Windhammer Prize for short gamebook fiction

Err, I never received any judges notes. : \

Although, as I’m continuing the story and turning it into a full length project, I’m not sure it would fit the competition? … Even so, this piques my curiosity.

That first post was from last years competition, but…yeah, I never received any either. In any case, I’d say it’s worth a shot and you don’t really have much to lose. I suggest go to the site and reading the description and guidelines to make a decision.

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Yeah, you need to remove all the code, give each label a number (to make it a section). If you have nested choices, you need to turn them into sections as well. And it gets to look like a traditional gamebook (as we call them in Europe).

The winner is decided by popular vote, then the organizers forward you any comments readers left.

This is my third entry.

The second one is now a part of The Path of Light and I’ve used some of the first into Dancing with Demons.

The best part is probably making new friends who write interactive fiction.

Looks interesting. I might see if I can get time to put something together. Under 25,000 words shouldn’t be too long. (Can see my COG project is never going to get finished if I keep taking on side projects though >.< It does sound like it could be fun though)

I thought that was just me, I didn’t get any feed back either. Only from the people who tested for me.

This sounds interesting (if I could write short stories). I’ll enter next year maybe, my projects are already keeping me busy amd changing all my code to traditional format would drive me insane at this point lol.

Good luck to those who are entering though :smile:

I’ve got a semi-draft-finished story I could submit if I get the time (yeah another one, really should just pick the one and finish it, far too many WIP’s floating around on my computer :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: ) It’s not much work to convert it over to a story book format since I hadn’t got the coding in there for the COG yet anyway, as long as I can finish it off over the next few weeks and do some serious proof reading. Does anyone know if it’s a problem to code and submit them as a COG at a later date if they’ve been entered into something like this? (Are there any restrictions if the “game book” version is up on another site?)

After perusing through the regulations of the website, there don’t seem to be any such restrictions at all, as far as I can tell. They even mention that the game you submit can be a self contained extract from a larger project, which to me implies that they don’t expect entries to only be submitted to their site/competition. Of course, you could always send them an email asking, just to be safe.

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Ok finally think I’ve got my story up and done and miraculously just under the word limit :smiley: (Although since I’ve only ended up with 68 sections and many others are closer to 100 I’ve come to the conclusion that I might talk to much when I write lol)

Voting doesn’t start until the 14th of Sept, but if anyone from the forums here would like to wander over and have a read of the entries when they’re up I’m sure myself and Mayday would be really grateful!

Is anyone else entering from around here?

The books are up for anyone interested in some interactive fiction here http://www.arborell.com/windhammer_prize.html

Looks like there are 3 authors from around here which have entered: Felicity_banks with “After the flag fell”, Ivailo Daskalov with “The priest and the claw” and myself with “The Draconic Challenges”. (Sorry if I’ve missed anyone).

Good luck everyone :slight_smile:

Wow! I only just found this thread and I hadn’t even realised there were other CSers in the group. That’s so cool! I’ll definitely read your stories of course! It’s quite likely the brilliant Emily Short will review some of the entries, too - https://emshort.wordpress.com/

Mine is technically in the same world as my HG (not published yet but was recently in the WIP thread and I know Jacic’s read it) ATTACK OF THE CLOCKWORK ARMY although it’s a very different creature. The woman in the balloon is the older sister from CLOCKWORK ARMY, several years before CLOCKWORK ARMY happens.

@felicity_banks and @Mayday just out of interest did either of you guys receive any reader comments via email? (You don’t have to tell me but I didn’t receive any and was just curious as to whether anyone had gotten any as to whether they were potentially yet to be sent or if I just didn’t get any :blush: )
BTW congrats to Felicity for winning the comp :slight_smile:

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I saw some public reviews, but no emailed comments. Although there was an issue with my email address, so that could have stopped things.

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Your email address wouldn’t have mattered since until the end of the competition Wayne would have gathered any comments at Arborell. But I didn’t receive any mail comments either, so it looks like we’ll have to do with the public reviews… (incidentally, because of those public reviews, I initially thought Windhammer entries would be judged by some kind of jury)

Congratz to Felicity as well.

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For the first time, I have not received any comments. Congratulations to the winner. I am more than happy that the competition was won by a fellow Hosted Games Author, especially having in mind that it is supposed to be dominated by people who grew up with FF and not CYOA. So, well done, @Felicity_Banks.

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Thank you @Mayday. I still can’t quite believe that I won. It seems there must have been some kind of clerical error somewhere.

There is a curious (and gobsmackingly wonderful) postscript to this thread…

The windhammer organisers told me to expect an email from Tin Man Games, since it’s a condition of entry that Tin Man gets the rights to publish the entries. So after waiting a few weeks, I emailed Tin Man to check nothing had fallen into the aether. They basically said, “Nah, we just don’t publish the Windhammer entries these days.” I said, “Okay, thanks.” and thought nothing more of it.

Three hours later, they called me back and said, “Would you be interested in doing some writing for us?” They’d just had a meeting and decided they need to hire another writer for “one of their projects”. Since I’d just emailed them and was in the right time zone, they figured they may as well see if I’d like to be paid money for writing some IF.

And that’s how I got a job as part of the team writing Choices: And The Sun Went Out
for the coolest IF company in Australia.

The moral of this story is that if you spend 18 years working at your craft, doing your best, obsessively meeting other writers and readers and playing games and reading books and connecting to other people in the field and getting your work out there and taking risks then you’ll be in the right place at the right time for a completely random coincidence. And, if you can manage not to mention to the complete stranger on the other end of the phone that you just stepped out of the shower and you’re literally naked and dripping wet, then you’ll probably pass the surprise interview and get the job. Maybe. I’m not very good with morals.

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So that was the big thing you were so busy with that you had to take a step back with the forum community game :open_mouth: Congratulations :confetti_ball: I hope you’re just as ecstatic about it as you make it sound (you can never tell with writers these days :wink:). Good luck :+1:

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Congrats, you oughta get them to sell that on android as well

Yes, I’m as ecstatic as I sound (then I remember I have to actually write stuff and I panic. I have my sections of arc 4 prepped now, so I’m feeling slightly less terrified!)

@Doctor The Tin Man himself was talking about Android yesterday. There are schemes afoot, in fact.

Sounds awesome
(+ 20 characters )

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