r/interactivefiction • • Jul 09 '24

Interactive Fiction and Community Resources

37 Upvotes

Hello! Welcome to r/interactivefiction!

What is Interactive Fiction?

Interactive Fiction is any kind of game presented primarily through text, or any kind of story with some interaction.

Early Interactive Fiction included Choose Your Own Adventure brand books and text adventures like Adventure and Zork. Nowadays it includes systems like Twine and Choicescript and apps like Episode and Choices.

Games where you have to type in answers are called parser games, and games where you have to click to proceed are choice-based games.

Community Resources

A community calendar for IF events

A list of engines for writing Interactive Fiction

The Twine Resource Masterlist, for making Twine choice-based games

Inform 7 Resource List, for making Inform parser games.

The Interactive Fiction Database, a website for IF reviews and recommendations

Intfiction.org, a forum for IF discussion that leans towards free, completed games

Interact-IF, a tumblr blog that collects a lot of tumblr and itch games

The Neo-Interactives, a tumblr blog that organizes year-round itch competitions

Emily Short is a noted author, critic, and make of IF tools who has a long-running blog covering interactive fiction design (both free and commercial, parser and choice-based).

Itch, where interactive fiction is a popular tag

ifwizz.de, a German-language interactive fiction website, with a forum at if-forum.org

fiction-interactive.fr, a French-language interactive fiction website.

Failbetter Games runs Fallen London, a Victorian horror game that also includes smaller stories monthly. They also have several standalone games such as Mask of the Rose and Sunless Seas.

Inkle Studios is a game studio with several popular interactive fiction games, including 80 Days and the Sorcery! series.

caad.club, a Spanish-language interactive fiction website.

Choice of Games is a publishing company for interactive fiction that both commissions authors and allows self-publication. They have a forum as well.

CASA is probably the best source of information for parser games from the 90s and earlier.

Feel free to add suggestions below for more community resources!

Historical Material

 rec.arts.int-fiction and  rec.games.int-fiction, two Usenet groups which held a lot of the early discussion of Interactive Fiction. Some of the best threads are organized here.


r/interactivefiction • • 1h ago

We’re Making an Interactive Fiction Inspired by Hamlet, with 100,000 Words, 100 Hand-Drawn Illustrations, 20 Music Tracks, and 1 Original Song!

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3 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

We are a small indie team focused on narrative-driven games. In our first game, Livber: Smoke and Mirrors, we made a visual novel built around a single interactive story. Now we are working on our second game, Kardiya: The Winds of Fate, and this time we are trying to make something bigger, longer, and more replayable.

The story of Kardiya is inspired by Hamlet. Our young noble protagonist’s father is murdered by his own uncle, and the story revolves around family, power, uncovering the truth, and revenge. While still a child, our protagonist is forced to flee the palace and leave his noble life behind. We follow his journey from childhood to adulthood, as he struggles to survive, grow, and eventually confront the fate of his family.

The game currently features around 100,000 words, 100 hand-drawn illustrations, 20 music tracks, 1 original song, and countless ways to experience the story depending on your choices. The game is still in development. We would especially love to hear what if fans think about the story, characters, and visual style. If it sounds interesting, feel free to check out our Steam page.

Thank you ^^


r/interactivefiction • • 17m ago

Maximilien, a psychological horror interactive novel set in 1926 Boston, is now on Steam

• Upvotes

Hi all,

Maximilien is a psychological horror interactive novel (Boston, 1926) that started as a Twine project in 2017.

It came out on Steam two days ago, in its most complete version (2.1.2):

- 55 new passages (11,000 words) and 3 new narrative arcs, about 110,000 words and 12 endings in total

- 12 videos, new colour illustrations, an hour of new sound and music

- a progress gauge for each Intuition path and a Previous button

- English and French, Windows and Linux

The structure is branch-and-bottleneck with about 1,750 conditions tracking your choices, plus a day and night cycle where every action costs time. The mental-state system never changes the prose itself: it layers visual artifacts over the page and the interface.

