Current events

Game Releases

From February 2005:

• A Walk at Dusk by Eric Mayer. Download from the Adrift site.
• Veteran Knowledge by Robert Rafgon. Download from the Adrift site.
• Wizards Playground by evil_flagpole. Download from the Adrift site.
• PTBAD5 by Xorax. Download from Honest Audio. It's short.
• Wumpus 2000 by Muffy St. Bernard. Download from the author page for the game. A randomized game every time you play.

From January 2005:

• Dastardly by Andy Chase. Written for the Third 24 Hours of Inform.
• Within a Wreath of Dewdrops, or, A Poisoned Zenith by Sam Kabo Ashwell and Jacqueline A. Lott, together as "Alphonse de l'Entaille". Written for the Third 24 Hours of Inform.

From December 2004:

• Andrew Plotkin has released a new version of his game, The Dreamhold. See Zarf's IF page for details.
• Another good puzzle game is The Isle of the Cult by Rune Berg. Dan Shiovitz (inky) wrote a nice review.

Review & Article News

• Peter Nepstad's 1893: A World's Fair Mystery is reviewed in the New York Times!
• InsideADRIFT Issue 21 is out! Articles by David Whyld and Lumin.
• The latest issue of SPAG is out! SPAG 39 looks at the IF Comp games from 2004.
• The Non-Comp Review Project 2004 is a new reviews collection which focuses on games that were released outside competitions. Enjoy!

(See also: Reviews and Category:Publications.)

Competitions & Contest News

XYZZY Awards 2004 is currently in second-round voting. See the finalists and cast your votes for the best IF games of 2004! Deadline for second-round vo­ting: Wednesday, March 9th. The probable date for the awards ceremony is Sunday, March 20th, but that hasn't been confirmed. More details to come.

Voting for the 2004 Erins is currently underway. Ballots, rules, and other information is available from the Erins website.

Rumours are buzzing about a possible Hugo Mini-Comp? Suggested submission date: July 4th.

Speaking of rumours, will there be an IntroComp and an IF Art Show this year? Probably, but no announcement has been made yet. Details here when we have 'em.

Authors should be working on their entries for:

• Segment Mini-Comp, where authors write up sections of a larger story. See Segment Mini-Comp (Announcement). Organizer: David Cornelson.
• One Room Game Competition 2005 which started on January 20th. Submission deadline: March 6th. Organizer: Francesco Cordella.
• Spring Thing 2005, intents accepted until noon EST, March 15, 2005. Organizer: Greg Boettcher.
• InsideADRIFT Spring Competition 2005, for new Adrift games. Submission deadline: April 17th. Organizer: Ken Franklin.
• LOTECH Comp 2005, game submission deadline is midnight June 30th, 2005 GMT. Organizer: Roberto Grassi.
• IntroComp 2004 winners have until July 18th, 2005 to submit completed versions of their games in order to claim their prizes.
• MedievoComp is a comp for Spanish IF with a medieval theme. Submission deadline: September 11th. Organizers: Baltasar and Urbatain.
• The 11th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition is expected to occur as usual in October 2005. Exact deadlines have yet to be announced. Organizer: Stephen Granade.

(See also: Category:Competitions, Category:Minicomp, and the Competition Calendar.)

Website News

• Renga in Blue is Jason Dyer's new IF blog. Check it out!
• IFWiki officially open to the public on Feb. 10, 2005.
• Plover.net gets hacked twice, hampering efforts to move accounts to a new machine. Seebs is working hard on the problem.

Tech News

• Windows Frotz 2000 1.06 released on Feb. 8, 2005 by David Kinder.