Two major events — the 13th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition and the 10th annual Independent Games Festival — are underway, sending a deluge of top-quality games right into our collective gaming laps. Interactive fiction continues to blossom as authors push the boundaries of gaming with better stories and deeper gameplay using nothing more than the written word. Most of the IGF games aren't available for download just yet, but you'll recognize some of the games/authors and immediately jump for joy. Combined, these events deliver (or will deliver) more than 200 games to the world. That's a lot of Saturday afternoons spent in front of the computer screen.
The organizers of the 10th annual Independent Games Festival have revealed the massive list of 173 entries into the 2008 competition (some of which are available to download) from developers ranging from studios to garage programmers around the world. GameSetWatch has culled a few of the most noteworthy games from the list, including titles such as Fret Nice, a full version of the Crayon Physics game titled Crayon Physics Deluxe, and the evolution of Tower of Goo into World of Goo. There are tons of exciting projects on the list showing off the designers' enormous talents.
The 2007 Interactive Fiction Competition is also underway with 29 entries received and ready for download. Each year at least one game turns heads in the IF community with a surprisingly deep story or creative new gameplay mechanic. Voting ends November 15, so start working your way through the list! If you're too overwhelmed with text adventuring goodness to know where to start, IF author Emily Short (Floatpoint) is reviewing the entries on her blog.
Also notable, at least to me, Quadradius is in the running....
But I'm an addict at that, so, um, yeah. :P
I tried a few so far, but it's hard to tell which are just concepts and which are complete.
I'm definitely interested in seeing some games get completed, with Slumber appearing very beautiful, and Fez being potentially awesome.
I can't seem to play any of the games. They all have a website link... with no game.
that's not unusual. some previous igf winners still haven't been released yet.
Wait, so they can win a competition without a submission?
I'm really fond of Iron Dukes, from the IGF site, even though it's incomplete. Unfortunately, part of the game breaks flash (puts it in an infinite loop or something, and that's seriously lame) so I can't get any further than the first level.
It's still a cute way to spend a few minutes, though. The item names and descriptions are awesome, and the graphics are pleasing in a humorous way.
Taybo - you must submit your game to the IGF to be accepted into the competition. However, not all of the games submitted are released to the public.
How do we know which ones are available to try out? Is there a link/ list or do we just need to try them all?
Are they playable online or are they only available for download?
http://www.gamedev.net/community/gds/
This is a page where you can download most of the games.
btw, Thank you very much for the info Jay!!
Thanks for the link!
I'm playing Bowmaster Prelude (the link was on the IGF list and now I'm hooked...again!) and I'm having one major problem which isn't listed in the archive post for the game: how on earth do I summon troops? I can't find it anywhere and it's driving me nuts that I'm having to wait aaaaages for them to come out, despite them being (apparently) ready for deployment. I know I can select automatic or manual summoning, but no matter what, I can't get past having one or two waves of whatever type of unit I've chosen.
If I'm not mistaken, 3D Logic has been around for years. Did the author finally decide to enter it into the competition, or is this a copycat? Same goes for Desktop Defense, Onslaught, Tactical Assassin, and Fancy Pants Adventures.
I keep looking at these reviews, but realizing that there are multiple downloads required to get started, I have passed. Is there an article here at CG, or on any of the IF blogs or sites that would get a complete newcomer to IF started?
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