Thursday, March 24, 2016

The 20 room adventure competition: my thoughts

Introduction

I recently got word of a new competition, the 20 room adventure comp. The goal, as I understand it, is to write an IF game that takes place in exactly 20 rooms. Of course, new competitions are a good thing; they encourage community activity. However, I have one gripe: Why 20 rooms. The organizer of the competition doesn't give any reasoning behind the 20 room limit, just that he wants to "bring back the small world adventures".

How small is a "small world adventure"?

The IF community is known for its diverse selection of games and competitions. There are even one-room competitions. I can't think of any video game that takes place in one room. However, most modern IF games usually don't go over the 100-room mark (usually 30-70 rooms) (The commercial IF companies—Level 9, Infocom and Magnetic Scrolls— are usually the only developers that will create more than 50 rooms or so, E.G. Snowball by Level 9.) Does 20 rooms seem like a small amount? Yes. However, you'd be surprised what can be done with 20 rooms. (Hell, I'm surprised what some people can do with a single room!) If the competition organizer was going for a really "small adventure", he could've set the limit to 15 (or even 10) rooms. However, I think 20 rooms is a nice amount for a small game. (Scott Adams and the Infocom implementors are some of the authors that could do a hell of a lot in 20 rooms.)

conclusion

Over all, I think the 20 room adventure comp is an interesting idea and I hope that people (especially those who don't have a WIP) consider entering it. Thanks for reading and good luck to all the entrants!

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