Professor of Magical Studies

Research magic that probably won't destroy the world! Plus, if you do have to save the world, that'll look great when you're up for tenure.

Professor of Magical Studies is a 500,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Stephen Granade. Your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

You are a practitioner of pattern magic: an arcane art that allows you to reshape the very nature of reality, with an extra advantage thanks to your synesthesia, which enables you to see patterns more clearly. With a few strokes of a pen on paper, you can draw magical energy from the space between universes to do everything from levitating objects to preserving memories that you can walk through later to creating pocket dimensions.

You've just been hired for your first faculty position at Winfield Phillips, the seemingly normal New England college that happens to have a secret magic department. It's a great first job, or would be except for Darcy Bozeman. Your former school friend used magic to cheat you out of a coveted fellowship, almost derailing your academic career before it began. Now Darcy's a fellow professor at Winfield Phillips, and is still working to undermine you.

(You can play the first three chapters of the game for free, including in a web browser. The rest of the game can be purchased at the download links.)