Ectocomp 2022

General
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It’s ectocomp time again, a spooky themed interactive fiction comp/game jam. I’m not associated with the comp, but I’ve entered a few times over the years and highly recommend it. There’s two categories, one which is for games completed in under 4 hours, so you don’t need to devote large amounts of time to entering. You can just plan out your mini game, set the clock and start typing. You can use any IF medium you like, including choicescript. Remember to get your game in by the end of October if you’re entering!

Enter here: ECTOCOMP 2022 (English) - itch.io (There’s also a spanish version of the comp too. Link on this page.)

For anyone unfamiliar, here are the details. (Also posted on the jam page).

As per tradition, Ectocomp has two categories:

  • La Petite Mort, for those who want to speed-write their game in 4 hrs or less
  • Le Grand Guignol, for games that, for whatever reason, took longer than 4 hrs to write (perhaps a more thoughtful masterpiece? perhaps spent too much time writing GORY DETAILS?)

THE SUBTHEMES OR INSPIRATION PROMPTS

Additionally, here we have some optional subthemes or inspiration prompts to improve the diversity of topics and ambiances. But, feel free to ignore those and send whatever you want.

  • Spooky adventure! That is, the common and loved usual ECTOCOMP games. Create a game destined to creep the hell out of players.
  • Sweet supernatural. Yeah, your game can be supernatural, but maybe there is no need to be creepy. Maybe your ghosts and monsters are homies and sweet.
  • Halloween fest. Base your game on the Halloween festivities, overall the activity of wear costumes and going out with friends doing the “trick or treat”.
  • Día de Los Muertos. Pay your tribute to the Mexican festivity. As Wikipedia says: “Day of the dead involves family and friends gathering to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and helping support their spiritual journey.” To celebrate Mexican folklore and mythology.
  • All Saints’, which commemorates the faithful departed. That is, an occasion to talk about how we miss the people we leave behind.
  • All Souls’ Eve, at the same time, the evening of All souls’ is a special moment for some European countries to gather the family around the fire, eat sweet wheat porridge, and tell scary tales.
  • Any other festivity or mythology around the world.

THE RULES

  • Games submitted for La Petite Mort should be written in 4 hours or less.

  • Any time spent planning, thinking, doodling, researching, etc does not count.

    • Any time spent writing words or code that end up in-game totally does count.
      (With the exception of if you wrote game engine or library code in the past and now you’re using it.)
      * La petite mort games cannot be updated by any means.
      * Less in the case you have a game-breaking bug, in that case, you are allowed to fix the bug to guarantee players can complete your game. But… remember, NO UPDATES!

  • Games submitted for Le Grand Guignol could have an indefinite amount of hours into its development. Either more than 4 hours or more than 1 week, even more than 1 month. And they can be updated to correct bugs or improve the present, but no additional content can be added during the competition.

    • Games should be recognizably “interactive fiction”. (Comp admins are not here to police edge cases, but if your game isn’t primarily text-based, why are you here?)
    • Games should be, y’know, spooky somehow. (Serious, psychological, campy, satire, etc. all included). Also, we have proposed some sub-themes, go and take a look at them. They are just up there!
    • The tradition is to work on the games during October, but you can start NOW to work on your game. The games should be available for 31 Oct, so we can enjoy them in the proper festivities.

  • The games should be original and previously unpublished. With the exception of localisations of previously unreleased games in the current competition language.

To participate properly, please choose the correct category for your game. And, please, select one of the main themes, just for taxonomy reasons.

ECTOCOMP is generally a light-hearted competition meant to have fun. If the objective of your game is to be directly offensive to any type of group or person, then you didn’t understand ECTOCOMP.

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Hi everyone, just a reminder that ectocomp is well underway with lots of games ranging from dark and spooky, to action survival, to even light hearted humour. Although you can play any of the games for free, if you have an itch account consider showing the authors some love by leaving a comment or rating :slight_smile: . The chance to vote for your favourites closes in 5 days.