The Second Annual Text Adventure Authorship Competition
Administered by
[email protected]
"He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is
capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss."
- John Locke, _An Essay Concerning Human Understanding_
-=Introduction=-
Many years ago, a game was written by two people named Crowther and Woods.
The game was called, variously _Adventure_, and _Collosal Cave_. It used a
text parser that the player could communicate with by typing in commands, and
it formed the foundation of many, if not most, of today's computer games.
The interface may have changed, but deep down, many of today's gaming
conventions are holdovers from that long ago game.
Last year, a competition was held on the internet. Enthusiasts of text
based games wrote short games and posted them for others to play and enjoy.
The players voted on which game they liked best, and the games that got the
best response had their pick of prizes from a prize pool. Later, 6 of those
games were put on Activision's _Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of
Infocom_ collection, and the authors received a pretty nice payment in
return.
This year, we're going to do it again, and you have the chance to be a
part of this event. However, while last year's competition had only 12 games
entered, this year's has a grand total of 27 entries. That's more text
adventures than you can shake a stick at. To participate, just read the
section on Judging and follow the instructions there.
-=Judging=-
The judging will be a 'People's Choice Awards' type deal for the most part.
Everyone is able to vote. All you have to do is play every game that you are
able to (you are bound on your honor to play as many as possible and give
each of them an equal chance.) and then rate each game on a scale of 1 to 10,
no decimal places please. You have 2 hours in which to rate each game. At
the end of 2 hours, you should stop and rank the game immediately. You may
continue to play the game after that, but you may not change your rating of
it based upon anything you find after the 2 hours are up. Please be honest.
The site to mail votes to is:
[email protected] (Colin Turnbull)
Let's all give him a big round of applause.
Please note that this is not my address. If you email me votes I will
trash them without notice and without looking at them, because I am a big
meanie.
Messages with votes in them should have a subject header of: VOTE (unless
you are entered in the competition or served as a betatester for one of the
entries, in which case it should be MISS CONGENIALITY) Each game should be
rated on a seperate line, and you may submit multiple votes, but only the
latest dated ratings of each game will be kept.
Votes will begin to be taken on Oct. 20, and must be in by Nov 30.
Shortly thereafter, results will be announced, and prizes will begin to be
distributed to the winners. For those of you who know how much different
this timescale is from the original, please just note that there are many
more entries than were expected, so more time has to be allowed for everyone
to play them. At 2 hours apiece, that's still over 50 hours of play time
total.
Any game that does not receive at least 10 votes on it is removed from
prize consideration.
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.
Authors and official betatesters may vote, but must head their votes with
the subject: "MISS CONGENIALITY VOTE" so that the counter is able to seperate
them. These votes will be counted towards an author's best of show choice.
The winner will receive a copy of "The Interactive Writer's Handbook",
donated by me.
The Prizes Pool:
$75.00 cash, donated by Martin Braun.
"Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer", by Tim Hartnell.
Copyright 1984, donated by Matthew Amster-Burton.
The original sketch of the "Path to Fortune" map, donated by
Christopher E. Forman.
A registered copy of "Lost New York" (which includes on-screen hints,
a manual, and some goodies), donated by the author, Neil deMause.
5 copies of the book: "Computer Adventures - The Secret Art", donated
by the author, Gil Williamson.
A PC copy of the Magnetic Scrolls Collection which includes Fish,
Corruption and the Guild of Thieves, donated by Colm McCarthy.
"One-of-a-kind deluxe scraps of paper with stuff written on them"
registered version of "The Light: Shelby's Addendum", signed, with
hint sheets and maps, and a whole mess of scribblings that no-one
in their right mind would ever want, donated by Colm McCarthy.
One free copy of "Avalon", whenever it's done, donated by the
author, me, as if you didn't know.
Cecilia Barajas of Activision (Author of Zork Nemesis) has donated
the following items:
A copy of "Lost Treasures of Infocom vols. 1 and 2." (to be awarded
as a matched set.)
A copy of "Zork Nemesis."
A Zork Nemesis t-shirt
Andrew C. Plotkin (Last Year's Inform Winner) offers the awardee's
choice of:
A) Dinner at a (pretty) fine restaurant in the Washington, DC area,
with me, plus hours of fine conversation on the art of
interactive fiction or other topics as desired.
or
B) $20.00 cash (US), plus I'll email you some of my old posts from
r.a.i-f.
Lastly, assuming that:
1) We have at least 20 entries in the competition. (By that, I
mean 20 valid, on-time, non-disqualified entries.)
2) At least 5 of the entries are done by female authors.
Then Christopher Forman will also award five free registrations of
"Circle of Armageddon", Volume 2 of "The Windhall Chronicles".
Thank you to all prize contributors for helping to make this yeat's
contest a reality.
-=Revised Time Table=-
October 20, 1996 - Votes will begin to be accepted at:
[email protected]
November 30, 1996 - The voting account will close. No further votes will be
accepted after midnight on this date. (Midnight for the person whose
account this is. Save yourself grief and vote early.)
December 1-5, 1996 - The winners of the competition will be announced at
various places of interest on the internet.
-=Legalese=-
All games entered in this year's competition are freeware. You may play
any of them without being expected to pay a fee, mail a postcard, or even
blow your nose.
All games are copyrights of the respective authors. I make no claims on
them, but I do disclaim that any games that violate another's copyrights are
in violation of the rules set down for this competition.
-=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.
