I finally hit that magical milestone, 3000 games, and since it's an obligation to create a thread I figured I'd do so. Just a quick mention before we begin. I do check for cheaters on my SGTools giveaways, so please be respectful. Scroll down for writing contest details!

The first batch of giveaways have ended! I sent out friend requests to the winners and replaced the giveaway links with store links. A brief bundle train will be coming soon!

Steam Fun Facts:
The first game I purchased on Steam was Hinterland.
The game I have the most hours in is Dungeons and Dragons Online, and the runner up is CS:GO (which I don't play anymore). followed by Dark Souls (which was my waifu for a full semester).
The 3000th game was Nekopara Vol. 2.
SG Fun Facts:
I have won 100 wins from Touhou Giveaways (over 55% of my wins), compared to 64 giveaways sent (Just over 10% of my gifts sent). Pro leech.
My SG account is four years old, but I was essentially absent for the entirety of one year before I came back and actually started being active.
My first giveaway was Protogalaxy.
Unrelated Fun Facts:
Catgirls are adorable.
I'm studying for a Master of Divinity.
ArchiBoT is going to take over the world someday.
I have a Firefly pin, and have invested in the Loot Crate. Let's hope the loot is shiny!
A bundle train will appear in about a week, if I don't forget.

Contest!

It's been a long time since I ran a contest. This time, I'm hosting a sci-fi writing contest! The deadline will be April 8th at midnight (timezones don't really matter, but if you cheat we'll all judge you a bit), and depending on the volume of entries and how much junk I have due around that time I will try to get judging done by the 18th (giving myself two weekends to procrastinate). Now for the boring stuff!

The restrictions:

Length: I will have three categories of entries: Flash (1-1000 words), Short (1001-5000 words), and Long (5001+ words). Please feel free to submit in each category that interests you, but for the sake of my workload please don't submit more than one work in each category.

English language. I don't have high enough reading comprehension in any other language to weigh those entries properly, and Google Translate would not be your friend in the grammar category.

No "erotica"; adult elements are fine, but if your work is just smut, I'm not interested. Adult relationships are fine, but if you're just writing a sex scene, there's... places for that.

Preferably no "shipping" fan-fiction. If you write a fan work, it should be in keeping with the original universe and interesting as a story to someone with no prior knowledge of the setting. I live under a rock, so I probably won't get your references, so try to keep it entry level or explain where it's from (links to wikipedia pages, etc. are appreciated!)

You may use works that you've written before, but remember to format them properly. For the sake of keeping the thread clean, I will not judge submissions that are simply posted in as text to the thread. The only exception is that I will not allow submissions that were in prior writing contests that I hosted, because I want to see fresh content!

How to submit:

Make a clickable link to a Google Document or other online storage service, which is accessible with only the link, in this thread or share the document with me using the address "squirezed@gmail.com". If you do not provide a link, I will ask if you want to provide a link around the time of judging so I can provide a link to your work if people are interested.

LEGAL
This is not to get rights to your works so I can republish them. There are no contracts, you keep your work, I'm just interested in seeing it. I don't want to publish it (though I will contact the winners about links here if they do not post public links) or make money from it, and all rights will remain with the author. That said, your submissions should still be your original works which you own distribution rights for. Legalese is hard, so unless you are the original author of an otherwise unpublished work, please do not submit the work. Remember that posting your work publicly online can make some publishers refuse to publish your work. In case I actually muster up some prizes: If your place of residence doesn't let you win contests, tough. Not my responsibility to guarantee that you won't get in trouble. I live in the US, and I will not circumvent region locks to get you your prizes should you win.

Feel free to contact me at the email address above or via Steam message or any other arcane way you devise to contact me for clarification. I will try to respond to questions posted in this thread.

View the last contest here, with links to an earlier one which then as links to the others. Don't judge me.