Acorn User IF Competition
Graham Nelson
Perhaps I might post a reminder about the competition being held in
"Acorn User" magazine, for which I write a monthly column on adventure games.
I'll be judging the competition myself. The prize is really just glory,
being written about in a distinguished publication, and a chance to reach
an audience of players quite different from the newsgroup.
I'll offer a modest sort-of prize, though -- I'll donate a copy of the source
code of "Curses" to the winner, if the winner would be interested. Nobody
other than myself has this at present.
You don't have to be an Acorn user! All "Inform" users are welcome to take
part.
The Acorn User Interactive Fiction Competition
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1. Write a short text-only adventure game. Any
style or genre is allowed.
2. "Short" might mean having 10 to 20 locations
and something to do in each of them. A good
player ought to be able to win through in one
rainy Sunday afternoon.
3. Don't use characters or situations from books
still in copyright, or from films or TV. (A
parody is legal if you change all the proper nouns.)
4. Your game must be playable on an Acorn machine
under RISC OS 3. (Either send us an Inform
"story file" or send an Acorn program which can
be clicked on to run.)
5. Along with the game, send a file containing a
solution (that is, a list of commands which will
win the game if played through).
6. You retain copyright on your work, but grant
Acorn User permission to distribute it once on a
future cover disc or CD ROM.
7. Entries by August 1st please (note that the deadline
has been extended by 1 month owing to a hold-up;
Acorn User's second cover CD-ROM published a copy
of Inform 6 only last month).
Either email a UUencode of the program to myself,
at this email address, or send an Acorn or IBM
format disc to:
Steve Mumford, Games Editor
Acorn User
IDG Media Ltd
Media House
Adlington Park
Macclesfield SK10 4NP
UK
A couple of footnotes. Firstly, nothing sent to me will be put onto
any FTP site or posted on any newsgroup: rule (6) would take several months
to happen and is quite a different form of distribution anyway. If you
would like to upload your game to an FTP site, or enter it or a later
version for another competition, you are quite free to do so.
Secondly, just to re-iterate, I see no reason why this competition should
clash with the rules of any other, and in particular I don't see why you
shouldn't enter the same game for this competition as for the annual
rec.arts.int-fiction contest. Other newsgroup readers will not have a chance
to see your work before the closing date for the newsgroup contest, after all
(well, except for myself).
Thirdly, I shall be abroad for part of July, so if you email me but receive no
acknowledgement, don't worry. I will of course acknowledge all entries when
I return.
Graham Nelson
Oxford University, UK