The 2016 Spring Thing* Festival of Interactive Fiction

* or Fall Fooferal, for our Southern Hemisphere Friends

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Connect with Spring Thing on Twitter at @SpringThingFest

We think games are for everyone.

The 2016 Festival featured seventeen stories submitted by authors working across the spectrum of text games. Authors chose whether to place their games in the Main Festival, where they were up for ribbons and prizes, or the Back Garden, with looser entry requirements and no prizes.

Main Festival

Back Garden

All entries in one archive (84 MB zip): [Download from itch.io]

Anyone is welcome to submit a game to . The organizer reserves the right to not show a game they feel is inappropriate for the festival, but entries are not otherwise vetted, and their contents and opinions reflect the views of the original author, not the as a whole.

How to Play Parser IF

S features all kinds of text games, but two of the major divisions are between what are sometimes called choiced-based games (where you interact by clicking links) and parser-based games (where you interact by typing commands).

To those unfamiliar with the parser, it can seem confusing or intimidating. Here are some resources for getting started:

Some parser IF comes in the form of a story file, which needs to be opened with a program called an interpreter, much like a .doc file needs Microsoft Word to open. Clicking on the story format (next to the download link) will take you to instructions for finding the right interpreter to play a particular game.

In the Main Festival

Play
Evita Sempai by Florencia Rumpel Rodriguez a.k.a Rumpelcita
Evita Sempai Florencia Rumpel Rodriguez a.k.a Rumpelcita Twine puzzleless lesbians dictatorship A woman in the fifties falls in love with an idealized version of a polemical political figure. I'm a girl from Argentina who makes small games and maintains a game's critique bilingual blog with some friends.

I made a game about family, duty, idealization and heartbreak. Play Online Download (101 KB Twine)
Play
Harmonic Time-Bind Ritual Symphony by Ben Kidwell and Maevele Straw
Harmonic Time-Bind Ritual Symphony Ben Kidwell and Maevele Straw Inform/Z music sex drugs plan9 manic A musician's manic episode binds fiction and reality into a joyful union. The author's involvement with IF goes back to 1981, playing the Microsoft port of ‘Colossal Cave Adventure’ on an Apple ][+ as a child. During 2013, the author experienced a manic episode in which he perceived himself to be a character within an Infocom sci-fi game from an alternate reality. After discovering the Digital Antiquarian blog in 2014 and learning the post-1990 history of the genre, in 2015 the author and his creative partner began a project to create the game in which he had perceived himself as living. This is the result—a novel-length, story-focused game which attempts to share feelings of intense joy with the player. Play Online Download (223 KB Inform/Z) Soundtrack and extras
Play
Ms. Lojka by Jordan Magnuson
Ms. Lojka Jordan Magnuson Twine In Despair to Will to Be Oneself. A short game about ignorance, defiance, and freedom—or: self-knowledge, acquiescence, and fate.

Warning: includes depictions of violence/gore and flashing images. Play Online Download (7.52 MB Twine)
Download
Rough Draft by Erica Kleinman
Rough Draft Erica Kleinman Ren'Py Denise is an author struggling to finish a story by a deadline. Help her complete her story by making choices and avoiding writer's block. Part of a thesis project on interactive storytelling. Special thanks to my advisors Valerie Fox and Jichen Zhu for their assistance. Download (71.4 MB Ren'Py)
Play
Shipwrecked by Andrew G. Schneider
Shipwrecked Andrew G. Schneider Twine short puzzleless generally unobjectionable A short story of above average adventure in the Endless Desert. Build the journal of a sailor lost in the Sandsea as he searched for both water and a path to publication. Playable in about 5 minutes. Play Online Download (448 KB Twine)
Play
Sisters of Claro Largo by David T. Marchand
Sisters of Claro Largo David T. Marchand Twine puzzleless drug abuse violence magic realism A word becomes a sentence becomes a story about two sisters who become the world. Play Online Download (103 KB Twine)
Play
The everyday life of a Superhero is tough, do YOU have what it takes?
Superhero Stress Michael Yadvish Twine violent action superhero stress Being a Superhero in New York City is the most stressful job there is. Do YOU have what it takes to survive the day? Play Online Download (102 KB Twine)
Play
Tangaroa Deep by Astrid Dalmady
Tangaroa Deep Astrid Dalmady Twine mobile friendly Tangaroa Deep by Astrid Dalmady is the winner of the 2016 Spring Thing Audience Choice ribbon. We know more about space than we do about the ocean. Isn’t it time to start changing that? Play Online Download (677 KB Twine)
Play
The Xylophoniad by Robin Johnson
The Xylophoniad Robin Johnson HTML/Javascript comedy mythology parser The Xylophoniad by Robin Johnson is the winner of the 2016 Spring Thing Alumni's Choice ribbon. The King of Anachronopolis has ordered you to end the Trojan War, slay the dreaded Bicyclops, and rescue a couple of inmates from Hades. A comic adventure set in Greek Mythology. Play Online Download (132 KB HTML/Javascript)
Play
Three-Card Trick by Chandler Groover
Three-Card Trick Chandler Groover Inform/Glulx short flimflam magic You're going to perform a three-card trick or your name isn't Morgan the Magnificent. Play Online IFDB Entry Download (687 KB Inform/Glulx)

