Winners of the 2015 IFComp

Steph Cherrywell

You are Bonnie Noodleman, Ordinary Well-Adjusted Teen-Ager, on an ordinary well-adjusted drive up Make-Out Mountain--until some gooey monstrosity from beyond the stars guzzles your boyfriend's brains clean out of his head! Jeepers, what a pickle! Can you convince the townsfolk you're not koo-koo, or is your thinker next on the alien menu?

Explore beautiful Canyonville, New Mexico, at the height of the 1959 Pine Nut Days festival, interact with a full cast of NPCs, perform beat poetry, tamper with baked goods, use hideously powerful space weapons to win cheap carnival trinkets, and try to avoid getting a Reputation!

(Downloading recommended for best experience.)

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Ade

The house is growing. Or perhaps it's you who is shrinking. And with all this extra space is coming....time.

Time enough, maybe, to make some changes.

[Note - this story contains mature themes and scenes that some might find difficult or distressing.]

[Download recommended for best experience]

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Chandler Groover

A fool receives a challenge from a countess.

Violence. Sex. Profanity. Sausage.

This work also won 1st place in the 2015 Miss Congeniality Awards.

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Brendan Patrick Hennessy

Fourteen-year-old Bridget's summer camp experience takes a turn for the bizarre when her otherworldly bird dreams start bleeding into reality.

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Bruno Dias

Cape is a superhero origin story for the cyberpunk dystopia we're all living in.

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Joey Jones & Melvin Rangasamy

A puzzle game about secrets in the Age of Lead. You've spent seventeen years preparing for an infiltration. Stealing the Confessor's secrets is only the beginning: it will all be for nothing if you leave a trace.

This work also won 2nd place in the 2015 Miss Congeniality Awards.

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Felicity Banks

Hoist the Jolly Roger and set sail to find the legendary Titan’s Treasure! Do you fight with a cutlass, or with your magical skill? Are you biding your time until you can shoot your captain in the back, or are you the reason the rum is gone? Are you brimming with heroics and derring-do, or smart enough to skip the pain and get the power instead? Will you become the most infamous pirate that ever lived, or fall in love with the cabin boy?

Or will you be the pirate who does it all... and lives to tell the tale?

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Jason Ermer

You were reluctant to undertake another adventure with Professor d'Squarius (especially after the last near-catastrophe, in the Tomb of the Screaming Mummies), and from the moment you agreed to join the expedition, things have gone exactly the way they always do: horribly. Now YOU are the one stranded on a remote tropical island with no clear way of getting back to civilization. And the amazing treasure you were originally seeking? The professor never explained precisely what it was.

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Jack Whitham

Final Exam takes place in the near future after an AI revolution has led to the establishment of a new sort of government. You are seeking a job within this government: your performance in the “final exam” determines the outcome. You wake up on the day of your exam to find that your world has unexpectedly changed. You leave your room to seek answers, and find the Administration Centre deserted...

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Mathbrush

"For the first time in centuries, something is different. Your tentacles tingle as you float to the east past icebergs and whirlwinds. You skirt a pocket of hot air, bounce through a field of ice, and finally come upon a massive stormcloud filling the sky to the east."

A game about a flying cephalopod and its airy world. This short adventure recreates the feel of exploring a world in a graphical game, and uses a 9x9x9 cubical grid. Navigate the world in 26 directions as you collect items and use the properties of your environment to unlock their power. An in-game walkthrough is included, and is recommended for those new to parser interactive fiction, where you type in commands. There is also a list of basic parser commands.

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Astrid Dalmady

Getting coffee, making copies, tampering with powers beyond your control. You know, normal intern things. Now if only you were getting paid for it...

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Marco Vallarino

You're the nightmare from which people can't wake. Dead twice. One by the hand of your maker, the second by the fiend who drove a stake through your heart while you were sleeping defenceless in your coffin. Alive thrice, it seems, although this last one shouldn't be possible. Something happened.

[This is not a demo but a full-length game; Chapter 2 already exists, though only in Italian, and might be translated someday too.]

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Hugo Labrande

The first mission to colonize Mars ended with a horrible shuttle crash, and it's a miracle you're still alive... Now you just have to wait until the second shuttle gets here. Five more months...