Every word is written by hand and professionally translated.

20% off until November 9.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4755440/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=launch-interactivefiction

Happy to talk about the writing or the design.


r/interactivefiction • • 1h ago

Let's make a game! 520: Proofreading with the 'proof' button (Twine Sugarcube)

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• Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 3h ago

Spooky Season Short Story - Hollow Arbor.

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 3h ago

Spooky Season Short Story - Hollow Arbor.

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 17h ago

Canary: a gothic kinetic novel told in novel-style prose (free demo, plays in browser)

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10 Upvotes

Hi all! I’ve just released the demo of Canary, a slow-burn gothic romance set in a Belle Époque–inspired city of sun mages, cabarets and oubliettes.

Chantal was promised a marriage. Instead she got a collar, a cage above a playhouse floor, and now a half-dead stranger dumped on her bearskin rug.

A heads-up for this sub: it’s kinetic, so there are no choices. It’s written to be read like a novel, one line per click, in a scrolling log rather than a textbox. Expect sharp tongues, gallows humour, and a narrator who bills everyone for everything.

  • About 1 hour (~12k words)
  • Free, playable in your browser or downloadable
  • 18+ for mature themes (no explicit sexual content)

▶ https://cryptlark.itch.io/canary

I’d genuinely love to hear what you think of the writing, as it’s the part I care about most.


r/interactivefiction • • 5h ago

Looking for a writing partner to make a 3D puzzle game together

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 1d ago

Would you explore a cave made of text characters?

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 21h ago

I made a site that lets you play any IF story as a game

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0 Upvotes

it's called ifPOV.com

you can create your own story with a prompt, or choose one of the stories others have created (the example screenshot is a fanfic story based off of deathnote).

you can then play that story as a video game (where you are a character in that story).

whenever you choose what happens next, it will generate a video that then continues the story based on your input.

would love any feedback! DM me if you want free credits! :)

We also have a discord server (would love to see you there!) - https://discord.gg/GSvHZn366w


r/interactivefiction • • 1d ago

I built a little app where anyone can continue a story or take it in a completely different direction. Would love your feedback!

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0 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 2d ago

Sovereign of Vespra

2 Upvotes

UPDATE v1.2 IS NOW LIVE! (Chapters 1 & 2 Uncut + Full Agency Overhaul)

First of all, thank you to everyone who tried the first build and left honest feedback! I took every single critique to heart and just uploaded v1.2:

  1. No Mid-Chapter Paywall: The preview gate is completely gone! All of Chapter 1 are now 100% free and playable in the public demo.
  2. No Forced Instant-Love: Right in Chapter 1, you can now choose whether your MC craves the Poly Triad, only has eyes for One Solo RO, or resents the bond and plays a Strictly Political / Duty / Slow-Burn Route (with a non-erotic setting available in the menu!).
  3. Full Gender Choice & Lore Upgrade: You can now play as a King, Queen, or Non-Binary Sovereign, choose Male or Female Consorts, and see the expanded Aether-Crucible lore and Prologue battle against the Silver Wardens.

If you bounced off the first version, I’d love for you to give v1.2 a spin and let me know how the new routes feel!

Support on Patreon: Obsidian Crown Interactive

To play the demo, go here: CoGDemos


r/interactivefiction • • 2d ago

UNREAD CASES 012 — The Winter Table | Free browser detective mystery

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 2d ago

UNREAD CASES 011: The Last Reel — a free browser mystery set in an old cinema

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 2d ago

Writers & creators: Tired of traditional publishing gatekeepers? We’re launching a free Transmedia Jam to connect writers, artists, and devs.

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 2d ago

I made a 1980s-style parser adventure. The demo's free and I'd love feedback from people who know the genre

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1 Upvotes

Hi all. I'm AJ, and I made The Shadow Crown, a fantasy text adventure with a proper parser. I got made redundant a few years ago, it was the push to make me do my own thing(s)... making games (but a fractional marketing consultant to pay the bills!).

