2003 IFComp Award Winners Announced 11
An anonymous reader writes "The 9th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition has now announced its winners - the start of the judging was previously covered on Slashdot." There are a number of sites with reviews of the competing text adventures, which are all freely downloadable, and winner 'Slouching Towards Bedlam' ("a game of multiple paths... set in a steampunk universe with Lovecraftian overtones"), and runner-up 'Risorgimento Represso' ("on a par with most Infocom games, and exceeds them at many points", but paradoxically too long to be played through within the 2-hour judging period), both get plenty of kudos from judges.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why not use Z-Code / TADS? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because some authors are familiar with a certain programming environment, and lack the time / skill to learn a new one?
As an extreme example, a couple of games over the years were submitted in HTML (+Javascript).
I'm not saying it's the best way to go about it, just offering a motive.
Besides, it's enough if only half the judges (or less) play your game, since the results are based on average scores, not popularity.
And in fact, some judges may enjoy trying out new engines. Yes, so far none of them even came close to Inform or TADS, but one day they may face competition.