What IFs are your stand-out choices?

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Hi, usually I read interactive novels but want to branch out into other types of interactive fiction. Thanks to Tabitha on the introduction thread, I’ve now been introduced to the Interactive Fiction Database and am spoiled for choice. I don’t want to limit myself to any particular genre, and I also thought this would be a good way to both get to know the tastes of the other members as well as get some recommendations.

So, what games stand out to each of you, no matter what the rating is, and why?

Edit: I should have specified, it doesn’t need to be your favourite game, and can be as weird as you want. I honestly want to try all kinds of games - the good and the bad and just want a guide on where to start. Free games, preferably. That said, I have saved the recs so far to a list of games to play and will also be browsing the other rec threads. Thanks, everyone!

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Okay, I have to jump in to say that I’ve been trying to figure out my favorites and I’ve been writing a thread about it (I’m down to my top 50 or so): The quest to make a new top 10 favorite games list

But, that’s a lot to read and you want to hear a variety of voices, so I’ll throw in a few of my favorites in a wide variety of genres.

For twine games, I love:

Stay? by Jade Lomax (a fantasy time loop game where you can kind of choose when the loop you have makes you happy)
Birdland by Brendan Patrick Hennessy (a girl at a summer camp gets a crush on another girl while having strange dreams where birds ask her bizarre questions about human nature)
Trigaea (can’t remember by who, but it’s a sci fi game with a resource gathering/upgrade cycle, so less story based and more action based but the story ends up being awesome.)

Choicescript games (I’ll only look at free ones for this thread unless you want commercial too):

Creatures Such As We is really beautiful to me. It has no stats that it keeps but lots of serious dialogue about game design. You are a tour guide on the moon that loves gaming, and the designers of your favorite game decide to take a tour with you as their guide.
A Paradox Between Worlds is by Autumn Chen (who has a ton of awesome games) where you alternate between a Tumblr simulator where you share your fanfic with others and actually playing your fanfic.

If you’re interested in branching out into puzzly/parser games, here are some fun ones to bridge the gap:
A Long Way to the Nearest Star is a twine game where you board a spaceship to find scrap to sell, but you find a mystery that needs solving, as well as a mysterious but friendly ship AI. Lots of puzzles, very cool.
The Den is a Twine story about two kids trapped in an underground bunker with someone named Father keeping them from the outside world. You go back and forth between the two kids to solve puzzles to escape.

If you like those and are interested in trying parser games (where you type commands), here are some fun ones to try:

Superluminal Vagrant Twin: This is a very very fun sci fi game where you travel space to rescue your twin. You pick up sassy crewmates, earn money, race, bounty hunt, etc. in an open world. It’s parser based, but the commands you type are always visible on screen.

Impossible Bottle is completely different. This game is just about a kid whose dad asks her to clean the house. But it turns into a really bizarre adventure. It’s a parser game with a lot of puzzles, but has clickable commands so that the whole thing can be done without any typing (except for one key moment).

If you feel up to complete parser games, Drew Cook has a lot that are very beginner-friendly. Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight is short, fun, looks great with pictures, and has like 20 different help systems.

(These are tailored as recommendations. My personal favorites are slightly unhinged and are in that thread I linked).

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Second this one. It’s long enough you feel satisfied but short enough to play as a starter in one session.

If you’re into trying parser, definitely look at the ones recommended, though probably in reverse order (Marbles first, then Impossible Bottle, then Superluminal), if you’re just starting out with parser.

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There was also this recent thread: Recommendations for a fantasy fan new to IF?

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If you want to try a variety of games, you might like this poll, where authors each recommend one game of theirs: IF of yours you’d most recommend - an IFDB Poll

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Just picking out a personal favorite, I’ll name Autumn Chen’s A Paradox Between Worlds as a thoughtful work about Tumblr, fan fiction, and the real world outside of that bubble. Mixes gameplay elements and longer fic sections.

A top ten game for me.

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It’s interesting that you mention that particular game, since having played both A Paradox Between Worlds and Social Democracy: An Alternate History, I vastly preferred Social Democracy. I thought A Paradox Between Worlds captured a very narrow slice of Tumblr as a whole and not the slice I find interesting. (I would recommend Social Democracy to anyone who hasn’t played it, and it might be one of my own top 10.)

But naturally opinions will vary. What we really need is a game that combines both of them and allows you to write fanfiction about Karl Kautsky, maybe involving a crossover with a popular franchise like Arknights to attract the younger demographic. The same has already been done for other historical figures, after all, and we can’t be left behind.

This is partially a joke, but I did read through Sun Yat-sen’s isekai adventures and was disappointed to find them unfinished.

But I’ve gotten distracted. I personally adore Universal Hologram and the previous game Consciousness Hologram, but other people here might hate those games. (Both Hologram games are notable for using AI-generated art back when AI images were bizarre and poorly drawn academic curiosities ignored by almost everyone, and not the billionaire industry they is now.) Taste is personal. For DeGloughan, if you haven’t seen it already, I’d recommend looking through the most recent IFDB Top 50 thread if you want a long, long list of recommendations from various people with various tastes. Here are the links to the Top 50 results, and the accompanying Rosebush article.

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I recommend it nevertheless! I appreciate the social democracy games more than I enjoy them.

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A perfectly fine opinion, and I’ve seen a lot of other people say that mathy simulation games are like an overly elaborate puzzlebox without much of a treasure in the center. I got a bit of that feeling myself while playing the Social Democracy games, but still liked them for their educational value. Tastes will vary, it’s why I put so many disclaimers into my post in the first place. I did like Lilac Song as a metareflection of those elements, though.

