Winners of the 2015 IFComp

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1st place

Brain Guzzlers from Beyond!

Cover art for Brain Guzzlers from Beyond!

Steph Cherrywell steph.cherrywell@gmail.com

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.)

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 8.05
Votes Cast 95
Standard Deviation 1.71

2nd place

Map
A Deconstructural Fiction

Cover art for Map

Ade @psyhivegames mikepreston99@outlook.com

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]

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.65
Votes Cast 66
Standard Deviation 1.89

3rd place

Midnight. Swordfight.

Cover art for Midnight. Swordfight.

Chandler Groover chandler.m.groover@gmail.com

A fool receives a challenge from a countess.

Violence. Sex. Profanity. Sausage.

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

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.58
Votes Cast 90
Standard Deviation 1.61

4th place

Birdland

Cover art for Birdland

Brendan Patrick Hennessy @bphennessy brendan@bphennessy.com

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

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.54
Votes Cast 115
Standard Deviation 2.01

5th place

Cape
An interactive origin

Cover art for Cape

Bruno Dias @NotBrunoAgain

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

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.25
Votes Cast 101
Standard Deviation 1.77

6th place

Sub Rosa
The Seven Deceits of Confessor Destine

Cover art for Sub Rosa

Joey Jones & Melvin Rangasamy @friedegger notquitethere@gmail.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.21
Votes Cast 56
Standard Deviation 1.63

7th place

Scarlet Sails
A rollicking pirate adventure with plenty of swordfights, magic, rum, betrayal, and maybe even true love.

Cover art for Scarlet Sails

Felicity Banks @FBanksBooks fellissimo@hotmail.com

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?

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.66
Votes Cast 83
Standard Deviation 1.28

8th place

Untold Riches

Cover art for Untold Riches

Jason Ermer jasonermer@gmail.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.61
Votes Cast 74
Standard Deviation 1.58

9th place

Final Exam

Cover art for Final Exam

Jack Whitham jack.d.whitham@gmail.com

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...

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.42
Votes Cast 73
Standard Deviation 1.68

10th place

Ether

Cover art for Ether

Mathbrush brushton84@gmail.com

"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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.39
Votes Cast 77
Standard Deviation 1.56

11th place

Arcane Intern (Unpaid)

Cover art for Arcane Intern (Unpaid)

Astrid Dalmady @dastridly

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

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.35
Votes Cast 128
Standard Deviation 1.81

12th place

Darkiss - Chapter 1: the Awakening

Cover art for Darkiss - Chapter 1: the Awakening

Marco Vallarino @marcovallarino

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.]

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.34
Votes Cast 65
Standard Deviation 1.38

13th place

Life On Mars?

Cover art for Life On Mars?

Hugo Labrande hugo@hlabrande.fr

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...

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.28
Votes Cast 72
Standard Deviation 1.86

14th place

Nowhere Near Single

Cover art for Nowhere Near Single

kaleidofish @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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Score 6.15
Votes Cast 82
Standard Deviation 2.09

15th place

Koustrea's Contentment

Cover art for Koustrea's Contentment

Jeremy Pflasterer jep@pflexagon.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.00
Votes Cast 42
Standard Deviation 1.79

16th place

Onaar

Cover art for Onaar

Robert DeFord rdeford@dragonfarm.us

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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Score 5.98
Votes Cast 43
Standard Deviation 1.70

17th place

The Sueño
An Oneirological Mystery

Cover art for The Sueño

Marshal Tenner Winter marshaltennerwinter@gmail.com

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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Score 5.97
Votes Cast 66
Standard Deviation 1.62

18th place

Summit

Cover art for Summit

Phantom Williams @phantomwilliams phantom0williams@gmail.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.81
Votes Cast 73
Standard Deviation 2.59

19th place

The Baker of Shireton

Cover art for The Baker of Shireton

Hanon Ondricek @hanonondricek hanon.ondricek@gmail.com

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

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Score 5.78
Votes Cast 76
Standard Deviation 1.97

20th place

Gotomomi

Cover art for Gotomomi

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.73
Votes Cast 60
Standard Deviation 1.66

21st place (tie)

TOMBs of Reschette
A Videogame About Fighting Monsters

Cover art for TOMBs of Reschette

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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Score 5.68
Votes Cast 72
Standard Deviation 2.07

21st place (tie)

Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box

Cover art for Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box

Arthur DiBianca a_dibianca@yahoo.com

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

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Score 5.68
Votes Cast 95
Standard Deviation 1.90

23rd place

Kane County

Cover art for Kane County

Michael Sterling, Tia Orisney t_orisney@gmx.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.65
Votes Cast 72
Standard Deviation 1.53

24th place

The Problems Compound
An incredibly backward text adventure.

Cover art for The Problems Compound

Andrew Schultz @anandrewschultz blurglecruncheon@gmail.com

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

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Score 5.64
Votes Cast 59
Standard Deviation 1.74

25th place

Switcheroo
Episode 3 of Mrs. Wobbles & The Tangerine House

Cover art for Switcheroo

The Marino Family markcmarino@gmail.com

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]

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.55
Votes Cast 58
Standard Deviation 1.82

26th place (tie)

Duel

Cover art for Duel

piato mostlyconnect@gmail.com

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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Score 5.53
Votes Cast 80
Standard Deviation 1.95

26th place (tie)

Crossroads

Cover art for Crossroads

Cat Manning @catacalypto catacalypto@gmail.com

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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Score 5.53
Votes Cast 94
Standard Deviation 1.76

28th place

Unbeknown

Cover art for Unbeknown

Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro adeniro@gmail.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.45
Votes Cast 77
Standard Deviation 1.79

29th place

SPY INTRIGUE

Cover art for SPY INTRIGUE

furkle @furkle_ furkle@furkleindustries.com

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?

