One-Hit Wonders of IFDB

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Today’s fun fact from the world of IFDB data: the Top 10 One-Hit Wonders and their authors.

To qualify for this list, the author must be registered as the author of only one game under their own name, not counting any contributions to large-scale collaborations such as Cragne Manor. Ordering is by number of records indicating plays of the game, high to low.

  1. Violet by Jeremy Freese
  2. Theatre by Brendon Wyber
  3. All Things Devours by half sick of shadows (Toby Ord)
  4. Worlds Apart by Suzanne Britton
  5. The Act of Misdirection by Callico Harrison
  6. Plundered Hearts by Amy Briggs
  7. Augmented Fourth by Brian Uri
  8. Conan Kill Everything by Ian Haberkorn
  9. The People’s Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game by Taylor Vaughan
  10. Dinner Bell by Jenni Polodna

Data used to derive this list is from the most recent public backup from circa June 1, 2025. Author data isn’t very well-organized in IFDB, so the reliability of this list may not be perfect.

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I am currently playing one of those. Guess which.

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This is a really interesting list. :slight_smile: Thank you very much for taking the time to compile and share it. I’m actually not very well-read (…uh, well-played??) in IF, so I don’t think I’ve played any of them, but have certainly heard of some of them. Violet, especially – I’m incredibly surprised that’s a one-hit wonder, especially considering how popular it was in the early community. (Or, at least, I perceive it as popular back then…)

But I do have to question whether these games really are one-hit wonders… What I mean is, perhaps at least one of the authors listed actually has released more games, just under a different name or pseudonym. Perhaps it was their first game, and something about their online persona that was attached to that game displeased them – perhaps, despite its popularity, something about the game itself displeased them and they wanted to start fresh… Or maybe it’s for artistic purposes. After all, some works of art very much benefit from the “one-hit wonder mystique.” The aura of mystery that comes from knowing very little or nothing about an author – from not even being able to see any of their other games, of having this one piece alone speak for them – can often elevate and augment a work of art rather than detract from it.

(We can also think that they are an established author and this game was very, very different from their usual fare. As someone who has posted anon on AO3 before, lol, I understand the impulse.)

But I also have to assume some of these games really are one-hit wonders! In which case, that’s very impressive and interesting to me. What makes a first-time game designer have such a popular game and then – poof! – vanish into thin air… well, not vanish, of course. I’m sure they’re living their lives and living very wonderful lives at that. But, ah, the ephemeral nature of the internet. Sometimes people just swoop in and then eff off, it’s honestly chad. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

I will give Violet a try. I played the beginning years ago but never finished it. Dinner Bell, too, seems great!!!

Thanks again for sharing this!

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Are you referring to the number of people who click “I’ve played it”? (The wishlists table?) And people who’ve rated the game?

(I feel like you’d want to sort these by starsort rather than play listings.)

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It’s a combination of data from ratings/reviews and “I’ve played it” (avoiding double-counting if both are present). Either type of record counts as a play for this chart; actual rating is ignored.

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I wondered the same thing! Especially since I’ve seen other people grow and develop over time and I myself benefited from putting out bad games that helped me learn.

But Jeremy Freese really is built different. He was just really smart and had tons of beta testers. Here’s an interview he had:

It makes a little sense that he didn’t write more if you win all of the highest awards with one game, where do you go from there?

Jenni Polodna has been involved in IF in many ways and was one of the leads on Cragne Manor, a huge collaboration (in which Jeremy Freese made a comeback as a contributor!).

Suzanne Britton was an amazing author who worked on a fictional world for years and made a game based on it, but stopped writing after receiving extensive harassment (including a game that referred to her as a b**ch in bathroom graffiti). So that’s a bummer.

I don’t have evidence for the others on whether they’re actually one hit wonders or went anonymous.

Edit: you can see how involved Suzanne Britton was in IF from her webpage. She had a significant role in criticism and participation in discussions: https://web.archive.org/web/20041009191047/http://www.igs.net/\~tril/if/index.html

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It seems pretty unlikely that Amy Briggs has written anything since Plundered Hearts. At least if you believe her interview from 2024: CONTENTdm

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I don’t think there’s necessarily any negative connotation to being the author of one thing. Many IF luminaries move on to other things. Aaron Reed is writing books and making very different things. Jenni Polodna is still around doing Let’s Plays of graphical adventures (Thimbleweed Park part 8 was up a month ago).

