We crossed the circle to the other bank, near to a fount that boils, and pours itself allong a gully that runs out of it. The water was more sombre far than perse; and we, in company with the dusky waves, made entrance downward by a path uncouth. A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx, this tristful brooklet, when it has descended down to the foot of the malign gray shores. And I, who stood intent upon beholding, saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon, all of them naked and with angry look. They smote each other not alone with hands, but with the head and with the breast and feet, tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth.
Said the good Master: “Son, thou now beholdest the souls of those whom anger overcame; and likewise I would have thee know for certain beneath the water people are who sigh and make this water bubble at the surface, as the eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turns. Fixed in the mire they say, ‘We sullen were in the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened, bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek; now we are sullen in this sable mire!’
Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri
Illustration: Hieronymus Bosch - Hell, The Garden of Earthly Delights
ECTOCOMP is an annual competition for interactive fiction celebrating the SPOOKY MONTH OF HALLOWEENTOBER. Whether you celebrate Halloween, Day of the Dead, All Saint's Eve, or just love ghost stories and creeping people out, this is your time to shine!
This competition is for games done in English, French, and Spanish. To make hosting the comp on itch.io work, we've split Ectocomp into three separate jam pages.
THE RESULTS
Itchio's system shows the ranking automatically but mixes the categories.
The proper ranking and winners is as follows:
La Petite Mort - English
For those who want to speed-write their game in 4 hrs or less.
Winner: ConfigurationUploader, by Autumn Chen
2nd Place: Forever and Ever, by PetricakeGames-IF
3rd Place: The Dying of the Light, by Amanda Walker
4th Place: Your Body a Temple, or the Postmodern Prometheus, by Charm Cochran
5th Place: Ah Lim's Chicken Rice, #01-08A, by Kastel
6th Place: In the Blink of an Eye, by manonamora
7th Place: Zombie Eye: Campfire Tales, by Dee Cooke
8th Place: Please Leave a Message, by Sarah Willson
9th Place: The Loneliest House, by alyshkalia
10th Place: GUT THE MOVIE, by Coral Nulla
11th Place: Vampire Gold, by Olaf Nowacki
12th Place: ~~~Into Darkness~~~, by Jac Colvin
13th Place: The Author and its characters, by Stanwixbuster
14th Place: The Labyrinthine Library of Xleksixnrewix, by Daniel Stelzer, Ada Stelzer, and Sarah Stelzer
15th Place: A Study of Human Behavior, by Earth Traveler
16th Place: YOUNGBLOOD; YELLOWBELLY, by swanchime
17th Place: Bonfire Night: The Black Dog, by Carter X Gwertzman
18th Place: THAT WHICH IS EXEMPT FROM RESURRECTION, by swanchime
19th Place: Taller Tech Mauler Mech, by Andrew Schultz
Le Grand Guignol - English
For games that, for whatever reason, took longer than 4 hrs to write.
Winner: InGirum_English, by BenyDanette
2nd Place: The Revenant's Lament, by 30x30
3rd Place: Good Bones: A Haunted Housewarming, by Leon Lin
4th Place: Mothman Test, by Sara Messenger
5th Place: La Petite Mort, by manonamora
6th Place: Sunny-Side Up, by PetricakeGames-IF
7th Place: Dark Communion, by alyshkalia
8th Place: Red Haze / Bruma Roja, by Ruber Eaglenest
9th Place: Put-Peep(tm), by Sean Huxter
10th Place: End Of History, by n-n
11th Place: Öhfwërhld, by Bruhstin
12th Place: Among the Haunted, by aurelim
13th Place: Roads of Liches, by Andrew Schultz
14th Place: Latter-Day Pamphlets, by Robert from High Tower Games
15th Place: Haunted House for Social Phobics, by Stewart C Baker
16th Place: The Shattered Fortress, by JazzTap
17th Place: The Haunting of Corbitt House, by Arlan Wetherminster
You can see the winners in the other languages sections here (use the link below to change language).
Visita la versión en Español aquí: --> ECTOCOMP 2023 Español
Veuillez visiter ECTOCOMP 2023 Français --> ICI
As per tradition, Ectocomp has two categories:
- La Petite Mort, for those who want to speed-write their game in 4 hrs or less
- Le Grand Guignol, for games that, for whatever reason, took longer than 4 hrs to write (perhaps a more thoughtful masterpiece? perhaps spent too much time writing GORY DETAILS?)
THE SUBTHEMES OR INSPIRATION PROMPTS
Additionally, here we have some optional subthemes or inspiration prompts to improve the diversity of topics and ambiances. But, feel free to ignore those and send whatever you want.
- Spooky adventure! That is, the common and loved usual ECTOCOMP games. Create a game destined to creep the hell out of players.
- Sweet supernatural. Yeah, your game can be supernatural, but maybe there is no need to be creepy. Maybe your ghosts and monsters are homies and sweet.
- Halloween fest. Base your game on the Halloween festivities, overall the activity of wear costumes and going out with friends doing the "trick or treat".
- Día de Los Muertos. Pay your tribute to the Mexican festivity. As Wikipedia says: "Day of the dead involves family and friends gathering to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and helping support their spiritual journey." To celebrate Mexican folklore and mythology.
- All Saints', which commemorates the faithful departed. That is, an occasion to talk about how we miss the people we leave behind.
- All Souls' Eve, at the same time, the evening of All souls' is a special moment for some European countries to gather the family around the fire, eat sweet wheat porridge, and tell scary tales.
- Any other festivity or mythology around the world.
THE RULES
- Games submitted for La Petite Mort should be written in 4 hours or less.
- Any time spent planning, thinking, doodling, researching, etc does not count.
- Any time spent writing words or code that end up in-game totally does count.
- (With the exception of if you wrote game engine or library code in the past and now you're using it.)
- La petite mort games cannot be updated by any means.
- Less in the case you have a game-breaking bug, in that case, you are allowed to fix the bug to guarantee players can complete your game. But... remember, NO UPDATES!
- Games submitted for Le Grand Guignol could have an indefinite amount of hours into its development. Either more than 4 hours or more than 1 week, even more than 1 month. And they can be updated to correct bugs or improve the present, but no additional content can be added during the competition.
- Games should be recognizably "interactive fiction". (Comp admins are not here to police edge cases, but if your game isn't primarily text-based, why are you here?)
- Games should be, y'know, spooky somehow. (Serious, psychological, campy, satire, etc. all included). Also, we have proposed some sub-themes, go and take a look at them. They are just up there!
- The tradition is to work on the games during October, but you can start NOW to work on your game. The games should be available for 31 Oct, so we can enjoy them in the proper festivities.
- The games should be original and previously unpublished. With the exception of localisations of previously unreleased games in the current competition language.
- Presenting demos or incomplete games: we think demo is okay as long as it is "self-contained". Like, remove all objects that do not make sense in the context of the demo. Like it's the first episode of a tv show, it still has to feel as a single piece of art. Also, ECTOCOMP is a competition, not a jam, so maybe this is not the better environment for aa game that feels not finished. Also, think that presenting your incomplete work publicy in this or any other event, could disqualify your work for future events when it's ready and finished to present to the public.
- To participate properly, please choose the correct category for your game. And, please, select one of the main themes, just for taxonomy reasons.
- ECTOCOMP is generally a light-hearted competition meant to have fun. If the objective of your game is to be directly offensive to any type of group or person, then you didn't understand ECTOCOMP and you shouldn't be here anyway.
Go forth and don't be cursed!
VOTES, FEEDBACK, AND COMMUNITY
To vote and participate as a jury, you must do so by giving between 1 to 5 stars on each entry page of the jam. The voting period ends on November 15.
Itchio doesn't allow to leave categories unvoted, so vote and judge the games just as normal. Later we'll make separate ranked lists with each category.
In addition to each entry page, each game has its own itchio homepage. It is somewhat confusing, but it is a way of distinguishing when a game belongs to a jam.
Receiving feedback from players is an essential part of participating in a competition about Interactive Fiction. Take the time to leave a kind comment for the authors to thank their participation and the good times with scary stuff. There are several places where the community can meet to discuss and comment on the works presented:
- Each page of each participant has a comment section enabled, here at itchio.
- In turn, on the main page of each game, you can leave comments but only if the author has enabled this section on the page of the game.
- In the intfiction.org forum of the English-speaking international community. This category includes the ECTOCOMP threads.
- In the CAAD forum, of the Spanish-speaking community. This way.
- Narrative Games Discord Server: https://discord.gg/cEvWs6ZYrB.
- The discord server for the community in Spanish is called Textualiza, invite link: https://discord.gg/6cG4YAJ.
ARCHIVING OF THE ENTRIES
To foster the development of a strong and perennial community of interactive fiction player and writers, the organizers of ECTOCOMP have decided to upload all submitted games to the IF Archive. This will ensure that the games will be available for future players and authors, and that they will be preserved for posterity.
If you do not want your game to be uploaded to the IF Archive, please let us know by checking the appropriate opt out in the submission form.
Don't let anger and sloth take you to the Styx!
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