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).
