Here's a competition where you only need to submit the beginning of a text adventure:

http://www.allthingsjacq.com/introcomp/

If you win, you only get your prize if you actually finish your game within a year though!

Does entering the start of your game to the intro comp disqualify you for the IF comp? On the IF comp it says:

4. All entries must be previously unreleased at the opening of voting. This includes beta versions. The author must know who has had access to copies of their games before the competition. The game may not have been freely accessible: if you place a version of your game on a web site, the URL cannot be publicly handed out. If an entry has previously been circulated, it will be disqualified.

I've sent an email to the IF comp organiser but just wanted to check if anyone here knows in case they don't check the email account regularly.

Unfortunately you cannot enter an IntroComp game in IFComp.

Cool, thanks for the info.

EDIT: doh! I just saw the answer to my question in the introcomp FAQ. Should have been an obvious place to look

Just a reminder that you have one week left to declare an intent to enter, then you have until July 15th to write just the introduction to a text adventure game. It really is one of the simpler comps to enter