XYZZY Awards: Nominate Your Favorite Games of 1999

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XYZZY Awards: Nominate Your Favorite Games of 1999

Yes, it's that time again: time to vote for the best IF games of the year in the annual XYZZY Awards. All games first released in 1999 are eligible.

The XYZZY voting system has a new twist this year, in response to voter feedback from the previous XYZZY Awards. Voting will be split into two rounds. The first round will select the nominees, the top five vote-getters in each category. There will then be a second round of voting to select from the nominees the winners, one in each category.The rules are as follows:

Eligibility: All IF games publicly released during theyear 1999 are eligible for the 1999 XYZZYs. A complete listing of all the eligible games (in alphabetical order) is given at the bottom of this page.

Voting: Anyone is eligible to vote. You may not vote twice. Authors may not vote for their own games. While it is suggested that you play as many of the eligible games as possible before casting your ballot, we're not going to get ridiculous here.

Categories: There are ten XYZZY categories this year: Best Game, Best Writing, Best Story, Best Setting, Best Puzzles, Best NPCs, Best Individual Puzzle, Best Individual NPC, Best Individual PC and Best Use of Medium. In the "individual" categories, vote for a particular NPC, PC, or puzzle; in the rest, vote for the game as a whole. Vote once in each category, then stop.

Deadline: The deadline for first-round voting is Thursday, January 27, 2000, at midnight Eastern Standard Time. Deadline for second-round voting is Friday, February 11. The award ceremony itself will take place on Saturday, February 12 at 4 pm EST (which is 9 pm GMT), on the ifMUD.

Submit your ballot by filling out the online form below and pressing the Submit button. You may also send an e-mail to eileen.mullin@gmail.com by January 27.

And now, on with the first-round voting:

Name:

E-mail:

Best game:

Best writing:

Best story:

Best setting:

Best puzzles:

Best NPCs:

NPC stands for "non-player character"

Best individual puzzle:

Best individual NPC:

Best individual PC:

PC stands for "player character"

Best use of medium:

This award is meant to honor proficiency in use of the parser, default messages, and so on. In the words of Kathleen Fischer, who came up with the name for it: "I would give the award (whatever we call it) to the game that reduces the number of "You can't see any such thing." and "You can't do that." to a bare minimum. The game should offer some clever reason why I can't burn down the forest with my match and handle me taking water from the stream 100 times with grace. The parser should understand me within the context of the game and the grammer must be complete enough that I don't have to play "guess the verb". If the game describes a pile of garbage in the room I expect it to be prepared for me to to try to get it, eat it, or push it out the window. The window, by the way, should be either openable, locked, or "It's not that kind of window" and not "That's just scenery". I know you are saying "But I can't code all my objects". I'm just saying this is an award... and if somebody goes to that much effort they should get some credit for it!"

