The 2016 Spring Thing* Festival of Interactive Fiction

• September 29, 2015: 2016 Festival site launches, intents to enter now open.
• March 8, 2016: Deadline for authors' intents to enter.
• April 1, 2016: Deadline for games to be submitted.
• April 6, 2016: The festival is open and the entries are available to play!
• May 7, 2016: Festival closes; ribbons announced and games archived.

Held annually since 2002, Spring Thing has traditionally been a smaller counterweight to the more crowded fall Interactive Fiction Competition for new text-based computer games. Longer, more polished projects are encouraged, and several notable games have debuted here over the years, including The Baron and Blue Lacuna.

Originally a ranked competition for parser-based IF, the Thing today puts the focus more on bringing authors together to celebrate new text games in many different formats.

Games in the Main Festival can be nominated for two "ribbons": an Audience Choice ribbon, which anyone can nominate a game for, and an Alumni's Choice ribbon given by past participants. Prize donors also gift fun, unique prizes, which every entrant has a chance to receive.

Welcome! From the rest of the site you can find out how to submit an entry, play the games, or donate a prize.

So far this year, no rule changes! Check out the details of last year's change from competition to festival, or see the current requirements for entry.

Looking for another event to enter text games in? The Interactive Fiction Competition is the oldest regular event for IF games. Have just the start of a game? Try IntroComp.

Looking for tools to make text games? There are plenty. For parser-style games, try Inform 7, TADS, or Quest. For node-based hyperfiction projects, consider Twine. Want a choice-based structure like classic gamebooks? Check out ChoiceScript, ChooseYourStory.com, or inklewriter. The visual novel engine Ren'Py can help tell stories about characters and conversation. Some brand-new systems in the past year include StoryStylus and Texture. Finally, interested in more unconventional systems? Look into StoryNexus or Seltani.

Need a community? Check out IntFiction for forums, or the Interactive Fiction Database and IF Wiki to find games to play and learn about craft. Planet IF aggregates posts about text games, and you can chat with like-minded folks at ifMUD. Many of the tools listed above have their own forums and networks, too: click through to find out more.

The Spring Thing would like to thank the following people:

• Adam Cadre, for starting it;
• Greg Boettcher, for organizing and running it from 2004 to 2013;
• the interactive fiction community, for advice, support, and incredible games;
• Adri, aoede, Neil Butters, Paul Lee, Tia Orisney, and Teaspoon, for their help processing submissions this year, and;
• the prize donors, for their generosity.