XYZZY awards 2020, final round open

[nilsf (Nils Fagerburg)]

The final round is open for voting. Vote here.

The nominees are:

Best Game:

• The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
• Tavern Crawler (Josh Labelle)
• Vain Empires (Thomas Mack, Xavid)
• Vampire: The Masquerade – Night Road (Kyle Marquis)

Best Writing:

• Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale (Kreg Segall)
• Limerick Quest (Pace Smith)
• A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
• Scents & Semiosis (Sam Kabo Ashwell, Cat Manning, Caleb Wilson, Yoon Ha Lee)
• Stuff of Legend (Lance Campbell)

Best Story:

• Electric word, “life” (Lance Nathan)
• The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• Lore Distance Relationship (Naomi “Bez” Norbez)
• A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
• Stuff of Legend (Lance Campbell)
• Tavern Crawler (Josh Labelle)
• Vain Empires (Thomas Mack, Xavid)

Best Setting:

• Ascension of Limbs (AKheon)
• The Eleusinian Miseries (Mike Russo)
• The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale (Kreg Segall)
• The Magpie Takes the Train (MathBrush)
• A Murder in Fairyland (Abigail Corfman)
• A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
• Shadow Operative (Michael Lauenstein)
• Vain Empires (Thomas Mack, Xavid)

Best Puzzles:

• The Eleusinian Miseries (Mike Russo)
• The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• JELLY (Tom Lento, Chandler Groover)
• A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
• Sage Sanctum Scramble (Arthur DiBianca)
• Seasonal Apocalypse Disorder (Zan, Xavid)
• Stuff of Legend (Lance Campbell)
• Vain Empires (Thomas Mack, Xavid)

Best NPCs:

• The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale (Kreg Segall)
• The Magpie Takes the Train (MathBrush)
• A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
• Stuff of Legend (Lance Campbell)
• Tavern Crawler (Josh Labelle)

Best Individual Puzzle:

• Cow tipping in Seasonal Apocalypse Disorder (Zan, Xavid)
• Following the cat through the forest in Stuff of Legend (Lance Campbell)
• Leaving the house in The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• Registering the game in Crocodracula: The Beginning (Ryan Veeder)

Best Individual NPC:

• Kingfisher in Vain Empires (Thomas Mack, Xavid)
• The parrot in The Magpie Takes the Train (MathBrush)
• Sassy Britches in Stuff of Legend (Lance Campbell)
• Sister in Lore Distance Relationship (Naomi “Bez” Norbez)

Best Individual PC:

• The Demon in Vain Empires (Thomas Mack, Xavid)
• The doppelganger in Doppeljobs (Lei)
• Elizabeth Boldan in Sense of Harmony (Scenario World)
• Ichabod Stuff in Stuff of Legend (Lance Campbell)
• Magpie in The Magpie Takes the Train (MathBrush)
• Open Sorcerer in A Murder in Fairyland (Abigail Corfman)

Best Implementation:

• 4×4 Galaxy (Agnieszka Trzaska)
• The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• Limerick Quest (Pace Smith)
• The Magpie Takes the Train (MathBrush)
• A Murder in Fairyland (Abigail Corfman)
• A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
• Several Other Tales from Castle Balderstone (Ryan Veeder)

Best Use of Innovation:

• The Cursèd Pickle of Shireton (Hanon Ondricek)
• The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
• JELLY (Tom Lento, Chandler Groover)
• A Murder in Fairyland (Abigail Corfman)
• The Prongleman Job (Arthur DiBianca)
• Sense of Harmony (Scenario World)
• Shadow Operative (Michael Lauenstein)

Best Technological Development:

• Adventuron
• Dialog

Best Use of Multimedia:

• Babyface (Mark Sample)
• Congee (Becci)
• Crocodracula: The Beginning (Ryan Veeder)
• A Murder in Fairyland (Abigail Corfman)
• Present Quest (Errol Elumir)
• Sense of Harmony (Scenario World)
• Shadow Operative (Michael Lauenstein)

[8bitAG (Strident)]

Voting page is throwing up a ton of PHP errors when you click submit.

[nilsf (Nils Fagerburg)]

That happened to me as well. However when I reloaded the page all of my choices were preselected so my votes seemed to have been recorded anyway.

[HanonO (Hanon Ondricek)]

@nilsf

Best Technological Development:

• Adventuron
• Dialog

I would just like to vote YES on both of these. Often Technological is a category with a clear winner, but we’ve been graced with two robust and unique new IF systems in the same year.

[DougOrleans]

Thank you for assembling all the links!

[patrick_mooney]

This happened to me on voting too – but in my case, they were all actually PHP warnings, not errors, and it says “Votes successfully entered” in red. Not sure if that’s what’s happening to other people, though.

[fredrik (Fredrik Ramsberg)]

@HanonO

I would just like to vote YES on both of these. Often Technological is a category with a clear winner, but we’ve been graced with two robust and unique new IF systems in the same year.

Well, Dialog was introduced in 2018 and won the XYZZY for best technological development for that year: 2018 XYZZY Awards, final results | The XYZZY Awards

What you’re voting on now is if the new developments in Dialog released in 2020 warrant an XYZZY award.

And Adventuron was introduced in 2019, AFAIK.

[HanonO (Hanon Ondricek)]

You’re right @fredrik, I’m stupid. I apologize that everything from around the beginning of 2020 kind of all blurs together.

[Laziram]

Glad I wasn’t the only one to get the scary list of errors. Not a great look for such an important contest, this may mean lots of people try to resubmit their votes too…

[Zed (Zed Lopez)]

oh, hey, results. Congrats everyone!

https://xyzzyawards.org/?p=565

Best Game: Vampire: The Masquerade (Kyle Marquis)
Best Writing: Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale (Kreg Segall)
Best Story: A Rope of Chalk (Ryan Veeder)
Best Setting: Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale (Kreg Segall)
Best Puzzles: The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
Best NPCs: Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale (Kreg Segall)
Best Individual Puzzle: Leaving the house in The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
Best Individual NPC: tie: the parrot in The Magpie Takes the Train (MathBrush), and Kingfisher in Vain Empires (Thomas Mack, Xavid)
Best Individual PC: The doppelganger in Doppeljobs (Lei)
Best Implementation: The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
Best Use of Innovation: The Impossible Bottle (Linus Åkesson)
Best Technological Development: Adventuron
Best Use of Multimedia: Crocodracula: The Beginning (Ryan Veeder, Harrison Gerard)

[fos1]

Great results. All well deserved!