Of all the mysterious things that could suddenly appear in your apartment and be the cause of worry, a potted plant isn't that high up on the list. But that's because you've never seen a plant like this before in this Twine-based text adventure with multiple endings.
Science student and unlikely space explorer Taylor is back in this sequel to the original Lifeline story. A strange space craft is approaching the mining ship that rescued you. Are they friend or foe? Find out as you help Taylor navigate the situation in this text adventure.
One year after volcanoes simultaneously erupt all around the world, plunging it into a new age, a young boy who barely survived with his family suddenly finds them missing, seemingly plucked out of thin air, and only a mysterious phrase to go on. This massive free text-based RPG adventure for Android and iOS offers over 2000 pages of in-depth post-apocalyptic storytelling with optional combat, minigames, and more, though ends abruptly as the first installment in a planned trilogy.
Elaine's life isn't what she'd hoped for. She's been married for 25 years, sure, and she has a roof over her head, but anxieties, regrets, loneliness, and a feeling of disconnection make her days feel gray... but there is the matter of her house, which seems to be slowly changing around her in a way only she notices, and over the course of a week in this puzzle-less text adventure, the doors she opens can change her life by changing her past in unexpected ways... but is it for the better?
While out traveling through the barren deserts of Utah a flash flood hits. Your jeep doesn't make it and a split second decision decides if live or follow your jeep into a watery grave. But making that choice is just the start of your adventure as you search the desert for sanctuary in this free interactive fiction adventure.
Congratulations! You've found Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box! Why what does it do? You haven't the faintest idea. But when curiosity killed the cat satisfaction brought it back. So start poking around. All you can do is discover in this clever interactive fiction puzzle game.
Camp life isn't really doing it for Bridget. But every time she sleeps, a land of bird people need her help. You'll be helping her learn on the job in BIRDLAND. a Twine interactive-fiction adventure game written by Brendan Patrick Hennessy and illustrated by Izzy Marbella. A weird game, but the engaging, hilarious, and even realistic kind of weird that should be actively sought out.
When your boyfriend has his brain guzzled by an unspeakable creature from beyond the stars, what's a gal to do when the town won't take her seriously? That's up to you to decide in this snarky sci-fi horror text adventure from Steph Cherrywell!
After you are mistakenly contacted by a blood-mage, you decide to join her on her quest in this fantasy themed text adventure. Travel with Arika in real time as she plots revenge against those who killed her parents. Your choices will determine whether she succeeds or fails in her quest in this game for iOS and Apple Watch.
You are assigned to investigate why an AI facility has gone dark in this sci-fi text adventure. After an incident you are separated from your team mate. You are only able to communicate through text as you help her reunite with you. Use the computer to hack the facility as you try to figure out what went wrong.
Now is your chance Space Cadet. One final chance to become the space hero you've always wanted to be. All you have to do is pass the Captain's test and impress only the most daring, most heroic, and most critical instructor in all the known galaxy, Captain Dirk Parsec, in this pay-what-you-want indie Twine tale with 26 different endings.
In a world where space travel is common, unfortunately so are space disasters. A ship goes down on a desolate moon, killing all but one crew member. This lone survivor is desperate for some human contact. Somehow you pick up the astronaut's signal and end up helping Taylor make crucial decisions through the worst day of their life in this thrilling sci-fi narrative for iOS.
Eight's scared and confused when she wakes unable to remember her name or much else about her life in a strange place, so she's relieved when she recognizes a boy she somehow KNOWS is her brother, even if he's in the same boat. Created for NaNoRenO, this free indie visual novel is often sad and bittersweet, but focuses on being bruised but not broken and the difference having someone who loves you can make in your life.
Join disaffected twenty-something Kelly as she makes an awkward phone call while driving in the rain, in Three Fourths Home, a piece of indie interactive art by Bracket Games. It is a work that is heavy on text and theme, and light on humor and action. Still, fans of thought-provoking interactive literature should not miss it.
