I need recommendation for friendly non-archaic IF

[zarf (Andrew Plotkin)]

I managed to get myself into a situation where I cannot progress the game

It is always possible to progress in Lost Pig. Of course you might not know how, in a given situation.

[maga (Sam Kabo Ashwell)]

@Ozric

I think that I would prefer to try ones that aren’t very hard when it comes to puzzles, as I didn’t last more than about 15 minutes in Lost Pig before I started looking at a walkthrough.

OK, so by ‘not very hard’ do you mean ‘most puzzles can be solved immediately upon encountering them’? There are lots of games like that, but many of them are likely to conflict with this:

@Ozric

Something that is calm and methodical and lets me play at my own pace, without having something chasing me and without dying just because I stood in the same place for 2 or 3 turns.

Puzzles are a pacing method, so games where all the puzzles can be quickly solved tend to be more fast-paced and less open-worldish. In a game that’s calm and methodical, getting stuck on something within the first 15 minutes is to be expected.

[Ozric]

@maga

@Ozric

I think that I would prefer to try ones that aren’t very hard when it comes to puzzles, as I didn’t last more than about 15 minutes in Lost Pig before I started looking at a walkthrough.

OK, so by ‘not very hard’ do you mean ‘most puzzles can be solved immediately upon encountering them’? There are lots of games like that, but many of them are likely to conflict with this:

@Ozric

Something that is calm and methodical and lets me play at my own pace, without having something chasing me and without dying just because I stood in the same place for 2 or 3 turns.

Puzzles are a pacing method, so games where all the puzzles can be quickly solved tend to be more fast-paced and less open-worldish. In a game that’s calm and methodical, getting stuck on something within the first 15 minutes is to be expected.

I get what you mean, I was thinking maybe games where the pacing is created by reading descriptions and interacting with the environment. Games that are about exploring and learning. A game can have a large open world if the game is about learning about that world, and that is the reward in itself.

[Lumin]

Lots of good suggestions here, I’ll be bookmarking this thread too…been lurking awhile trying to get back into IF. I hate to admit it but I haven’t actually played anything written in the last couple of years, so some of these are completely new to me.

City of Secrets is usually my first recommendations to new players. The few puzzles are simple ones, but you feel like your choices matter and the atmosphere and details of the setting really draws you in.

For some really fun but not too difficult puzzles, try Violet.

[severedhand]

Having read through this thread, I want to recommend my game Six (anew, once kindly plugged by Joey.)

Apart from not being difficult, I feel like it’s one of the most modern, or anti-archaic, recommendation in terms of its desire to understand player intention. It is very hard to get stuck on the parser in this game, or to not get helpful feedback. It can intimate what you want from a single verb based on the context. It can also work out a long sentence if that’s the way you try to address a puzzle. I tried to make something that rubs off a lot of the parser’s rougher edges that (we) experienced players still find more acceptable. This is a direction I’d like to see more games go in.

ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=kbd990q5fp7pythi

-Wade

[Emerald (Emily Boegheim)]

@severedhand

Having read through this thread, I want to recommend my game Six (anew, once kindly plugged by Joey.)

Apart from not being difficult, I feel like it’s one of the most modern, or anti-archaic, recommendation in terms of its desire to understand player intention. It is very hard to get stuck on the parser in this game, or to not get helpful feedback. It can intimate what you want from a single verb based on the context. It can also work out a long sentence if that’s the way you try to address a puzzle. I tried to make something that rubs off a lot of the parser’s rougher edges that (we) experienced players still find more acceptable. This is a direction I’d like to see more games go in.

Any chance of a source release? I’d be interested in seeing what you did in that direction.

[severedhand]

Bizarrely that thought popped in my head just this morning. Well, probably not super bizarrely, given I wrote that post yesterday. But one thought from me plus at least one interested party is often grounds to do something in this pint-sized community, so you’ve got me thinking about it!

-Wade

[loopernow]

All Roads by Jon Ingold is really great and really easy. Like Maga pointed out, since there’s not much in the way of puzzles it tends to play very quickly. Still, it sticks out in my mind after many years.

I really enjoyed The Terrible Doubt of Appearances from Introcomp 2014. The satirical take on Victorian culture was very unique, and fun/ny. Wonderful writing in that one. It is from Introcomp, so it is not finished, but don’t let that stop you. allthingsjacq.com/IntroComp1 … pearances/

Another good one from Introcomp is Going Down, which is a choice game.

Do you prefer parser or choice games?

Edit: I don’t know why I thought this thread was newish. Oh well!

[namekuseijin]

@Ozric

I have never played a lot of IF, I have always been much more interested in the idea of writing some myself

you and 99% of IF enthusiasts

IF is really like java or poetry: write once, play nowhere

[anon36083151]

@matt w

It’s possible to make “Flustered Duck” unwinnable toward the very end – I think this is the only time – but it’ll probably be pretty clear when you’ve done that. Still, I think this makes it technically “Nasty,” though maybe it’s clear that you’re doing something risky which would push it down to “Tough.”

There’s a muskrat or something that you have to gamble with at the end of the game. If you lose a critical item, you’re SOL.

Oh, and you may be able to make things unwinnable by

forgetting to tie up the pig

but I’m pretty sure you get at least one warning (the first time it happens the game undoes it for you). However, the thing I just spoilered is not fun.

Anyway this is a real puzzlefest. But the hint system is a joy and a delight. Seriously – it got me through a lot of puzzles I’d never have solved and helped me enjoy a game I’d have found frustrating.

There is at least one other way to make A Flustered Duck unwinnable.

Giving the pie to Peter Profundis before receiving the blindfold.

[anon36083151]

@Ozric

I have never played a lot of IF, I have always been much more interested in the idea of writing some myself, but I though that since I am writing one now I should maybe play a few to see what they are like.

After reading some threads here I decided to start with Wishbringer, and it has been nothing but an infuriating and frustrating experience. It is full of archaic and enormously punishing mechanics and fail-states that more or less force you to restart the game from scratch if you do something wrong at some point during the game. The fact that it’s archaic is of course partly because it’s almost 30 years old and I understand that.

What I want is something that doesn’t stress you out, something where you can’t prevent yourself from finishing the game by unwittingly leaving an item in a place that you can’t get back to or walking into a room that you are trapped in if you don’t have a certain item. Something that is calm and methodical and lets me play at my own pace, without having something chasing me and without dying just because I stood in the same place for 2 or 3 turns. Something that is in concept more like a Lucasarts game if you know what I mean.

Winter Wonderland by Laura Knauth would be another good choice I think. It is a fairly recent old style puzzlefest but with a definite goal to reach. No time limits, as far as I can recall it’s impossible to put the game into an unwinnable state and fairly straightforward to map as it’s not too sprawling. It’s also impossible to kill yourself which is unusual in these types of IF.