I sometimes fear that we, as a community, have too short a memory. Games that were receiving many votes four years ago receive almost none now, even though they are still towering achievements. But that’s just a fear. What I know for certain is that I have too short a memory. Checking my own previous lists, there are some games that I recall liking… but don’t really recall. I can’t really vote for those with a good conscience, though they might well have appeared in this list if I had replayed them recently. So here is my top 20, deeply imperfect, but perhaps still a possible source of inspiration.
- Adventure, William Crowther and Donald Woods. This is a game that I really discovered only a few years ago, and that I found surprisingly engaging. I’m even working on and off on a sort of homage to it. (It’s big enough that it might turn out to be vapourware.)
- Alabaster, Emily Short (and others). Emily Shory impressed with Galatea, a conversation with a single NPC. But for my money – and I expect hers as well – Alabaster is the superior piece. You are the hunter, tasked with bringing Snow White’s heart to the queen. Full of twists and turns, unexpected revelations, and interesting endings.
- The Best Man, Stephen Bond. Bond’s return is nothing short of sublime. The tension, the awkwardness of the main character, the uncertainty as to how we should judge his actions… this is one of the best choice-based gamed out there.
- Blue Lacuna, Aaron Reed. Its sheer size is amazing; the complexity of the most important NPC is amazing; and all the nifty technical stuff, much of it aimed at helping newcomers to interactive fiction, is amazing. Blue Lacuna gives you a lot of setting and story to experience, and you may well enjoy every moment of it.
- Christminster, Gareth Reese. It’s from 1995, one of the earliest games coming from the hobbyist resolution, but it’s amazing. Play it, then read my long article for The Rosebush.
- Dull Grey, Provodnik Games. Short but deeply meaningful. Their Railways of Love was already magnificent, evoking much of Russian history and literature in a very short space, but Dull Grey is superior in every respect. Minimalist, yes, but there may be more than meets the eye.
- Eat Me, Chandler Groover. Brilliant writing, perfect puzzle and environment design. But what really makes this work is the fantastically twisted, deeply ambivalent portrayal of need. A game that grosses you out and makes you hungry at the same time must be revealing something real about what it is to be human.
- Heretic’s Hope, G. C. Baccaris. This game is so beautiful! Baccaris is the god of Twine layout. But the game is also really good, putting us in a tense and alien setting populated by giant insects.
- Horse Master, Tom McHenry. Grotesque and weird, but ultimately a fantastic exploration of the nature of ambition and the desire for a success that leaves nothing more to be desired.
- Junior Arithmancer, Mike Spivey. If you don’t like math puzzles, steer clear of this little animal. If you do, prepare to enjoy yourself as much as I did.
- The King of Shreds and Patches, Jimmy Maher. I don’t even like Lovecraftian horror. But this is a brilliant game, set in a lovingly evoked Shakespearean London, paced very well indeed and filled with puzzles that are fair and fun at the same time. Quite accessible, even to those who don’t play much puzzly parser IF.
- Make it Good, Jon Ingold. Let’s say nothing except that this is the best parser detective game ever made. It’s hard. But it is worth it.
- Mentula Macanus: Apocolocyntosis, Adam Thornton. It may look like the least promising of premises: lead the pornographic hero Stiffy Makane through the Roman world. But Thornton has learned a thing or two from Joyce and Pynchon, and manages to successfully mix low and high registers in a way unparalleled in interactive fiction. There may be dick jokes, but they are at same time jokes about T. S. Eliot and Virgil. Inspired me to a tribute game, so no surprise that it ends up on this list.
- robotsexpartymurder, Hanon Ondricek. A Dystopian Erotic Murder Mystery Dating Sim, that’s right. I don’t think I ever really solved it, but that just makes me want to go back and enjoy this weird sexy animal – nay, robot – again. Carnally, of course.
- Savoir-Faire, Emily Short. A fantastic puzzle game that makes the most out of its central puzzle mechanic of linking like to like. Very difficult. Amazingly complex world model.
- Skybreak!, William Dooling. A glorious fantasy pulp game of space exploration. Press onwards, and visit the countless worlds that Dooling’s mad creative thought up!
- Sorcery! 2, by Steve Jackson (the British one, not the American one) and inkle. I liked Sorcery!, but it didn’t blow me away. Part 2 did blow me away. I never suspected that a gamebook structure could lead to a game as great as this. Fantastic setting, brilliant encounters, very smart structuring.
- Spider and Web, Andrew Plotkin. The central conceit is brilliant. And, yes, there is that particular puzzle. I mean, Andrew has made more sophisticated games in the meantime, but this one still inspires me.
- Superluminal Vagrant Twin, C. E. J. Pacian. Should this even work? I don’t know, but it does work. Hopping around the galaxy, discovering new planets and new ways of making money, is just a gigantic amount of fun. Doesn’t aspire to the greatest heights, but achieves what it sets out to.
- Treasures of a Slaver’s Kingdom, S. John Ross. More active as an RPG designer, John Ross’s one major interactive fiction story is an incredibly enjoyable take on roleplaying games / IF hybrids. It’s an early limited parser game (justified by the fact that you play a highly unintelligent barbarian), but one which still manages to pack a large number of satisfying puzzles. There’s the joy of overcoming your enemies, of exploration, and of an epic finale.