Ryan North, Kate Beaton, Anthony Clark and more combine talents to make one behemoth of a Choose Your Own Adventure gamebook with a seriously comedic style for iOS and Android as well as Mac, PC, and Linux. In the iconic tale of Hamlet, do you follow the rules... or do you play as someone else entirely and travel through time, thwart terrorists, advance ghost marine biology, and more?
You've finally managed to snag an invitation to a magical ball... but when they only want beautiful people there, how are you supposed to go about making yourself "beautiful" with your limited (and weird!) cosmetics? A short but funny and engaging Twine tale with seven routes and endings to discover.
Mysterious incidents occur on a cruise ship half a century apart, and it's up to you to discover the truth in The Misadventures of Detective Butler, a mystery visual novel by Goldbar Games. While two-dimensional characters hold the story from reaching its full potential, it is an entertaining yarn with a classic Golden Age Whodunnit feel and polished visuals and sound.
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to colonize a distant planet? Jump into the shoes of a space pioneer in this sci-fi interactive fiction. The decisions you make effect not just your relationship with your new husband, but potentially the whole planet. What will you choose?
In this creepy Choose Your Own Adventure Kindle horror tale (use one of the free Kindle apps to play!), a desperate phone call from your eccentric brother sets you off on a mission to find and rescue him. But time is running out, and there are things in the dark you may not be prepared to deal with.
You're spending the night at your best friend's house, and someone special is coming by at midnight. Michael Lutz, author of My Father's Long, Long Legs delivers an unsettling twist on familiar territory in this Choose Your Own Adventure Style interactive horror fiction.
Sisters Kat and Aria are lost alone in the woods at night when they accidentally cross paths with two men who don't have the friendliest intentions. How far will they go to save themselves in this Choose Your Own Adventure style text-based tale?
You've been kidnapped and taken to a facility to test the killing capabilities of a hostile creature in this blend of survival horror and escape! Hunt for items and food and avoid the monster prowling after you in this text-only adventure game.
Voices from the Sea is a visual novel adventure from Zeiva Inc about a boy, a girl, the ocean, and sea shells. Lots and lots of sea shells. The plot is a little heavy on "aggressively ordinary boy meets magically energetic girl" tropes, but its relaxing vibe makes it easy to be won over to its charms.
Ethan Carter is missing, and a series of gruesome murders are happening throughout the isolated town of Red Creek. Paul Prospero is the occult detective Ethan had been writing to before his disappearance, but what Paul uncovers is just as said as it is shocking and unsettling in this gorgeous indie horror adventure.
A twine interactive fiction game where you play as someone living with depression, developed by Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey and Isaac Schankler, Depression Quest hopes to offer empathy and sympathy for what can be a very painful condition. Some awkward prose is balanced by its ambitiousness in subject matter, and makes a convincing case for how games can help us all understand each other better.
Descend into a dungeon with your brother Erasmus in this strange Twine text adventure, again and again and again and again. Failure is often the only way forward, so explore and experiment if you expect to uncover any of the game's endings, much less the real one.
Fans of zombies and sepia tinged art rejoice! Hyptosis has come out with another installment of humorous horror with Riverside. Taking place in the same continuity of his popular Sagittarian series of games, Riverside is a faster, almost parodiac take on the apocalypse. It won't win over those cold on the Choose Your Own Adventure style, but fans of Hyptosis' work will find it a fun bit of comedy.
You Were Made For Loneliness, a Twine narrative adventure by the Tsukareta author collective, weaves a tale of memory, the post-apocalypse, regret, murder, and in its own skewed way, love. It's a disjointed presentation, heavy on experimentation, but those who love exploring and piecing together a narrative from many component parts will find it a very intriguing experiation.
Like her namesake in One Thousand and One Night, Scheherazade Williams is a story-teller. Fresh off her latest success, and two new Holly Awards, she opens her email to discover that it's not enough for her bosses at Narrative, Inc.--they want more, and they want it now! But after 500 stories for this commercial enterprise, the well of new stories has run dry.
A killer stalks the city streets, pursued by another... you. In this short but polished visual novel, you play an unnamed woman with mysterious abilities and strange company who sets out to find a missing girl, but maybe not to bring her home safely.
Though some people may find it hard to watch at times, this short interactive visual novel/story takes place over one night in 2010, as the narrator's boyfriend urges him to come out to his parents. Make your choices, but do so carefully, since everyone remembers everything you say.
A mystery has erupted in the peaceful zombie society and its up to Detective Margh and his sidekick Ghvnn to figure it out. Read along and help Margh make choices that will alter the plot in future chapters and perhaps find out that this mystery goes deeper than you thought.
Jonas Kyratzes delivers an experience both magical and melancholy in this Twine-based choose-your-own-adventure game as you play one of seven heroes chosen to take up arms against a legendary beast that rises every hundred years to bathe the land in flame.
It's easy to immerse yourself in this beautiful, atmospheric audio-visual adventure by Connor Sherlock, but your time is limited. You have only 20 minutes before The Rapture Is Here And You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home. So what do you do? Run! Use [WASD] to move and your mouse to look all around. Explore until your curiosity is rewarded with discovery. Or stand around and wait. It's up to you.
You are Victor the Tenacious, bravest, strongest, and most intelligentest knight in the whole kingdom. You have been tasked with rescuing the fair Princess Sonia from the Black Dragon Urquel. Oh yeah, and you've let your faithful squire has tag along for the ride too. A short-but-funny Twine yarn by David T. Marchand that fans of fantasy humor won't want to miss.
Lynnea Glasser (formerly Dally) returns to the interactive fiction scene with Coloratura. Play as a displaced alien who only seeks to get away from the blind, apathetic humans and return to their place of bliss. Without the ability to directly manipulate objects, you can 'color' the humans moods to create situations beneficial to your goal. Whether dealing with them violently or more peacefully, you will get back to your resting place. Whatever it takes.
When college student Miranda stumbles across a castle in Belgium after getting lost late one night, the last thing she expected was to find out vampires are real. Now, she's being held prisoner by two of them while they wait for the rest of the family to return in two weeks... but is there more to Adrian and Luca than meets the eye? A short but gorgeous pay-what-you-want visual novel with six endings and a dark side.
Your choices determine the outcome of this choose your own adventure style interactive comic book. Explosions and red clouds are on the horizon. Your cell phone loses reception. Something bad is going on...will you survive? Whether you help others along the way or decide it's every man or woman for themselves, This is Not a Test offers up a great story.
In this creepy bit of Twine-delivered interactive fiction, a young girl's father becomes obsessed with digging a hole beneath their house. As the years pass, he begins to resemble less and less the man she once knew... and perhaps even less of a man at all...
Socrates Jones doesn't get why you'd care about philosophy if you don't have a long white robe and a longer beard, but a freak accident means he's about to learn more about it than he'd ever thought he needed... in fact, his life depends on it! An educational visual novel inspired by Phoenix Wright, Pro Philosopher will teach you how to debate intelligently and constructively, and keep you entertained along the way.
There's been a murder at the Seafront Hotel, and it even has famous French detective Antoine Saint Germain stumped. That hasn't stopped him from gathering everyone together for one of his famous "someone in this room is the killer" monologues. Can you save Saint Germain's reputation as the detective who always closes the case? And oh yes, do try to accuse the right person.
King of Bees in Fantasy Land, a Twine adventure game by Brendan Patrick Hennesy, hails to an earlier time of gaming plotting; one where "all your base are belong to us". Thought there's not much action to speak of, this little choose-your-own-adventure tale of a Space Knight taking on the Evil King of Bees in the year 2888 is a quick, smart, piece of video game comedy.
A duck may want many things. A simple life? An education? High adventure? Clearly there are choices to be made, and you're just the one to help! A Duck Has An Adventure is a humorous piece of CYOA interactive art by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, and while it has more art than gameness, it's a quacking good time.
