From: whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson) Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction Subject: Announcing the 3rd Annual I-F Competition Date: 16 Mar 1997 18:19:04 GMT ---> I marked subsequent changes like this paragraph. ---> The complete, current version of the rules can be viewed at ---> http://www.afn.org/~afn55673/contest/ ---> Volker Blasius, 04apr97 Folks, please crosspost this message to relevant newsgroups, websites, and your local computer club. The more the merrier. Announcing the Third Annual Text Adventure Authorship Competition Administered by whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu "Third time's the charm." -Most Common Programmer Saying, right after "&$%&^@%!!" Text adventures still exist and thrive on the Internet. If you enjoyed Zork, Trinity, Corruption, or any of the many other text based games put out in the 70's and 80's, then I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that. You'll be even happier when you find out that there is an annual competition on the Internet to see who can write the best text adventure, and that you can enter it, or judge the entries, for free. -=The Rules=- This year's competition is a bit different in that the rules are stricter and better defined. Violaters of any rule will be given a warning the first time, and disqualified if a second transgression is made. Sorry for the harsh crackdown, but it seems to be neccessary to ensure a tranquil and pleasant competition for all. 1. Any text adventure you enter must be winnable in under two hours. The judges are only allowed to play it that long before quitting and rating it. This is to ensure small games, and encourage authors to enter who might feel intimidated going up against a huge game. 2. All games must be entirely your own creations. You may parody established works, but you may not, for example, write a game based on Sherlock Holmes. This avoids the entire issue of copyright and the ethics involved. 3. All entries MUST be freeware or public domain. So don't enter a game you've worked on for 2 years if you don't want to give it away. No shareware, no donorware, no commercial products, etc. Only clear and free games. 4. All entries must be previously unreleased at the opening of voting. If an entry has previously been circulated, it will be disqualified. If you are unsure whether your game fails to meet this rule, please ask me. ---> Rule 5 below was dropped - "too much confusion for too little return". 5. Your game must not have your name listed anywhere in, or associated with it. Entries will have pseudonyms in the form of author numbers assigned to them, and everyone will be sent a legalese boilerplate to put into the start of their game to protect their copyrights. Copyrights will be retained by the authors, whose names will be on registry with the Annual I-F competition organizer (i.e. Me.) ---> Rule 5 above was dropped - "too much confusion for too little return". 6. Authors of a competition entry may not discuss the entries in a public Internet forum while the voting is open. This means don't post about your entry (or anyone else's) on a newsgroup until the deadline for voting has passed. -= Procedures and Recommendations =- 1. It is recommended that you enclose a complete text walkthrough with your game. With a walkthrough, I can doublecheck your entry to ensure that it is winnable, and judges can get by hard puzzles to see the rest of your game. 2. The entry may be written in any programming language, including any of the text adventure creation utilities available (such as TADS, Inform, AGT, or Alan, to name a few.) If your game is unplayable, then it won't receive enough votes to be eligable for prizes. (See Judging.) 3. Multiple entries by the same author are fine, so long as all entries meet all the rules above. Let me just close this with a caveat emptor. You will likely be better off investing more time in a single entry rather than trying to finish two. 4. To enter this year, you must e-mail me by September 1, 1997, with your intent to enter. ---> The following sentence was dropped together with rule 5 above. I will assign you an author number, and a telnet-accessed e-mail address that you can receive feedback on your game at until the voting period has ended. ---> The preceding sentence was dropped together with rule 5 above. 5. You will need to e-mail me your entry privately, either through e-mail (as a uuencoded file) or some other arrangement that you will have to work out with me. The entries must be received by September 30th, 1997. No entries will be accepted after this date. -=Judging=- The Judging system this year is still in debate. With the large number of entries last year, it is unsure whether the old system will continue to work. I want to continue the people's choice award method, but I think it suffers if people are only grading a partial set of the entries. I am very reluctant to do the judging in stages, with semi-finals and all that garbage. It's too much work, quite frankly. A small number of registered judges may be the only way to go, if not the most distasteful to me. I will attempt to resolve this situation by April, or May at the latest. -=Awarding of Prizes=- 1. The winner will be the game with the highest average score. Each winner will have a draft pick to choose a prize of his/her choice until there are no longer any prizes left. Tied entrants who both select the same prize will be decided between by a flip of the coin, the loser receiving his second choice. The Prizes So Far Include: None so far. If you would like to donate a prize for this year's competition, please contact me as soon as possible with your prize. The competition is dependent on prize donations from interested parties to boost interest and the number of entrants. However, this year I will be attempting to have trophies made for the first three places. This is likely to be a fairly expensive prospect, so donations of money (or trophy-making talents) are needed this year as well. -=Online Resources=- Lastly, for those of you unfamiliar with the online resources available to text adventure authors, here are some interesting sources. ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/ Main directory for the interactive fiction (text adventure) archive. It is mirrored at several sites, but the info escapes me for the moment. ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/ The location of several programs designed to help authors write text adventures. I recommend TADS, Inform, Hugo, Alan, or AGT, particularly the first two: TADS and Inform. Please see the relevant directories for further info. ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/authorship-guide.base The main document for Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship. This is something I wrote to give ideas to prospective authors, mostly dealing with the non-technical aspects of writing text adventures. ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/Craft.Of.Adventure.txt A file by Graham Nelson also discussing the less technical aspects of how to write text adventures. Included is a Player's Bill of Rights that is very useful. ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/Index A filelist that lists numerous other helpful files for new text adventure authors to peruse. Newsgroups: REC.ARTS.INT-FICTION For the use of text adventure authors in discussing the mechanics and other important topics of text adventure creation. Important contest announcements will be posted here. REC.GAMES.INT-FICTION For the players of text adventures to discuss games and hints, and to buy/sell used text adventures. -- = SPAG Magazine = Issues 1-9 at ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/magazines/SPAG = = All = Ratings = Issue 10 coming soon. It's the = = About = Reviews = 1996 I-F Competition Issue. = = Text Adventures = News! = Editor: whizzard@pobox.com =