They say that everyone has one great book/work in them. It makes sense certain people may have only one cool concept that lends itself to interactivity.

Oscar Wilde only wrote one novel, but he wrote a lot more and was primarily a playwright.

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For comparison, there is also this IFDB poll of “One Hit Wonders” from 2019:

There’s a fair bit of overlap, but for me the stand-out from that list that isn’t in this top 10 is:

Finding Martin, by G.K. Wennstrom

It’s a truly immense work, which would have contributed to its lack of “plays”.

And, I guess I should point out that my only piece of IF also made the earlier list, although of course that one was compiled 6 years ago using a different basis to the current list.

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That’s horrible, and a shock to hear. I’ve never associated that with the IF community at any point in time. But I suppose it’s possible the community was different back then, or even that that kind of horrid behavior came from people who weren’t really involved in the larger community but more fringe weirdos… Regardless, I hope everyone involved is doing better now.

That makes a lot of sense, thank you for explaining that. I also don’t think there’s any negative connotation to being the author of one thing – I think it’s cool, actually – so I didn’t mean to imply that, if I did. And I had also assumed, because I really didn’t know, that all of these authors had published one thing and then taken a step back from the community. It’s really neat to know that many of these authors are still involved in IF in some way or other (or even, just other creative pursuits).

But it does make sense, what you said, that some authors only have one thing they want to say in the medium of interactive fiction – maybe because it’s such a definitive and complete thing to say.

That is really neat, I should check that one out as well :slight_smile: I LOVE LOVE LOVE Horror, so I’m so excited to see a super-long horror game. The author list on IFDB is bonkers long as well, I love it!

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Suzanne Britton’s one game still soars above all others for me. After twenty years and 4 replays, and hundreds of other games played in that time, still number one.

I hadn’t heard about the harassment. That’s horrible.

Worlds Apart was meant to get a static fiction sequel. I never heard anything about that anymore. I can’t know what happened, but it would be terrible if such a talented writer would be so disheartened by such bullies.

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Things have, unfortunately, gotten quite nasty in the community before. 2014 (Gamergate era) was one rough time; I’m less familiar with stuff that happened before that, but I know IF wasn’t always as inclusive as it is now!

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Yeah, there have unfortunately been some pretty awful instances of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and so on in the community. Like Tabitha mentioned, Gamergate spilled over into a clash over the Twine authoring tool that got especially messy.

I like to think things are better now (past decade or so), but I also only really engage with IF on this forum, and have little idea what’s going on in the broader IF world. Hopefully the forum is working as an inclusive space at least!

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To add to this: in the late 90s, the IF scene was very different from what it is today. Angry discussions were quite normal – though certainly not the majority! – and there were a few very bad escalations that ended with name-calling and accusations.

Some of the more revered authors of the time (some still remembered quite fondly today) took part in emotional exchanges that would be unthinkable today. (And I imagine that those of you who remember me from that time will recall some of my less sophisticated contributions from exchanges of that kind.)

I think that most members of the current community are either new or those from back in the day who were more gentle to begin with. But we all learn, thankfully, so you may know some of the brash people from those days as kind and thoughtful today.

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It’s also extremely important to recall that the Usenet newsgroups were completely unmoderated! There was literally no way to take down a post, lock a thread, or ban somebody.

This led to some bullshit that’s really unthinkable today. The switch to a web forum (started about 2006) was a big change. Even more so when the forum adopted an explicit code of conduct – which was accompanied by the usual grousing from the sort of people that always object to codes of conduct. Wow, I do not miss those days.

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Back when the internet was just heating up I think it was much more difficult to specifically doxx or do other online damage to someone since we didn’t do everything else online and fewer business went through the internet. You dialed in through AOL or MSN, you had your account name, and there was a certain amount of insularity that information rarely left the the chat room and the worst punishment was getting kicked by a moderator. It worked both ways - people were braver to say things, and recipients of their vitriol could be certain someone they were arguing with couldn’t easily just look up their address and phone number and social media and internet purchase history.

People did of course get hacked, but personal information and identity wasn’t as accessible to normal users.

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I was mainly a lurker back in the R*IF Usenet days, but it was a community, and one where people may have felt entitled to feel safe and able to express their opinions. As Zarf said it was entirely unmoderated, and at times very unpleasant things went on there, that had real-life implications for people.

I was initially sceptical about moving to a moderated forum, but now can’t imagine it any other way. So I’m content to mostly lurk here instead, with occasional short bursts of participation, such as recently.

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