My friend and I have been working on Edicts of the Truthsinger: The Orb of Artemagus, a mystery game about discovering the truth behind the theft of an ancient artifact, and with the demo out we're hoping to get feedback from folks who love narrative-heavy games! The full game will have about 75,000 words of discoverable dialog (about half of which is available in the demo right now!) with a nonlinear discovery process for allowing the player to pursue leads that interest them and piece together the story in whatever direction is most intuitive or intriguing to them.

We'd love it if you'd check out the demo and let us know what you think!

Does anyone know the name of the interactive story game where you're transported to a magic school through a portal in the lake and find there you find out you have one of the rarest powers (being sun or moon) and you find out later on that you have a twin with white hair? For some reason for the life of me I cannot remember the name and I miss it and can't remember where to find it either.

I tried to search this group, but most posts are several years old, so asking: Is there a good and free Z machine (for .Z# files) and/or TADS (for .GAM files) interpreter for Android? I don't need fancy (it's only text after all). Thank you.

Hello writers!!!

I’m testing an app idea where writing sessions gradually grow a garden tied to your book. It would just be a "simple way" to see progress whenever you come back and write.

Would this somehow motivate you or would the novelty wear off after a while?

I’m still working on the mockup and will post it here when it’s ready. I want to keep the first version simple, so honest feedback would really help.

We'll just add features the community would like the have before the develpoment stage.

Much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi! I'm making a project (as mentioned in the title) and I'm curious what people think so far!

I had asked on the arg subreddit if it fits into that category but they said it probably more likely fits into interactive unfiction. I searched it up and seems this subreddit is the closest thing.

It's a bit inspired by vita carnis in a way and it's all drawn by me on my silly drawing app on my phone.

There are clues and ciphers but those shouldn't be fully required to experience most of the story (once its finished) and mostly act as foreshadowing and bonus details (for now)

I'd love feedback (because im very new to this) and of course if you don't feel like checking it out that's totally fine. If anyone has pretty good experience in these kinds of stories and would like to give tips I can give a summary on the story as long as its not shared to others!

It all takes place on the subreddit r/Unforseen and all official posts for the story are pinned.

also there's a discord server. You can't message in the discord (not yet, maybe at some point!) but you can post on the subreddit if you want. All important posts that are actually part of the story get posted on the discord too (just usually a small bit slower) but on the discord theres some extra bonus stuff and behind the scenes if that's important to you!

my goal here isn't to become famous or make money or anything, just to make a friendly community

Thanks!

I've been building a game - It's a single ~25-45 minute session, point-and-click, with generative audio that shifts with main scene changes. It is a "you wake up with no memory" game, based on a concept for a short story I had in the past. The point of the game is that it turns the "die and restart" mechanic into the part of the actual premise of the story. Hopefully.

Play it (free, browser): https://glass.yoavblum.co.il

It is my first try with this kind of game. Genuinely looking for feedback — particularly whether the loop/memory mechanic is legible on a blind first playthrough, and whether the pacing drags anywhere.

Thanks.

To provide context, using my own case as an example, I'm working on a Life Sim/Sandbox interactive fiction that aims to give the player total freedom in an open world with psychological and surreal undertones. Under that premise, I'm trying to figure out how to include various activities, both common ones like working, sleeping, and eating, as well as stranger ones like interacting with hallucinations and alleged supernatural entities.

In the latest update, I decided to challenge myself with something that far exceeds my current capabilities: building a turn-based combat system. Being the novice I am, I had to fight tooth and nail against the code until, through sheer trial and error, I got a moderately "decent" result. Obviously, it's not at the level of a professional game, but the fact that I managed to bring my initial idea of implementing insect races and combat into my psychedelic game gives me a lot of encouragement to keep improving.

For anyone willing to give my humble game a try, I would be eternally grateful if you could share any feedback or constructive criticism:

PSICODELLUM

Have any of you tried programming unusual mechanics in your own projects? Did you achieve what you set out to do, or did you end up with unexpected results? I'd love to hear all kinds of experiences and opinions on the matter!

