I liked e.g. Violet, Gun Mute, Plundered Hearts, Parts of So Far, Glowgrass because they were possible to finish without drawing maps and taking notes – even for someone with awful memory such as I. I play mainly on my phone where those activities are somewhat annoying.
What are some recommendations for other games that are phone-friendly in this sense?
I suspect there are a lot of options out there, so you might get more suggestions if you said a bit more about what kind of genre you’re into. If you could manage Plundered Hearts without drawing a map, I’d imagine you’d be okay with Eat Me, Repeat the Ending or the first two Little Match Girl games (I think the later ones get more complicated?). I also played Inside the Facility and Familiar Problems on my phone, both of which do the mapping for you.
I used to play a lot of text adventures on my phone when travelling to and from work on the train. I found that the Speed-IF games were generally small enough that you could keep the map in your head. For full-blown games, I would never recommend playing them on a phone, no matter how good your memory is.
Hard to go wrong with the “single room” tag on IFDB.
For what it’s worth, I finished Never Gives Up Her Dead, Finding Martin and Inside Woman exclusively on my phone and without drawing maps. I don’t think that’s what the OP is looking for, but it might be going a bit far to say that no-one should ever play a large parser game on a phone.
Lots of small parser games (which likely don’t require mapping or note-taking) here!
I’m still early enough into my journey that I’m open to suggestions from any genre!
I didn’t say don’t do it, I just said I wouldn’t recommend it. I’ve done it myself and it isn’t a pleasant experience. Mind you, you might have a phone with a big screen and you have a really good memory. I can’t even remember where I dropped the can of catnip, let alone how to find my way back to it.
Suveh Nux is a one-room puzzle game about magical incantations that’s really good (and last time I played it I was surprised by how many helpful hints and conveniences it had.
If you like math puzzles, Junior Arithmancer is fun. Though some of the optional puzzles might be better with pencil and paper? It’s been ages since I played it; I can’t remember how hard it gets.
Swap Wand User from this year’s Neo Twiny Jam and ParserComp simultaneously. Clever word-puzzle mechanic that probably wouldn’t measure up to a longer game, but in 500 words it doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Moonlit Tower by Yoon Ha Lee has evocative language (some of which changes in subtle ways over time, so pay attention!), fairly light puzzles, and a small enough map that you probably don’t need to draw it.
Portrait with Wolf is… dense, ambiguous, may demand more from the reader than you’re willing to give? Though you certainly can just flail through it absorbing the vibes. Does some fun playing with the elements of the Inform header - title, author, serial number – among many other things.
I will say, I did need to take notes in Suveh Nux; while it’s all laid out for you in the book, flipping through the in-game book is substantially harder than noting down the words you need with pencil and paper.
In which case, a fairly eclectic mix of phone-playable, low-mapping games you could try:
The Weapon
Dr Ludwig and the Devil
Rameses
Taco Fiction
Galatea
Ad Verbum
The Impossible Bottle
De Baron
Shade
A Very Strong Gland
Plus, if you’ll permit it, a few “parserlike” games (i.e. those without an actual parser, but with a similar kind of world model):
16 Ways to Kill A Vampire at Macdonalds
Draculaland
The Den
9:05 is probably short enough and simple enough to be phone friendly.
Some games with low mapping requirements:
To Hell in a Hamper
Enlightenment
Oppositely Opal
69,105 Keys
Dinner Bell
Grandma Bethlinda’s Variety Box
Aisle
Rematch
Captain Verdeterre’s Plunder
Fair
Toby’s Nose
Midnight, Swordfight
Hard Puzzle (joke game where the goal is to overcome obtuse implementation)
69,105 Keys is another where I’d say you don’t need a map but you probably will need notes.
Same with toby’s nose. Definitely a notes game.
Awesome. Thanks for so many great recommendations! Now I have made a long ifdb list to go through!
Oh, Andrew Schultz’s wordplay games typically don’t require mapping or note-taking! The Prime Pro Rhyme Row series includes some of my favorites.