We’re delighted to announce that we’re collaborating with the University of Southampton on the Interactive Fiction strand of their Green Stories Writing Competitions.
The main values behind the Green Stories Writing Competitions are to raise awareness of sustainability issues, practices, policies, and technologies via story. In so doing, the hope is that these stories will promote the concept of sustainable societies.
In December 2018, we were approached by Dr Denise Baden concerning the addition of a gaming strand to the competition and whether we’d be interested in getting involved – of course we said yes!
Entries for the Interactive Fiction competition should explore and touch upon ideas around building a sustainable society. All genres will be considered, but stories must engage with the idea of environmentally sustainable practices and/or sustainable societies.
The Deadline for entries is 1st December 2019, and entries should consist of an introduction to the concept behind the story and around an hour’s worth of playable material/gameplay. Prizes consist of: 1st prize £500, 2nd prize £100, 3rd prize £50, plus £50 for best student submission (18-25 years) and £50 for best under 18 years submission. Please find full details of the Interactive Fiction competition here.
If you’re new to Interactive Fiction, there is a wealth of free software available, such as Ink and Twine for producing interactive scripts, as well as programming tools based on natural language, such as Inform7. Good examples of Interactive Fiction can be found via The Interactive Fiction Competition and The Interactive Fiction Database.
Thanks to PRME UK Chapter for sponsoring this prize.
When you develop a game, you need a great writing team, and that is where Talespinners are indispensable. They are able to take your ideas and create whole worlds with them. From the initial idea all the way to final delivery, I wouldn't trust any other wordsmiths.
Mark Drew
CEO, Villainous Games
Decisively creative. Insightfully articulate. Committed to the craft. For example, Ian’s recent advice decisively reshaped our critical opening narrative moments to make them deeply affecting... [Talespinners] are consistently responsible, reliable, and efficient.
Luke Hughes
Project Lead, Burden of Command
Talespinners have been wonderful to work with; enthusiastic, imaginative, and organised. I thoroughly enjoyed our story meetings. They’ve delivered excellent dialogue and plenty of strong ideas that have lifted our narrative, and spotted story problems early that might have resulted in wasted work. Even if you have a good handle on your story, I would recommend bouncing your ideas off Talespinners – they’ll come back even better.
Chris Payne
Managing Director, Quantum Soup
Talespinners quickly grasped our concept and were immediately able to work it into a captivating and inspirational story. Whenever an issue with the narrative came up, Talespinners were always quick to respond and promptly came up with solutions.
Mostafa Hafez
CEO, Instinct Games
Ian doesn’t just do the job you give him. He brings new ideas, new approaches and directions, and pulls, sculpts and batters your ideas until they look far shinier than they ever were - or would have been – without him. He is an excellent writer, coder, and logical mind that will help you and your project in far more ways than what is written on any contract or agreement.
Olly Bennett
Managing Director, Cardboard Sword
What we achieved in a day really impressed us! Talespinners helped us to clarify and amplify our own ideas, bringing them into a clearer structure...We see the workshop and the document that summarises the results as a big success.
Lea Schönfelder
Senior Game Designer, ustwo Games
We had a rough and sprawling story and lore for The Exiled that organically developed over years of development. Ian came and turned that chaos into a structured and coherent document, in the course solving the many logical problems and inconsistencies that had developed. With tiny amounts oversight and feedback from our side he came up with an interesting lore and turned that lore into engaging words. Will work with him again on future projects.
Alexander Zacherl
Managing Director / Game Director, Fairytale Distillery
It was a pleasure working with Ian on The Bunker, he has an expert eye for game design detail and an incredible talent for bringing real humanity to storylines. His logic in game narrative structure is flawless and he brought an amazing attention to detail to The Bunker, providing layer after layer of storytelling, making the game richer and more immersive.
Allan Plenderleith
Director, Splendy Games
Being just a two-person studio, working with Talespinners has been invaluable to us. From brief to delivery they're professional, friendly and punctual. It's reassuring to know that we can rely on them to create high-quality writing that adds an extra dimension to our game, allowing us to focus on the art and code.
Dave Miller
Co-owner, Runner Duck Games
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