2008 Text Adventure Competition

[kevin]

2008 Text Adventure Competition


SPONSORED BY

Intro

  It's that time of the year again... welcome to the third-ever Text Adventure Competition on TGC! Recognizing that last year's rules were a minefield of confusion and complexity, this year's competition is going to have the "lightest" rules we've ever had. As always, please keep an eye on this very first post for updates along the way, as we hope to keep adding prizes until the competition ends in October! Also, please read this thread thoroughly before posting a question, as it may have already been answered... competition threads have a habit of getting particularly lengthy! Thank you for participating in this year's Text Adventure Competition (TAC). I think I can safely speak for myself and the other judges when I say that we can't wait to play everyone's entries this year!

In this competition, you'll be tasked to create the best text adventure your brain can muster, and you'll be pitting it against other aspiring game designers who are vying for the same great prizes. Along the way, we're hoping your project will help you learn new things about writing great stories, and push you to develop your good ideas into fantastic ones.



What is a "Text Adventure?"

A text adventure is a game wherein the player navigates through a world by reading segments of a story, and then selecting a path or action from a list of options supplied by the software. Rather than seeing your environment, as you would in most modern games, you read descriptive text that explains what the character is seeing and doing.

Most text adventures fall into one of two technical categories: The option list adventure, and the parser adventure. "Option list" adventures have a menu of options wherein a player can select an action from a list of choices (such as, "1. go east, 2. go west" and the player presses one or two, or presses the corresponding number and then presses enter). "Parser" adventures allow the player to type in commands, such as "open door," "go north," "eat apple," etc., and the software can detect specific commands that are entered into its entry line.


What could I win?

GRAND PRIZE

  The grand prize package will be awarded to the entrant who scores the highest overall score in four distinct categories: Originality, Story Development, Writing Ability, and Technical Design. The game's scores in each of these categories will be averaged to figure out its overall score. Each category can earn a maximum of 10.0 points. For more about each of these categories and how they are defined, please read the "Kudos Awards" category below.

• 4,000 Game Creator Store Points, supplied by The Game Creators


• One (1) free copy of PlayBASIC, supplied by Underware Design. Play Basic is a Game Programming language designed to take the learning curve out of 2D game making. Allowing users to bring their game ideas to life in a fraction of the time of other basic languages.


• 
  One (1) free copy of the game Eternal Equinox, supplied by MISoft Studios. In this commercial text adventure, you assume the role of a tropical islander whose village is threatened by an incoming tsunami. To save your people, you'll need to track down a magic artifact, known as the Hoto, before your people are completely annihilated by the coming disaster.

RULES

NOTE: The judges have the final say in how each rule is interpreted. Attempts to deviate from these rules will result in disqualification. The competition's judges reserve the right to disqualify entries if they feel the need, and will present a written statement as to why these entries have been disqualified so as to avoid confusion or unfairness. The judges have been selected because they are mature, trustworthy, contributing members of the TGC community, so don't worry about any judges treating you and/ or your entry unjustly! This year's judges include myself, Jeku, and Dazzag. More judges will be added should the need arise.

• Judges playing your game will have the final say in whether your game classifies as a text adventure or not, and will disqualify games that they do not think are legitimate text adventures. The legitimacy of entrants is based on the judges' interpretations of what a text adventure is, NOT what you think a text adventure could be/ what the phrase might mean.


• Your entry's text must be presented in English. US, UK, and other well-known interpretations of English are acceptable (so the word "color" can also be spelled "colour" with no effect on scoring either way).


• You must use fonts that are included standard with Windows 2000 and XP machines. Alternatively you can use bitmap fonts or a 2D image of the pre-written text. Judges will not install custom fonts to see them in your game.


• Some portion of your game, large or small, must be made using TGC software of some sort. Please list the development tools you've used to create your game when you post your entry, including the language(s), IDE(s), DLL(s), applications used for media, etc.


• The use of Text Adventure/ "IF" Engines, Editors, etc. is strictly prohibited.


• You must include some small portion of your source code, regardless of the language used to make the game, to validate that you've coded the game yourself.


• All games submitted to this competition must be fully compiled. Submitted source code that is not compiled will not be judged. Your entry must come in the form of an executable file. You can include additional files and folders, but one executable (EXE) file should run the game.


• Copyright Law: Any and all media used in this contest must be made by you. Otherwise, proof of permission to use said media must be presented (even for freeware games), including the author of the images/ music and some form of contact information, albeit a website address or e-mail address. Any entry that does not meet this standard will be void from participation.


• There is no length requirement for this contest, although you should try to keep your game relatively short to play so that it can be judged fully and fairly. Try to introduce the judges to your best features early because they may not have time to play through the entire game if we receive a large number of entries.


