The 2021 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction features thirty-eight new interactive stories submitted by authors working across the spectrum of text games. Participants chose to place their games in either the Main Festival, where they are eligible for a Best In Show ribbon and prizes, or the Back Garden, with looser entry requirements allowing for more experimental or work-in-progress entries.
Main Festival
| An Amical Bet, by Eve Cabanié |
| Baggage, by Katherine Farmar |
| A Blank Page, by Edu Sánchez |
| Copper Canyon, by Tony Pisculli |
| Eleanor, by Rob |
| Excalibur, by J. J. Guest, G. C. Baccaris and Duncan Bowsman |
| Fish & Dagger, by grave snail gamesBest In Show recipient |
| Hand of God, by Dana Freitas |
| Heroes!, by Bellamy Briks |
| Journey to Ultimate Fightdown!, by Havilah "mwahahavilah" McGinnis |
| Lady Thalia and the Seraskier Sapphires, by E. Joyce and N. Cormier |
| Mean Mother Trucker, by Bitter Karella |
| Medicum Veloctic, by Lawrence M Marable |
| Miss No-Name, by Bellamy Briks |
| Misty Hills, by Giuliano Roverato Martins Pereira |
| Ned Nelson Really Needs a Job, by Eric Crepeau |
| Perihelion, by Tim White |
| Picton Murder Whodunnit, by Sia See |
| Project Arcmör, by Donald Conrad and Peter M.J. Gross (as Bitterly Indifferent Studios) |
| [PYG]MALION*, by C.J. |
| Queenlash, by Kaemi Velatet |
| The Secret of Nara, by Ralfe Rich |
| Some Space, by rittermi |
| Sovereign Citizens, by Laura Paul and Max Woodring |
| A strange dream, by Anaïs Tn |
| Sunny's Summer Vacation, by Lucas C. Wheeler |
| Take the Dog Out, by Ell |
| Those Days, by George Larkwright |
| The Weight of a Soul, by Chin Kee YongBest In Show recipient |
| Wintervale, by Ethan Erh |
Back Garden
Download all entries under 100 MB (226 MB zip): [Download from itch.io]
Festival Readme and Changelog of updated games
Anyone is welcome to submit to Spring Thing. The organizer reserves the right to not show a submission 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 Thing as a whole.
Spring Thing 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:
Play
“The screen glows in the darkness hurting your eyes. Your notebook, open on a blank page, lies near your keyboard. On the screen the cursor blinks over the white background of a clean new document.”
A Blank Page
By Edu Sánchez 
Twine short
A short story about creative block and the impostor syndrome.
“This short story talks about the doubts that assail any creator when starting their creative process. In the story, we take the place of a writer, but much of the text is valid for any creative discipline, since all arts have their own version of the “Blank Page Syndrome”.
As an interactive fiction writer I feel very much reflected in the concerns and fears expressed here, but what is crucial for me is what you, the player, feel when you experience this little piece.
I truly hope that this little work resonates with you.”
MOST
INSPIRING
MOST
INTROSPECTIVE
BEST
LITERATURE
Play Online
Download (1.01 MB; Twine)
If you prefer to download and play the entries offline, or a game isn't available for online play, here are instructions for running each kind of story format on your local system.
Inform: To play offline, you'll need to use the Download link on an entry's listing to get the game, and you'll need an interpreter that supports Glulx. Lectrote is a good cross-platform interpreter. [format details]
Inform (Z): You'll need to use the Download link on an entry's listing to get the game, and you'll need an interpreter for z-code. Lectrote is a good cross-platform interpreter. [format details]
Ink: This year's Ink games have been compiled into a standalone webpage or a platform-native application, so no special instructions are needed to play them offline. [format details]
Quest: If the author has not provided an online version, you can only play these games on a Windows PC. Download Quest for Windows and open the .aslx file. [format details]
Python: You will need to be familiar with a command line to run these programs, and have the correct version of Python installed: "Space Diner" should work with any version of Python 3, while "Theatre of Spud" requires Python 3.9. Refer to the instructions in the download for correctly installing and running each game. [format details]
Strand: The submission in this format can only be played online. [format details]
Ren'Py: To play offline, you must download a standalone platform-specific application using the links along the bottom of the listing. [format details]
Twine: To play offline, open the .html file in any modern web browser.† Some of this year's Twine games require access to online-only resources. [format details]
Windows: You can only play this submission on a Windows PC. Download the .zip file and run the executable installer inside.
† For offline play of browser-based formats, note that the Chrome browser's default security settings may prevent some games from running correctly: use a different browser, such as Firefox or Safari, if you have trouble playing one of these games offline.
Players of the 2021 festival could nominate games for two kinds of prize ribbons:
- A Best in Show blue ribbon, for Main Festival entries. The top two nominees each year win a Best in Show ribbon to display by their game.
- Audience Award ribbons, for all participants, which are suggested by nominators and can be anything they like: “Best Story,” “Best Parser Game,” “Personal Favorite,” “Alumni's Choice,” “Cutest Vampires”... you get the idea. Audience Award ribbons appear alongside their games in the listings above.
When the festival closes, the organizer curates Audience Award suggestions to cull anything not in the celebratory spirit of the Thing before sending them to each author. The author may choose up to three Audience Awards to display on their game. Authors may choose to opt-out of receiving Audience Awards.
After the festival closes, nominations also close and ribbons are awarded. The games will remain permanently available on the festival site and at the IF Archive, along with any supplemental material of the author's choosing (walkthrough, source code, etc.).
![[PYG]MALION* by C.J.](stories/Pygmalion/cover_small.jpg)
