Inform

Galatea

Single player

interactive fiction

Linux

Linux is a free and open-source (FOSS/FLOSS) Operating System. In a more precise and complex definition, Linux is an open-source OS kernel on which a large variety of Operating Systems (known as Linux distributions) are built.

PC (Microsoft Windows)

Text

A conversation with a work of art. "47. Galatea. White Thasos marble. Non-commissioned work by the late Pygmalion of Cyprus. (The artist has since committed suicide.) Originally not an animate. The waking of this piece from its natural state remains unexplained."

Ad Verbum

Adventure

text adventure

Web browser

With the cantankerous Wizard of Wordplay evicted from his mansion, the worthless plot can now be redeveloped. The city regulations declare, however, that the rip-down job can't proceed until all the items within had been removed. 
 
As an adventurer hired by the demolitions contractor to kleptomaniacially clear out this mansion, you must engage in wordplay in order to gather all the items inside. It is not necessary to think of puns, cliches, or homonyms, however, as has been the case with previous logological interactive fiction. The puzzles in Ad Verbum are of a different—and perhaps even unique—nature.

Shade

text-based

A one-room interactive fiction game set in your apartment.

Horror

Fail-Safe

A short piece of Interactive Fiction written by Jon Ingold.

Science fiction

Being Andrew Plotkin

A piece of interactive fiction written by J. Robinson Wheeler, featuring IF luminary Andrew Plotkin in a parody of the movie Being John Malkovich.

Comedy

Metamorphoses

You wake to stillness. The hammering, banging, and shouting that kept you awake half the night are gone. The air is cold, and something smells burnt. Your master's experiments must be finished, but with what result? A piece of Interactive Fiction written by Emily Short.

Fantasy

9:05

Indie

The phone rings.

Oh, no — how long have you been asleep? Sure, it was a tough night, but... This is bad. This is very bad.

Hunter, in Darkness

An interactive fiction story by Andrew Plotkin depicting a tense and harrowing chase in a claustrophobic cavern setting.

Thriller

Spider and Web

Spider And Web is not a game about a vacation. It is a game about deception, incomplete knowledge, and the ways that stories in other people's heads can be the best lies. It is also about the role of the narrator works in interactive fiction -- but you don't have to worry about that to play the game. (Well, not much.)

Mystery

Little Blue Men

This game is a joke. This game is a warning. This game is a satire. This game is inspired in equal parts by Vaclav Havel's "The Memorandum" and Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". This game is a big, stupid shaggy dog story.

Photopia

slice of life

Photopia is a short, narrative-driven piece of interactive fiction. Written by Adam Cadre in 1998, it won first place in that year's Interactive Fiction Competition.

Drama

Anchorhead

Travel to the haunted coastal town of Anchorhead, Massachusetts and uncover the roots of a horrific conspiracy inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Search through musty archives and tomes of esoteric lore; dodge hostile townsfolk; combat a generation-spanning evil that threatens your family and the entire world.

The Edifice

Something new in your everyday hunter-gatherer routine: where did this strange edifice come from? Dare you enter and explore the secrets of this... thing, or do you try to face your enemies? Like you have a choice.

The Tempest

games based on literature

An interactive fiction adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy The Tempest in which the player guides the spirit Ariel. The text and descriptions are lifted from the original work, i.e. in Early Modern English.

She's Got a Thing for a Spring

It's been a hectic year, and it's time to get away. He told you that, and you agreed. Now you're here, in a grove of aspen, and long for a good, long bath in the nearby hot spring.

A Bear's Night Out

Tomorrow is the big Teddy Bear party, and you must definitely not let your owner forget about it...

Kids

So Far

Interactive Fiction created by Andrew Plotkin with unforgiving puzzles. A theatrical performance leads to a long journey.

Pick up the Phone Booth and Die

PUTPBAD

multiple endings

A text adventure created by Rob Noyes in 1996.

Tapestry

It is a symbol and a tool. It is your past and your future. It is all things, in time. You, Timothy Hunter, have lived, and like all things mortal you have died. But the aftermath of that lifetime is anything but simple...

Faced with creatures beyond your ken, the fruition of whose inscrutable motives hinge on your decisions, what will you do? Will you face who and what you once were? Or will you try to change things for the better? Or the worse?

Curses

Curses!

In the course of searching the attic for an old tourist map of Paris, Victor Meldrew steps into a surreal adventure to uncover a centuries-old curse that has been placed on his family.

And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One

You haven't been over since she told you a month ago that she was moving to some small town in Wisconsin. But Riley is here, and the computer is here, and that's what matters for now. "Have you played the game yet?"

"You told me to wait to play it with you about a billion times," she says.

A work of interactive fiction by B.J. Best.

Sting

Six bees. Five bags of groceries. A four-pound dumbbell. Three sailboats. One twin.

Sting is a puzzleless parser memoir about ordinary days and unexpected interruptions.

Non-fiction

Grooverland

"Magic comes with a price. But on your birthday, all your expenses are paid. Welcome to Grooverland."

Grooverland is a large parser game that takes over two hours to complete. It is based on the works of author and programmer Chandler Groover, although it does not require previous knowledge of his games to play.

The Weight of a Soul

In a world of arcane mysteries, a young doctor's apprentice unravels a conspiracy most grim.

The Weight of a Soul is a mystery-horror interactive novel inspired by IF classics like Blue Lacuna and Anchorhead.

Death off the Cuff: Remastered

Death off the Cuff

No criminal has ever been a match for you, and everybody is looking forward to a description of your brilliant deductions. There is just one small problem. One tiny detail that makes it different this time. A mere trifle, really. This time you have no idea who did it.

A Rope of Chalk

An account of the disastrous sidewalk chalk tournament of August 27, 2011.

Stuff of Legend

The only thing worse than being a village idiot is being an unemployed village idiot. Maybe it’s time to change careers. Maybe it’s time to be a knight.

Vain Empires

The memoir of a demonic spy in the Cold War between Heaven and Hell.

The Magpie Takes the Train

heist

A millionaire guards a fabulous ruby in her private train car. Countless thieves have failed to steal it. But they weren't the Magpie!

Crocodracula: The Beginning

The first Taleframe game based on the 90s children's horror soap opera.

Moving On

Moving (On)

It's been over a year since you were last home, and now it's time to finally clear out those last few things, and the memories they bring back.

Scents & Semiosis

An interactive fiction about perfume, memory and new meanings, with heavy use of procedural generation.

Sugarlawn

With a loud "click," the door closes behind you. Finally! You are locked inside an antebellum Southern mansion, alone, wearing only a chicken costume. You've fantasized about this moment for years.

Sugarlawn is a timed treasure hunt game where the goal is to collect as much cash as possible via the valuables you pick up.

Ryan Veeder's Authentic Fly Fishing

Sport

fishing

Relax at the Jewel Pond Recreation Area with Ryan Veeder as your guide.

Zozzled

Hotsy-totsy! It's 1928 and you're madcap flapper Hazel Greene, tottering around the city's finest hotel with a gullet full of giggle juice...until a gaggle of ghosts shows up to spoil the fun by turning every drop in the place into lousy, undrinkable WATER. Explore the beautiful Poseidon Grand Hotel, meet Barnaby Mooch the Magnificent Pooch, and get splifficated on a snootful of ectoplasm in this paranormal puzzle comedy.

Your name is Naomi Cragne. Your husband is missing. That's why you're taking the train to Vermont, to look for him in his family's old mansion. You'll explore creepy environments, consult eldritch tomes, and solve bizarre puzzles as you search for Peter, but your surroundings, your past, and even your identity seem to change subtly—or dramatically—as you make your way through the town of Backwater and approach Cragne Manor.

Cragne Manor

Cragne Manor is an 'exquisite corpse' text adventure commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Michael Gentry's Anchorhead, in which each of its 84 rooms was created by a different author.

Junior Arithmancer

math

Alias 'The Magpie'

Sir Rodney Playfair, gentleman thief, has a simple plan: impersonate a psychiatrist, infiltrate a country house, steal a priceless Egyptian scarab and make it back to London in time for cocktails. All in a day's work for the illustrious 'Magpie'.

