A Year on IFDB: The games that have stayed with me
Recommendations by SpikeAbout a year ago I discovered post-AGT interactive fiction. Since then I've played a lot of great IF games. This list consists of the ones that have stuck with me the most. They're not necessarily the ones I rated the highest immediately after playing them, but they're the ones I continue to go back to mentally when I think about IF I've played in the past year.
Games are listed in the order in which I played them.
1. Curses!
by Graham Nelson
(1993)
Average member rating: (113 ratings)
Spike says:
2. Scroll Thief
by Daniel M. Stelzer
(2015)
Average member rating: (10 ratings)
Spike says:
Scroll Thief is a worthy successor to the Enchanter series. Set in the same world and using many of the same spells, it nevertheless manages to implement new challenges, such as spellcasting at a distance. Several of the puzzles are quite clever, too.
3. The Chinese Room, by Harry Giles and Joey Jones (2007)
Average member rating: (30 ratings)
Spike says:
I should add that I've played The Chinese Room twice - once early in the process of writing ABCA and once after finishing ABCA. I'd say I was more impressed with The Chinese Room the second time, since by then I understood much better how difficult it is to create a piece of IF that is challenging but fair, entertaining, and solidly grounded in a field of knowledge.
4. All Hope Abandon
by Eric Eve
(2005)
Average member rating: (33 ratings)
Spike says:
5. Aisle
by Sam Barlow
(1999)
Average member rating: (278 ratings)
Spike says:
But that one move gave me a hint as to the PC's backstory, and I wanted to learn more. So I replayed the game several times, trying other options and slowly uncovering what had happened to the PC.
Until one time I tried something different - and discovered that the PC's backstory was not what I thought it was. Pursuing that line of thinking completely turned around my sense not only of the PC's past but of the game itself. It even had me questioning the very concept of memory, as well as the narratives we use to make sense of our lives.
6. Counterfeit Monkey
by Emily Short
(2012)
Average member rating: (146 ratings)
Spike says:
Counterfeit Monkey has been so deservedly praised that there's not much new I can add. Of course, it's a fantastic wordplay game. It's my go-to IF game recommendation.
Also, I love the sequence with the umlaut puncher. That's the kind of absolutely brilliant sequence that can only work in IF.
7. Superluminal Vagrant Twin
by C.E.J. Pacian
(2016)
Average member rating: (81 ratings)
Spike says:
8. The Wizard Sniffer
by Buster Hudson
(2017)
Average member rating: (79 ratings)
Spike says:
9. The Wand
by Arthur DiBianca
(2017)
Average member rating: (40 ratings)
Spike says:
The game is fun, too. For two nights running during IFComp 2017 I turned off my computer after playing The Wand only to realize I should have gone to bed two hours earlier.
Finally, if you've played The Wand and found it fairly short, you should know that there's a lot more to it than there appears to be at first. I suggest playing it a second time, armed with the knowledge you've gained from the first play.
10. Inside the Facility
by Arthur DiBianca
(2016)
Average member rating: (38 ratings)
Spike says:
11. The Dreamhold
by Andrew Plotkin
(2004)
Average member rating: (151 ratings)
Spike says:
12. Kerkerkruip
by Victor Gijsbers
(2011)
Average member rating: (60 ratings)
Spike says:
View this member's profile
See all lists by this member
Create your own Recommended List