Sidney Merk's Interactive Fiction Home Page

     I had hoped to enter again this year. I had really hoped to enter. It just wasn't meant to be, despite an initial "great idea" that had me really motivated early in the summer. Maybe next year? In addition to the second episode of the Convergence Saga (secret revealed: It's called Empyrean -- use that as a game title before mine's done and I'll hunt you down) I have a few other great ideas (including the previously-mentioned game I started designing this summer).

     But, with relaxed discussion rules for judges (sorry, authors -- still no public discussion for you as per the rules), you'll find great chatter over at the Interactive Fiction Community Forum in the IFComp 2008 area. Reviews, discussions, links to reviews and other discussions... you'll find it there. Enjoy!

        1st  - Lost Pig
        2nd - An Act of Murder
        3rd  - Lord Bellwater's Secret

     Another of my favorites, Across The Stars, ranked 4th. There were only 27 eligible entries this year (reduced by two disqualifications from the starting 29). I have posted my reviews of these games, and discussion is welcome (even encouraged) at the intfiction.org forum.

     I did the IFComp T-Shirt again last year. Orders have long since ended, but here is the IFWiki page about it. Below this entry, I've posted the back art.

     In award news, The Traveling Swordsman was nominated in four of the ten XYZZY Award categories for games of 2006, earlier this year. Being nominated is like an award in itself, and while TTS missed the win in three categories (Best Game, Best Puzzles, and Best Individual PC), it won the award for Best Story. The awards page on the IFWiki is here. I nearly napped through the live awards presentation held on the IFMud, but made it just in time for the Best Story category (and the full transcript, as a plain-text file, is here).

     I posted the TTS source code last month. It includes some documenting text files (with a developer's journal) that might be of interest to other IF authors.

     There was a discussion in the int-fiction newsgroups (which became, oddly enough, an “us vs. them” debate) a year ago about having an Interactive Fiction Community Forum. Two or three forums were launched in a short period as a result, and I offered to host a phpBB3-based board for Rioshin, one of the discussion's participants. I'm an admin there too, and the message boards are here under the intfiction.org domain I already own.

     This year's IFComp is coming fast, but it's not too late to sign up (the deadline is September 1st) and enter a game (the deadline is September 29th). With too many real-life conflicts this year, and after barely missing the “top three” for two consecutive years, I'm sitting this one out.