• Judges and/ or their families may not enter the competition.

Submissions: You may submit your entry via e-mail (e-mail the game to me) or via these forums. To submit, you can include a compressed file (zip, rar, etc.) or a direct download link. By "direct link," we mean said link should open a download window immediately once clicked. All entries must be received no later than 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time on Friday, October 17th 2008. No exceptions!




More Information

For the Full Announcement & Discussion see here

[ATLUS]

its not for me, me very very bad english :)

[kevin]

Reminder: Submissions are due for the 2008 text adventure competition.

[kevin]

Final results time!

  First off, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this year's competition. We had six really great titles to choose from this year, and we had two really great judges (thanks Jeku and Dazzag!) who will probably join us again next year. We had a lot of fun playing these games and exploring these worlds that you've created, and I think it's safe to say I speak for all three of us judges when I say there wasn't a single "bad" entry this year.

  We're sorry for the delay in posting these results. It's difficult to get things done during an election season and it didn't help that we encountered a few hiccups along the way. I thank everyone for your patience and I apologize for all of the added suspense! Alright, without further adieu, I'm pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Text Adventure Competition on TGC:

SCORES
Vigilance = 9.4 overall score and grand prize winner
Relic = 8.5
Pulse = 7.2
Jungle Text Adventure = 7.1
Haunted House = 6.8
ForumQuest = 6.5

KUDOS AWARDS
The 2008 TGC Poet Laureate - Vigilance
Set in a brilliant dystopian world, Vigilance boasts some of the best writing and one of the most intriguing stories we've ever seen in a text adventure competition entry. This is backed up consistently by high scores across the board and a sweep of Kudos awards. For winning this Award, Darth Kiwi will be rewarded with 2,000 Game Creator Store points... and some bragging rights, too

Originality - ForumQuest
This game truly broke the status quo by delivering a fun experience in a genuinely unique world that really stands out from other more traditional locales. For winning the Originality Award, Bmaczero is getting a cool 1,000 Game Creator Store Points!

Story Development - Vigilance
The ability to draw in your audience and involve them in your story on a personal level is quite a skill to have, and Vigilance proves that Darth Kiwi is, for lack of a better phrase, a true master of storytelling. For winning this Kudos award, Kiwi can tack on another 750 Game Creator Store points to his collection.

Writing Ability - Pulse
Pulse was a beautifully-written masterpiece, and came extremely close to winning other Kudos awards this year. Seppuku Arts took the concept of producing a digital novel to a new plateau with this exciting story, and after playing it, you'll quickly realize why Seuppuku has won this award... and 500 Game Creator Store points!

Technical Design - Relic
Everytime Entomophobiac enters the TAC, I suspect he'll do well before I even play his title, and this year was no exception. Relic featured an interesting blend of both listed and parser input models, and a number of nifty features that brought the game to life in interestingly unique ways. Relic fought a hard battle against Vigilance for this award and it boiled down to a blow-by-blow of errors to figure out who would take this Kudos home.

Best Media - Vigilance
Right from the opening video sequence, Vigilance has the ability to widen your eyes with its incredible media. It can at times make you forget that you're even playing a text adventure game.

Best GUI - Vigilance
Vigilance has a fantastic GUI that's informative, simple to nagigate and use, and even entertaining (the adverts on the screen were a brilliant touch!)

Retail Award - Vigilance
I think Jeku summed this up perfectly. In his words, "I demand to see this as a full game in the future!"

Best Soundtrack - Relic
Relic's soundtrack is brilliant not only due to its composition, but also because of its ambience and subtlety. It draws you into the experience without drawing in your attention.

Best Protagonist - Vigilance
- And -
Best Antagonist - Vigilance
I only need to do one write-up for these two Kudos awards I think. The characters in this game were brilliantly vibrant and polished, and Kiwi did a fantastic job of drawing us in and letting us get to know the people in this world.

Best Environment - Vigilance
Kiwi's highly-detailed dystopian world reminded all of us of "1984" and "Brazil," and he goes so far as to acknowledge his influences, while not plagiarizing in any way. The world is perfectly detailed and very expansive.

I'll be contacting prize furbishers in the coming hours via email to let them know who won what and who they need to contact. If you won a prize, please keep an eye on your email inbox and let me know if you have any trouble getting your prizes (though we haven't had any problems in the past with TGC or Underware Design. I might be wrong about this but I *think* everyone who won a copy of Eternal Equinox already has a copy, so eh, you can give a copy to a friend or something, hehe.

Matt,
www.misoftstudios.com
"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"