The 2017 Spring Thing* Festival of Interactive Fiction * or Fall Fooferal, for our Southern Hemisphere Friends

Spring Thing is an annual online festival celebrating new interactive fiction from all kinds of people. Everyone is welcome!

What’s Happening Next?

September 28, 2016 : Site for 2017 Thing launches; intents to enter now open.

: Site for 2017 launches; intents to enter now open. March 9, 2017 : Deadline for authors' intents to enter.

: Deadline for authors' intents to enter. April 3, 2017 : Deadline for games to be submitted.

: Deadline for games to be submitted. April 6, 2017 : Festival opens and entries available to play. Ribbon nominations open.

: Festival opens and entries available to play. Ribbon nominations open. May 5, 2017: Nominations close. Ribbon winners have been announced!

About the Thing

Held annually since 2002, Spring Thing is a smaller, more informal counterweight to the busier fall Interactive Fiction Competition. Originally a ranked competition for parser IF, the Thing today puts the focus more on bringing authors together to celebrate new text games in many different formats: choice-based stories, gamebooks, hypertext fictions, visual novels, text adventures, narrative roguelikes, and wild new experiments. Spring Thing especially welcomes diverse voices and populations traditionally underrepresented in gaming, including women, people of color, queer folks, and blind, neuro-diverse, or disabled creators. People from all walks of life should feel encouraged to participate as players, authors, or reviewers. Games in the Main Festival can be nominated for two "ribbons": an Audience Choice ribbon, which anyone can nominate a game for, and an Alumni's Choice ribbon given by past participants. Prize donors also gift fun, unique prizes, which every entrant has a chance to receive. Welcome! From the rest of the site you can find out how to submit an entry, play the games, or donate a prize.

What’s New?

There are a few minor rules and conduct clarifications for this year's Thing. Depending on how many alumni vote, there may be multiple Alumni's Choice ribbons. If there is a tie in alumni nominations between the Audience Choice winner and another game, the Alumni ribbon will go to the other game. The organizer (as an alumni) reserves the right to cast a vote in the case of a three- or more way tie.

We have clarified that Main Festival games should be digital interactive fictions; more experimental text games are welcome in the Back Garden.

We have added the guideline (though not an official rule) that authors of a game in the festival should avoid reviewing other festival games until the festival has closed. Starting in 2015, the Thing changed formats. The current requirements for entry can be found on the Submit page.

IF Resources

Special Thanks