Games that inspired you to MAKE a game. - an IFDB Poll

Whether it was the witty dialogue, the charming atmosphere, or the cleverness of the puzzle - you played "this" game and it inspired you to write your own. Selfishly, I'm looking for my own inspiration, but I am also very, very curious as to the personal variations therein.

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	Anchorhead, by Michael Gentry 7 votes "Fantastic" [+]"Fantastic: the first ever IF I played, and like first love, it's closest to the heart. A fantastic mix of mood and story and plot. Female protagonist who isn't really an action hero, but still tough. Did I mention mood?" --Marius Müller... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Sam Kabo Ashwell... (No comment) [+](No comment) ( - Full review) --Xervosh... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --jahilia... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --diddlescatter... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Tobias V. I. Langhoff... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Vulturous... Vote for this game

	Curses, by Graham Nelson 5 votes "Direct inspiration for making Never Gives Up Her Dead" [+]"Direct inspiration for making Never Gives Up Her Dead: I wanted to recreate the feeling of a giant open world and always finding more." ( - Full review) --MathBrush... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Emily Short... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Mike Sousa... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --[delete this account]... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Spike... Vote for this game

	Colossal Cave Adventure, by William Crowther and Donald Woods 4 votes "The first IF game I ever played." [+]"The first IF game I ever played." --Draconis... "It makes you want to tinker." [+]"It makes you want to tinker.: It was the only such game I knew when I wrote my (paper-based) first own IF game." --Biep... (No comment) [+](No comment) --DB... (No comment) [+](No comment) --aaronius... Vote for this game

	Slouching Towards Bedlam, by Star Foster and Daniel Ravipinto 3 votes "Astounding!" [+]"Astounding!: Fantastic world building -- so intriguing!" () --dacharya64... (No comment) [+](No comment) ( - Full review) --Juhana... "One of the..." [+]"One of the endings in my first game was an homage." () --Teaspoon... Vote for this game

	I-0, by Anonymous 3 votes "Sandbox play, many paths and outcomes" [+]"Sandbox play, many paths and outcomes: A balance between freedom and figuring things out for yourself. Supports many endings, so you don't feel railroaded. Explore its little world and make your own story through it. Inspiring for me." () --Sylvia Storm... "This is not a..." [+]"This is not a game I'd recommend to everyone, but I loved the non-linearity of the game structure. I-0 has the feel of a "Choose-your-own-adventure" story (for adults) with the interactivity of a fully functional parser system. This inspired me to write my first game." --Cup of Joe... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Ryan Veeder... Vote for this game

	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky 3 votes "As a kid I spent..." [+]"As a kid I spent time implementing footnotes and error messages so my game was like HHGG. But not as." () --Andrew Schultz... (No comment) [+](No comment) ( - Full review) --Teaspoon... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Max Fog... Vote for this game

	Spider and Web, by Andrew Plotkin 2 votes "IF with a story!" [+]"IF with a story!: Managed to capture linear gameplay with all the detail of IF... " --dacharya64... "Made me realise..." [+]"Made me realise that IF could be something sufficiently awesome to be worth working on." () --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game

	Goose, Egg, Badger, by Brian Rapp 2 votes "Funny and clever!" [+]"Funny and clever!: Such a simple idea that made for such a fun game! Definitely makes me want to write a game." ( - Full review) --diddlescatter... "Anything with odd..." [+]"Anything with odd wordplay that works gets me wishing I could find a trick, too" ( - Full review) --Andrew Schultz... Vote for this game

	Blue Lacuna, by Aaron A. Reed 2 votes "This game inspired me to start my own...the highly explorable world and the variety of paths you can end up in makes this one of my favorites." [+]"This game inspired me to start my own...the highly explorable world and the variety of paths you can end up in makes this one of my favorites.: This game definitely inspired me to start my own. It was extremely well done and the environment made me think of a fantasy game that I wanted to create (as inspired by a fantasy novel that I tried to write on my own a few years ago)." --gamerbeauty86... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game

	Zork I, by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) --Tobias V. I. Langhoff... Vote for this game

	Worlds Apart, by Suzanne Britton 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game

	Leather Goddesses of Phobos, by Steve Meretzky 1 vote "I'll never stop playing this one" [+]"I'll never stop playing this one: One of the two games (along with Beyond Zork) which define what a text adventure is and can be for me. If you do the math, that adds up to a pretty warped perspective, I suppose, but I'll keep it safe." () --Ghalev... Vote for this game

	With Those We Love Alive, by Porpentine and Brenda Neotenomie 1 vote "Now I'm trying Twine" [+]"Now I'm trying Twine" ( - Full review) --Teaspoon... Vote for this game

	A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Steve Meretzky 1 vote "The prototype for the modern IF style" [+]"The prototype for the modern IF style: The first game that opened my eyes to the power of interactive fiction to tell a moving story. It took 24 years, but I finally threw my hat into the ring as well." () --Matt Wigdahl... Vote for this game

	Forbidden Castle, by Mercer Mayer 1 vote "I am apparenly..." [+]"I am apparenly one of few people to ever play this- but even way back my cousin and I used to try to make GWBASIC IF games because of this. Thank god for Inform- we were going about it in the hardest way possible!" ( - Full review) --tggdan3... Vote for this game