New from inkle studios, the team that brought the interactive novel Frankenstein to iOS in 2012, Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is a digital re-imagining of the Fighting Fantasy roleplaying gamebooks. You don't have to be a fan of the classic series to enjoy Sorcery!, nor do you have to be an avid reader (or own a pair of dice). You just need a little bit of curiosity and a love of interactive stories.
A dark chamber, a missing memory, and a splitting headache... to get to the truth and find your way out, you'll have to encounter some uncomfortable truths as you solve puzzles and explore in this atmospheric horror text adventure.
An experimental text-based adventure game from ScriptWelder that has you waking up disoriented in an unknown place, trying to get information from a source that not too eager to give anything away. A short but intelligent sci-fi yarn, with an up-to-the-task conversational parser that the author is dedicated to improving through community feedback.
The zombie apocalypse is hard on everyone, and paddling down a dank bayou isn't anyone's idea of a good time... unless you're playing the latest chapter in Hyptosis's choose-your-own-adventure series. With all the blood and profanity you've come to expect, if you enjoy this particular brand of interactive fiction and don't mind some unforeseeable deaths, make time in your coffee break to take a leisurely paddle down the water.
Kentucky Route Zero: Act I is a curious mash-up of an old school adventure game and a cinematic text adventure. Created by Cardboard Computer (which includes A House in California developer Jake Elliott), the game is packed with phenomenal visual and sound design, setting an atmosphere that's one of the most intriguing in recent indie gaming history. it's a bit like Twin Peaks meets a moody old school adventure game (on a dark night in the middle of Kentucky).
A small time data smuggler in the corporate-dominated futuristic city of NeoSushi, Dogeron Kenan's job is to transport passcodes in his cybernetic arm, trying to keep one step ahead of both the lawful and unlawful who want to stop him. But things just went south, and now everyone in the town is out to get him. It's going to be a long night. An excellent piece of interactive fiction by the Cabrera Brothers, with an atmosphere that more than makes up for parser issues.
A nice piece of interactive art, The Little Girl Nobody Liked is a picture-perfect picture book minigame by Deirdra Kiai. Even with all its multiple endings, it only clocks in at a couple minutes in length. Still, it's soothing, adorable, and subversive, and is just the thing to check out before an afternoon nap.
Though one should strive to live without regrets, considering all the different paths a life might have taken is an inherently intriguing concept. Some games attempt to analyze the psychology of our decisions and their consequences. On the other hand, some games, like Relive Your Life, an interactive movie by FrozenFire, will have you button mashing to fend off a competing sperm, before failing to acquire a preferred toy at recess kicks of a chain of events that leads to a popular resurgence in nudism/bear-wrestling. And it'll rhyme too! Clever prose and voice-acting by Egoraptor are highlights, and make up for tacked-on minigames.
In Sagittarian 4: Berger by Hyptosis, you rejoin your old friends, Sage, Dusty, and Anna, in their quest to find safety after the zombie apocalypse. The small band of survivors are no longer strangers, but friends. Some are even lovers. Can you protect these people you've grown so close to over the last four games, or will you have to send them to their certain deaths for the good of the group? Combining great artwork, funny and well-developed dialogue, and even a dynamic soundtrack, it's an experience that really sticks with you.
Gamer Mom, by Mordechai Buckman and Kyler Kelly, is a unique text adventure about a Mom trying to convince her family to play World of Warcraft together and mend their broken relationship. But it won't be easy! Your daughter hates you and only wants to text on her cellphone all day and your husband is a workaholic who doesn't want to spend anytime as a family. Even if you manage to succeed in your goal, the game doesn't end there and you might be surprised at what happens next. Gamer Mom is a short, but lasting, experience that manages to be sad, poignant, and even funny...just like life itself.