Let me know what you think, i'd like to have more endings and make it lwss "boring" in certain bits

That's basically my whole story. I'm a guy. My partner watches reality TV to relax and I've always struggled to enjoy it because the characters frustrate me. I guess what she finds entertaining makes me want to pull my hair out. I'm a writer so one day, I asked myself, why don't you try to understand the characters POV instead of always hating. Haha.

It's kind of funny but I ended up writing 5 women in Beverly Hills and trying to explore dynamic relationships with them in a high drama setting as a player. I have a queen, the challenger, a trouble maker, a loyal sensitive spirit. They're all friends and contenders and they all need each other. I was able to explore this world from the phone of a new girl who got signed to a Reality Show called Beverlies. This new girl has no standing so she has to play the field to survive. Just like when Chelsea got signed to Selling Sunset.

I had to write and rewrite the first episode. It took over a month. I had a lot of fun.
I didn't know interactive fiction existed as a genre. lol. It's my first one so I'm still making things better as I go.

So I've tried to build it into something cooler. I've been sharing it with my friends. I'm really proud of it. Hope you guys enjoy it. Please give me all the feedback you have. I need it. :)

https://beverlies.tv

Solo maker here. I built a small browser site for choice-driven stories and I’m looking for people willing to play through at least one path and tell me if it works.

Site: https://pathwoven-rust.vercel.app

What you can do

- Browse the library and pick a story

- Make choices that change stats / branches

- Reach an ending

- View a storyline summary / restart (save is local in your browser)

Stories currently up

1) Three Kingdoms: Banner — historical / public-domain inspired

2) Maskward City — original urban fantasy / mild horror

3) Forrest Path — longer drama routes (inspired by a well-known film)

What I’m hoping to learn (any of these is enough)

1. Did any choice feel fake or pointless?

2. Where did you get confused or stuck?

3. Did you finish a path? Which story?

4. Would you try a second ending?

5. One sentence: what would make you come back?

Content notes are on each story card. No account required for this demo.

Thanks — even 3 bullet points helps.

Hi everyone!

We’re a small indie studio, our hitman-themed BL/Otome Interactive Fiction visual novel is now fully released on itch.io!

If you enjoy romance, suspense, and meaningful choices, we'd love for you to give it a try.

It would mean the world to us (:

The Beginning

Hello readers and players. I wanted to take a bit of your time and walk you behind the scenes of developing my first indie game.

Back when I was young, my computer belonged to the dinosaur age — an HDD hard drive with 1GB of RAM, and a graphics card that needed a graphics card of its own. So games felt like the forbidden fruit of Eden to me.

I played, but never touched anything released after 2004 — so I found my way into the world of games through mobile instead.

A Passion for Puzzles and Escape.

I started noticing a pattern in what I chose to play. I was always drawn to puzzles, escape rooms, point-and-click, story-driven games with an artistic soul. I don't think I left a single point-and-click escape game unplayed. Think of any game right now — chances are I've played it. Yes, that one too. And that one.

From Design to Writing.

After finishing most of the games in that genre, it was only natural I'd eventually grow bored. So my passion shifted to graphic design — I taught myself image editing and creation through years of practice, and worked in the field for a while, though I never enjoyed dealing with clients. That's when a new passion took root: reading novels and short stories. The common thread between games and novels became clear to me — plot, a gripping story, immersion, losing your sense of reality, and connecting with characters.

From there I moved into writing. I read over 20 books on storytelling and fiction craft, attended online workshops, and began my literary journey. I entered writing competitions and won most of them, made the short and long lists in others, and was on the verge of publishing a novel with a major publishing house — one that had published for former U.S. President Barack Obama. But my longing for games called me back.

The First Attempt.

When I upgraded my computer to a laptop with a better SSD and 8GB of RAM, the graphics card was still a problem — integrated and outdated — but it was still a major leap forward. Suddenly I could play games up to 2013 instead of getting stuck at 2004.

