Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2025

[Garry]

I don't know how many text adventure authors are on here, though I suspect quite a few. If you're one of them, then you will be interested in this event. Come to think of it, if you're a text adventure player, you will also be interested in this event.

Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2025 has been launched. Despite the name, this is a competition, not a jam. The aim is to write a text adventure that is suitable for beginners to the genre. The game must include an in-game tutorial. This year's optional theme is 'time travel'. Submissions close at the end of April. Voting runs during May. See the competition home page at the above link for full details.

This is always a fun event and we're hoping for some more prize donors. Please donate something, if you can. Prizes don't have to be cash.

[Garry]

One month until submissions open. That gives you three months to write your game. Don’t delay, as time tends to slip away when a comp deadline is imminent.

23 people have joined so far and total prizes are worth over US$400. More prize donors are welcome.

[catventure]

Hi Garry,
Thanks for providing the info about this annual text adventure competition.

(Should any entrant decide to use the "TAB for Windows" creator to build a little example game I'm happy to be on hand to help answer questions about using the program, answer queries or playtest data etc. Contact me by PM, Tab forum or email.)

Regards,
catventure (Phil)

[Garry]

That's great. Thanks.

[Garry]

There's a little over one month to go before submissions close for Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2025. We currently have 50 people joined and we've received the first entry. Woohoo! Is there anyone on here that has joined or plans on joining? It's a lot of fun.

[Templar]

It's great that they create those competitions for beginners, so that newcomers will embrace the best genre in computer gaming more easily. Starting with easy text adventures will help them surely later to play some old masterpieces out there.

[Garry]

That's the hope. However, beginners don't even know that this genre exists, so it's almost impossible to draw them in to try the games. If you know any beginners, let them know about the competition and encourage them to give it a go. If they strike a bad game, encourage them to try another one. Not all games will be bad. Some will be very, very good.

For anyone else, please play and rate the games when they're released. All games are free to play for the duration of the competition. Most stay free forever. You only need to register on itch.io to rate the games, but not to play them.

[Garry]

The games submitted to Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2025 are now available for playing and judging. All games are free to play for the duration of the judging period, which starts today and finishes on 31 May 2025.

The rules required that the games must be text adventures (i.e. parser-based interactive fiction) suitable for beginners and have a tutorial at the beginning.

7 games were submitted. Click the Submissions tab to see them all.

There are some top quality games amongst them, so join in the fun! Everyone that likes text adventures should play and rate these games. If you've never played a text adventure, then these games were designed for you. Give them a go!

[Garry]

The results of Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2025 are now available. The quality of the games was really high and the authors should all be proud of themselves. Every participant won a prize (except for the host, as he's not eligible for prizes). Cash prizes totalled US$400 and the 6th and 7th place-getters have a choice of prize. It just goes to prove that this is one competition that is really worth entering, so start planning for next year. If you haven't played any or all of the games yet, do yourself a favour and play them now.

[Mr Creosote]

Congratulations, Garry!

[catventure]

Yes. Very well done and.congrats on 1st prize.

Philip.

[Garry]

Thanks, guys, but it could just as easily have gone to any of the top 5 games, depending on the whim of the voting public.

[ASchultz]

Thanks for holding this, Garry, and congrats on winning! Anyone who hasn't played his game yet will enjoy it, I'm almost certainly sure.

After 4 years of judging it was cool to participate. And thanks for your help testing too. (A lot's been cleaned up! Oh, and my walkthrough now contains how to get all the achievements!)

I'd definitely encourage more people to drop by Itch to check this out next year. I learned something from all the other games & enjoyed myself too. I remember the literacy comp pulled me back to text adventuring & the community after COVID.