So is anyone planning to enter a Quest game in the IFComp 2006?

Oooh, a competition! What's the prize?

Here's the website for it: http://ifcomp.org/comp06/

They tend to have a few dozen prizes (I came a lowly 23rd in 2004 and still got a prize ). It's worth entering if you have something half decent because it's the one time you can guarantee getting a lot of feedback and reviews for your game.

http://www.ifcomp.org/comp06/prizes.php
Not many prizes so far...
Perhaps I should donate a rubbish DVD or something

[EDIT]
I haven't entered, or planned, anything this year (yet again).
I do have 1 or 2 idea's though!
... Perhaps next year.

I'm still working on the basics! I don't think anyone would be interested in my silly little game!

The prizes generally build up closer to the Comp deadline. We're still in June and the Comp doesn't kick off until early October and isn't finished until mid-November.

This looks interesting. We've only started out so I'm sure we'll not be able to enter anything. We are still learning. It turns out that it's more difficult than i'd expected.

You'd be suprised who'd be interested in playing small games.

Shorter games will be just as good as longer games in the IF Comp since there is a time limit to how long you can play before you vote. You should read the rules, and keep an eye on the prizes. I've seen some crazy things and large amounts of cash (500 GBP and up) in that list.

The Comp is aimed more at small games than large games, hence the two hour playing limit before people are supposed to vote. So if you haven't got the time to write an epic size game, all the better. Write a small one. I wrote an epic size game a few years back and the main criticism it received was that it was too big for the Comp.

I'll be entering the full version to the King's Quest game that you (davidw) reviewed last year.

I don't think you'll be able to because:

a) it's a remake of an earlier game and

b) it's already been previously released.

The IFComp has rules which state the game has to be a totally new one that isn't available anywhere else at the time the Comp starts.

Several games have been disqualified in the past for breaching the Comp rules and a couple of years ago some nut on RAIF kicked up a huge fuss because the Comp organisers wouldn't let him enter eight games he'd previously released.

Tr0n, I wish I knew all the things you do!

ALL the things?

.... That's pretty risky, I mean - I know some pretty fluffy'ed up sausages!

... And I never quite understood why the IFcomp wouldn't allow a game which has already been released - I can understand it's need for originality... But whether it's been released before - or kept under wraps for the comp - shouldn't matter... Infact, it's a BAD point - as you've got a limited number of people who can test your game before you give it over.

davidw wrote:I don't think you'll be able to because:

a) it's a remake of an earlier game and

b) it's already been previously released.

The IFComp has rules which state the game has to be a totally new one that isn't available anywhere else at the time the Comp starts.

Several games have been disqualified in the past for breaching the Comp rules and a couple of years ago some nut on RAIF kicked up a huge fuss because the Comp organisers wouldn't let him enter eight games he'd previously released.

That's unfortunate because I never volunteered my first game to be reviewed. I saw. after the fact, that it was being reviewed along with a couple other Quest games. Oh well...

EDIT:
I went to the ifcomp website and read the rules. I discovered that my first game shouldn't have been entered in the first place since it's based on a previously copyrighted work. Oh well (again)

steve the gaming guy wrote:
That's unfortunate because I never volunteered my first game to be reviewed. I saw. after the fact, that it was being reviewed along with a couple other Quest games. Oh well...

EDIT:
I went to the ifcomp website and read the rules. I discovered that my first game shouldn't have been entered in the first place since it's based on a previously copyrighted work. Oh well (again)

Your game being reviewed wouldn't make any difference to its inclusion in the IFComp, it's the fact that it had been released prior to the Comp deadline that would be the issue. And, too, the fact that it was based on a previous game.

If you'd entered it, it's a fair bet someone would have mentioned before the Comp deadline that your game had been on the main Quest page for a year or more. Not to mention the fact that something called King's Quest 5 is well known to have been based on a previous work.

Tr0n wrote:... And I never quite understood why the IFcomp wouldn't allow a game which has already been released - I can understand it's need for originality... But whether it's been released before - or kept under wraps for the comp - shouldn't matter... Infact, it's a BAD point - as you've got a limited number of people who can test your game before you give it over.

If it's been kept under wraps until the Comp deadline - i.e. no one has played it aside from you and a few testers - then it would be a brand new game as far as everyone else was concerned. The Comp doesn't specify that the game has to be "new", only that it has to be "previously unreleased" - meaning you could have written a game fifteen years ago and decided to enter it, assuming you'd never made it publicly available beforehand.

I think the main issue with the games being new works is that if you could enter any game you'd ever written, you could bombard the comp every year with your entire games output. You'd see the number of games entered in the Comp rise to something ridiculous like a few hundred entries - which still have to be played and judged in a 6 week period!

^^
You could easy put the law "no previous entry into IFcomp", which I would have thought already existed - and such other similar rules such as only being able to enter one game per creator.

Using that rule to keep numbers down, doesnt' sound very good to me.
*shrugs* but I's not da one makin' da rules!

I think each person can enter up to three games each if they like. And the "no previous entry into IFcomp" rule is already covered under the "no previously released games" rule.

That's logical.

If anyone is planning on entering the Comp, they need to go over to the website and sign up before the deadline. Don't go and write your game only to find you can't enter it because you didn't sign up on time.

I think the first time I will be able to enter a game is going to be LONG after the deadline lol.

Good luck to anyone who does enter though! Let us know if there's somewhere where we can vote for you or something!

I don't know...
Does giving it over the the IFcomp count as "releasing your game"?

I'd say, that if you had just made it and had no alpha/beta testers - then the comp itself would be an alpha/beta testing zone and so you could enter a game twice.

But as all laws/rules - they're interpritational.

I'm assuming you're joking there, but yes if you submit your game to the Comp - and it's downloaded by 6,000 - 7,000 people - that counts as it being released.

D'oh...
Forgot about the fact they put it up on an FTP server after the comp's over.... OK.

You don't think the 6000-7000 people who download the game as part of the Comp would count that as it being released?

Really? I thought they had 12 judges or something, and that was it...

Where'd you hear that? Official download figures for the IFComp in 2003 were roughly 6,500 people. Judging figures are generally only a fraction of that (a few hundred), but it's still a huge thing as far as the IF scene is concerned.

On the Quest forum, there are probably about ten active members (of which several are trolls). Compared to that, 6,500 people playing your game seems pretty impressive.