Games to be Replayed
by Raksab - 8 games
"These games should be played through more than once, for full effect."
Plot-heavy IF
by Emily Short - 10 games
"Interactive fiction with a lot of plot -- many scenes and events moving the player forward, rather than just a collection of puzzles. Some of these works are fairly difficult and do use puzzles as pacing devices, while others are low in..."
Beginner's choice.
by Grey - 13 games
"If for first time or beginner players. "
Delron Recommended ADRIFT Games
by Richard Otter - 9 games
"This is a list of my favourite ADRIFT games, which I consider are well worth a look."
Favorite Games
by Ron Newcomb - 5 games
"Quality games friendly to those of us new to Interactive Fiction and who would have little patience with the text adventures of old."
Best of SpeedIF
by David Welbourn - 12 games
"SpeedIF games are often overlooked or denigrated, and usually with good reason: with only two hours to code a game, the results can be rather shoddy. Buggy. Plagued with read-author's-mind problems. But not always. Here are a few SpeedIF..."
Metatextual Conceits
by Michael Martin - 6 games
"Most works of IF present themselves as works of IF, to be interacted with by you, the user, much as a reader would read a novel. These games play with or reject this, by presenting themselves as some other kind of artifact, or by..."
Favorite Games
by Nathan Slife - 3 games
"These are my current favorites. "
Plot-Driven IF
by Andromache - 5 games
"Some of my absolute favorite games."
Pieces of Games
by Ron Newcomb - 10 games
"Sometimes the best way to understand a type of puzzle or interaction is a pithy, stand-alone example of it."
Either Interesting or Emotionally Involving
by Mark Jones - 8 games
"Works that have either broken conventional IF rules to some degree and have successfully gotten away with it (in my opinion), or involved a good storyline. Coincidentally, these types of games happen to be my favorite games."
Tolkien's Middle-earth games
by Fredrik - 34 games
"Games that are explicitly set in the fantasy world Middle-earth, created by J.R.R. Tolkien."
Favorite ALAN games
by Alan DeNiro - 6 games
"These are some of my favorite games written in the ALAN IF-development language. With a lower learning curve and a more natural-language programming environment, ALAN v2 definitely filled an important role in IF before the advent of..."
Distinctive Puzzle Style
by Sam Kabo Ashwell - 7 games
"One of the most powerful techniques for rendering a game memorable is to build it around a unusual, interesting and consistent way of handling significant world interaction (or puzzles, if you prefer). It's also a difficult technique to..."
Highly polished gameplay
by Emily Short - 10 games
"Games that are exceptionally well-tested and smooth to play. They may not always be the most original works, but the implementation is strong, offering minimal frustration with guess-the-verb and other common flaws."
Replay puzzles
by Emily Short - 7 games
"Games which are entirely devoted to a single big puzzle, usually one that the player has to replay a number of times to get exactly right. Often these involve time restrictions or events that the player has to observe in order to..."
Disturbing
by evil tabby cat - 2 games
"These are games which either sent a shiver down my spine, or made me look at reality differently. Only including games I've actually completed."
Great setting
by Timo Saarinen - 3 games
"Smart puzzles and good writing don't alone make a good game. The setting and overall atmosphere are equally important."
Word-play games
by Emily Short - 11 games
"Games where the text of the game is part of the puzzle."
My Best Games
by tadsPro - 1 game
"I just began developing TADS games.I have played a few games until now but hope to play a lot in the coming days.This list will be updated frequently as i play new games.I will list my favourite games here."