In the Back Garden

Play
Dead Man
Dead Man's Hill Arno von Borries Inform/Glulx Mutual slaughter in northern France, spring 1916. Play Online Download (358 KB Inform/Glulx)
Play
Dr. Sourpuss Is Not A Choice-Based Game by P.B. Parjeter
Dr. Sourpuss Is Not A Choice-Based Game P.B. Parjeter Twine satire social politics light puzzles I, Dr. Sourpuss, talking housecat and test administrator, regret to inform you that your multiple choice test has been misplaced. While I attempt to locate the missing SCANDRON marking machine, please occupy yourself with the fully immersive "101±98 Experiments with Citrus" science fair activities. Play Online Download (824 KB Twine)
Play
Famous Baby by N.C. Kerklaan
Famous Baby N.C. Kerklaan Twine potentially offensive content "Me make weewee!" An attempt at what Porpentine called, referring to her own game Begscape, a "bleak slot machine poem". In terms of form, it wound up being very similar to Begscape, except that it's over even faster and it doesn't allow for even the limited strategy that Porpentine's game did. In terms of content, there is no one to blame but me, and I'm not really sure what to say about it except: a) it was at least partially inspired by an episode of the Hollywood history podcast You Must Remember This about how Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were treated by MGM; and b) it probably reflects certain vague lingering anxieties and resentments from my childhood. Play Online Download (96.7 KB Twine)
Play
Foo Foo by Buster Hudson
Foo Foo Buster Hudson Inform/Glulx Someone's been bopping the field mice on the head, and only Good Fairy, Senior Detective can find out who. A parser-driven noir adventure based on the interactive fiction of Ryan Veeder. Play Online Download (465 KB Inform/Glulx)
Play
Fourdiopolis by Andrew Schultz
Fourdiopolis Andrew Schultz Inform/Glulx puzzle sequel surreal A sequel to Threediopolis. It has teleporters! This game wound up unavoidably hard. It's heavy on logic crunching, which is the reason I put this in the Back Garden, so people wouldn't feel obliged to play it. And I found the logical hoops you have to go through to solve it fascinating. I recognize they're not for everyone. Nevertheless, I attempted to make more of a story with it than ‘Threediopolis’. Download (312 KB Inform/Glulx) Logic documentWalkthroughSource
Play
Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood by Andrew G. Schneider
Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood Andrew G. Schneider Twine fantasy long-form puzzleless swashbuckling violence You are Robin of Locksley. Hounded from your home by the Sheriff of Nottingham, take control of your fate in this extravagant choose-your-own-adventure style role-playing game. Rob from the rich, rally the people, build a settlement, and battle the Sheriff of Nottingham for control of Sherwood Forest. This back garden submission is just a taste of ‘Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood,’ to be released on iOS in the Summer 2016. Built on the new Disbound engine from Unmapped Path and the creators of Twine, ‘Nocked’ will offer a lush mobile IF experience. Play Online Download (343 KB Twine)
View Rules
Standoff by Matthew R.F. Balousek
Standoff Matthew R.F. Balousek pen-and-paper improv multiple players A game about telling ridiculous stories together. Download (209 KB PDF) itch.io page

Platform Instructions

If a game does not have a "play online" link, or if you'd prefer to download and play offline, here are instructions for each kind of story format.

HTML: Open the .html file in any modern web browser.

Inform (Glulx): You'll need to download the story files for these games at the links above, and you'll also need a interpreter for Glulx. Lectrote is a good cross-platform interpreter, although for the game “Foo Foo” the author recommends Gargoyle. [format details]

Inform (Z): You'll need to download the story files for these games at the links above, and you'll also need a interpreter for z-code. Gargoyle is a good cross-platform interpreter. [format details]

Ren'Py: The .zip archive contains executables for Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. [format details]

Twine: Open the .html file in any modern web browser. For offline play, note that the Chrome browser's default security settings will prevent some Twine games from running correctly: use a different browser for these, such as Firefox or Safari. [format details]

Ribbon Nominations

Main Festival games in the 2016 could be nominated for two prize ribbons: an Audience Choice ribbon, and an Alumni's Choice ribbon voted on by prior participants.

The ribbons for the 2016 were awarded to: