New on IFDB

A new listing for Mage the Ascension: Refuge, by Karin Tidbeck

MathBrush reviews Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale: "A million-word Wodehousian comedy" December 7, 2020 "I'm fairly certain this is the largest commissioned single-author interactive fiction game ever released. 80 Days has 750K words, and..." - See full review

DoctorFury reviews Anchorhead: "Why improve on perfection?" December 6, 2020 "So I played the original Anchorhead the year it came out, and then just finished the 2018 Steam release on my Mac ten minutes ago. It's a..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Electric word, "life": "Weird title, lovely game" December 6, 2020 "I’m worried that this one might get overlooked and I’m guessing it’s because of the title which – and I say this as someone who..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews The Eidolon's Escape: "A convincingly inhuman viewpoint" December 6, 2020 "A workman-like piece of choice-based IF, Eidolon’s Escape hits its marks while dangling hints of a deeper mystery, and if it lacks any..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Dr Ego and the egg of Man-Toomba: "Paging Dr. Jones" December 6, 2020 "Dr. Ego is an old-school, parser-based treasure hunt that wears its influences on its sleeve: the ABOUT text says the idea came to the..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Doppeljobs: "A perfect impersonation of a very good game" December 6, 2020 "The “fantasy monster gets a job” genre is a fun one – the first example that comes to mind is Dungeon Detective and its sequel..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Deus Ex Ceviche: "A fishful of dollars (plus the fish is the Pope)" December 6, 2020 "I keep wanting the title here to be a pun but can’t figure out how to make “ceviche” fit to “machina”. That feeling of..." - See full review

brwarner reviews The Copyright of Silence: "Really cool use of a custom interface in Twine" December 6, 2020 "The interface for this game is really cool. Not sure if other authors have already experimented with this kind of setup before, but..." - See full review

brwarner reviews What the Bus?: "Wacky idea with good writing but too fragmented" December 6, 2020 "A silly game about trying to get to work. I don’t have too much to say about this one. The imagery and absurdity are fun and absurd,..." - See full review

brwarner reviews The Brutal Murder of Jenny Lee: "Interesting ideas but I needed more" December 6, 2020 "Another one of the only parser game’s I’ve now played in my life, BMoJL is a short murder mystery where you play as an ..." - See full review

brwarner reviews You Couldn't Have Done That: "Very Effective" December 6, 2020 "As I told the author during my playtest, I thought this game was really effective. There are no autistic people in my life, so all my..." - See full review

brwarner reviews You Will Thank Me as Fast as You Thank a Werewolf: "Thank You Werewolf but I'm Confused" December 6, 2020 "Poems? With choices maybe? Reading this is like reading Trout Fishing in America. The words are fun to read and sentences taste good in..." - See full review

brwarner reviews Big Trouble in Little Dino Park: "Fun if you like dinosaurs " December 6, 2020 "A game for anyone who loves Dinosaurs and Jurassic Park. It has fun with the tropes and lets you relive a variety of dino outbreaks (is..." - See full review

brwarner reviews Congee: "Lovely little Twine game" December 6, 2020 "Lovely little Twine game. This honestly feels like what all the tiny, evocative Twine games aspire to be and it does it so well. For such..." - See full review

brwarner reviews Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: "I wanted more Newton!" December 6, 2020 "This is my first parser game of the contest. I do not really play parser games. I played a bunch of Hugo’s House of Horrors when I was..." - See full review

brwarner reviews Mother Tongue: "Immersive and Unique" December 6, 2020 "My girlfriend and I had a good time playing this one in bed last night. It’s the perfect length for its premise and challenges you to..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Desolation: "Creepy but a bit underimplemented" December 6, 2020 "(This is a review of the initial Comp release of the game; I believe mid-Comp updates have addressed some of the bugs mentioned below)..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Deelzebub: "Devilishly funny" December 6, 2020 "Deelzebub is a lightly-puzzly comedy game that nails the comedy and got my first out-loud laughs of the Comp. The scenario – the player..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews The Cursèd Pickle of Shireton: "A delightful cornucopia " December 6, 2020 "Finally, someone dares to tell the truth about pickles - we need to get this game into the hands of Congress because it's time for..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Creatures: "Atmospheric but obtuse dungeon-crawling" December 6, 2020 "The second RPG/IF hybrid I’ve hit in this year’s Comp, Creatures nails the dark, dour, and dank atmosphere of a grim-and-gritty..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews The Copyright of Silence: "Four minutes and thirty-three seconds of puzzling" December 6, 2020 "The Copyright of Silence has what’s probably the most genius premise of all 103 games in the Comp. It’s an optimization puzzle where..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Congee: "Interactive comfort food" December 6, 2020 "The Comp randomizer handed me Congee and Mother Tongue close together, which is an interesting coincidence since they’re both short..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Chorus: "Distaff-monster optimization" December 6, 2020 "I’m usually a story/writing-first, systems-later sort of player, but Chorus’s big puzzle grabbed me hard, and I spent more time..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews The Cave: "Wise, intelligent, and charismatic" December 6, 2020 "This was the second game I played in the Comp that put me in mind of a "lifepath" character creation system (quick recap: the old..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews A Catalan Summer: "A unique genre-transcending gem" December 6, 2020 "Usually when I play a piece of IF – or read a book or watch a movie, for that matter – my brain immediately tries to classify it,..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Captivity: "Reasonably captivating" December 6, 2020 "A puzzle-y fairytale with a twist, Captivity boasts a plucky protagonist, an engaging supporting cast, some pleasant challenges, and..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Captain Graybeard's Plunder: "Adventures in bibliopiracy" December 6, 2020 "Captain Graybeard’s Plunder neatly inverts the adage that history is written by the victors; here, fiction is remixed by the losers. As..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews A Calling of Dogs: "Intensely unpleasant (but in a good way!)" December 6, 2020 "So this is quite a good game that I really did not enjoy in the slightest. It starts in medias res, but the premise is immediately..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews The Call of Innsmouth: "It's beginning to look a lot like fish-men..." December 6, 2020 "When I was on an airplane many years ago, I had the idea of writing a Lovecraft pastiche in a noir voice suddenly pop into my head. After..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews BYOD: "High quality, small portions" December 6, 2020 "BYOD ain’t messing around with the “micro” label – I probably spent as much time playing guess-the-acronym as I did actually..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews The Brutal Murder of Jenny Lee: "Less brutal than advertised" December 6, 2020 "Friends, I will level with you: 2020 has been tough for me, and going into this one I wasn’t sure how I felt about another game about..." - See full review