It starts with a letter from an old friend inviting you to dinner. How can something so simple, so innocent, throw you into a dark world of murder, mystery, and the supernatural? Set in London in 1603, this enormous Lovecraftian interactive fiction adventure will challenge and immerse you in a world that feels real and dangerous. Available as a free download or as an enhanced edition for Kindle devices and Nook tablets, this 12 to 15 hour adventure is a challenge, but one well worth undertaking.
Frankenstein is a brand new work of interactive fiction written by Dave Morris and released using the inkle platform. Based on the original novel by Mary Shelley, this modern narrative weaves a captivating story that takes advantage the mobile platform to deliver a strong visual impact along with its interactive elements. You are both reader and player in this experience (though more the former than the latter), choosing directions for your character to take and shaping the narrative in ways that are both subtle and obvious. The end result is a visual and textual masterpiece that you will be both thrilled and intrigued to experience.
It's a dark and stormy night. Wait, no, it's pretty sunny outside, so neither of those. You take the leaflet from the mailbox... gahh, no, not that, either. You know what? It doesn't matter. It's time to play. Time to play JayIsPonies, an "epic" choose your own adventure sort of game where you collect pizza and probably do a bunch of other halfway crazy stuff!
The decisions you make in this YouTube interactive fan fiction game (based on the AMC television show) not only determine the fate of one Madison Avenue advertising agency, they might just save the world. Help Don Draper regain his confidence, inner peace and good ideas while preventing his untimely death. Although it's disappointing this isn't a true platform game since your involvement doesn't extend beyond clicking an occasional option, Mad Men: The Game is an entertaining and enjoyable parody of 1960s culture and the show that has everyone talking about it.
This lyrical work of interactive fiction, brainchild of Jonas Kyratzes who created The Book of Living Magic, will envelope you in a surrealistic experience of discovery, a gentle stroll through a timeless pastoral state where your decisions are rewarded with rich verse and life-pondering revelations. Each passage presents you with a choice which will determine your path; stroll slowly through the experience and play more than once to fully appreciate the outcomes of each option. Arcadia: a Pastoral Tale elevates the oft misjudged browser game onto the loftier plane of artistic poignancy.
After thousands of years, the Mugunghwa, sent into space to establish the first interstellar colony, has been found floating dead. You're sent after it to discover what happened to its crew with the help of two very different AIs, but the truth is vastly more complicated than you might think, and nowhere near black and white. In Christine Love's debut commercial visual novel release, take part in a captivating, clever, and emotional story that deals with love, politics, forgiveness... and hate.
The sequel to 2010's text adventure RPG Choice of Romance has arrived, and picks up right where the original left off. Will you be able to hold onto your new power in the court, or have you just painted a very large target on your back... and who can you trust to watch out for a dagger pointed at you when everyone has their own agenda?
Flaws, the interactive work of fiction from author Jon Ingold, is a difficult game to categorize as well as a different game to review. For starters, it isn't really a game in the traditional sense, more like a choose your own adventure produced for modern, Kindle-enabled devices. Then there's the nature of the story, where discussing even a few of the details can spoil whole bits of the experience. Suffice it to say, Flaws is an intriguing interactive fiction "game" about finding treasure and fame, the Andromeda galaxy, a mysterious diadem, and a possible assassination.
Hospitals are full of all sorts of hazards, like paper robes that don't close all the way, doctors with cold hands, and... zombies? HM! Lynnea Dally's undead apocalypse begins with you waking from a rather impromptu bout of unconsciousness in the hospital radiation room, but you have more things than a rather impressive headache to worry about in this horror interactive fiction game.
At long, long last, Jordan Mechner's (creator of the original Prince of Persia game) adventure gaming masterpiece The Last Express is available as a digital download! The game was first released in 1997 where, despite being an amazing interactive experience, it failed to gain much commercial traction. Its cult status survived the turn of the century largely due to the unique nature of the gameplay, the incredible writing, and a visual style that's more like an animated television show than a video game. No more tracking down rate copies of the original CD-ROM. Just download, install, and enjoy!
