SNEEZE COMP Announcement

NOTE: Sorry, this was posted yesterday, but I accidentally screwed something up and I'm posting it again. Sorry if you lost a comment that you made!

To encourage development of more games, I've come up with a new comp, this one for CYOA games. After putting up a draft for commentary by the community, I'm ready to go ahead with this. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

SNEEZE COMP

The Name

Sneeze Comp is a play on words: Adult Choose Your Own Adventure

The Philosophy

SNEEZE Comp is a casual competition. The rules are designed so that people aren't killing themselves trying to win it. As such, the rules are loose, and we mostly do pinky swears and the honor system.

It's also supposed to be a fun competition. We encourage creativity, experimentation, and not taking things too seriously.

Rules

Small or medium games only, minimum 1,000 words of game text, maximum 25,000 words. Code doesn't count as game text.

Game should be complete. That is, you should be able to play from beginning to end, with no choices that are loose ends. UPDATE: By "loose ends", I mean unfinished choices, parts of the game that were obviously supposed to continue but didn't. If the game ends because the player puts it into a fail state (i.e. they die) then that's fine.

The game can be written for any interpreter, as long as it can be downloaded freely. That is, players shouldn't need to buy or sign up for anything to get an interpreter, so you couldn't write a Neverwinter Nights module for the comp.

The game must use a CYOA interface. That is:  a) All in-game actions should be controlled either by clicking or selecting a provided choice. So, no typing unless it is to select a choice.  b) The limitation does not apply to system commands (i.e. save, load, quit, undo, restart, options).

Entries must contain explicit sexual content with all characters depicted in sexual situations 18+. Games that have especially weird fetish content will probably not win, but are allowed.

(Optional) Game can follow the competition's theme. A broad theme for the competition will be provided, for example, possible themes might be "on a desert island", "damsel in distress", or "nurses". It isn't necessary to follow that theme, so if you don't like that theme you can still submit an entry, but voters are asked to take it into consideration when they rank the game.

Voting will be done by rankings. Each voter will be asked to rank the three best games, or in the case of less than five games, just the best game. Winners will be determined by an instant run-off vote.

If there are five or more games, any game that doesn't win first prize is viable to win an honorable mention. These include: Sexiest Game, Funniest Game, Best Writing, Best Implementation, Best Use of Theme, Most Original. Voters will be asked to give out the honorable mentions.

Some multimedia is allowed, but games are expected to be mostly text. You are responsible for providing attribution or obtaining licenses if the work is not your own. Absolutely no photographs of RL people! To give writers without access to expensive graphic suites a chance, please no images of sex. Yes, I like them too, but not all of us can sink a chunk of money into a good image program. UPDATE: Having an image of sex is discouraged but won't disqualify you. It is not in the spirit of the comp.

Game file should be 4 MB or less. Leeway can be if given the file-type is "naturally large" for a blank story file.

The game should be the original work of you and your co-authors. You are, of course, encouraged to recruit beta testers.

Whoever runs this competition can't submit their own entries.

By submitting an entry, you are stating you've read and understood all the above.

 This Competition's Theme

Out of the dozen and a half or so submissions for possible themes for the competition, I've used an RNG to pick from the eligible ones at random. If you want to submit a theme for a future competition, follow this link.

The theme that was randomly picked was:

Cyberpunk/Dystopian Future

Rogue AIs, virtual worlds, tyrannical governments, greedy mega-corps dominate public life. Some do what they will, the hackers, jammers and runners do what they must on the unforgiving streets. Think Blade Runner, The Matrix, Shadowrun, Neuromancer.

 SNEEZE Comp and Minicomp


This comp does not influence the Minicomp in any way, the Minicomp is still taking CYOA submissions as far as I know. The important thing is this isn't competing with the Minicomp. Not only that, I actively encourage people to participate in both, and if they have to pick one, they should pick the Minicomp.

In any case, if necessary, I'm willing to push deadlines so that people can participate in both the Minicomp and SNEEZE Comp. This is not a conspiracy to push CYOA out of Minicomp. This is, in fact, a conspiracy to make Adult CYOA more of a thing.

 Submissions and Deadlines

The deadline for the comp is September 30th. If the minicomp has a similar deadline, SNEEZE comp will be pushed back.

Submit your entry to [my screen name here]93@gmail.com with the game file, any readmes, and optionally, a text file with all the game text.

  F.A.Q.

Q: Is the Minicomp no longer accepting CYOA entries?/What happened to the minicomp?/You can't replace the minicomp!

A: I don't run the minicomp, and I don't want to detract from that venerable institution.

Q: What do you mean by "mostly text"?

A: Pictures, music and sfx should support the text, text should not support the multimedia. You shouldn't be clicking pictures, you should be selecting from a menu of textual choices.

Q: It's difficult to obtain word counts on my interpreter. How will you obtain the word counts for the game?

A: The 25,000 word limit is informal, and there's no need to send exact word counts unless serious questions are raised about the length of the game. It would be nice to send a file with all the game text, but not necessary.

Q: Will not following the theme seriously hurt my chance at winning?

A: It depends. An exceptionally good game that doesn't follow the competition's theme should be allowed to win, but the theme shouldn't be meaningless, either. Voters are asked to consider the use of theme when voting, so it depends on what they think.\

Q: What are my options for interpreters?

A: Some of the common interpreters are twine, choice script. You can also use traditional engines like TADS, Inform 7 and ADRIFT with the proper extensions.