This year's peak quality is through the roof--review quotes

I’ve noticed that there are so many great games out there this comp that several reviewers have said they thought this or that game was definitely the winner; but they’re all different games!

Here are some quotes (with the game names removed, to encourage people to play through the games themselves):

“This is straight-up one of the best adventure games I’ve seen in years. Is this the year that a [redacted] game with the competition? I know it’s too early for me to call anything but gee whiz, I sure hope that it does.”

“One game in to the 2017 IFComp, and I think I’ve already found the winner.”

“[T]his story reminded me of Adam Cadre’s legendary Photopia: for the emotions it raises, the evocative writing, and the depth.”

“[Redacted] blew me away. Those with aversions to gushing reviews should avert their eyes or risk injury.”

“I enjoyed the heck out of this game…It’s already made its way into my `IF Games Worth Keeping’ folder.”

“This game will be a strong contender across several categories of XYZZY award.”

And these are all different games! So the proportion of awesome games is at least 6/79 (about 1/13), so if you play 13 or so games, you can expect to get at least one super awesome one. And there are some really cool games that aren’t in this list because people haven’t gotten to them yet. What a great year!

With so many entries, it’s not surprising to have some real standouts, but I would say there are a disproportionate number of strong works this year. Any story in the top five or so might have won in some past years.

I have now reviewed half of the 2017 entries, and as I’ve gone along, I’ve jotted down preliminary scores. I figured it didn’t make much sense to look at the spread until I had a good number under my belt, but now that I’m over the hump, I put together a short blog post on how the scores are distributed: blog.templaro.com/ifcomp-halfway-there/

My scoring system is arbitrary, subjective, not all that reproducible, entirely uncalibrated, and surely will be at odds with other people’s ratings, but it’s what I’ve got…

  • Jack