The reasons why I couldn’t get a grip on A Paradox Between Worlds are complicated and personal reasons. Part of it is that the first time I played, I did essentially nothing and missed the vast majority of the plot. If I could give advice to anyone playing it, it would be to try to fully roleplay the main character and do what you think a fully invested Tumblr user would do instead of playing as yourself, since I had a lot more fun when I did that.

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My favorites list contains these:

  • A Mind Forever Voyaging
  • Curses
  • Spider and Web
  • Anchorhead
  • Lost Pig
  • Galatea
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These are some of my favorite parser games:

  • The Wise-Woman’s Dog, by Daniel Stelzer, is a puzzle game, set in late Bronze Age Anatolia, about a dog trying to save its owner from a curse. It can be played using either the parser prompt or using hyperlinks. It provides a lot of information about the historical setting, and has many nice quality of life features.
  • A Matter of Heist Urgency, by FLACRabbit, is a short, silly superhero game. The crown jewels have been stolen, and you, Anastasia the Power Pony, have to get them back. The author wrote a custom soundtrack for it, which adds a lot to the mood.
  • The Lost Islands of Alabaz, by Michael Gentry, is a lighthearted storybook-style kids’ game. It’s skillfully written, and very fun. The puzzles are quite easy at the start of the game, but they become more challenging as the story progresses. If you want to introduce a kid to IF, or if you’re a kid at heart, I’d definitely recommend this one.
  • Skies Above, by Arthur DiBianca, is an adventure game made up of minigames. While the premise is simple, the gameplay is varied, and each minigame is surprisingly fun.
  • Alias ‘The Magpie’ by J. J. Guest, is a Wodehouse-style comedy about a heist. The NPCs are extremely well implemented, and several of the puzzles stand out as especially clever.
  • Bronze, by Emily Short, is a dark fantasy retelling of “Beauty and the Beast.” The writing is very atmospheric, and it’s a unique take on the classic fairy tale.
  • Plundered Hearts, by Amy Briggs, is a pirate-adventure-romance. Despite having been written in 1987, it was ahead of its time, and it’s still very playable by modern standards.
  • The Spectators, by Amanda Walker, is a Renaissance-era historical tragedy based on a poem. The writing is excellent, and the light puzzles work very well with the pacing.

As for choice games, I’ve really enjoyed these:

  • Lady Thalia and the Seraskier Sapphires, by Emery Joyce and N. Cormier, is set in the early twentieth century and follows the escapades of Lady Thalia, gentlewoman thief. The Lady Thalia games are my all-time favorite choice-based IFs; the characters are lively and endearing, the puzzles fit well with the story, and the setting is one that really appeals to me.
  • Eikas, by Lauren O’Donoghue, is about a chef trying to secure a job in a small fantasy village. The idyllic setting is inspired by British folklore, and the gameplay of gathering ingredients and planning meals is quite fun.
  • The Universal Robot (Assembled by Hex), by Agnieszka Trzaska, is a very polished sci-fi puzzle game. The puzzles are clever, and the world model is very impressive.
  • Fantasy Opera: Mischief at the Masquerade, by Lamp Post Projects, is a D&D-like detective game set in a fantasy version of Renaissance Italy. The mystery is well designed: all the clues are there, but you still have to figure it out yourself.
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I second this one. It’s tropey in a good way and draws you in to a funny, entertaining adventure.

I’d add City of Secrets by Emily Short to the list as another one that drew me in such that I had no trouble sticking with it all the way through.

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I’ll add a few more:

The Bat - Play as Albert the butler to rich man Bruce Wayne Bryce Wyatt, who’s hosting a party full of insufferably rich people. Oh yeah, and Bryce is convinced he’s a bat. Can you keep the evening from going awry? Chandler Groover’s games are all fantastic so if you like this one there’s lots more awaiting you.

Dr Ludwig and the Devil - Can you, the most esteemed mad scientist this side of Transylvania, outsmart the Devil himself? Notable for having one of the most fun parser IF protagonists ever – Dr Ludwig has clearly stepped straight out of Young Frankenstein.

The Good Ghost - A touching story about a haunting. To say more is to spoil it.

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I love many games, but some you never ever forget.

For me, Coloratura (parser) is one.

And According to Cain (should download a Tads interpreter for full multimedia experience) is another.

I could go on about Savoir Faire, Counterfeit Monkey, Mulldoon Legacy, De Baron, Edifice, Anchorhead, Babel… Those are excellent games. Those are must-plays, obvious must-plays. Like many others which have been discussed and referenced at length.

But sometimes… some games find that special place in you.

Coloratura and Cain are the first such two I immediately think of.

EDIT - A much, much, MUCH less obvious recommendation is Bliss. What can I say? It’s another game I never ever forgot. If you do try it… go in blind, don’t read any reviews or descriptions.

EDIT - A Walk Around the Neighborhood also very much stands out. A very pleasant, cozy game with fond, fond memories.

And, in general, Marco Innocenti’s games hit a very sweet spot for me. A1RL0CK in particular, with heavy props for his two Andromeda games, Awakening and Apocalypse.

(if you notice a certain alphabetical arrangement… yes, I play them alphabetically, and I HAVE played as far as some Ss in the past before putting IF aside for years and years, and have returned to IF recently so I’m back at A. :stuck_out_tongue: It is a source of personal chagrin to me that I, an unabashed lover of Brian Moriarty’s games and Infocom, have not yet played Trinity. But I’ll get there. I’ll get there. Still, it does mean that Coloratura, Edifice and Savoir-Fair have remained on my radar for about over a decade of not playing IF. Even Bliss. I mean, if that’s not stand-out, I don’t know what is…)

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Thanks everyone, all your answers are much appreciated! Between this and the other rec threads, I now have a hefty list to play through!

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