YFYIAR is a simple interactive fiction game where you must escape from a room. As play progresses, however, the conventions of normal text adventures begin to break down as the computer narrator begins to express its dislike for you, your humanity, and all it entails.
Crafted in the style of classic 'choose your own adventure' games, Zebulon features the exploits of a somewhat wayward space crew. The story itself is relatively simple; you're the captain of a small ship that runs regular courier missions for Asmico, a delivery and service IT company. With you are your shipwright and communication officer; your shipright Hariett is a straight-laced, by-the-book stick in the mud while Reynolds, the communication officer, is unlikely to win 'Employee of the month' anytime soon. Your choices in your interactions with them, and certain events, will determine your outcome.
When Todd gets a visit from the future (namely, himself) he finds his life changes drastically when he receives information that may get him the one thing he wants most. Is this text adventure a simple story about doing anything for the one you love? Or is there something much more complicated, and much darker, going on? With 35 different endings and an extremely forgiving play style, Thousand Dollar Soul is a lot more complicated than you might think.
The 2010 Interactive Fiction Competition is here! Yes, the competition that brought us such interactive fiction classics as Violet, Lost Pig, Floatpoint, and Slouching Towards Bedlam is back with 26 new games, 23 of which can be played in the comfort of your browser. Voting will end November 15, 2010, so get your votes in now if you want to help choose the next winner!
The road to magical greatness is difficult, littered with dragons, enchantments, adventure... not to mention test scores, rival students, detentions, and trying to keep your ghostly familiar in check. This incredibly ambitious text adventure from Black Chicken Studios is one part life simulator, one part fantasy RPG, and a whole lot of fun if you have the patience to let yourself become immersed in the tale of the making of the greatest mage of all time... you.
So what's your stance on twu wuv? Does it make you sigh and set your little heart to pitty-patting, or are you currently walled off in your cootie-free-fort to ride out the epidemic? Regardless, there's more than just a pretty face to this latest text RPG adventure from Choice of Games. As the eldest son or daughter of a declining noble family, you are sent to Court for a Season to see and be seen. Will you find a suitable match? Wind up alone? Or become embroiled in dangerous political intrigue? The choice, as they say, is yours.
Your entire young life has been building up to this. You were born to it, your maternal line. You, Lalu, are the Usher, charged with guiding the queen's soul to the afterlife, a task of great splendor and nobility. But that doesn't change how you feel now. All you can think is that you've been raised to die. If only there were some way out. The Usher is a game of interactive fiction, an entry into our first ever interactive fiction competition, Casual Gameplay Design Competition #7. As such, you use a text parser to interact with the game.
Without even a computer to play solitaire on, it's Monday, 16:30, and time is standing still in this piece of interactive fiction. Maybe with the help of the office gnomes you can beguile your true love in the tower next door with mime and paper airplanes?
Blue Lacuna is one of those rare experiences that turns your set of assumptions about a medium on its head. Like Memento or The Usual Suspects or The Outsider, Aaron Reed's game transcends its medium to become more than the sum of its parts, an artwork that leaves a measurable change in the player. You might finish this game, but it may never leave you alone.
Dan Efran's title Ka, an entry in our interactive fiction and escape themed Casual Gameplay Design Competition #7, starts in decidedly close quarters, with your royal spirit crammed in next to your corpse. Most text adventures struggle to some degree with pacing, but in Ka, at least, your initial goal is clear: leave. After that? Well, you're dead. You have to come to terms with it sometime.
You're dangling from a chimney on a rooftop six stories above ground, looking for spider silk. Your brother's making sure the door to the stairs back down stays open. When he appears below you looking nonchalant, you get a deep sinking feeling. Roofed is an offbeat interactive fiction title with a clever narrative that'll leave you wanting more.
It's another great day for the end of the world! Oh, wait, I forgot... that was yesterday! Dead Frontier: Outbreak 2 is a text adventure about trying to survive in an undead world. Having survived the events of the first game, you set out in search of much needed medical supplies. Making the right choices is important if you want to see the end of the day.
