The Erins: 2015 - Results!

The results of the 2015 Erins can now be announced!

The top three places in each category are listed below, together with honourable mentions (listed alphabetically) for any else who got a significant number of votes.

NB. some feedback comments have been lightly edited.

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Game of the Year

(117 votes)

1st – Working Man by Ice

2nd- The Lost Hound by Palaverous

3rd – Let Me In by BBBen

Honourable mention: Teacher's Pet by Dr Realgood

Working Man

"It's complete, it's functional and has the right blend between storyline and puzzles. A very pleasing first effort."

"Lots of options, PC is male, game has pictures, technically works fine, hot sex scenes, well written, good story. This game was the only one in the list to have it all."

"The amount of content was pretty staggering for a first game, it was virtually bug-free, and it had great writing and interesting characters. Just a fantastic debut for Ice and hopefully he continues to develop AIF."

"The bad endings in Working Man were great. If only things turned out that way in real life..."

"It has a good storyline, multiple choices and the fact that it has pictures inserted is a big plus."

The Lost Hound

"I'm a fan of the more traditional text heavy AIF games (Newkid, A Bomire) so I enjoyed the excellent writing."

"Shows how one can create a great game even without images."

"The Lost Hound was a masterpiece, Palaverous is a new GoblinBoy"

"Though the fighting system seemed mostly a love it or hate it, the amount of content was great. The sexual encounters as well as the locations were all varied. It was also nice to see a bit of build-up / growth in the NPC Aura."

"The Lost Hound may not be perfect but it's the best text-based AIF game in a while. The story is bonkers but interesting, the characters and the world are varied and surprising, the game challenges (once it gets going - the combat thing is a bit annoying) are fun, it's technically very sound, the writing is great."

Let Me In

"BBBen's game "Let Me In" really deserves more recognition than it has received as being one of the truly original games in a good long while"

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Best New Author

(104 votes)

1st – Ice

2nd – Palaverous

3rd – Dr Realgood

Honourable mention: BeanBean

Ice

"He created the best game of the year, what else can I say?"

"Ice reminds me of my favorite AIF author, GoblinBoy, in how his game looks and plays, so that makes him a top choice for me. As such, I really, really look forward to any future games he does now."

"Ice took stories not at all new to AIF, but did a good job at presenting them in entertaining ways. The art was well done and the variations of what you could do added either a bit of replay or some retrying as you learned the consequences of your actions. A lot of fun!"

Palaverous

"Palaverous gets this vote, the writing was by far the best thus giving you the best mental image. Graphics are all well and good in a game, (I use them myself) but the art of writing in such a way that it provides a clear mental image has to be applauded. Palaverous did this exceptionally well."

"Palaverous did a great job with the number of things stuffed into the game by trying to give it some variation and seemed to have a lot of fun with it. The game held together nicely as a whole and a lot of effort was put into testing before release."

"The Lost Hound is an amazingly well realised first game... also, I should say, the only new-author one that I didn't find bugs or obvious design flaws in.  It doesn't feel like a first game, it references other games but doesn't feel like an imitation."

Dr Realgood

"I felt that the writing and artistic talent of Dr. Realgood was definitely promising. I just wish he gave the game more time and effort to flesh it out into a more fun and complete game"

"Dr Realgood showed some real promise. The game was a huge jump from his previous entry into the Minicomp. After dealing with reworking the artwork all over, it came out wonderfully - much better than his original vision - and made for a good time. The quiz left some with a bad taste in their mouth, but once beyond it most people seemed to enjoy what was there, their only complaint left that they wanted more!"

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Best Character

(58 votes; 4 invalid)

1st – Stephanie (Working Man)

2nd= - Sharon (Working Man)

2nd= - Twyla (Let Me In)

Honourable mention: Aura (The Lost Hound)

Stephanie

"Stephanie just comes off as a genuinely likable character, is written well, and also is very attractive-looking."

"She's believable with the right amount of innocence/naughty curiousness that makes her feel real. Her model is easy on the eyes as well."

Twyla

"Twyla is a bit of a one off, she is pretty, smart and thick as shit all at the same time. She is funny for one in such a small game, but I like her and that's that!!"

Aura

"It was nice to see somewhat gradual build-up and a touch of growth in Aura. It may not be the most complex character, but in AIF it was a nice change of pace and fit the story-like progression the game made vs. the usual (but still loads of fun!) "find an item so we can screw" setup."

"She was a sexy inaccessible character, which made the end goal something to really go for"

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Best Sex Scene

(54 votes; 7 invalid)

1st – PC/Stephanie (Working Man)

2nd – PC/Crystal/Tiffany (Working Man)

3rd – PC/Lisa (Teacher's Pet)

Honourable mention: PC/Sharon (Working Man)

PC/Stephanie

"I liked this one because of the build-up to it throughout the game. It requires you to "work" for it (no pun intended) by being nice to Stephanie throughout your encounters as well as some good ol' fashioned seduction, but it just felt really exciting leading up to it. The writing was great, and as a player I felt just as excited as the player character when Stephanie asks you to go all the way with her. Just an all-around really satisfying gameplay branch from beginning to end. The sex scene itself is also very interactive and detailed, but also realistic as well (considering you're taking someone's virginity it makes sense that you don't do any kinky stuff or anal)."

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The Badman Memorial Award

This year's winner is…. A.Ninny!

"Though I had another name or two in mind, it seems almost criminal that A. Ninny isn't already established in the list. Hopefully there are enough dwelling from the past that recognize the work put in (or hear about it from said dwellers), as I would hate for Ninny to be forgotten in time."

"He released really good games and contributed a lot to the community."

"He made a number of good games, including The Sex Artist (a personal favourite of mine) and won 4 Erins (and 10 second places) for them. However, it's what he did for the community that deserves recognition. Beta-testing (for which he won two Erins), organising the Minicomp in 2006 and 2007, and most impressively, editing Inside Erin for three years."

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Final Comments

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to vote, and congratulations to this year's winners.

There were 118 votes cast this year, which is a little disappointing given that there were 147 votes last time. Any suggestions for increasing participation would be welcome.

As suggested last time, 'Best Character' and 'Best Sex Scene' were added as categories. With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better to have some kind of nomination process beforehand. The write-in vote attracted about half as many people, and their votes were spread over a large number of candidates (18 for Best Character, and 20 for Best Sex Scene).