Windhammer Prize for short gamebook fiction

http://www.arborell.com/windhammer_prize.html

All you people who just submitted to @LordIrish’s competition should consider taking the judges’ notes, doing a revision, and submitting there.

(except for the fact that they demand the game be in .rtf format and have an inventory system. But I think you should submit anyway.)

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It is a very prestigious competition. Participating there (2012 with Dating a Witch) allowed me to meet quite a few gamebook authors and I am looking forward to take part again (with the 1st scene of Dating a Witch).

I’ve been toying with the idea of joining this, since it wouldn’t take very long at all to write 25k words, especially since I won’t have to worry about things like complex variables.

I’m not sure if I’ll have the time though.

This is a great idea! The comp games were really good and would like to see them pushed further.

Windhammer requires an inventory system? Is there an Inventory system mod for COG? Or do the *real* superpowers of the forum have to come up with one? 'cause i’m down to make something happen.

@Cataphrak There is no need to go for the max word count. My entries are 8-10 k words. What is the greater challenge is to deal with the limit of 100 sections. It is very hard to write a good story in so few.

@XxLordNamelessxX I think the rules say ‘character generation or inventory system’. So, I few of the typical CoG variables would do fine. And, yeah, this is somewhat of a disadvantage to the writers preferring pure CYOA and I don’t like it.

From arborell.com:
As this is a gamebook competition the entry must possess at the least a rudimentary character generation system and/or inventory management process to be eligible for the Windhammer Prize.

That’s actually pretty broad. Most CoG games track character stats, and track whether you’ve collected certain items or traits. Either would qualify you for Windhammer.

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Oh uh! You guys better jump on that shit!

Is anyone going to submit a CS game?

Yes - the first scene of The Path of Light.

I’m kinda confused at the rtf format thingy… sorry not really that smart XD

@Sandstorm, it is very easy. Make a normal .doc file, then go to ‘save as’, ‘other formats’ and then choose .rtl.

Here is the list of participant (they are only ten this year).
Ivailo Daskalov
Nicholas Stillman
Paul Struth
Tammy Badowski
Chan Sing Goh
Sam Beaven
Andy Moonowl
Richard Penwarden
Phillip Armstrong
Stefano Ronchi

The interactive stories will be available for download this Sunday. Is there anyone who submitted too?

http://www.arborell.com/windhammer_prize.html
The short gamebooks can now be downloaded and played. And, voted for. I can’t say that I won’t appreciate you voting for me because, honestly, that would be a lie :slight_smile: Just remember to vote for 3 entries or else it will be in vain.

Have fun reading!

The competition is being held this year as well. I just submitted my entry The Priest and the Claw.

I would be happy if there is another Hosted Games author participating.

I’m a bit confused as to what it might entail to take a game written in Choicescript and change it to rtf? Basically taking all of my code, opening in a .doc and saving as rtf?

Doesn’t matter, submissions closed yesterday :frowning: (Wish I had have known about it, maybe next year).

Edit- for the record, yes it’s written like an old school choose book. Remove all the code, replace with section numbers.

Oh wow I’m half asleep aren’t I? Sorry. I read that as August :confused:
To enter you need to replace code with section numbers.

So it would just be:

Section 1
a bunch of text

Section 2
a bunch of text

etc, without any CS commands at all? How would they be able to compile it into a playable format, or know which sections are dependant on certain information etc?

Sorry if it’s a dumb question, I’m just really confused by this. Not sure if you can tell.

EDIT:

So it would sort of be like a physical gamebook then? Each section of text has it’s own number and you say something like “turn to section 3” or “if you made that one dude angry, turn to section 8” at the end of every section? What about things like the inventory screen or stats menu then?