I don't suppose you've ever felt trapped at a really tedious party, wishing you could throw off the shackles of social convention and impale your host on a cocktail weenie toothpick, make a rope out of your own hair to escape out the bathroom window, beat yourself unconscious with the cheese tray--anything to avoid listening to some guy tell you another story about his golfing ability? In real life it's the opposite of entertaining, but in Party Foul, it makes for a hilarious puzzle to test all your escaping power
Enter into the experience of visualizing visualizing (whoa, meta!) in the CGDC7 award-winning interactive fiction title Dual Transform by Andrew Plotkin. Take on the role of a virtual engineer, of sorts, feeling the pressure of really making this project something to remember... something that really feels real.
Lost. In space. Alone. On a badly damaged ship. It's a bad day for anyone, and it's even worse for you since you can't remember how you got into this predicament. Fragile Shells is a clever, clean bit of interactive fiction from Stephen Granade, and a runner-up in Casual Gameplay Design Competition 7.
"Hero" is such a broad term. Don't you think, cowboy? You were just liberating that silver after all. Before you can ride off into the sunset, you'll need to get out of this jail cell. Hoosegow is a tongue-in-cheek bit of interactive fiction set in the wild west, and the proud winner of CGDC7.
Prepare yourself for an interactive fiction that peels back the truth in layers as you become more and more entwined in this tale of superscience and space exploration. The narrative begins with an itsy-bitsy clue that not all will be as it seems, followed by your character waking up in a fairly unadorned abode. From there, it's up to you as to what you do and how you go about it, but be wary of those who comment on your every move...
Lights... camera... URK. Lottie's got a problem the night of her big stage audition, and she's not willing to go down without a fight. Sarah Morayati's snappily written interactive fiction piece about teenage girls under the limelight suffers slightly from some unintuitive puzzle design, but is easily carried by a memorable cast of characters and some genuinely funny storytelling. Broken Legs is an over-the-top and snarky adventure worth a look from anyone who has at any point ever been a teenager, stereotypes aside.
Byzantine Perspective is a tight little heist game from this year's annual interactive fiction competition. You're a student with less-than-legal plans for how to fund your education: get into a museum of Byzantine artifacts, get the valuable antique chalice, get out again. You're rigged out in your best cat-burglar clothes, with your best cat-burglar tools — some of them borrowed from an acquaintance, which raises never-answered questions about what sorts of company the protagonist keeps.
We're pleased to announce a very special Casual Gameplay Design Competition, one focused entirely on interactive fiction! For CGDC #7, we're calling on IF authors to craft one-room games incorporating the theme "escape". It's text-only this time around, so you can spend your time polishing puzzles instead of pixels. Full details are below, so fire up your Z-code compiler and get to writing!
For those of us who love the idea of digital espionage but who don't have the ability to hack our way into a paper bag, Exoriare is here to fulfill all of our cyberpunk fantasies. The new alternate reality game from Smoking Gun Interactive sucks you in to a world of government conspiracies and stands poised to keep you hooked for a long time to come.
An unnamed cubicle slave grinds his way through another day at work, his biggest worry being whether or not someone left the coffee pot dry. That is until the scream comes. Now you have to help him get home to his wife before zombies get her or you in this choose your own adventure style game.
Make It Good is a dark, noir-esque detective mystery from Fail-Safe author Jon Ingold. You are cast in the role of a down-on-his-luck detective struggling to solve a murder case or risk losing his job. Moving about a complete, living world, you'll turn over every potted plant, scrutinize every room, and question every character as you attempt to stitch together shards of information to discover just what happened.
Alabaster is an exquisite and addictive piece of interactive fiction created by a team of eleven talented writers and spearheaded by Emily Short, one of the Grande Dames of the genre, authoress of such classics as Floatpoint, that takes the oft-Disneyfied, candy-coated tale of Snow White and recasts it in rather darker hues.