	When Help Collides, by J. D. Berry 1 vote "Or, rather, the..." [+]"Or, rather, the Bleach of Etiquette section, which is scarcely IF but suggests a great many possibilities." ( - Full review) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game

	The Count, by Scott Adams 1 vote "The inspiration for my first published game" [+]"The inspiration for my first published game: This was the game that first made me want to write a text adventure back in the 80s, and it was the model for the first parser game I published in 2002. A small map, with very few empty locations and items with multiple uses, it's a model of economy." --J. J. Guest... Vote for this game

	Beyond Zork, by Brian Moriarty 1 vote "I could live in it." [+]"I could live in it.: From the scratchboard map to the Lore and Legends to the strange simplicity of the world itself, this is the game that brought the whole experience for me, and it's one of two games I return to constantly (along with LGoP) for renewal of purpose and inspiration. By the time I played it myself (the mid-1990s) it was already a dustbin item, but it felt like a ray of weird-ass sunshine." () --Ghalev... Vote for this game

	Alabaster, by John Cater, Rob Dubbin, Eric Eve, Elizabeth Heller, Jayzee, Kazuki Mishima, Sarah Morayati, Mark Musante, Emily Short, Adam Thornton, Ziv Wities 1 vote "Trying to make..." [+]"Trying to make sense of the endings led me to read the source code, which aside from being fascinating helped me realise - programming I7 is quite doable!" () --Teaspoon... Vote for this game

	The Ascent of the Gothic Tower, by Ryan Veeder 1 vote "This was one of..." [+]"This was one of the first games I played that really made me think about storytelling through movement." --Greg Frost... Vote for this game

	Afflicted, by Doug Egan 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Ryan Veeder... Vote for this game

	The Axe of Kolt [2014 ADRIFT version], by Larry Horsfield 1 vote "Three things came together in my head: -This is great!, -I could maybe do this!, -Adrift looks easy enough for me!" [+]"Three things came together in my head: -This is great!, -I could maybe do this!, -Adrift looks easy enough for me!" ( - Full review) --Rovarsson... Vote for this game

	Leadlight, by Wade Clarke 1 vote "OK, I know the author" [+]"OK, I know the author: Testing this game brought me back to the community. Maybe it's brought other Apple owners back, or it will, too." --Andrew Schultz... Vote for this game

	Shade, by Andrew Plotkin 1 vote "This was the one..." [+]"This was the one for me. I've been writing fiction since forever, and I've always been interested in the interactive, but I couldn't fathom how I might be able to pull off a game of my own...until I played Shade. It's influence should be apparent in Room 206, my first attempt at a full IF." ( - Full review) --The Year Is Yesterday... Vote for this game

	Caverns of Chaos, by Paul Martinez and Alison Castro 1 vote "I knew I could do better" [+]"I knew I could do better: Playing the IF adaptation and seeing how far removed it was from some of the better pieces, made me want to do my own MiSTing. I actually dusted off the Inform developers manual because of this." ( - Full review) --mjhayes... Vote for this game

	Make It Good, by Jon Ingold 1 vote "This was the last straw, if I didn't solve the case I was out of a job" [+]"This was the last straw, if I didn't solve the case I was out of a job: Just an all around great game. Great plot, characters and a brilliant puzzle which makes you work to win" ( - Full review) --Aintelligence... Vote for this game

	Aotearoa, by Matt Wigdahl 1 vote "Made me think,..." [+]"Made me think, 'Oh, so these games can do These Things now. I want to do these things, too.'" () --Wade Clarke... Vote for this game

	The Reliques of Tolti-Aph, by Graham Nelson 1 vote "A Cruel Classic!" [+]"A Cruel Classic!: For players, this is a classic roll playing game with magic spells, puzzles, traps, random dice rolls, and monsters! The source code is fantastic, and has inspired me to write my own story." --Dan Welch... Vote for this game

	Savoir-Faire, by Emily Short 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Chris Longhurst... Vote for this game

	Indigo, by Emily Short 1 vote "After realising that a small, short game can come out fine, I decided to make some like this too! " [+]"After realising that a small, short game can come out fine, I decided to make some like this too! " --BlitzWithGuns... Vote for this game

	An Act of Murder, by Christopher Huang 1 vote "Classic murder mystery style" [+]"Classic murder mystery style: Well done game with good characters and clues" ( - Full review) --ZUrlocker... Vote for this game

	Long Live the Queen, by Hanako Games 1 vote "Made the logic behind IF transparent." [+]"Made the logic behind IF transparent.: This game, with its flag change indicators, showed me how IF logic can help turn a story into a game. Once I found out it was made with a program I found accessible (Ren'Py), I started work on making Budacanta." --Alianora La Canta... Vote for this game

	Hoist Sail for the Heliopause and Home, by Andrew Plotkin 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Dannii... Vote for this game

	Babel, by Ian Finley 1 vote "Clever flashback..." [+]"Clever flashback device inspired me. " () --AmberShards... Vote for this game

	Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It, by Jeff O'Neill 1 vote "I got several from this" [+]"I got several from this: I liked how graphics might've ruined the effect, and I wanted to try too. I learned so much about twisting language from this." () --Andrew Schultz... Vote for this game

Is there another game that you think should be on this list? Just fill in the title of a game you'd like to vote for.

Poll created on July 27, 2010