks for playing and reviewing my game! There is no “true” end (at least not one that I intended when I wrote it). There are two “good” endings for Prince Conrad out of the 13, but I don’t consider any of the endings the true ending. I certainly don’t mind if readers come to their own conclusions, though.
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Absolutely! I am happy with my choice 
.Thank you again for the game!
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Thanks! That said, I am pretty sure that the ribbons will go to Fairest and The Bones of Rosalinda, which are both very deserving.
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…Amanda is too modest - I’m pretty confident Fairest is a good bet for Best In Show (curse her for flaunting her considerable talent in this public arena). Otherwise, The Bones of Rosalinda stands out as an impressive piece of work, for its implementation apart from anything else - although I’ve barely scratched the surface of it.
There are masses that I haven’t managed to play yet because, really, I’m terrible at finding the time to play games and if I do, I’m even worse at seeing them through to the end. So maybe there are more likely candidates amongst those I haven’t seen yet. The ones that stick in my mind are the ones where the writing was engaging enough to keep me ploughing on through to the end (Filthy Aunt Mildred, Sweetpea, Digit, Lady Thalia and the Rose of Rocroi amongst them). I’d like to get to The Hole Man, Hypercubic Time-Warp All-go-rhythmic Synchrony and A Single Ouroboros Scale at least, before I’m done, as what I’ve heard about them from the reviews intrigues me.
Thanks is definitely due to all those diligent reviewers playing through the games in my stead (like the incredible, baby-juggling / game-reviewing juggernaut that is Mike Russo) and helping me decide what to focus on amongst all the distractions on offer!
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Alas, my wife has informed me the baby-juggling hobby needs to be brought in for a landing, but at least that means more time for IF!
Christopher’s list above seems right to me, and I’d also add Custard and Mustard to the list - on its own merits, I hasten to add, not just because he’s sucking up to the reviewer (I’m doing beta test reviews once I’m done with the rest of the main festival – then Back Garden – so I’ll give reasons soon enough, but for now just trust me!) I think New Year’s Eve, 2019 is also one to watch, and I’m intensely curious about the Fall of Asemia, which is next-to-last on my list but has a neat blurb and quite the pedigree (it’s by the winner of last year’s IF Comp).
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I’ve said it before: I’ve seen this movie. Y’all get the nerdy misfit girl to believe she’ll be prom queen, get her up on stage, then throw a bucket of pig blood on her. Not falling for it.
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Darn!
Well, my granny’s recipe for black pudding calls for exactly 1 (one) bucket of pig blood. Now I just have to gather up some onions, apples, parsley, oats and assorted spices. And pig fat.
Since you’ve seen the movie, this way no pig’s blood will be wasted on a prank that’s already spoilt.
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It’s always interesting seeing predictions for winners, and I don’t have anything to add that to the names already being thrown around and the excellent analysis above, but I also wanted to say that winners of all IF competitions tend to be long games that appeal to everyone, with non-offensive, generally humorous or witty content, mild-to-moderate puzzles and good dialogue.
This is pretty similar to the formula for Marvel movies (with combat/conflict replacing puzzles), which I enjoy, but many authors don’t set out to make a game like that. Instead, they want to express some deep anguish of the soul, or make something creepy, or make a very short game that people can enjoy, or have very hard puzzles, or try out some cool experiment.
These games often don’t get the big recognition of the winners, but I really appreciate them. That’s why I like the ribbon system, where you can nominate anyone for anything, and I hope that everyone will make sure to nominate games for those ‘bonus’ ribbons if they made an impression on you in any way, even if they’re not ‘number one’.
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I have an eye at ifdb voting dates but it is curious that generally these rankings doesn’t match what you can see in any comp.
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Maybe I didn’t understand what you’re saying correctly, but @cchennnn crunched the numbers for IFComp last year and found that the IFDB rank was actually a really good predictor of the final rankings. See IFComp score predictions: 2018-2021 - #30 by cchennnn
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I have followed votings for some games in ifdb and I don’t feel the same.
This spreadsheet is very big. I have to study it closely. Thank you. I have missed it.
It’s probably a good predictor for Spring Thing as well, up to a point. The winners last year (The Weight of a Soul and Fish and Dagger) were first and fourth out of the 37 entries based on IFDB ranking. That definitely leaves room for an upset though, especially since there’s fewer IFDB votes per game this time around.
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Futile. The Q’udzlth from Hinterlands: Marooned will devour all games (and their authors) and claim all ribbons.
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My immediate reaction to this was “but Spring Thing was so active this year!” My initial impression was that a bunch of votes came in after the comp, and there were a few (hooray for people giving things another look post-comp!) but they didn’t change that, yeah, there were more votes per game. Perhaps that’s a function of having more games this year.
Or (and I wasn’t around for last year) maybe a function of having no clear runaway top tier, so there’s not a lot of buzz around one particular game?
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All good observations! I think it’s also that most of the activity this year has come from the authors themselves, many of whom are choosing to embargo their reviews until after the comp. I expect the IFDB reviews and ratings to match if not exceed last year’s once the Thing is over.
I can’t remember if the restrictions about negatively discussing other works were in play last year, but one way or another the authors are much more involved this time around. Personally I’m happy with the tradeoff, it’s been really fun this year!
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The rules about negatively discussing other works were definitely in play last year, and I think have been in play for quite a few years prior to this.
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From what I understand, the awards are more of a straight vote, and not a rating competition like IFComp, right? That would probably weigh it heavily towards games that can be played online, are easy to get running, etc.
Uh, my guesses are Computerfriend and Fairest. Not original but if I call it hey I get to say I called it.
e: okay how actually do these ribbon nominations work? Is it straight votes for the two most popular get Best in Show and then anybody who was nominated for anything gets that unless the organizer deems it troll/inappropriate?
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