Worth Playing: Interactive Fiction

Gone Home Concept Map By Noam Zomerfeld
Gone Home Concept Map By Noam Zomerfeld

Because I teach a Story class at CCA, I have collected a deep bench of Interactive Fiction/ Games with strong narrative.  I rated them because some of the students had delicate sensibilities. But it’s just my 2cents, not a “official” rating. The students did wonderful concept maps of key game ideas.

Enjoy!

Suggested games

The Room https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-room/id552039496?mt=8
Puzzle game, gorgeous graphics, Wikipedia “Through the game, a story involving the research of an unnamed person into the fifth Classical Element, “Null,” which is described in notes found through the various box puzzles.”

Drawn http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/5164/drawn-the-painted-tower/
Gorgeous art, puzzles in context. Iris is missing, but her living paintings hold the clue to her disappearance.

Botanicula http://botanicula.net/ insects go on an adventure to find a safe home from a blight. insanely cute, great music.

Broken Age http://www.brokenagegame.com/
Broken Age describes the story of two teenagers with no immediate apparent connection between the two, each “seeking to break the tradition with their lives”

Lego Harry Potter https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lego-harry-potter-years-1-4/id404086528?mt=8 It’s Harry Potter, people. If you haven’t seen the films, you might want to do both.

Bastion-concept-map-by-DanielleForward
Bastion Concept Map by Danielle Forward

PG-13
Bastion https://www.supergiantgames.com/games/bastion/
A third-person shooter… maybe, with a story of a post-apocalyptic words. truly beautiful (and much copied) great music, and choices that matter.

Device 6 http://simogo.com/work/device-6/ see wikipedia for plothttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_6

80 Days http://www.inklestudios.com/80days/ try to traverse the world in 80 days as the Jules Verne character. You can shape Passpartout’s character via your choices. Steampunk!

PG-R

A Dark Room by Dan Klein 2015
A Dark Room by Dan Klein 2015

The Walking Dead http://www.thewalkingdead.com/games/ Zombie apocalypse. Also, your choices will shape your character.

A Dark Room http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/ (also IOS) Read the new yorker articlehttp://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/a-dark-room-the-best-selling-game-that-no-one-can-explain

Blood and Laurels http://versu.com/2014/05/28/blood-laurels/
Rome with an empire change, and you know what that means. Blood, intrigue, sacrifices… Of note: you can choose to be gay, or bi.

Yearwalk http://simogo.com/work/year-walk-ios/ (warning, a bit dark) Mysteries and murders as a young man does a “walkabout”

Gone Home http://www.gonehomegame.com

Creatures Such As We (Lynnea Glasser) http://www.ifcomp.org/1123/content/CreaturesSuchasWeIFComp2014.htm (can be found on Apple App store also)

You’re a dutiful tour guide on the moon – and a fan of computer dating games. This is a computer dating game, which provides landscape for brilliant meta-commentary on popular games and the challenges of delivering emotional narratives in the commercial video game industry. While niche gaming fans are sure to appreciate the in-jokes and the nuanced look at the work of narrative game development, this is also an incredibly engrossing tale of labour, life and loneliness in the future.

Device6 by Christopher Paniati
Device6 by Christopher Paniati

No Rating bc it’s a Platform – Who knows what humans will do. 

Storium https://storium.com/ Storium is a group story telling platform, so it’s hard to say what your story will be.

Fallen London http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/

Also, Check out this article for more.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/22/interactive-fiction-awards-games