So what I’m doing is kinda surreal “escape the room” kind of game. But there seems to be no “escape the room” genre. Should I classify it as puzzle or something else?
What genre list are you using? IFDB? [Edit: oops, IFDB has no set list of genres.]
Here’s the Treaty of Babel classification, which makes a fair starting point:
Children’s Fiction, Collegiate Fiction, Comedy, Erotica, Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical, Horror, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Other, Religious Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Surreal, Western
I would say a room escape with no pretense of a plot would be Surreal (just like you said!), which is the usual classification for things that are still interactive fiction but don’t even make an attempt at a cohesive story (think Ad Verbum), while Other is things that aren’t IF at all (like Tetris).
If there is a plot, then I’d think you can probably make an argument for one of Mystery, Comedy, Fantasy, etc.
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Which for posterity, looks like: Fantasy, Comedy, Horror, Educational, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Puzzle, Simulation, Surreal, RPG, Slice of Life, Historical, Literature, Romance, Seasonal.
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