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kaleidofish

A young woman new to the entertainment industry struggles with harmonizing her public pop star persona and her private polyamorous life. Warning for mildly graphic content.

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Jeremy Pflasterer

A tiny community of immortals receives a newcomer named Koustrea, who makes an unsettling discovery while struggling to find a paradisial niche like the others.

Note: This game was designed for the HTML TADS Player Kit (http://www.tads.org/tads3.htm). Another interpreter that appears to support the game is QTads (http://qtads.sourceforge.net/downloads.shtml). Some universal interpreters, including Zoom, Spatterlight, and Gargoyle, do not support this game.

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Robert DeFord

Go to Onaar and become an Alchemist. Learn to make potions that allow you to survive and thrive in a dynamic, open-ended game world. Will you elevate your skills and vanquish the rogue wizard who threatens that world, or will you die trying? Download includes interpreters for Windows and Mac.

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Marshal Tenner Winter

Low on income, you've signed up for a sleep study to test a new medication; one that supposedly causes lucid dreams. What you'll learn, however, is that much more will be revealed on The Sueño.

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Phantom Williams

A dream-like journey through a drifting life.

Headphones recommended. Please play online.

This work also won 3rd place in the 2015 Miss Congeniality Awards.

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Hanon Ondricek

You are the Baker of Shireton. The bread you bake is delicious. Raiders are coming.

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Arno von Borries

Gotomomi central station is a place where many dreams and hopes meet. It draws in scores with its many possibilities. To most, it becomes a nightmare. Fortunately, I just needed to change trains there.

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Richard Goodness

Hello, young adventurer! If you're looking for the finest treasure, monster, and exploration experience around, why not come on down to the TOMBs of Reschette!

--Earn XP, Dubloons, and Gems, like any good adventurer!

--Solve the mysteries in the Crypt of Mysteries!

--Learn the tragic story of Vanity's Dowager!

--Slay various monsters...and eat them!

--Kick back in the library with a good book!

Be careful, young adventurer! The TOMBs are a dangerous place and you have no idea what kind of horrible deaths could lie in store for you!

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Arthur DiBianca

It's the latest model, and it would really like to play with you.

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Michael Sterling, Tia Orisney

Kane County, Southern Utah: A severe storm crashes your Jeep in the middle of the night and leaves you stranded. Come morning, you find yourself alone and surrounded by an endless expanse of open desert. With no sign of civilization or rescue in sight, it's up to your survival knowledge and physical endurance to escape from this unforgiving and deadly environment alive.

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Andrew Schultz

Wherein you, Alec Smart, turn what's-thats into that's-whats.

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The Marino Family

When Derik went to sleep, he was a boy who could not walk, but today he awoke to find more than one thing had changed. Will he be able to find his way in the world as a girl? Will he be able to go back to who he was? Who does he want to be after all?

Switcheroo is the 3rd installment of "Mrs. Wobbles and the Tangerine House," a series of choice-based stories about a magical foster care home run by the mysterious Mrs. Wobbles and narrated by a living book. Due to its subject matter, this installment, which is meant to stand on its own, is aimed at a slightly older demographic than the others (10+ yrs old). I've composed this story with my two children, and our goal is to help increase awareness about foster care and adoption while creating storygames for kids and adults to enjoy together. (Illustrated by Brian Gallagher, feat. poem by Ryka Aoki) [Optimized for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, not IE]

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piato

The rope is thin, black, thoroughly practical. Your hands wind through practised motions, lashing yourself fast to the stake behind.

No one who was worthy would hesitate.

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Cat Manning

They say it's death to seek the witch. For you, it's worth the risk. Venture in to the forest in search of relief, but remember that magic is rarely straightforward.

A short psychological game about self-knowledge and its price. Content warning: blood, self-harm, suicidal ideation, violence, death.

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Anya Johanna DeNiro

You ran from the Z-Mules but they caught you. Took what little you had. Now you're their prisoner. At some point you have to log off. But maybe not quite yet. You'll see.

