Interactive Fiction Thread
05-24-2016, 02:40 AM
I could've sworn I had a thread for this already? Anyway
Interactive fiction is cool and good! While traditional prose (generally) necessitates you read everything in the order it's presented on the page, interactive fiction permits nonlinearity and much more control over a story's pace.
Choose-your-own-adventures (and, in a manner of speaking, in-progress forum adventures) are also forms of interactive fiction! Interactive fiction runs the gamut from gamelike arrangements where you need to input the correct sequence to "win" (up to and including game mechanics like stats+inventory management), to essentially-linear stories with branching-but-eventually-rejoining paths.
Many such games are made on Twine! Here are some recommends to get you started!
Twine games
Magical Makeover - Prettify yourself for Princess Philantha's Grand Equinox Ball! (7 endings, but you'll learn how to snag 'em after one playthrough).
Open Sorcery - You're a fire elemental/firewall/baby AI protecting a school, retirement home, and the residences of your two coders/masters. You can lock yourself out of content as you progress but can always backtrack to previous days to revise your actions.
Shitheap Bugtown - the adventures of five people trying to survive in a very dank and unpleasant city.
Candy Ant Princess - Found a proud colony of candy ants as their queen. The story is linear but you get cosmetic changes to the story depending on your inputs? Narratively simple but mechanically kinda cool.
-=HORSE MASTER=- - pour your meagre life savings into the savage world of Horsemanship and raise yourself a champion HORSE!
The Tower - I dunno what to say about this one except that our very own Maxiesatan wrote it. Please play it it's great.
BIRDLAND - Summer camp and dreams about birds. Some mood management game mechanics that can lock you out of certain options, but you can turn those off.
Bell Park, Youth Detective - In the same world/by the same author as BIRDLAND. Help Bell Park solve a murder mystery at the Toronto Library.
Ke$ha - Ke$ha.
Sabbat - nsfw. Turn yourself into the raddest fuckin demon and go destroy government. Short and highly replayable with all the different body part configurations.
Depression Quest - Yeah, that Depression Quest. It's a very frank portrayal of what depression can be like, with the interactive fiction mechanic being used really well as you're "shut out" of choices based on how depression fucks up your ability to help yourself out of it.
Interactive Fictionful games
Fallen London - In which Victorian London got stolen by interdimensional monsters and dumped beside a massive underground ocean. It's a turn-based rpg - think Kingdom of Loathing with turns recharging steadily over time so you can't spend six hours straight on it. Actually I could dump a whole list of turn-based online RPGs like this'n and they'd technically count lmao
A dark room - more like an idle game with RPG elements and a cohesive story?
Candy Box and Candy Box 2 - idle+rpgs in a candy realm. Took me about a week each to clear 'em?
Please recommend others if you've got 'em! Share your thoughts on if you've played the above! Choose (to make) your own adventure, and possibly talk about your process therein if you like!!!
Interactive fiction is cool and good! While traditional prose (generally) necessitates you read everything in the order it's presented on the page, interactive fiction permits nonlinearity and much more control over a story's pace.
Choose-your-own-adventures (and, in a manner of speaking, in-progress forum adventures) are also forms of interactive fiction! Interactive fiction runs the gamut from gamelike arrangements where you need to input the correct sequence to "win" (up to and including game mechanics like stats+inventory management), to essentially-linear stories with branching-but-eventually-rejoining paths.
Many such games are made on Twine! Here are some recommends to get you started!
Twine games
Magical Makeover - Prettify yourself for Princess Philantha's Grand Equinox Ball! (7 endings, but you'll learn how to snag 'em after one playthrough).
Open Sorcery - You're a fire elemental/firewall/baby AI protecting a school, retirement home, and the residences of your two coders/masters. You can lock yourself out of content as you progress but can always backtrack to previous days to revise your actions.
Shitheap Bugtown - the adventures of five people trying to survive in a very dank and unpleasant city.
Candy Ant Princess - Found a proud colony of candy ants as their queen. The story is linear but you get cosmetic changes to the story depending on your inputs? Narratively simple but mechanically kinda cool.
-=HORSE MASTER=- - pour your meagre life savings into the savage world of Horsemanship and raise yourself a champion HORSE!
The Tower - I dunno what to say about this one except that our very own Maxiesatan wrote it. Please play it it's great.
BIRDLAND - Summer camp and dreams about birds. Some mood management game mechanics that can lock you out of certain options, but you can turn those off.
Bell Park, Youth Detective - In the same world/by the same author as BIRDLAND. Help Bell Park solve a murder mystery at the Toronto Library.
Ke$ha - Ke$ha.
Sabbat - nsfw. Turn yourself into the raddest fuckin demon and go destroy government. Short and highly replayable with all the different body part configurations.
Depression Quest - Yeah, that Depression Quest. It's a very frank portrayal of what depression can be like, with the interactive fiction mechanic being used really well as you're "shut out" of choices based on how depression fucks up your ability to help yourself out of it.
Interactive Fictionful games
Fallen London - In which Victorian London got stolen by interdimensional monsters and dumped beside a massive underground ocean. It's a turn-based rpg - think Kingdom of Loathing with turns recharging steadily over time so you can't spend six hours straight on it. Actually I could dump a whole list of turn-based online RPGs like this'n and they'd technically count lmao
A dark room - more like an idle game with RPG elements and a cohesive story?
Candy Box and Candy Box 2 - idle+rpgs in a candy realm. Took me about a week each to clear 'em?
Please recommend others if you've got 'em! Share your thoughts on if you've played the above! Choose (to make) your own adventure, and possibly talk about your process therein if you like!!!
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow