Now that the Spring Thing festival has drawn to a close, I’d like to recognize the hard work of authors and dedication of reviewers, but also heartily thank everyone who submitted ribbon nominations!
The audience awards are such a fun and unique part of Spring Thing and were one of my biggest motivations to participate. Looking at the the updated page, I’m seeing so many ribbons full of appreciation and humour, which is a real delight.
I loved every award that my game received and had a very hard time choosing a final set; I was very touched by ribbons praising different aspects of the game, and there were also a couple of humorous ones that I really appreciated (Most Bashing, Hardest Words and Least Action )
I sent out several ribbons myself in hopes that they would bring some joy to other authors, but I regretfully didn’t have time to get to every game… I hope we see more and more ribbons given out in future years as new folks join the community and find games they love.
I’d like to hear from anyone else who has ribbon appreciation to share! Are there any (featured on your entry or not) that made you laugh or feel appreciated?
I didn’t submit any because I assumed participants weren’t allowed to vote (whoops). We’re incredibly grateful to have received quite a few, which meant we had a hell of a time picking; we were torn between Cutest Illustrations (<3) and Best Art, but went with Best Art in the end because it felt a bit broader (icons are art too!)
I’m especially chuffed to have gotten a nomination for Best Worldbuilding as someone who, to be honest, is terribly sceptical of the whole endeavour. I tend to think of what I do as more about evoking an atmosphere than a “world”, because “world” to me implies a totality, an exhaustive catalogue of the setting’s politics, economy, religion, flora and fauna, toilet paper brands… but yeah, still, it’s nice to know that my approach (focus on the good ol’ reliables of setting, characters, and themes and the rest will figure itself out) has merit.
Many times over the past two years and nine months as I worked on a v2.0 update of my first Inform game I asked myself “Why are you doing this?”
These three ribbons were a wonderful, unanticipated surprise and, along with the lovely reviews thatpeoplewrote, made me view the whole effort in a different light. Thanks again to everyone who played, reviewed, and voted.
Now, on to my next game (hopefully it won’t take another three and a half years ).
Anais and I couldn’t agree over “Best Drama” versus “Best Murder Mystery”, because they see Loose Ends primarily as a drama and I see it primarily as a murder mystery. Drama won out in the end!
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