Voting is now open! You can rate the games here on Itch to determine the Best In Show awards; you can also vote for games in specific categories using this Google Form. On the Google form, extraneous punctuation and emojis have been removed from all game titles for the benefit of screenreader users. (The game whose title is a long string of door emojis is listed as "Doors.")
As a reminder, the categories are:
- Best Use of Short Form
- Best Use of Interactivity
- Best Story-Focused Game
- Best Puzzle-Focused Game
- Most Replay Value
We are requiring sign-in to prevent duplicate votes.
If a game takes less than 30 minutes for a single playthrough, you may play it multiple times before voting to see alternate paths/additional content, but we encourage you to vote based on no more than 30 minutes of gameplay.
What is the Short Games Showcase?
The Short Games Showcase is an opportunity to show off shorter interactive fiction works made in the past year (Jan 1, 2023 to Dec 31, 2023), regardless of whether they've been submitted to any previous jam or competition or not, and regardless of whether there have been any major updates since their initial release.
Short games tend to get less love than longer games in general-purpose, non-speed-IF comps, while if released outside of a comp or jam, they may not get eyes on them at all. We want to give shorter works their moment in the spotlight in a comp where they’ll be compared only to each other, and bring some more attention to the many excellent short games that get released every year.
How short is short?
A person who reads at an average speed should be able to complete a playthrough in 30 minutes or less. We know this can be hard to pinpoint exactly, so we will not be policing this unless someone submits something that is clearly way over the line.
What kinds of interactive fiction are eligible?
We take a broad view of IF, and will accept anything that's usually considered to fall under that umbrella, including parser games, choice-based/choose-your-own-adventure games, visual novels, and Bitsy games, but if text is not a significant component of your game, it is probably not appropriate for this event.
What if the game is meant to be played through multiple times?
A player should be able to have a relatively complete experience in 30 minutes or under. A game that runs 30 minutes for a single playthrough but requires or strongly encourages multiple playthroughs would not be a good fit for the SGS.
How many games can I submit?
You can submit up to three games.
How does voting work?
The SGS will have both a best-overall winner and winners in several specific categories:
- Best Use of Short Form
- Best Use of Interactivity
- Best Story-Focused Game
- Best Puzzle-Focused Game
- Most Replay Value
Best overall voting will be via Itch's built-in jam voting function, while category voting will be done through a Google form in order to have maximum flexibility in terms of what kinds of categories we can have. The Google form will be linked here when voting begins.
Voting will run from January 1st through January 26th, 2024.
Are there prizes?
No, this is just for fun (and bragging rights)!
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