I’m looking to play some short, Lovecraft- or Cthulhu-based Interactive Fiction.
The only two such games I’m currently familiar with are:
The Lurking Horror, by Infocom; and
The Oldest Dream, by Choice Of Games.
“The Oldest Dream” is very creepy, and also very Lovecraftian. Unfortunately, it is NOT very well-written, primarily because English clearly is not the author’s native tongue.
So, I’m looking for game suggestions. (BTW “Lurking Horror” was too long for my tastes, but it is very well done)
And it’d be even more interesting if the suggested game somehow involves a child as a protagonist! “Call Of Kid-Thulhu!”
A lot of games on that IFDB list are horror, but not Lovecraftian. (Thanks for the link @fredrik.) One game on the list that I’ve played and is definitely Lovecraftian is The Arkham Abomination, by catventure.
Anchorhead is perhaps the most famous piece of Lovecraftian IF, but it’s about the same length as Lurking Horror so probably longer than you’re looking for.
The tagging system’s probably your best bet here, though it’s not perfect. The Lovecraftian tag, as fredrik said, is a little spotty, so you might try looking through all the games that are genre:horror and tag:short, and picking the ones that feel Lovecraftian to you. Or maybe tag:horror and tag:short, since not all games are labeled with the right genre. You could add in tag:child protagonist there as well, but the combination of all three doesn’t give many results.
I love eldritch horror, so I’m curious if anyone else has suggestions to add. Honestly, there don’t seem to be many short Lovecraftian horror games on IFDB. Untapped market, anyone?
Also, seconding Ecdysis if you haven’t played it already. Doesn’t have a kid protagonist, but it fits the other criteria at least. Pretty decent game (though I never managed to get the good ending…)
That project used short story ideas from H.P. Lovecraft as inspiration for each game. Too bad Peter didn’t continue it. Ecdysis is part of this project.