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furkle

IT'S YOUR FIRST DAY AT SPY SCHOOL, AND YOU'RE READY TO COMMENCE A LIFE OF ESPIONAGE, TRADECRAFT, AND INTRIGUE. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS, EVERY HUMAN EMPLOYEE DIED OF MUMPS JUST THE OTHER DAY. CAN YOU AND THE SOLE REMAINING EMPLOYEE, A DEVILISHLY ATTRACTIVE SECRETARYBOT, RETURN THE SPY CORPORATION TO ITS PRE-MUMP GLORY DAYS? CAN YOU BRING IT TO PREVIOUSLY-UNIMAGINED HEIGHTS? OR WILL YOU BE CRUSHED UNDER THE BURDEN, FALLING OFF THE SPY&PROVOCATEUR 500 AND INTO THE DRUDGERY OF PERMANENT MEDIOCRITY?

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Katherine Morayati

Synpiece: A wearable technology that changes the wearer's mood. Users of the Synpiece can adjust the 'color' of their experience, which adjusts psychological traits mapped to hue (emotion), saturation (intensity) and value (complexity). The Synpiece can be used by brands to increase users' engagement.

In your email client, this is saved as a draft. There's some more text at the bottom. You don't remember typing it: "become hypersaturated."

[Download recommended but not required.]

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Bob McCabe

In a mysterious, dream-like world, enormous tidal waves have surrounded an island -- trapping you along with many others. And then the killing starts. What are you going to do? Better decide quickly. You have two hours left and the clock is ticking.

This game contains random stories, random people, random outcomes, and "achievements" that make it highly replayable and rewards you with multiple endings.

Note: Stand-alone Microsoft Windows executable. No need to install. Users may be told to update to ".NET 3.5" in order to play.

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Alex Butterfield

You're great at burning bridges and midnight oil, but figurative fire can't save you now.

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Orihaus

To Burn in Memory, an ahistorical and atemporal Interactive Fiction work for IFComp 2015. Explore a city that never existed, and uncover its secret history through the memories of a woman that lived its darkest moments.

Note: Please only play the version found online, not the version in the competition zip. http://toburninmemory.com/, is the only place you should be playing this!

Release Note for the November 14th version: To Burn in Memory now has a free roam mode. Just click the little scroll on the left bar to enter the credits and select it from there. You can do this from anywhere at any time. Music should work on all platforms now, too.

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Moe Zilla

You're a warm cat who's about to have a very bad day...

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PaperBlurt

There's this pause on the Makida every time the current Sandman goes back into the cryotube and before the new one awakes. A certain calm where all is still. The Makida's dull hum is heard, but that is all. No footsteps. No whispers. No music. The ship floats onwards, with a whole world within its walls. If something were to go wrong during those few minutes, a whole species would go extinct.

But there, in the darkness, among the twelve cryotubes...one tube blinks.

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Fred Snyder

You retired from The Game six years ago. Your brother had other ideas. Now he's in big trouble with a crew that won't hesitate to kill him, and the only way to save his skin is to dust off the old tools...

Parser-based IF. Online play recommended but not required.

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Tom Delanoy

A short murder mystery set aboard a space station.

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Brendan Vance

A horror-parody in the tradition of Franz Kafka. Many regard 'the friend zone' as a metaphorical penal colony in which well-intentioned Nice Guys™ frequently find themselves trapped. But what if it were a physical penal colony?

And what if you became stuck in there with the Nice Guys™?

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Glass Rat Media

A simulation of what it's like to live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, balancing life, relationships and neurosis on your quest toward peace.

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Cha Holland

A new generation in construction and creativity is finally here! No matter who you are GROWBOTICS will help you channel your inner artist.

A short exploration of invention, expectation, learning and context.

Minimal use of sound. Internet Explorer and mobile browsers are not fully supported.

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Michael Thomet

In the country of Tuscary, near the town of Clarence, there is a path that runs through the woods and into the nearby mountains. There is a rumor that if you are walking the path at twilight on the night of a waning moon, a figure might appear at a camp by the side of the road. Those brave enough to approach the figure are never heard from again, and those who ignore the figure never have the encounter again.

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Wes Lesley

'The King and the Crown' is a very very very short game where you are the king. The goal of the game is to receive your subjects and end up doing all sorts of boring king stuff like passing judgement, drinking wine and occasionally invading France. Then, breakfast.

But first, you'll need your crown and your scepter! Your crown is in the sturdy locked cabinet behind the throne. Your scepter... well, you must have left it somewhere in the throne room. Probably.

