The top three games were from established authors, but I think this may have been CobwebbedDragon’s first game, so that deserves a special mention.
Three of the top five games were Adventuron games, so Adventuron is still going strong.
Congratulations to all the winners. As I’m both an organiser and a prize donor, I’m not eligible for a prize, so the prizes will be distributed to the 2nd to 5th place getters. You will be contacted to organise your prize payments a.s.a.p.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the competition, whether author, judge or prize donor. This was the first game jam/competition that I’ve organised and @pinkunz was great to work with as co-organiser. Everything ran smoothly and we had a lot of fun along the way.
I’d also like to thank @aschultz for his reviews and support. It was much appreciated.
I’m hoping that @adventuron can return to organise next year’s comp, but if he’s too busy, we’ll make sure this continues as an annual event for the forseeable future. Maybe a little earlier next year to avoid the overlap with ParserComp. We shall see.
Any comments or feedback on this year’s comp, or suggestions for the 4th Text Adventure Literacy Jam in 2024 are welcome.
Thank you to everyone who played and rated our games! And thank you @aschultz for taking the time to write thoughtful reviews for each of them!
The purpose of the jam - introducing text adventures to beginners and young people - is very meaningful to me. I’m a working mom of two young kids so I don’t have the time to make text adventures all year, like I wish I could, but I have really loved having this be a yearly activity for me the last 3 years. I expect to be back next year and I would love to see even more competition!
My personal favorite submission for this jam is Rex Mundane’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich game. I laughed out loud multiple times while playing it, and it left a wonderful taste in my mouth, so to speak.
The other winners are all fantastically good writers, and the implementation this year was very sound. Definitely a good mix of games to play through. Congratulations to you all!
It was, but for an aborted attempt at an incomplete game a few years ago on which I gave up after completing only about 15% of the game. So you can imagine my pride this afternoon at hearing that I placed in this competition .
Thanks to everyone that took the time to play and rate my game, and especially to everyone that took time to feed back to me. As very much a novice at writing my own games, that’s been the most invaluable thing about the competition for me. I’ll be making some post-competition updates in July and then, with renewed motivation, revisiting the adventure I previously abandoned.
I also had a great time playing everyone else’s game, too, so wherever you placed in the competition, thank you for sharing your work for all of us to enjoy.
Thanks @Warrigal and @Grizel for the hat tips (and congrats both on the well deserved high placing!) I really enjoyed writing the reviews, and I think it’s the first time I’d gotten things done so far in advance, with over half of the comp left.
TALP has been good to me in terms of motivating me to write reviews and insipration for writing my own stuff. This isn’t the first time I mentioned the original (2021) edition pulled me back in. So I’m glad to give back. And also to say, for those who can’t wait another year for the next ParserComp, I hope you enjoy the entries from 2022 and 2021.
Whoever hosts it next year will do a good job! Given the average votes per entry was well above 2022 and 2021, that’s a great sign going forward that there’s interest from readers/players/judges, and something’s being built here.
I imagine there must’ve been some fear at submitting something like that, worrying it was too meta. But I legitimately can say, having played a lot of games, it filled a need I didn’t know was there & it feels like something people could build on. Your new perspective would’ve been appreciated even if it hadn’t been well-designed.
The people who placed ahead of you all placed really highly in previous TALPs for what it’s worth. (Dee placed #1 in 2022, Tristin #1 and #3 in 2021, and Garry most certainly won some comp I am forgetting.) I hope you find the inspiration to finish your abandoned adventure or, maybe, complete a new one! If you’re looking to submit it for IFComp, I think a lot of people would be willing to help, especially based on your performance here.
Yeah, this didn’t surprise me. I think the average quality was very high. Your entry didn’t feel bottom-half, that’s for sure. But on the other hand, I’d feel very wrong saying entry X above you should’ve placed lower, and not just because that’s a mean thing to say in general.
Congratulations for all this comp organizers, supporters, authors, players, etc. Specially I want to congratulatr Garry about his first place. Happy BIG game!
Congratulations to all the authors this year. I’m working my way through the entries as a player and have been impressed by all of them. A high bar with some really user-friendly games on offer - exactly what is needed to bring new people into the hobby.
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