Welcome to the 25th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition! Eighty-two brand-new IF works await your play and judgment. Yes, this does indeed set a new record for the most titles that IFComp has seen in one year.





As a special treat this year, we commissioned artist Maia Kobabe to create this commemorative cartoon for the IFComp number 25, depicting a blessed space-computer surrounded by signifiers of past competition winners. (You may recognize Maia’s hand from the IF Archive 25th anniversary celebration in 2017. This has been a rich demi-decade for quarter-century anniversaries in the interactive fiction world!)

Whether you enjoy IFComp games on the pockmarked lunar surface, in the cozy comforts of home, or anywhere in between, we hope that you’ll join us as a judge this year.

Anyone can be a judge, and we want as many judges as possible! Just play and rate at least five games before November 15, 2019. (Yep, that’s all. Five. Just five. Don’t let the number of entries overwhelm you.) Read the rules, guidelines, and FAQ about judging IFComp, and then dig into the games.

More news for this year’s comp-opening:

We’ve added another long-requested feature to the ballot this year: it now randomizes the order of its displayed games, by default. You may hit the “Alphabetize” button at the top of the game-list to put the titles into a more predictable order, if you wish. And as always, logged-in judges get an additional “Personal shuffle” button that displays the games in an order unique to each judge. Give it a try!





The IF Community Forum at intfiction.org received a complete overhaul earlier this year. Not only does it run on a completely new platform, but it now operates as a publicly funded program of IFTF, IFComp’s parent organization.



Check out the new IFComp sub-forum here, and feel free to discuss your experiences with the competition amongst a friendly crowd.





This year’s Colossal Fund passed its halfway mark last week! If you’ve already contributed – thank you so much! We’d love to get that blue line all the way to the right by the time judging ends on November 15, and we sincerely appreciate every contribution. (Which, as we never tire of reminding you, is tax-deductible where allowed by law.)



That’s all for now. Have a great IFComp!