







The Spring Thing is an annual competition for interactive fiction (IF) computer games. It was started by Adam Cadre, who ran it during 2002 and 2003. After a brief hiatus, Spring Thing was revived in 2005.



On May 11, 2014, voting ended on the titles in competition. The results are below. Thanks to all the entrants, and thanks to all the voters!

Results

Place Game Author Avg. Std. Dev. No. Votes Prize Chosen 1 The Price of Freedom: Innocence Lost Briar Rose 6.50 2.57 18 $550 2 Surface Geoff Moore 6.44 1.42 18 $300 3 Through Time MC Book 6.10 2.45 21 $100 4 A Game of Life and Death Kiel Farren 5.86 2.77 22 $50 5 Bear Creek, Part 1 Wes Modes 5.82 1.59 17 Procedural novel 6 The Wyldkynd Project Robert DeFord 5.70 1.64 10 Cryptozookeeper 7 The Story of Mr. P. Hannes Schüller 4.94 1.61 16 1930s dossier 8 Weekend At Ruby's Liam Butler and Jackson Palmer 4.64 1.43 11 World Clock 9 The Adventures of a Hexagon Tyler Zahnke 2.19 1.50 21 Infocom novel

Note: The Bibliophile was disqualified from competition.

Downloads

Platform Instructions

Alan: This system requires an Alan interpreter to be downloaded. Note that "The Wyldkynd Project" requires the latest Alan 3.0 Beta4. Instructions for downloading a compatible interpreter for your system can be found here.

Choose Your Story: Playable online. This platform requires a free account to save games in progress. (Downloads if any may include feelies or walkthroughs.)

Glulx: You'll need to download the story files for these games at the links above, and you'll also need a Glulx interpreter for your platform to play them. Gargoyle is a good cross-platform interpreter to run these stories. (Download)

HTML: Playable online in any web browser.

Quest 5: Playable online. This platform requires a free account to save games in progress.

Twine: Playable online. Note that "Surface" should play in all modern browsers apart from Internet Explorer, however Chrome and Safari are recommended as text and image fades may not display properly in other browsers.

Z: You'll need to download the story files for these games at the links above, and you'll also need a Z-code interpreter for your platform to play them. Gargoyle is a good cross-platform interpreter. (Download)

What to Do

If you're an author of IF, check out the rules. If this sounds like a good place to release your next game, feel free to participate.

If you're a player of IF, you're welcome to take part as a judge. We're also looking for people to donate prizes.

Beta testing your entry is encouraged! Authors and testers can connect at if.game-testing.org or in the "Game Announcements and Beta Testing" forum at intfiction.org.

In addition, you can read about the history of the Spring Thing, and find some cool games to download and play. And if you have any questions, you can email me at:



Current Status

May 12, 2014: The voting period has closed and the votes are being tabulated.

Special Thanks

The Spring Thing would like to thank the following people:

Adam Cadre, for starting the competition;

Greg Boettcher, for organizing and running it from 2004 to 2013;

Mike Snyder, for writing the voting program and for running a mirror;

Peter Seebach, for past hosting and technical help;

Stephen Granade, for occasional advice; and

the prize donors, for their generosity.

Purpose

Obviously, the general purpose of Spring Thing is to promote interactive fiction. More specifically, there are three aims that make the Spring Thing different from the annual IF Comp:

To provide a place for promoting medium-sized to long works of interactive fiction. To provide some springtime relief to the dry season between the autumn deluges of the IF Comp. To encourage excellence in game authorship and discourage shoddiness.