– Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction

The 2015 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 2015 Festival featured nine 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 downloadable games in one archive (99MB zip):
[Download from itch.io] - [Download from springthing.net]

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.

In the Main Festival

Play
Mere Anarchy by Bruno Dias
Mere Anarchy Bruno Dias Undum choice-based urban fantasy some adult themes “The box is cardboard, a file box; it looks like it should contain years of tax returns. Except the holes on the sides have been shut with black masking tape. Except the lid is held in place with the same tape. Except it feels warmer and lighter to the touch than a box full of paper should. Nothing rattles inside it.”

Mere Anarchy is an interactive story about magic, struggle, and choice. Mere Anarchy grew out of some experimentation with hypertext, into a short-story sized piece of interactive fiction. It's fairly replayable, with a lot of content that's not visible in all playthroughs. Instead of multiple endings, it features a 'variegated' ending with several choices and variations based on your path. Play Online Download (1.6MB .zip) itch.io IFDB Author's Homepage
Download
Sunrise by Lucky Sun Scribes
Sunrise Lucky Sun Scribes Ren'Py fantasy romance dieselpunk short visual novel Help Lady Sodia navigate dicey court politics, and a curse casted by a jilted beau, as her new relationship with his brother—and her life—is placed in jeopardy. (Some graphic depictions of violence and sexual aggression directed towards the protagonist.) Download (88MB .zip) itch.io Lemmasoft Thread Tumblr
Play
A Trial by B Minus Seven
A Trial B Minus Seven Twine A funny thing happens on your way to the Center for Nominal Reassignment. "A Trial" is a chimera of prose, poetry and ???. Play Online Download (235K .html)
Play
Doggerland by A. DeNiro
Doggerland A. DeNiro Twine poetry autobiography An autobiographical work with both prose and poetry. From a cabin in Wisconsin to the Czech Republic to a land underneath the North Sea. The red text can be hovered on with your mouse. Because of this, Doggerland isn't recommended for mobile devices. Play Online Download (325K .html) Author's Homepage
Play
Ruiness by Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Ruiness Porpentine Charity Heartscape Twine Play Online Author's Homepage
Play
Toby's Nose by Chandler Groover
Toby's Nose Chandler Groover Glulx murder mystery nonhuman protagonist one-room Victorian Toby's Nose by Chandler Groover is the winner of the 2015 Spring Thing Audience Choice ribbon. Toby's Nose by Chandler Groover is the winner of the 2015 Spring Thing Alumni's Choice ribbon. A murder most foul has been committed and Sherlock Holmes is on the case. You are his dog. The idea for Toby's Nose came to me after playing Castle of the Red Prince by C.E.J. Pacian and Lime Ergot by Caleb Wilson. I wanted to write a one-room game where the principle mechanic was investigating objects nested within other objects. Investigating via smell seemed like a good idea, and who better to investigate smells than a detective's dog? Play Online Download (1.9MB .gblorb) Author's Homepage

In the Back Garden

Download
Inspired by the 2001 IF Arcade.
Dirk Andrew Schultz z-machine retro humor inform parser-abuse A retelling of a favorite game from a textual perspective. This is something I had floating around, and I enjoy reading others' pieces that they dashed off. I included source and a walkthrough. I hope this encourages other people to give their own jokes a try, or to lean towards publishing their own silly games. (But get them tested first, to iron the jokes out!) Don't worry about failing—you get cheats if you lose. I hope to release (optional) Hard Mode post-comp. Two resources I found critical for research of this game are here and here. Download (361K .zblorb) Walkthrough Source
Play
“The soil itself is glowing. Her Majesty has acted.”
Aspel Emily Short Seltani fantasy multiplayer choice-based light puzzles conversation Her Majesty has sent your team to investigate the mountain palace of Aspel, now ruined, to find out its secrets and determine what value it may still have. Aspel is an experimental interactive experience designed for multiple players, featuring asymmetric information and collective decision-making. The text you see on the screen won't necessarily be the same as what everyone else sees, so you'll need to communicate with your fellow players in order to experience it most fully. To make that easier, I'll be around to participate/host at the following times:

Tuesday April 7 at 8 PM British/3 Eastern/noon Pacific
Sunday April 19 at 8 PM British/3 Eastern/noon Pacific
Friday May 1 at 8 PM British/3 Eastern/noon Pacific

...but of course people are more than welcome to arrange their own visiting hours. Play Online Author's Homepage
Play
“The blazer looked hip when you tried it on, but now it screams boy detective.”
Missing Since ’77 Andrew Watt Twine adventure mystery fantasy excerpt When a derided author vanishes from his home, his incriminated wife hires a prodigious young detective to investigate. I wanted to write a game that had deep ties to my last four but was also its own thing, so I took a break from my fantasy shtick and began the story of a young detective and the college professor who hires him to find her husband. It's a tonal departure for me, and I intend for it to stand on its own. I'm curious to know whether or not festival players (few of whom I expect to know my work) think it has legs. Play Online Download (162K .html) Author's IFDB 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 platform.

Glulx: You'll need to download the story files for these games at the links above, and you'll also need a Glulx interpreter for your platform to play them. Gargoyle is a good cross-platform interpreter to run these stories. (Download)

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

Seltani: Seltani is a multiplayer environment for playing and writing text games. Click on the game's "Play Online" link to visit a landing page with more information. You can create an account or sign in as a guest; look in the right-hand navbar for the game link afterwards in either case.

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

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

Z: You'll need to download the story files for these games at the links above, and you'll also need a Z-code interpreter for your platform to play them. Gargoyle is a good cross-platform interpreter. (Download)

Ribbon Nominations

Main Festival games in the 2015 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 2015 were awarded to: