No this isn't me running another contest. As good as the Lone Hero turnout was, thankfully, this one will NOT involve me being forced to read anything you all write.
The
Ectocomp is a just for fun comp for text games of all kinds. Entries are open only October 27th to October 31st, and the judging is open for the public to vote for a month after that. (The extra time due to pressures of the holidays and NaNoWriMo and so on I imagine.)
What I find neat about it is that it's got a speed writing category called La Petite Mort for games written in four hours or less. That's enough time to write a simple CYOA of 2-3k, and I believe we'd have an edge over most people writing with traditional IF tools.
This year we want to propose five main themes to improve a more 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, or just go freestyle and just do whatever you want.
*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." Also, 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.
They also accept submissions in Spanish, and they have English and Spanish discords set up if anyone wants to get more involved with the community there.
Relevant 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.)
There's also Le Grand Guignol which is anything over four hours, so have at it if you're in the mood to tackle something bigger. I really like the more informal and fun aspect of the speed written one though.
There is no limit to number of entries per author, and ideally I'd like to enter both a CYS story and a game written with
ADRIFT (the IF making tool you might've seen me gushing about in the Skybreak thread...), but with the Ancient Ruins contest having the same deadline, we'll see.
If you're going to enter, that's fantastic, I'm really happy, and also if you embarrass me in front of strangers I'll beat you where the bruises won't show and never try to take you out to do anything nice again. Real attempts at cool stories, not edgy troll games please.