I love that so many new authors are discovering and writing IFs. At the same time, as an author, it can be hard to make your IF stand out against so many new ones.
Back to two or three years ago, I feel it was much easier for a new IF to gain a decent amount of people interested, while now sometimes it can be hard navigating through all the new stories.
And don't get me wrong, I believe readers have risen too with time, but it is still hard to create a story that has not been done over and over and that at the same time holds the tropes or characters dear to so many authors.
I think that once your IF is long enough, it all somehow equalises, but at the early stages stakes have become higher. Readers expect more and more customisation, since they have been accustomed to it, they expect variety and a certain level of polish of the story. Which is natural since IFs have become more popular, but it still can look daunting from a new author perspective.
Cherry, the author of A Tale of Crown, has also talked about how the IF landscape on Tumblr has changed on her blog ( X , X ) in the past years. I am sure she is not the only one... It is becoming a bit saturated in some genres for sure...
It is so nice people get to find a new way to be creative and tell stories. That's also something I love about IF. Anyone with an internet connection can create something.
But I agree with the sentiment of looking at the community and seeing a bit of a saturation with so many new IFs popping up on Tumblr. You have to be shinier and newer and grab the attention of readers in new ways and keep that attention, otherwise your project will get washed out by other ones... It can definitely feel frustrating, that's true.
This is why I always tell people who what to start: do a small contained story! Something simple, very linear, with few variation, to test the waters and the IF program. Then try bigger (or not, do whatever).
Though, having been behind the scene with the Interact-IF directory, there are waves of new IFs throughout the year. Usually, we'll see more new projects pooping up around school holidays, especially the summer ones. And of those, very little have available demos or do end up getting one out. Many, many, projects end up getting abandoned after being announced, more so if there is no demo out.
I think this is why you can see a bit of an equaliser once your project is long enough (or you are more settled/popular in the community). People like shiny new things, but they prefer consistency and substance.
On the story and trope note: everything had been beaten to death already, but it doesn't stop those stories or tropes from being used over and over again and achieving popularity. And you can have the exact same premise/plot/trope between two authors feeling different because those authors have different voices.
For the stakes rising... yeah... Readers can have a lot of power in the community. [I'm generalising here, there are exception to the rule.]
Readers are expecting more, more polish in the writing or the UI, more customisation and variation in choices, more choices being meaningful to the story, more updates, more words, more of everything they've been accustomed to have through popular or long-standing IFs (or IFs published/created by actual companies). Note: this is not always a conscious thing, btw.
They will either forget that forget that IF is a hobby for most authors, that they do in their free time, that those authors may not have the knowledge to reach those expectations, or that they are limited by the resources they have (see this other confession). Just because someone did it before or because it is technically possible, doesn't mean that everyone should or has to strive for it.
But at the same time, I feel part of it has to do with how great past and established works have been, how boundaries pushing they were in terms of polish or customisation or just what IF can do/be. Each new project as the potential to push that boundary, to increase people's expectations for the next wave of IF, and to put more pressure on newer creators.
And the issue with that is you can't stop that from happening. You can't take back what's been made, it's already out there. And you shouldn't want it to stop from happening either. Without people pushing boundaries, the medium would be come stale.
I am sure there are many different reasons for why the stakes have been increasing, aside from the saturation of new projects, increased readers' expectations, and increase of great works out there. But here are a few as to why there might be more pressure for creators:
creating an IF to get likes/numbers/interactions rather than just because,
not getting the amount of interactions you expected from the get-go or not seeing it increase as much as you hoped,
IF becoming more popular and the potentiality of your work being read by more people,
announcing a project before having planned or written part of the story,
promising mechanics or features without knowing whether it will possible/make sense/feasible to include it,
not setting expectations about the content of a project when announcing it (or soon after),
expecting too much from ourselves as creators,
believing their story isn't new enough,
starting an IF without having done any research about how to create one,
starting a big project without testing the waters of IF creation,
...