What's in it:

ATTACK, EXPLORE, SOLVE and CAST commands, riddles, Caesar-cipher puzzles, and a world (Frostwynd) that's described rather than drawn. No graphics. The story, characters and puzzles, easter eggs and a few nods to the games that inspired mine...

You can also play the free demo via my website - which I have designed in the same style and added 'Feelies', Lore, a cypher puzzle, character cards and the like. It was so much fun to make this - an extension of the game, or visa versa.

The free demo covers the opening - sort of an act 1. I'd really value honest feedback, especially on the parser: what did you type that it didn't understand?

Platforms: Steam - Mac, PC and Steam OS desktops / My website: browser based

Demo: The Shadow Crown - Frostwynd Chronicles

or: theshadowcrown.com

Thanks, AJ


r/interactivefiction • • 2d ago

A mystery told only through phone calls, played out over a few weeks in real time

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0 Upvotes

I've been working on a different kind of interactive story: you never see the characters, you only answer their calls. Everyone is looking for Dave, the last guy who had your number. To move the story along, you dial the numbers people give you, and the story only moves a call or two a day.

It's an iPhone app, Yapple: Wrong Number (free). I'd love to hear from people here what makes a slow, real-time story work for you.

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/yapple-wrong-number/id6820664408

Yapple: Wrong Number


r/interactivefiction • • 4d ago

Let's make a game! 519: Monsters choosing a target (Twine Sugarcube)

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0 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 4d ago

I just published my first text RPG — 15 chapters, and you bond the dragon instead of killing her

0 Upvotes

Hi all — first-time poster here. I just released my first game on itch.io and I'd love feedback from people who actually love this genre. Ember & Moonfire is a text RPG in fifteen chapters. You start at Level 0, pick one of four guilds (Arcane Veil battlemages, Lunarmages, Iron Oath fighters, Dragonwatch riders), build your character — race, rolled age, dice-rolled stats (4d6 drop the lowest) — and get sent to kill the young dragon that burned Ember Village. Then you meet her. And you heal her instead. From there it's a full campaign: spells, shops, companions with their own quests, a 19-creature bestiary, a death system where your dragon can save you (at a price), two moons, and a 26-room exploration map you walk by compass after the story hooks you. About 3 hours for the campaign, then endless free roam. It plays free in the browser — if you like it, there's a $2 support option. It's clean/all-ages. Honest feedback welcome, especially on pacing — where did you get bored, where did you want more? https://christopher68.itch.io/ember-moonfire


r/interactivefiction • • 4d ago

WWYD, a choice-driven psychological game for adults in development: 10-question gamer survey

1 Upvotes

I'm the developer of WWYD (What Would You Do?), a choice-driven psychological game for adults. It plays out in cinematic scenes with spoken dialogue and explorable 3D spaces, and your decisions change what happens next.

I am surveying gamers broadly, not only interactive fiction players. The survey is 10 questions and takes under 2 minutes. It covers character creation, story direction, decision timers, how scenes are presented, and internal voices. The

If you would rather answer here than open the form, here is what we need answered:

  1. What type of game do you play most: story and choice, action and adventure, RPG and simulation, or sports, racing, and competitive?
  2. How should your character be created: fully written with a fixed appearance, written with a customizable appearance, or your own avatar with a background you choose?
  3. What character gender options do you prefer: a male lead, a female lead, choose your character's gender, or no preference?
  4. Which story would you try first: a professional facing blackmail while searching for a missing sibling; a family fighting over money, loyalty, and buried secrets; or a tech insider who discovers an invention is manipulating people?
  5. Whose journey would you follow: one character over several years, one character in a short intense crisis, different characters in connected stories, or separate stories with different characters?
  6. How should the game's worlds connect: different parts of one character's life, different places connected by one mystery, separate worlds you can choose freely, or one detailed setting throughout?
  7. How should decision timers work: a short countdown for every choice, only during urgent moments, adjustable or off, or no countdowns?
  8. How do you prefer scenes: mostly reading with illustrated scenes, animated scenes with spoken dialogue, a 3D world you explore between conversations, or a mix?
  9. How do you feel about hearing the character's conflicting thoughts through voices that move around you: throughout the game, during intense moments, try it with an option to switch it off, or no internal voices? Answer any or all of them in the comments.

Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0lGq-aF47NW0UvBdwB61I19BrKVYivEERSQeEZLV9DQaZww/viewform?usp=publish-editor

Glad to answer questions about the game in the comments.


r/interactivefiction • • 4d ago

Looking for a few honest beta-readers for a fantasy interactive story

4 Upvotes

Hi guys!

I'm building Viktion, a new platform for choice-driven interactive fiction.

I'm currently looking for a few readers to test The Last Opponent, an action romantasy story where you play as a young boat captain who must win nine duels to save her younger brother from prison ships.

Along the way, there's romance, rivalry, intrigue, and some difficult choices.

Your decisions shape how the story unfolds and which of the 5 different endings you reach.

The full story is free to read while I'm looking for feedback.

Estimated reading time: 45–80 minutes per path.

I'd really appreciate any honest feedback, including constructive criticism.

Here's the link: https://viktion.com/book/the-last-opponent

Thank you! :D


r/interactivefiction • • 4d ago

What do you guys think about interactive story apps? 👀📚

2 Upvotes

I've been curious about how people feel about interactive stories, especially ones that let you make choices or even fill in what your character says or does instead of just reading a story from beginning to end.

I'm currently helping build one with some friends, and it's been interesting seeing how storytelling can become more interactive.

I'm curious: Would you be interested in trying something like this, or do you prefer reading traditional books where the story is already written for you?

I'd love to hear what you think! 😊


r/interactivefiction • • 4d ago

My sibling and I built an interactive website for our 90s Japan inspired dark fantasy world

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1 Upvotes

To bring our alternative 1990s Japan dark fantasy world to life, my sibling and I designed, illustrated, and coded a dedicated website to serve as the official home for our story. It is packed with interactive, in universe elements and original illustrations.

Here is the lore behind the screenshots I uploaded:

Ink Toxicity Monitor:In our world, magic isn’t a giftit’s an infection. Contact with monster blood causes a severe biological infection in the human body  On the website, this interactive monitor lets you explore the different stages of this mutation

Kinkyo Clinic One of the most oppressive institutions in our setting. Wealthy citizens or those forced into it can undergo a procedure that physically extracts their specific traumas and fears This section of the site explores what actually happens to those traumas once they are pulled out of people.

Pachinko Room (Naraku Arcade): We built the Pachinko Room as an actually playable, 2D pixel-art minigame on the website featuring Kana, one of the fan favorite characters from the book. It’s still in an early phase, but as we learn more about coding at university, we plan to expand the arcade with even more minigames! Characters & Artwork The rest of the gallery showcases our character designs, the 2026 Arts Roadmap, and cover concepts without any story spoilers. More than anything, we really hope we managed to create lovable, memorable characters that readers can genuinely connect with. This is just a small taste of the website there is already a lot more to explore, and plenty more in the works! Thank you so much for checking out our art and reading the post!


r/interactivefiction • • 5d ago

[Android] Fanta Livre: gamebooks, interactive novels and story universes to explore, free on your phone (English & French)

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1 Upvotes

r/interactivefiction • • 4d ago

I wrote a story about a mysterious tuxedo cat 10 years ago. Now I'm turning it into an interactive audio fiction

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0 Upvotes

Ten years ago, I wrote a story called The Tuxedo Cat. Now I'm experimenting with bringing it to life as interactive audio fiction. You can listen/play with it here.

It's a cozy Halloween mystery where a charming, slightly suspicious cat appears at your window. Instead of choosing dialogue options, you can actually talk to him, ask questions, and uncover his hidden agenda. 

It's free, browser-based, and you may speak in your native language and the cat will respond with yours.

I'd love feedback from interactive fiction fans, especially on whether voice-driven approach makes the experience more engaging!