Everything you do and don't do, and when you do or don't do them, will affect how the ending plays out. The future is there for those who seek it out.

For the rest of us, there's a very short game I'd love for you to play.

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Norbez

Daniel Riviera lives on an Earth very different from our own, populated by both aliens and humans. A. A. Arthur is one of those aliens, a popular blogger and adviser for all of the planet's residents. Every day, he answers questions that stream in from the thousands who follow him— and, occasionally, from the hundreds who hate him. However, he has been injured, and has hired Riviera to assist in answering the user's questions

Walking in Riviera's shoes, the player's job is simple: Arthur tells you what advice to answer with, and you write it as he says.

Or do you?

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Víctor Ojuel

Leave Rome in the dead of night. Pursue an hermetic quest throughout Medieval Europe. Find arcane knowledge or utter despair. Blessings of Babylon.

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Matthew Holland

Hundreds of years ago those who built the city disappeared. Years ago we found the city and stole all we could. Soon after we woke the beast. Now we don't go there, except to send criminals for exile and execution.

Yours is scheduled for noon.

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Chandler Groover

"Perhaps the most horrible of all recorded magical spells."

Cruelty. Violence. Sounds.

Headphones recommended.

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Cat Scratch (writing as “Allyn (Yilling) Chen, Hannah Turner, Laura Weber, Shirley Park, Will Hagen, Chris Klug, and Scott Stevens”)

The mission of Cat Scratch is to translate a chapter book from print to digital tablet. Cat Scratch will explore the ways using a tablet could benefit storytelling, without breaking the immersive experience of reading. Collaborating with the Carnegie Mellon Department of English, the team will design and test our hypotheses about the exploring how features like structure, style, illustration and sound in a digital format can be used to support a story most effectively.

It is an Android app, designed to be run an newer tablets. Specifically, it was tested for the Kindle Fire, though should work on tablets or phone with similar specs. This app does use sound, though while not strictly required to play, greatly enhances the experience. It can run offline perfectly fine. It has not been tested in an emulator, so if you wish to try it on that, let us know if a specific emulator seems to work and we will gladly update this page to mention that emulator.

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Megan Stevens

A brief look at the life of a fictional war correspondent. "Much Love: BJP" was showcased to a limited audience at the Hope College Celebration for Undergraduate Research.

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Mark Stahl

You’re a young man, on an adventure far from home, in search of a legendary treasure locked up inside an ivory tower. Forgot to pack? Incredibly deep pockets, but nothing in them? No problem. I’m sure everything you could possibly need is within walking distance. It’s not like you’re in the sticks or anything…

Questor’s Quest is a light hearted, old-school fantasy adventure that challenges some of the conventions of Interactive Fiction. It also introduces an idea or two that may be new to IF, or perhaps just uncommon. Questor’s Quest is a great game for beginners, and should also prove to be a fun, quick challenge for more experienced players as well.

Cover Art by Jason Cushman jasoncushman@gmail.com

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Gaby (writing as “WaffleShuai”)

This is a retelling based on the Grimm Brothers 'Godfather Death'. What happen if you didn’t choose the Grim Reaper as your godfather? How would your decision affect the story? As a Physician, who shall live and who shall die?

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Nick Junius

Sometimes we lose the things most precious to us and must look for them in unlikely, or sometimes likely places. You have lost your voice and find yourself in a place you do not recognize with its own loss and lies.

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Claudia Doppioslash

In the shabby, dusty office, just overlooking one of the least busy streets in town, sat the Detective owner of the establishment. You wouldn’t think it by looking at his head, as usual lowered as to almost touch his desk while perusing some paper or other, that this man, yes, actually this man, had killed Time.

Or will kill Time.

Or is killing Time, this very moment (the ordering is always the trickiest bit).

Notes: - English is not my first language. - While I was writing it, I realised its nature is more of a narrative with an important choice, but I wanted to have an entry at IFComp and I could use the feedback anyway, so here it is. - Thanks to Nick Turner for many corrections!

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Adam Bredenberg

Did you see the clean air of the hilltops? Wind waves tumbled down through trees, tore drifts of lavender smoke... Did you see then, in the cinder, glowing in the pewter cup, did you see how Death would wrap its roots around our throats?

Violence.

Requires a Python interpreter. Written and tested with Python 2.7, but should work in 3.x.

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