IFComp News: Congratulations to the 2014 XYZZY winners

The results of the 2014 XYZZY Awards for excellence in interactive fiction were announced this evening at the usual gala ceremony on ifMUD. Congratulations to all the winners!

I am very pleased and proud that three IFComp entries — all top-ten finishers from last year, and all very different examples of IF — took home awards. In alphabetical order:

• Creatures Such as We, by Lynnea Glasser (2nd place, IFComp 2014) won the Best NPCs award.

• Fifteen Minutes, by Ade (6th place, IFComp 2014) won the Best Puzzle award.

• With Those we Love Alive, by Porpentine and Brenda Neotenomie (5th place, IFComp 2014) won the Best Single NPC and Best Writing awards.

The larger nominees list honored other IFComp entries as well.

I offer especial congratulations to inkle’s amazing 80 Days as the winner of the coveted Best Game XYZZY award. This isn’t the first time a commercial game has taken this prize, but I would hazard a guess that it’s the most commercially successful game to do so, having received mainstream recognition in quarters far beyond the hobbyist community. As inkle co-founder (and 2001 IFComp winner) Jon Ingold said while accepting the award,

I’ve been making IF in this community and its fringes for 15 years or so, and it’s pretty remarkable how much the landscape has changed since those days - back when choice games were considered childish, simplistic. And a lot of us had the feeling that there was something really interesting in interactive fiction that was worth plugging away at despite the fact lots of people said there wasn’t.

We all said there was a thing here. And maybe there’s a thing here. And next year there might be another thing. And that’s a great place to be.

So — we got this. It’s going to be fine.

I agree. With just over five months to go until IFComp 2015, I look forward to our own next crop of great things.

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