MathBrush reviews The Icarian Cup: "A long and action-centered race story with great references" December 6, 2020 "This is one of my favorite recent exceptional stories. There are rumours of a special race going around Fallen London, where only the..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Big Trouble in Little Dino Park: "A (buggy) Jurassic lark" December 6, 2020 "I’ve tried to note in these reviews where I think a post-Comp release or in-Comp update would help improve a game, but usually I do..." - See full review

Mike Russo reviews Babyface: "Sublime horror" December 6, 2020 "(This review is of the Comp release) There is nothing creepier than a creepy dream. Conversely, there is often nothing less creepy than..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews Quintessence: "Neat Idea" December 6, 2020 "So, first of all, the cursor is a sauropod. Possibly a brachiosaurus? This fact alone is worth a star. Quintessence brings a nice..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews The Call of Innsmouth: "Great Flavor, Hasty Pacing" December 6, 2020 "Right from the outset, The Call of Innsmouth builds itself upon a strong aesthetic foundation. The style of the prose and the parlance of..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews Big Trouble in Little Dino Park: "Should Have Spent 60 Days" December 6, 2020 "Big Trouble in Little Dino Park puts the player in the shoes of an ennui-afflicted young person working a menial job - until you are..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews Saint Simon's Saw: "Kinda Brilliant, Kinda Bad" December 6, 2020 "Saint Simon’s Saw is a digitized tarot reading, except instead of traditional tarot cards, it has its own proprietary deck, drawing..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews The Eleusinian Miseries: "A Real Knee-Slapper" December 6, 2020 "Among theoreticians of humour, there are those who suppose that funniness is best explained by what they call the incongruous..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews Deus Ex Ceviche: "I Got Schooled" December 6, 2020 "There were many ambitious entries in the IFComp 2020. This is the only one I’ve played that goes so far as to stake out a new aesthetic..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews The Cave: "Cool Concept, Not As Exciting As I'd Expected" December 6, 2020 "In a classic setup, The Cave thrusts the player into a cave network to explore. But it quickly becomes apparent that mapping out the..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews Quest for the Sword of Justice: "Irony So Thick, You Could Cut It With a Sword" December 6, 2020 "Quest for the Sword of Justice is a surprising little game that subverted my expectations at every turn. Although, maybe that's just..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews The Eidolon's Escape: "Good Execution, But Excellent Idea" December 6, 2020 "The Eidolon’s Escape is a nice, solid choice-based game that puts the player in the role of an incorporeal entity seeking to escape..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews The Incredibly Mild Misadventures of Tom Trundle: "Nothing Mild About It" December 6, 2020 "Wow. What a journey. The Incredibly Mild Misadventures of Tom Trundle is witty and crude, sage and sophomoric, beautifully authentic and..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews What the Bus?: "A Wicked Good Commute" December 6, 2020 "On my first playthrough, this transit nightmare about a confusing commute didn’t impress me too much. With somewhat minimalistic..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews Move On: "An Innovative Piece" December 6, 2020 "This entire review is based on a spoiler that goes straight to the heart of the game, so be warned. " - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews Sage Sanctum Scramble: "The Blurb Says It All" December 6, 2020 "I cannot summarize Sage Sanctum Scramble any better than its blurb has already done: as promised, it’s a grab bag of puzzles. Most of..." - See full review

Denk reviews Tombs & Mummies: "Good game with nice optional puzzles" December 6, 2020 "When I first tried this game, I played it online. At that time the game kept freezing and I had to restart each time. I then found that I..." - See full review

Joey Acrimonious reviews A Murder in Fairyland: "Unique Puzzles, Compelling Story" December 6, 2020 "Wonder and whimsy. Political intrigue and murder. Detective work, bureaucracy, and the simple human pleasure of wearing a scarf. A Murder..." - See full review

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