Stealth

Anchorhead: The Illustrated Edition

Anchorhead: the Director's Cut Special Edition

Anchorhead is a text adventure game in the style of classic Infocom games from the 1980s. Travel to the haunted coastal town of Anchorhead, Massachusetts and uncover the roots of a horrific conspiracy inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Search through musty archives and tomes of esoteric lore; dodge hostile townsfolk; combat a generation-spanning evil that threatens your family and the entire world. 
 
To mark the twentieth anniversary of its initial publication, Anchorhead is now available in a special Illustrated Edition with rewritten code, revised prose, additional puzzles, and illustrations by Carlos Cara Àlvarez.

The Wand

Explore the wizard Bartholloco's castle with the help of a versatile magic wand. Can you overcome his challenge? Can you levitate a rock? Can you slice a baltavakia?

The Wizard Sniffer

You were recently acquired by the brave Ser Leonhart and his squire to sniff out the evil shapeshifting wizard. Unfortunately, you are not a wizard sniffer (if such a thing even exists). As far as you can tell, you are an ordinary pig.

1958: Dancing with Fear

"Dancing with Fear" (1958, directed by Víctor Ojuel). In this forgotten classic of Golden Age Hollywood, a vedette fallen on hard times (Salomé Vélez) finds herself enmeshed in a tangle of political intrigue, romance and betrayal in a Caribbean republic. Torn between her love for a smuggler, the lust of a corrupt policeman and the machinations of a Soviet intelligence operative, the protagonist navigates the dangers of a high-society party on the eve of revolution. As she tries to survive through that fateful night, the memories of her past will come to haunt her. Controversial at the time for its depiction of Cold War politics and morally ambiguous protagonist. (120 minutes, Technicolor, in-game hint system).

Romance

A Beauty Cold and Austere

A Beauty Cold & Austere

ABCA

That survey course in conceptual mathematics seemed like a good idea at the start of the term - no graded homework, no midterm exams - just an oral final at the end. 
 
But now that final is tomorrow morning. After months of procrastination you've got one night left to learn enough to pass the course. 
 
You might even be desperate enough to try one of your roommate's sketchy memory pills.

Eat Me

In this castle, you'll eat or be eaten. May contain dairy, carnage, puzzles, nuts.

Your friends are arriving soon, and you need to bake a batch of cookies! Now where is that recipe card...?

Baking with Lizzie

Android

Left/Right

left/right

Visual Novel

fate

Left/Right is a short, experimental parser-based text adventure about fate, created for The 2017 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction.

Inside the Facility

Your friend Mike thinks no one can infiltrate THE FACILITY, but you're going to prove him wrong. A game written by Arthur DiBianca for the Annual Interactive Fiction Competition.

Mirror and Queen

Your mirror never lies. A game written by Chandler Groover for the 2016 Interactive Fiction Competition.

Take

You are battle-weary. Your armor is scanty and your countenance is loathsome; you tire of the swords flicking at your neck. But you have a duty. There is nothing you can't take.

A game written by Katherine Morayati (as Amelia Pinnolla) for the 2016 Interactive Fiction Competition.

The Septem Tower has held steady in the Manifold, the space between time and the Real, for billenia. Populating the Tower are the Anemoi, a race of beings so far advanced that they hold the power of life and death over all Lifeforms in the Universe.

The Worldsmiths are the greatest of the Anemoi, their sacred task to create Worlds and nurture Life until it is ready to leave its home and join the Galactic Accord - the parliament of the Real.

Now, the Tagides Rings, holding the Septem tower outside of time, are approaching perfect aphelion. Four apprentices remain but only one Worldsmith will be given the robes of the craft. It all comes to this. The Workshops are prepared. Come, apprentice. It is time to create your masterspiece.

It is time to build worlds.

Worldsmith

Strategy

Worldsmith is an exciting, immersive text game. Type in commands and explore the World, solve puzzles, talk to people and play the Game of Worlds. In Worldsmith, you control the story.

With over 150,000 words of text, Worldsmith is a full, novel length, Interactive Fable.

As you explore the world of the Septem Tower, you will create solar systems and Life, unearth ancient mysteries, and discover the secrets behind the Tower and its billion year mission.

Worldsmith is an Interactive Fable and is part novel, part adventure, part puzzle and part strategy game.

