Monday 19 January 2015

The Erins 2010-14: Eligible Games

After the return of the Lifetime Achievement Award, there seems to be general agreement that it would be a good idea to reinstate the Erins in a limited way, with Game of the Year and Best New Author being seen as the most important awards.

That being the case, I think it makes sense in terms of both fairness and completeness to go back and vote on the games that missed out due to the Erins stopping after 2009. To limit voter fatigue, the plan (at the moment) is to vote on one year a month, starting with 2014 (since the awards are going to be more meaningful for more recent years) and working backwards. This should also give people enough time to play (or replay) the eligible games.

Voting for the 2014 awards will start on 1 February, and close on 15 February.

To keep things simple, any complete non-Minicomp game is eligible for Game of the Year (since the winner of the Minicomp is already voted on). However, authors who enter the Minicomp will still be eligible for Best New Author.

The eligible games are:

2014

Game of the Year
Circles of Desire by Cassgames
Emily: Sister Attraction by Palmer
The Henchman by BrokenKnightX
The Magician's Nephew by Mister Flibble
Master of the House by Minterlint
Study Date by Karrek
Taking Charge by whsprd

Best New Author
Anna Nee Moss (Snowstorm)
AOneHitWonder (Dinner Plans)
BrokenKnightX (The Henchman)
Cassgames (Circles of Desire)
Karrek (Study Date)
Louys Bilitis (One Last Pay Day)
Minterlint (Master of the House)
Mister Flibble (The Magician’s Nephew)
nowherecity24 (Slim Spady Detective)
Palmer (Emily: Sister Attraction)
Shannon O’Donnelly (Friday Afternoon)
whsprd (Taking Charge)

2013

Game of the Year
Bad Sister by Another Wannabe 
Next Door Girl: April by Early Day
Pervert Action: Future by BBBen
Return to Pleasantville by Lamont Sanford
The Last Chance by Arthur McKingsly
The Midnight Room by Early Day

Best New Author
Another Wannabe (Bad Sister)
Arthur McKingsly (The Last Chance)
Early Day (Next Door Girl April, Midnight Room)
Hanon Ondricek (Briar)
stormcage1 (Spymaster of Tyria)

2012

Game of the Year
Another Friday Party 2 by lightwing_2001
Deadly Climax by Madquest8
Gasparillo by Lamont Sanford
Peril in Pleasantville Parts 1 & 2 by Lamont Sanford
The Adventures of Super Shlong by Lamont Sanford
The Mirror by Stormchild
The Tesliss Equation by GoblinBoy
Vicar of Dribble by Elsa

Best New Author
Armsteadhammerschlag (The After School Special)
Elsa (Vicar of Dribble)
Gary Plume (A Dog's Life)
kkennon (The Drunken Harlot)
Madquest8 (Deadly Climax)
Lamont Sanford (Peril in Pleasantville Parts 1 & 2, The Adventures of Super Shlong, Gasparillo)
Stormchild (The Mirror)

2011

Game of the Year
A Halloween Tail by Blue Satyr
Gifts of Phallius 3: The Valkin War by GoblinBoy
Last Horizon: Director's Cut by GoblinBoy
Pervert Action: Crisis by BBBen
Rex Ward by Artoreus
Something Broken by Jamesdesavoy

Best New Author
Archer (Buffy: Before the Date)
Artoreus (Rex Ward)
Blue Satyr (A Halloween Tail, SS Whore)
Dark Horse (The Wingman)
Jamesdesavoy (Something Broken)
Rogue AI (The Princess and the Dragon)

2010

Game of the Year
Witches Mansion by casandrakumsung
Meteor by GoblinBoy
Another Friday Party by lightwing_2001
British Fox and the Nationalist Conspiracy by Lucilla Frost
Kidnapped by UDat
Ziva by Cody Grant Smith
Aquila Station by Portmanteau

Best New Author
Begferdeth (Redskirt)
casandrakumsung (Witches Mansion)
Cody Grant Smith (Ziva)
lightwing_2001 (Another Friday Party)
LordYoni (Sibling Seduction)
Portmanteau (Aquila Station)
UDat (Kidnapped)

Please let me know (either in the comments below or at exlibris.aif@gmail.com) if there are any errors in the above list, or if you're the author of one of the above games and don’t want your work to be included for whatever reason.

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for the list. I'm interested in seeing who will nab a few of these years. Though I have some ideas in mind already, I will want to definitely give some of the games another go, especially from years past.

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  2. One thing stands out for me - 2014 was a good year for new authors.

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  3. It's strange looking at this list. Some of these games feel like they were released just yesterday (I was surprised Meteor was back in 2010) while it feels like I wrote Buffy: Before the Date ten years ago.

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  4. Wow, I forgot that all of these only came out in the last few years. Seeing them in one place like that brings me back.

    With 2010-2012, I can already see the clear winner though. And kinda for 2013, too; that's not to say that one title was good and all the others were garbage but rather that all of them were good but one, to me, stands out and just towers over all the others.
    With that in mind, the year I'm most curious about is 2014 because there are at least three games there that were amazingly good and very similar in terms of quality (if not quantity).

    Can't we just hand out multiple "Game of the Year" awards for 2014? :D

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  5. How are you handling anonymous entries? Should I be a new author in 2010? I should also point out that Anna Nee Moss is a play on words for anonymous. What about mini-comp games that are rereleased as longer games like Nat Dewey? Perhaps you should just leave my games out of the polling. They make things too complicated.

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    Replies
    1. I have you down for Best New Author for 2013 rather than 2010 mainly because Entrancing Sin was incomplete so it seems a bit unfair to judge you on that, but I could change that if you wish.

      Expanded versions of Minicomp entries are eligible for Game of the Year (eg. Last Horizon: Director's Cut). I wasn't aware that you'd done that for Nat Dewey, so I'll update the list accordingly.

      Ultimately it's up to you whether or not you want your games to be eligible or not.

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    2. It's also unfair to judge someone's third work against someone's first work. Plus judging new authors retrospectively is unfair since you know what authors did or did not do later. Yes, leave my stuff out of the judging.

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  6. What about that testing lab Twine game with the pills and the lab?

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    1. It was labelled "experimental twine project" which I took to mean that it was not complete, therefore I didn't include it.

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  7. It was never released in our community, but Arthur Saxon's Supervising Alice was a deep CYOA game in 2014. Should Palmer be listed as a new author in 2013 since that's when he came out as an author?

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    Replies
    1. To keep things simple the only games automatically being included are those that were released in the 'AIF community'. Other games could be included if their authors wish them to be.

      Palmer is a new author for 2014 because that's when he released his first complete game. Same for Mr Flibble,

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