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.36
Votes Cast 61
Standard Deviation 2.75

30th place

Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory
A story generator

Cover art for Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory

Katherine Morayati @morayati synesthesiafactory@gmail.com

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.]

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.22
Votes Cast 67
Standard Deviation 2.06

31st place

I Think The Waves Are Watching Me

Bob McCabe bobisimo@gmail.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.17
Votes Cast 35
Standard Deviation 2.13

32nd place

5 Minutes to Burn Something!

Cover art for 5 Minutes to Burn Something!

Alex Butterfield alex.butterfield@gmail.com

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

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Score 5.13
Votes Cast 119
Standard Deviation 1.61

33rd place

To Burn in Memory

Cover art for To Burn in Memory

Orihaus orihaus@gmail.com

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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Score 5.06
Votes Cast 49
Standard Deviation 2.12

34th place

Forever Meow

Cover art for Forever Meow

Moe Zilla reviewland@hotmail.com

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

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Score 4.97
Votes Cast 93
Standard Deviation 1.94

35th place

Capsule II - The 11th Sandman

Cover art for Capsule II - The 11th Sandman

PaperBlurt @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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Score 4.95
Votes Cast 87
Standard Deviation 1.89

36th place

Second Story

Cover art for Second Story

Fred Snyder admin@gamefic.com

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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Score 4.94
Votes Cast 49
Standard Deviation 1.65

37th place

The Insect Massacre

Cover art for The Insect Massacre

Tom Delanoy @MassacredI

A short murder mystery set aboard a space station.

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Score 4.89
Votes Cast 63
Standard Deviation 1.61

38th place

In The Friend Zone

Cover art for In The Friend Zone

Brendan Vance @4xisblack brendan.vance@gmail.com

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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Score 4.74
Votes Cast 74
Standard Deviation 2.16

39th place

Seeking Ataraxia

Cover art for Seeking Ataraxia

Glass Rat Media @glassratmedia tlbodine@gmail.com

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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Score 4.73
Votes Cast 73
Standard Deviation 1.72

40th place

GROWBOTICS

Cover art for GROWBOTICS

Cha Holland @shallow_depths obscuritea@gmail.com

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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Score 4.71
Votes Cast 90
Standard Deviation 1.80

41st place

A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood
A game about fortune telling and choices.

Cover art for A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood

Michael Thomet @incobalt mthomet@gmail.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.70
Votes Cast 108
Standard Deviation 1.70

42nd place

The King and the Crown
The story of a King and the crown on his head.

Cover art for The King and the Crown

Wes Lesley @theweslesley wes.lesley@hotmail.com

'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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.55
Votes Cast 86
Standard Deviation 1.74

43rd place (tie)

The Speaker
The words are from his mouth. But they are typed by my hand.

Cover art for The Speaker

Norbez mninorbez@gmail.com

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?

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.36
Votes Cast 64
Standard Deviation 1.54

43rd place (tie)

Pilgrimage

Cover art for Pilgrimage

Víctor Ojuel victor.ojuel@gmail.com

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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Score 4.36
Votes Cast 66
Standard Deviation 1.58

45th place

Pit of the Condemned

Matthew Holland @QuixoticEvil matthew@somewhatunlikely.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.35
Votes Cast 60
Standard Deviation 1.66

46th place

Taghairm

Cover art for Taghairm

Chandler Groover chandler.m.groover@gmail.com

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

Cruelty. Violence. Sounds.

Headphones recommended.

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Score 4.24
Votes Cast 78
Standard Deviation 2.23

47th place

Cat Scratch
An Entertainment Technology Center Project

Cover art for Cat Scratch

Cat Scratch williamjhagen@gmail.com (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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.95
Votes Cast 20
Standard Deviation 2.44

48th place (tie)

Much Love, BJP
Examining Gender and War through Interactive Fiction

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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Score 3.73
Votes Cast 70
Standard Deviation 1.67

48th place (tie)

Questor's Quest
The Ivory Tower

Cover art for Questor's Quest

Mark Stahl mark.stahl@hotmail.com

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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Score 3.73
Votes Cast 40
Standard Deviation 1.48

50th place

Grimm's Godfather
The choice is yours

Cover art for Grimm's Godfather

Gaby gabywu1992@gmail.com (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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Score 3.55
Votes Cast 40
Standard Deviation 1.75

51st place

Recorded

Cover art for Recorded

Nick Junius @NickJunius

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.39
Votes Cast 54
Standard Deviation 1.27

52nd place

The Man Who Killed Time

Cover art for The Man Who Killed Time

Claudia Doppioslash @doppioslash claudia.doppioslash@gmail.com

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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Score 3.34
Votes Cast 58
Standard Deviation 1.77

53rd place

The War of the Willows

Cover art for The War of the Willows

Adam Bredenberg @AdamBredenberg adam.bredenberg@gmail.com

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.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.13
Votes Cast 30
Standard Deviation 1.31

The organizer of the 2015 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition was Jason McIntosh.