The Mary Jane of Tomorrow

procedural generation

You, Mary Jane Minsky, have a few things to clear up with your best friend Jenny Yoshida. When your robotic birthday gift doesn't go over as planned, you may need to reset your expectations, for her and yourself.

Three-Card Trick

A piece of interactive fiction written by Chandler Groover, where you play the magician Morgan the Magnificent.

Foo Foo

Someone's been bopping the field mice on the head, and only Good Fairy, Senior Detective can find out who. A parser-driven noir adventure based on the interactive fiction of Ryan Veeder.

"It's not just the interest on your loan," you remember him saying. "It's maintaining the cryo tube, storing it, powering it, insuring it... Shit, even paying for me to come out here and give you this little reminder goes on the bill." 
 
You waited for him to get to the point. 
 
"Five million credits. An even five mil. 5000k. I'm rounding down here. I'm on your side. You come find us on Autark; you pay off your balance; you get your twin back." 
 
Niv holstered his blaster and left then. When he was through the airlock, his goons left too.

Superluminal Vagrant Twin

Ply the spaceways. Make five million credits. Buy back your twin. A space sim in the form of interactive fiction, written by C.E.J. Pacian.

What Fuwa Bansaku Found

Historical

Open That Vein

Open That Vein is a Parser-based horror text adventure and a La Petite Mort entry in ECTOCOMP 2015.

Brain Guzzlers from Beyond!

A game written by Steph Cherrywell for the 21st Annual Interactive Fiction Competition.

5 Minutes to Burn Something!

You burnt some toast, which set off your smoke alarm and called the fire department. If there's not a fire when they arrive, you can expect a hefty fine.

Sub Rosa

Puzzle

A puzzle game about secrets in the Age of Lead. You've spent seventeen years preparing for an infiltration. Stealing the Confessor's secrets is only the beginning: it will all be for nothing if you leave a trace.

Final Exam

Final Exam takes place in the near future after an AI revolution has led to the establishment of a new sort of government. You are seeking a job within this government: your performance in the “final exam” determines the outcome. You wake up on the day of your exam to find that your world has unexpectedly changed. You leave your room to seek answers, and find the Administration Centre deserted... 
 
A game written by Jack Whitham for the 21st Annual Interactive Fiction Competition.

Byod

BYOD

You are starting your IT internship. The details you got from the university are scarce: just the address and the date (today).

PataNoir

The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.

An expanded rerelease of the 2011 text adventure with illustrations and music.

Tutorial

If you’ve never played interactive fiction before, or have poked at a few games but didn’t feel like you really knew what you were doing, start here.

A short text adventure guided towards helping newcomers to the genre understand the rules and nature of IF.

Educational

Open world

18 Rooms to Home

super hero

superhero

18 Rooms to Home is an experimental work of interactive fiction. It’s a day in the life of Yesenia Reed, whose life is far from ordinary, no matter what she might prefer.

Toby's Nose

A murder most foul has been committed and Sherlock Holmes is on the case. You are his dog.

The Ascent of the Gothic Tower

A story of mild and non-debilitating obsession.

Enigma

Eyes can see, and a mind can think. Insanity is just one step away. You are in a room. That's where you are, and you know exactly what is going on. But the truth is hard to take.

Ultimate Quest: Journey to the Far Side of Possible

Ultimate Quest

Simulator

Pinball

cyberpunk

witches

anthropomorphism

female antagonist

promotional tie in

Ultimate Quest: Journey to the Far Side of Possible is an interactive tweet-based text adventure by internationally renowned interactive fiction author Emily Short and featuring illustrations by Silvio Aebischer.

Weird City Interloper

An interactive tale of strange conspiracy.

Pull up your hood, lower your gaze and enter the city of Zendon. If you can gather enough information, you may just be able to change the course of history.

(Weird City Interloper is a shallow but broad conversation game.)

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." - Jimmy Carter

A piece of Interactive Fiction written by Carolyn VanEseltine.

Warfare

Robin & Orchid

High school journalists spend the night in a church, investigating reports of a ghost.

A piece of interactive fiction written by Ryan Veeder and Emily Boegheim.

Inform Engine

Genres

Perspectives

Game Modes

Themes

Platforms