The Spring Thing is an annual competition for interactive fiction (or IF, or text adventures). It was started by Adam Cadre, who ran it during 2002 and 2003. After a brief hiatus, Spring Thing was revived in 2005. The 2011 competition is now scheduled to begin.

If you're an author of IF, check out the rules. If this sounds like a good place to release your next game, feel free to participate.

If you're a player of IF, you're welcome to take part as a judge. We're also looking for people to donate prizes.

In addition, you can read about the history of the Spring Thing, and find some cool games to download and play. And if you have any questions, you can email me at:

Sep. 5, 2010: I've just received another large donation, bringing the prize pool up to an unprecedented $1,200 (more than that, including non-cash prizes).
Jun. 11, 2010: The Spring Thing 2011 site is up and running.

Check out the rules page for deadlines and details on when things are happening.

The Spring Thing would like to thank the following people:

Adam Cadre, for starting the competition;
Mike Snyder, for writing the voting program and for running a mirror;
Peter Seebach, for past hosting and technical help;
Stephen Granade, for occasional advice; and
the prize donors, for their generosity. here here

Obviously, the general purpose of Spring Thing is to promote interactive fiction. More specifically, there are three aims that make the Spring Thing different from the annual IF Comp:

1. To provide a place for promoting medium-sized to long works of interactive fiction.
2. To provide some springtime relief to the dry season between the autumn deluges of the IF Comp.
3. To encourage excellence in game authorship and discourage shoddiness. (The entry fee seems to be fairly effective for this purpose, usually weeding out substandard games.) .