March 1, 2014: Deadline for authors' intents to enter.
April 9, 2014: Deadline by which authors' entry fees must be received by the organizer.
April 9, 2014: Deadline by which authors' games and walkthroughs must be received by the organizer.
April 9 or 10, 2014: Games will be released, voting will start, and the end of the voting period will be announced.

Note: deadlines for authors are at noon, Eastern US Time, of the dates in question.

• Rule 7 has been clarified to note that authors retain the rights to do anything they like with their games, including releasing them commercially, as long as the Spring Thing version of a game is and remains freely available, and no version of the game had been released as of the time judging began (see rule #8).

• Rule 8 has been amended to allow IntroComp entries and other preview releases, provided the Spring Thing version contains significant new material to justify treating it like a whole new game. A full six-chapter story based on a one-chapter preview is fine; just a new ending or updated mechanic to something previously released is not.

• Judges must cast votes for at least half of the entered games, rather than a specific number of them.

1. To enter the competition, follow these steps:
• You should first submit an intent to enter before noon EST on March 1, 2014, to the organizer at the email address at the bottom of this page. It should include your real name (and pseudonym, if so desired), a brief description of your game, a working title, and the country you live in (so I can give you appropriate payment instructions; see below).
• After hearing back from the organizer, you should then send a non-refundable entry fee of $7 US to the prize pool. You'll receive instructions on sending it either electronically (such as by PayPal) or by snail mail, but either way your fee must be received by the organizer before noon EST, April 9, 2014. There will be no exceptions to this deadline (since that would hold up the whole competition). Also note that your entry fee will not be refunded, even if you withdraw from the competition or are disqualified, unless something happens beyond your control (e.g. the postal service delivers your entry fee very late).
• Finally, you should send your completed game to the organizer, along with a walkthrough (so that the organizer can test your game for finishability). If you don't want the walkthrough to be made available to the public, just say so. As with the entry fee, your game and walkthrough must be received by the organizer before noon EST, April 9, 2014.
2. You may submit only one intent to enter, and one game.
3. The Spring Thing is a competition for interactive fiction. If you have any doubts as to whether your game qualifies as interactive fiction, please contact the organizer.
4. All games must be finishable by the organizer. (Hence the need to submit a walkthrough along with your game.)
5. Games may not be based on works currently under copyright without permission from the copyright holder.
6. Do not use copyrighted multimedia assets (graphics or sound) without permission from the copyright owner. If you don't know if a song, sound file, or picture is under copyright, don't use it.
7. Entries must be freely available to players. While you retain copyright to the game you enter, and are free to sell or otherwise distribute a commercial version, by entering you grant the Spring Thing and the Interactive Fiction Archive the non-exclusive right to distribute the competition version of your game for free, forever.
   • Note: a prior version of this rule stated that "No shareware, commercial software, etc. may be entered." Commercially released games are okay, as long as they were unreleased at the time judging began, and the competition version is and always remains free. Please contact the organizer with any questions about this rule.
8. All entries must be previously unreleased at the time of voting—that is, they must never have been publicly downloadable or otherwise publicly available. Obviously, this does not prevent you from having your game beta-tested, which is much encouraged.
   • A game containing some previously released material, such as one evolved from an IntroComp or Ludum Dare entry, is okay, provided the entry mostly feels like an unreleased game, in the judgment of the author. A full six-chapter story based on a one-chapter preview is fine; just a new ending or updated mechanic to something previously released is not.
9. When deciding what length of game to submit, bear in mind the rules of judging: judges are encouraged to spend as long on your game as they want, and are encouraged to try to finish it, but are not required to finish it, especially if your game requires more than about two evenings to complete.
10. If your game is in the competition, then you may not publicly discuss either it or any competitors' games during the judging period. If you need to correct a public misstatement of fact about your game, please contact the organizer, who will relay the message.

The deadline for voting is May 11, 2014, 11:59 PM EST.

1. The judging period will end at 11:59 pm EST, May 11, 2014. (Note that you must not only vote, but also confirm your votes before the deadline.)
2. Judges are encouraged to spend as long as they want on each game, and are encouraged to try to finish each one. In the end, however, they are not required to finish before voting (especially if the game takes more than about two evenings to complete). Nor, for that matter, is there any particular minimum time length that must be spent on each game.
3. Judges must vote on at least half of the games for their votes to be counted.
4. Anyone who is not an entrant or the organizer may judge.
5. Judges should score each game on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being best.
6. Judges are allowed to discuss the games during the judging period, but are requested to clearly mark posts which discuss the games, for the benefit of those who want to avoid spoilers and having their scores influenced.
7. Beta-testers are allowed to vote on the entries they beta-tested.

1. There will be several prizes, including the cash taken from the pool of entry fees, but also including donations. The first-place winner will have first pick of any one prize, the second-place winner will have the next pick, and so on. For more information, including the current list of prizes, see the prize page. You may also donate a prize.
2. Note that cash prizes are handled differently from other prizes, as explained on the prize page.

1. If a rule is breached once, the organizer reserves the right to decide whether to warn the person or kick them out of the competition. If a rule is breached twice, the organizer will very likely kick the person out of the competition.
2. The organizer will have final say on all judgment calls, but may consult others in making decisions.

[Note: On this page I have stolen plenty of phrases from Adam Cadre's original rules, plus one or two phrases from the IF Comp's rules—e.g., as involves copyright—without necessarily using quotes, which would have been awkward. Since this is all in the service of Adam's original idea and the IF community, I hoped nobody would mind. If this does bother anybody, please write to me.]