I’ve been too scattered and busy to play more than a couple games, but I’d like to play more before the comp ends. What are people’s can’t-miss entries from this year?
Played:
Who Whacked Jimmy Pinata
Eight Last Signs in the Desert
That twine one with the crows
Want to check out:
Anne of Green Cables (I’ve read the first chunk-- very cute; I brute forced an interest in Anne of Green Gables for my first gf. The relationship ended badly, but I’m still fond of Anne. I kept Anne in the divorce, I guess?)
Saltwrack
Pharos Fidelis
Wise Woman’s Dog
YAaACPatN-OP
If you’ve got any must-plays, I’d love to know so I can add them to my tbp list!
Besides the ones you mentioned, I highly recommend Detritus and The Promises of Mars. They are both more puzzly and game-like, but both do have an interesting story.
Beyond what’s listed, I recommend Lady Thalia; it’s part of a series (but reasonably self contained and doesn’t spoil the puzzles and big twists of the others), and they’re all high quality, so it’s a good gateway game.
I have only played about half of the games (all the long ones), but I also liked The Kidnapping of a Tokyo Game Developer (half of the game is listening to an explanation of the back catalogue of indie game designer Kenji Eno and the other half is a series of increasingly ridiculous escapades involving a turtle), and Penthesilea (a short game with a Bluebeard legend/sci fi vibe).
There are a lot of other good games but these are three that I could see people overlooking/not realizing how good they are at a glance.
A lot of the < 15 min ones are quick and easy fun. Uninteractive Fiction 2 does require you to play Uninteractive Fiction (from IFComp 2024, which you can get at the same website) but both are very straightforward and shouldn’t take you long.
I’ve only penetrated ~1/3rd of the entries, and most of that are the short ones, but so far, I think I had the most enjoyable time with A Rock’s Tale. It was just…nice. I was invested in people having nice lives!!
While it has received some fair criticisms, the entry that I’ve thought the most about is 3XXX: NAKED HUMAN BOMBS. In that sense, it is the most “must-play” work I’ve encountered so far.
So far, I especially liked Slated for Demolition, Murderworld, and NAKED HUMAN BOMBS. Given their short play time and the interesting things they do with the interface, I also recommend Moon Logic and whoami.
I’m only 31/85 games into the competition, though!
Since Saltwrack and ancient chinese poet have already been mentioned in the OP, I’ll bat for the very long and wordy title, Over. It’s not exactly my favorite entry and I don’t expect people to like it, but it’s inspired some interesting discussions on how to tell stories about the more unsavory aspects of family life.
I’ll add a rec for The Little Four, a small domestic parser game about two men living and raising children together in 1930s(?) England, one of whom is Hercule Poirot!
Oh, and Violent Delight—a very unusual sort of entry!
I haven’t played a whole lot myself so it’s hard to be confident anything I could recommend is a must-play in the grand scheme of things, but A Smörgåsbord of Pain is well worth a look. I found it became frustrating later on, but it’s got detailed combat and an unusual protagonist (and an animated horse reading the news), and you can get a taste of all that fairly early on. Also, I just recently noticed that the word “Pain” in the cover image is enclosed within a sort of neon bread loaf: a delightful bilingual pun.
I’d also second the suggestion of 3XXX: NAKED HUMAN BOMBS. Feels very timely, and the opening is incredible.
Here are a couple of parser game recommendations from my early plays.
Not so Happy Easter 2025 is well worth firing up a Spectrum emulator for, and a lot of fun. Old style, but nicely coded, and a lot of content. Though beware playtime is much longer than the competition listing estimate.
For a much shorter game, with tongue in cheek writing, try Fired.
I asked this question and then got slammed with the busiest week I’ve had in a long time, but I appreciate all the suggestions! Trying to sneak in IF time in the spare moments. Thanks, everyone!