Because nobody posts on here anymore but I find it sad this doesn't get any love anymore....
IFComp 2024 accepts submissions from 1st of July:
https://ifcomp.org/about/comp
IFComp's mission statement
The Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (IFComp) welcomes all kinds of text-driven digital stories and games, making them freely available in
order to encourage the creation, play, and discussion of interactive
fiction. How IFComp works, in a nutshell
The Interactive Fiction Competition is an annual event begun by passionate hobbyists in 1995 to encourage both the creation and the discussion of new interactive fiction works (also known as IF). While the definition of IF
has evolved in the years since then, the IFComp???s format and schedule have remained stable since the 1990s. Anyone can judge the entries on a
one-to-ten scale, and the laurels go to the entries receiving the best
average rating.
The people who participate in the IFComp include:
Authors, who write the best IF works they can, and then submit them to
the comp before the August 28 deadline (see the full schedule below).
There is no entry fee, and anyone???s allowed to submit up to three
entries.
See the full rules for authors.
Judges, who, over a six-week period in October and November, play as
many entries as they can, and give each one they play a score between 1
and 10. Higher numbers mean a better score; judges are otherwise free
to use any scoring rubric they wish. A game???s final score is simply the
average of all scores it has received.
Judging is open to the public (competition organizers excluded);
becoming a judge simply means creating an account on this website, and
proceeding to submit scores for at least five entries during the
judging period.
See the full rules for judges.
Donors, who kindly donate prizes to each year???s prize pool. At the end
of the competition, and starting with the first-place winner, authors
take turns choosing a prize from the pool, which the donor will then
deliver to the author via whatever medium is appropriate for it.
(Judges or authors may most certainly act as donors, too.)
Prizes can be (and have been) anything from cash to books to food to
professional services, and more. Donors declare their intent by
emailing the organizer.
Competition schedule
NEW FOR IFCOMP 2024: The 'intent to enter' date, final game deadline,
voting period, and awards stream have all moved up one month.
All competition deadlines specifically mean 11:59 PM, Eastern time, on the given dates.
July 1: The competition website is open for authors to declare their
intent to enter this year???s competition.
August 1: The last date that authors can register their intent to
enter.
August 28: The last date that authors can upload their games to the
competition site. Everyone starts counting down the hours, eager to
explore all the new IFfy goodness.
September 1: The games are released to the public, and the judging
period begins.
October 15: All votes must be submitted by the end of the day. The
competition results are announced shortly afterwards. Prize choosing
and distribution begins.
Side contests Miss Congeniality Awards
Since the 1998 competition, the IFComp has every year held a secondary
contest allowing the authors of that year???s games to vote on one another???s entries, using a ballot similar to the one that the public uses to vote in
the main competition. The three most highly ranked entries by this vote
become the winners of the Miss Congeniality Awards, an honor permanently recorded in that year???s results listing. Rising Star Award
Since the 2021 competition, the IFComp has recognized the highest-rated
game by a first-time entrant in the competition, called the Rising Star
Award. Golden Banana of Discord
This special award goes every year to the entry with the highest standard distribution among its ratings ??? roughly speaking, the entries with the
most disagreement among those who rated it. The IFWiki keeps a record of
every year's GBoD winner, as well as a bit of history about this prize.
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