IFComp<p>As of this morning, the IFComp Award stream is officially available on the <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@IFTF" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>IFTF</span></a></span> Youtube channel!</p><p>Come (re-)watch our fun celebration of really neat entries!<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u5UdD1hmIE" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=7u5UdD1hmI</span><span class="invisible">E</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.gamedev.place/tags/ifcomp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ifcomp</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.gamedev.place/tags/ifcomp2024" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ifcomp2024</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.gamedev.place/tags/interactive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>interactive</span></a> fiction</p>
#ifcomp2024
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Only 2 weeks left to vote at the IFComp! https://ifcomp.org/ballot
You only need to play 5 games and rate them for your vote to be registered!
ifcomp.orgThe Interactive Fiction Competition
September is almost over, but the IFComp is still here! Help us put a smile on the sad elf's face by playing some cool games!
C.E.J. Pacian, author of such highly-regarded text games as Superluminal Vagrant Twin , Gun Mute, and Weird City Interloper, is back with a "survival horror" game: Forsaken Denizen.
I didn't find it particularly horrifying or find myself at risk of failing to survive, so it felt more like an action-hero game with light resource management, but people are telling me that's true to the Resident Evil games that it's taking inspiration from.
In any case, it's a fun weird sci-fi setting: Dor has been broken free from the grip of the life-draining cyber-tree/vine/??? by her black-sheep space-princess girlfriend so she can fight her way through to the source and try to save the planet.
Also fun mechanics, a little puzzle-solving... and then when you beat it you unlock outfits that give you new bonuses and abilities and you can play again to try them out and unlock the rest.
ifcomp.orgThe Interactive Fiction Competition
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Phil Riley's games have kinda rubbed me the wrong way in the past, but Bureau of Strange Happenings hit a sort of B-movie comedy-of-errors supernatural-investigation-agency vibe that I had a great time with.
The government agency for investigating the supernatural has been downsized, you're trying to move into your new office, your computer got smashed on the trip over, your phone is ringing but your new office manager has locked it into your new Ikea-desk drawer AND dropped the hex wrench down a heating vent.
So you go on a quest to find a screwdriver to get the vent open to get the desk apart so you can answer your phone which won't stop ringing... and end up going through a dimensional portal in a washing machine in the basement of an abandoned laundromat... and then things start getting weird.
ifcomp.orgThe Interactive Fiction Competition
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Where Nothing is Ever Named by Viktor Sobol is a very brief (maybe 5 minute?) one-room parser game inspired by the forest in Through the Looking Glass where everything loses its name.
One room. It contains "something." And "the other thing." Can you figure out what they are and how to get out of here?
ifcomp.orgThe Interactive Fiction Competition
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The Den is a smoothly-polished escape-room style game by Ben Jackson: switch between Vee and Aiden to solve puzzles and escape the underground bunker that's the only home you've ever known.
It's *very* escape-room-esque: a lot of things about the setup make no sense if you think about them at all, but I had an enjoyable hour working through the puzzles. And it did a good job with the mechanics of managing two characters: in some games that can be really tedious but this mostly worked pretty smoothly.
ifcomp.orgThe Interactive Fiction Competition
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Quest for the Teacup of Minor Sentimental Value is a JRPG-like text game from Damon L. Wakes. Not really my thing because I dislike waaaiting for the character to walk around in between lines.
But it IS pretty funny: go on an epic quest to recover your missing favorite teacup: will you persevere until you complete your quest, or will you meet your end at the hands of wolves, a genie, the demons of hell, the God of Lazy Authorship?
Will you succumb to other BAD ENDs like a perfectly lovely cup of tea in your second-favorite teacup, or being gifted a magically-crafted teacup so beautiful it will make your teashop a major tourist destination by a powerful wizard who wants you out of his hair?
If you do succeed in your quest, will you triumph in an epic JRPG boss battle, or by being so incredibly annoying that the thief gives it back just to be rid of you?
ifcomp.orgThe Interactive Fiction Competition
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Whoops, I keep forgetting to post more of these.
LATEX, LEATHER, LIPSTICK, LOVE, LUST by LITHOBREAKERS
A story of a trans guy starting to find his way?
...I've never read quite such a charming wholesome story with this level of explicit kinky sex. Bravo.
https://lithobreakers.itch.io/latex-leather-lipstick-love-lust
itch.ioLATEX, LEATHER, LIPSTICK, LOVE, LUST by LITHOBREAKERSSEXTUPLE L
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Chandler Groover's *The Bat* is an almost Wodehousian comedy where you play the competent and highly put-upon valet to the very odd and rather helpless billionaire playboy Bruce Wyatt (the game has nods to Batman and Die Fledermaus, possibly among other things that I missed?). He's throwing a party/fundraiser tonight with a number of wealthy and demanding guests. Hilarity ensues. Can you keep the chaos under control? Is this job *really* worth it?
IFDBThe BatMaster Bryce is throwing a party. As his most faithful servant, that means it's your job to make the party run smoothly. But you only have two handsand far too many duties. You'll have to manage requests from the guests, the master's eccentric demands, and your own composure. All the other staff have quit, unwilling to entertain the master's "moods," but you've served Wyatt Manor for decades; what's one more evening? A comedy of errors, mild frustrations, and major workplace-safety violations. With limited actions and a limited inventory, juggle hors d'oeuvres, flaming curtains, and radioactive elementsand keep the drinks coming!
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*A Death in Hyperspace* is a collaborative piece by a cast of authors whose names you might recognize from Choice of Games or their short stories: this is a murder mystery set on a ship in hyperspace.
There are a bunch of ways to handle interactive mysteries: choose-your-own culprit isn't usually my favorite, but the writing is excellent, and the hyperspace in this setting induces hallucinations in organic beings and even eventually in machine intelligences like you, so reality is a bit more fluid than normal.
An (optional) 30 minute timer adds tension, the NPCs move around randomly, evidence turns up at various times... will you accept the first conclusion you arrive at, or find all 11 endings?
IFDBA Death in HyperspaceAs an embodied ship Intelligence and fugitive former warship, youve faced many challenges. But when your captain dies suspiciously halfway through a hyperspace transit, you know you're in trouble. Not because you need a captain you can pilot yourself just fine but because, as an aficionado of mysteries and detective stories, you know theres only one explanation: murder most foul. Investigate your rooms. Interrogate your crew and passengers. Solve the mystery. Will you find your way back to reality or be stuck in hyperspace forever?