The Emily Short Anniversary Contest (Concluded)

Competitions
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Here’s a brief overview:

Best Works:
Counterfeit Monkey (#1 on Interactive Fiction Top 50 of All Time 2019, XYZZY Best Game, #1 on IFDB Top 100, etc.)
Galatea (NPC conversation game, breakout piece)
Savoir Faire (big period piece puzzler, her first XYZZY Best Game winner)
Bronze (a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, one of the first Inform 7 games)
Alabaster (conversational collaborative Snow White game)
First Draft of the Revolution (an html game that helped inspire Twine features)

Tools
Wrote Inform 7 with Graham Nelson (including doing all of the dozens of examples in the documentation, I believe)
Wrote 38 of the 132 Inform extensions listed at https://i7el.herokuapp.com/

Community Interaction
Wrote many, many reviews, first on Usenet, then IFDB and intfiction and her blog.
Gives talks, answers mailbag questions, etc.

Common themes in her work include conversation, fairy tales, complex mechanics and simulation, and experimental forms of IF.

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I have an idea for a game, but no idea whether I’ll have the time and energy to make it.

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Me too! In fact I’m almost sure I won’t have the time and energy to fulfill my idea.

Hmm, I just thought of an idea that would combine my brand as Best of Three liker and one of my previous works:

You play as the waiter who has to make Grant’s ridiculous tea order.

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That’s interesting feedback to hear from the two of you. My main idea for the comp was for people to make pieces honoring her work, since I thought someone should do it and I also didn’t have time for it (I have to finish last year’s IFComp prize as well as a CMG tribute game I’m making). So if either of you eventually made your games, I think that would be a win!

I hope that some people will be able to make it in time, though. The Parser Comp and the first Veeder Comp both had similar time frames and ended up with incredible winning games, so we’ll see!

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That day I will be in CET time zone. Deadline when?

That sentence piqued my curiosity in the same way a nuke lights a cigarette. Is there another contest going on?

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The Second Quadrennial Ryan Veeder Exposition for Good Interactive Fiction was recently announced, with a note to “the intfiction.org set” that:

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The games will be due at Midnight EST.

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I’d really like to participate. I am not good with committing to things so I don’t know whether that will turn into an entry.

EDITED TO ADD: Actually, I just had an idea for this that appeals to me. So that makes it a little more likely.

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I’ve got works in progress that were intended as entries to competitions whose deadlines are distant memories. Anyone remember the contest to make an updated version of Scott Adams’ Ghost Town? I worked on my entry on and off for about five years. I also can’t leave Speed-IF entries alone, I have to polish them into full-sized works. So I might enter this celebration of Ms Short, but don’t expect to see anything for at least half a decade.

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Perfect!

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What a nice idea and a wonderful gesture, well done sir for putting this together (and coming up with it in the first place). :+1:

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Is this competition going ahead? I might throw my name in the hat.

Adam

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Yes! It’s still on schedule and going strong. I’d look forward to anything you put out!

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Thanks! What’s the deadline and how/where can I enter please?

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I’ll post an e-mail to send in your submissions on March 1, and it will be open until the 24th.

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Ooh. I’m up for this. Expect a submission!

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Sounds great!

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Just another reminder, there’s a little more than 2.5 months before the contest begins. If you need some ideas, don’t forget to consider:

Conversational Mechanics
Fairy Tales
Physics Modeling
Procedural Generation

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This is your monthly reminder!

The contest will start on March 24th, so after Ryan Veeder’s Exposition and five days before the deadline for Spring Thing.

The games won’t be publicly released until after the judging period (which ends after Spring Thing begins), so you could submit your Emily Short Anniversary Contest game to Spring Thing and fall within the rules for both competitions.

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Update:

Due to a generous donation, we now have cash prizes available for the competition:

1st place: $100
2nd place: $75
3rd place: $50

Reminder that all forms of interactive fiction that celebrate Short’s work are allowed. Good luck!

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