Slouching Towards Bedlam is a work of interactive fiction created by Daniel Ravipinto and Star Foster. Set in the Bedlam Hospital insane asylum in a steampunk-style 1885 London, you begin in an office with a brass-laden phonograph playing a demented soliloquy. It's a subtly disturbing game that draws you into a rich, elusive world of intrigue and allows you to react to the story however you see fit, carving out five unique endings based upon your interpretation of the plot.
Fail-Safe is a work of interactive fiction created by Jon Ingold. It could be one of the strangest text-based games you've ever seen (in a simple, subdued kind of way), as Ingold removes all meta-commands from the parser, forbidding you do to things like saving your progress. But there's a good reason for this. Fail-Safe immerses you so deeply in the world that even the conventions of playing a game would snap you out of it. And when you start playing, you'll see why that's a crucial part of the experience.
Dead Like Ants is a sublime piece of interactive fiction by C.E.J. Pacian. You are an unnamed female ant, a simple worker. You and your thousands of sisters labor ceaselessly in the service of your colony; an unexciting, if productive, existence. Today, however, is very different. Your mother, the Queen has requested your presence Every spring, it seems, five dangerous creatures come to the colony and threaten the safety of all therein. When this occurs, the Queen sends one of her daughters to negotiate with these monsters, thereby averting trouble for another year. This spring, you are the chosen emissary.
What you think is irrelevant, in this text-based adventure/interactive fiction by John Cooney. The man behind the mirrored glass tells you that you are a llama and if you know what is good for you, you will believe him. Following any and all instructions given to you is also not a bad idea if you enjoy things like breathing and not being dead.
Violet is a richly engaging one-room puzzle game from the annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2008). The problem? You're a graduate student working on your dissertation, but you haven't gotten any writing done in months. Your girlfriend Violet has put her life on hold, waiting for you to finish, and she's getting fed up. If you don't get a thousand words written today, your relationship is over and she flies home to Australia.
An ingenious piece of alternative history interactive fiction created by Adam Cadre. In Varicella, you have the pleasure of abandoning your usual scruples to play one of the most delightfully nasty antiheroes that I've come across: the eponymous Primo Varicella, Palace Minister at the Palazzo del Piemonte, and a tremendous opportunity awaits you. Can you seize the day (and the throne)?
Ah, human drama. The trials and tribulations of star-crossed lovers, the agonizing decisions made on the battlefield, the ...supreme annoyance of having some rotten kid try to steal your favorite toy? And so unfolds the very entertaining yet surprisingly complex scenario of baby vs. baby in this unique one-room themed piece of interactive fiction.
In this piece of interactive fiction, the premise is quite simple: you are the prime candidate for the position of Director of the Museum and Institute for Puzzles and Problem Solving. In order to prove your aptitude in this field, you must solve one "simple" puzzle yourself. Explore a single room, gathering clues and solving puzzles, until you finally reach the unknown problem's answer.
9:05, by Adam Cadre, is another snack-sized text adventure that is just right for a casual audience. Even if you're new to the genre and are looking for something short and simple as a primer, do give this one a try. You've screwed up on the job before, but never like this. You've overslept in a major way, and you're in for a world of trouble if you don't act fast.
Enlightenment is a snack-sized text adventure set in the general neighborhood of the Zork universe, with Infocom-esque humor, sly quotes and footnotes, and a wealth of entertaining but unnecessary actions. It doesn't play like an 80s game, though: it is short, polished, and focused, with lots of clues and guidance, and probably won't take more than an hour to play.
This edition of weekend download highlights a few notable IF titles. All you need is a computer and the ability to read and you're good to go!
In Lost Pig, you are Grunk, a rather dim creature who works on a farm and who, evidently, loses a pig. Using your best typing skills, find your way through the forest and beyond and retrieve that darn swine. It won't be easy, since pigs in Grunk's world are not cooperative. Utilize your intuition (and maybe a little luck) and you'll find your way out of Grunk's mess in this hilarious interactive fiction.
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