Call for Submissions for SPAG Issue #60 (Deadline: March 27, 2011)

Topics: IF-Demo@PAXE 2011, XYZZY 2010 and Other Reviews, IFC 2010 Interviews

Hi, all!

It's been over a month since SPAG #59, and while it's a tad early in the standard quarterly cycle for a request for content, PAX East 2011 (11-13 MAR) is shaping up to present another exciting opportunity for IF theory, design, works-in-progress, and especially community mingling.

(Please pardon the lack of a SPAG e-mail at the moment as I'm working out a list server problem. I'll have it posted ASAP.)

-- PAX East 2011: IF Demo Fair, and SPAG Event Coverage --

Emily Short is heading up an IF Demo Fair at PAXE 2011 highlighting "novel ways to interact with in-game characters," and "innovative user interfaces for text/story-based games," although all submissions are appreciated. Entries will be made available on laptops to attendees of the (free! to the public) IF side conference, with a playthrough on Saturday in the Alcott Conferences room at the Westin, with demonstrators encouraged to speak briefly on their works.

Her full announcement may be found on her blog. Please let her know by next Friday, the 18th, what the details of your submission are. IF's in danger of coming down with a full-fledged conference circuit, it appears!

As for SPAG in particular, I'd love to hear from all interested parties who may be in attendance. There will be plenty to cover, from individual talks to panels to general atmospherics, observations of trends, the terribly cute and fragile still-ashen baby phoenix which is commercial IF, and mockery of our collective inability to get to bed before dawn when there's, you know, STUFF to discuss, etc. =) Emily or a duly authorized representative has already offered to cover the Demo event proper, but we'll want to get your thoughts and analysis on any relevant part of PAX/IF which catches your fancy.


-- XYZZY 2010 and Other Reviews --

Not coincidentally, most of the games nominated for XYZZYs this year were also to be found in the IF Comp, and thus have been reviewed. However, we have a few notable gaps to fill: Gris et Jaune, by Steve van Gaal; The People's Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game, by Taylor Vaughan; and, for the charitable and multi-lingual amongst us, the German works Allein mit Kai by Ingo Scharmann and Joana Markus, and Mariel by Michael Baltes.

Also, we're looking for reviews of the following three stand-alone releases:

The Art of Fugue, by Victor Gijsbers, Jimmy Maher, Dorte Lassen, and Johan;
'Mid the Sagebrush and the Cactus, by Victor Gijsbers;
Starborn, a short by Juhana Leinonen.


-- IF Comp 2010 Winner Interviews --

With congratulations again to IFC 2010 winners Matt Wigdahl, C.E.J. Pacian, and Colin Sandel and Carolyn VanEseltine, we're looking for interviews with Matt, and Colin and Carolyn for first-place Aotearoa and third-place One Eye Open, respectively. I'm pleased to report Valentine Kopteltsev already has an extremely characterful interview with C.E.J.Pacian in the bag which you should feel at liberty to begin anticipating even now.


-- Concluding Business and Other Opportunities --

Also, if you have a paper you're working on related to IF, or would like a forum in which to cover a technical issue, concepts in game design, story craft, or other topic (e.g., incorporating cultural differences in interactive fiction), send it in!

Submissions should be in by the weekend of March 26th and 27th, which gives us a couple weeks after PAXE 2010 to incorporate coverage. For the rest of it, earlier submissions are always appreciated! =) Thanks as ever to all contributors, and if you'd like to help but just aren't sure what to do . . . just ask, at davidm.spag SP@G gmail.com!

I look forward to hearing from you and getting everyone involved!

Cheers,

David