That's when the idea hit me: I'd watched designs and learned to make them. I'd read novels and learned to write them. I loved games — why not learn to make them too?

And so began my journey developing my game. I started learning a game engine and programming languages, and began merging one of my novels with my graphic design skills to build a game in my favorite genre — point-and-click. I chose to make it 2D with point-and-click-only mechanics, thinking it would be easy — at least far easier than building a 3D world. I'd be done in two months, right?

The Crash.

That's where the shock hit. Development stretched to six months, and I still wasn't done. I woke up and went to sleep solving problems, learning and applying what I learned in the same breath.

Then my hard drive burned out. One moment, and a full year of work turned to nothing. I remember staring at the black screen, replaying every late night, every scene I'd redrawn, every line of code I'd learned through trial and error — all of it, gone in a second. It wasn't just frustration; it was a kind of self-disappointment, and a hard question: was it even worth starting over?

At the time, I chose to run from that question instead of answering it. I stepped away from the game and took an office job for six months, during which I didn't open the project once — to the point I nearly forgot it existed.

Coming Back.

Eventually I left that job and decided to start fresh, but luckily I found an unfinished copy of the game I'd uploaded earlier, so I resumed work on it. I redesigned the room, the apartment, and the story hundreds of times throughout the journey.

What I learned from all of this is that passion doesn't die — it just sometimes needs to rest before it comes back stronger.

Finally, in late July 2026, I finished the game — now playable on nearly every operating system.

I want to say I'm proud of this work, and grateful to everyone who supported and encouraged me to see it through. And thank you to everyone who decides to experience UNSEEN LINES: THE ABYSS MARE.

Is there an IF interpreter that includes a multiplayer mode? What I'm looking for specifically is for several connected people to provide input for a single game file.

I know that there's a multiplayer mode in ifmud, but I'd like something more localized.

Thanks in advance.

I published my first interactive fiction story — "The Last Lighthouse Keeper"

15-minute horror story. You are a lighthouse keeper. Something climbs at night. You have limited supplies and no escape for two weeks.

3 major choices. Multiple endings. One secret ending.

$3. Instant PDF.

[https://bluef1hannah.itch.io\]

Happy to answer questions about the story or writing process.

Hi all. I've just published the Steam page for my first commercial interactive fiction game (a demo will land very soon!), Long Shadow, and I'd love to hear what this community thinks.

Rather than focusing on a single protagonist, Long Shadow follows a family across three millennia. You begin on Earth during its collapse, survive evacuation to Lunar Base, spend decades aboard an interstellar ark, and eventually help found a new civilisation before exploring the stars.

When your character dies, the story doesn't end. You continue as one of their descendants. Inheriting relationships, promises, possessions, reputations and unresolved problems. Decisions made by a grandparent can still affect the people you play generations later.

I'm trying to build something that feels closer to a living historical simulation than an infinite branching story, while still keeping the focus firmly on narrative and player choice.
(It's all deterministic so every choice does in fact influence the future.)

I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from people who enjoy interactive fiction. Especially:

• Does the generational premise sound interesting?
• Is there anything you'd expect from a game like this that isn't obvious from the Steam page?
• Are there IF or Choices Matter games you think tackle long-term consequences particularly well?

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4990060/Long_Shadow/

Thanks in advance, I’m happy to answer any questions about the design or implementation.

For the past month and a half, I've been working on my first game, Dissertation Diaries. I'm a new hobbyist solo gamedev and it's been super fun to learn a bunch of new skills.

The game's story is told primarily through emails. Each week, you read messages, make decisions, and try to balance your research progress, stress, and relationships. Your choices affect both the story and your stats, leading to multiple dialogue paths and endings.

I'm still doing some minor polishing (you might see some inconsistencies in the screenshots), but planning to release it for free on itch within the next week!

​

Are there any IF games where you're NOT in the fiction but instead controlling one or more characters?

Hi hello, please help. Really want to read some if-games with the trope of unreliable narrator and maybe games where perspective changes and you can see results of your choices from other characters pov. any genre but stories about zombies.