List of Eligible Games

Aisle, by Sam Barlow
Annoyed Undead, by Roger Ostrander
Annoyotron, by Ben Parrish
Beat the Devil, by Robert M. Camisa
Bliss, by Cameron Wilkin
The Bloody Mess, by Doug Jones
Blue Head Yurt V.3, by Peter Berman
Break-In, by Jon Ingold
Breath of Fresh Blair, by Jesse Burneko
Calliope, by Jason McIntosh
Camping!, by Gunther Schmidl
Carnival, by Admiral Jota
Chaos, by Shay Caron
Chicks Dig Jerks, by Robb Sherwin
Coke Is It!, by Lucian Smith, Adam Thornton, J. Robinson Wheeler, Michael Fessler, Adam Cadre, Dan Shiovitz, and DavidDyte.
Common Ground, by Stephen Granade
The Courier Who Missed Me, by Christopher Huang
Crystal Ball, by Marian Taylor
A Day for Soft Food, by Tod Levi
Deanna, by Optimus
Death To My Enemies, by Jon Blask
Deephome, a Telleen Adventure, The Return: Part 1, by Joshua Wise
Digging For Onions, by Christopher Huang
Dinnertime, by Bob Reeves
Diorama, by Peter Berman
Don't Fire Until You See The Yellows Of Their Niblets, by Dan Shiovitz
Doomsday, by Admiral Jota
Enemies, by Andy Phillips
Erehwon, by Richard Litherland
Exhibition, by Ian Finley
First Wave, then jump up and down screaming, by L. Ross Raszewski
For A Change, by Dan Schmidt
Generic New York Apartment Building, by NewKid
A Grand Day's Hunting, by Jonathan Rosebaugh
The Great Ritual, by Gunther Schmidl
Guard Duty, by Jason F. Finx
The Frenetic Five vs. Mr. Redundancy Man, by Neil deMause
Halothane, by Quentin.D.Thompson
The HeBGB Horror!, by Eric Mayer
Hunter, in Darkness, by Andrew Plotkin
I don't remember why this game is called "Onion", by Dan Shiovitz
I Never Promised You A Nose Guard, by Rob Noyes
Inform School, by Bill Shlaer
Inheritance, by Eric J. Toth
Intruder, by Volker Lanz
The Insanity Circle, by Mike Snyder
Jacks or Better to Murder, Aces to Win, by J.D. Berry
The Jewel of Knowledge, by Francesco Bova
Kids Shouldn't Have to Save The World, by Marnie Parker
King Arthur's Night Out, by Mikko Vuorinen
Knot To Be Undone, by Jess Kiddon
The Lake, by John Cater
Life on Beal Street, by Ian Finley
The Lion in Winter, by Iain Merrick
Lomalow, by Brendan Barnwell
L.U.D.I.T.E., by Rybread Celsius
Mazemapper, by Bob Reeves
The Mean Story, by Bob Reeves
A Moment of Hope, by Simmon Keith
The Mulldoon Legacy, by Jon Ingold
Music Education, by Bill Linney
Myopia, by Quentin.D.Thompson
Nostradamus's Onion Sandwich, by David A. Cornelson
Not Just an Ordinary Ballerina, by Jim Aikin
Offensive Probing, by Ben Croshaw
The Oily Deeps, by John Cater
On The Farm, by Lenny Pitts
One Foot Down, by Jason Reigstad
One Night In The North Atlantic, by Christopher Huang
Only After Dark, by Gunther Schmidl
Onion, by Peter Berman
Onion of Destiny, by Jason Dyer
OnNoEf, by Evin Robertson
Outsided, by Chad Elliot
Parrot Stock Exchange, by Adam Cadre
Pass the Banana, by Admiral Jota
Perilous Magic, by David Fillmore
Pillow, Interactive Art, by Chad Schultz
The Possibility of Life's Destruction, by Gunther Schmidl
The Profesee, by Dan Schmidt
RANS, by Bob Reeve
Remembrance, by Casey Tait
Revenge of the Chalupa, by Dan Schmidt
Reverzi, by John Menichelli
Robin's Earth, by Robin Johnson
A Rock and a Hard Place, by J. Robinson Wheeler
Rockie, by Doug Jones
The Search for Princess Alandria, by Jason Billard
Sensory Jam, by Andrew Plotkin
Sinking the Lily Jane, by Ryan N. Freebern
Six Stories, by Neil K. Guy
The Six-Foot-Tall, Man-Eating Chicken, by Ryan N. Freebern
Skipping Breakfast, by Dunnin Haste
Skyranch, by Jack Driscoll
Sludge, by Neil deMause
SNOSAE, by R. Dale McDaniel
SpeedIF 4, by Lenny Pitts
Spodgeville Murphy and the Jewelled Eye of Wossname, by David Fillmore
Spy in the Snow, by Matthew Amster-Burton
The Spy Who Always Wears Gloves Now, by David A. Cornelson
Statue, by David Clysdale
Stone Cell, by Stephen Kodat
Strangers in the Night, by Rich Pizor
Tanker and Webb, by Andrew Frederiksen
Tears Keep Gett In My Dr. Pepper, by Marnie Parker
Tears May Fall, by Ryan N. Freebern
They're After You!, by Bob Reeves
Thorfinn's Realm, by Roy Main and Robert Hall
Titanic: Leo's Revenge, by Volker Lanz
To Get To The Other Side, by Bob Reeves
A Top Hat for Eddie, by David A. Cornelson
Trudge, by Neil deMause
Varicella, by Adam Cadre
The Water Bird, by Athan Skelley
Werewolf, by Evin Robertson
Winter Wonderland, by Laura A. Knauth
Wheel, by John Toomey
When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Firetruck, by R. Noyes
Worlds Apart, by Suzanne Britton
Winchester's Nightmare, by Nick Montfort
X-Child, by Jesse Burneko
The Yellow Stone, by David Glasser
Your mind is gone, it must be brought, you have some rock candy, by Lenny Pitts
Zazie, by Luca Melchionna
Zokoban, by Jake Wildstrom
Zombies, by David Ledgard

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