Winners of the 2017 IFComp

A comedy of errors experienced through a parser with a limited verb set. Also, puzzles.

May contain dairy, carnage, puzzles, nuts.

091 Manuscripts—096 Illustrated—098 Prohibited works, forgeries, and hoaxes

Signed permission from the Dean required for viewing. No exceptions.

Absence of Law is a science fiction comedy from the author of Ether and Color the Truth. This game is designed to be accessible to those who have never played parser games, while keeping a few surprises for parser experts.

The online version of this game uses non-standard colors and fonts, and has a complete musical soundtrack that can be enabled from the first menu. (Note that the game only works at normal zoom level; enlarging the text may cause the game to freeze.)

But now that final is tomorrow morning. After months of procrastination you've got one night left to learn enough to pass the course.

You might even be desperate enough to try one of your roommate's sketchy memory pills.

Today is the day they will come.

Their ship will crash, but the resulting explosion will trouble them not at all.

They will emerge, wrapped in shadows and smoke, from the wreckage.

Their senses will lead them unerringly to Kayla, wherever she hides.

She is but a girl. She is not at all ready.

And you will not be here to protect her, for they know your weakness: you must return to the obelisk before midday, or the poison of this world will kill you.

And Kayla will be alone.

You blink, and the vision fades, but it is no less true. You still see the traces of the future around you. The traces will last until the noon sun, and it is well that they will do so, for you will need them.

You can see the future. But is that enough to let you change it?

As a research witch, elemental transformation is second nature to you. And that's just as well, because your house is malfunctioning, and you'll need to use everything you know to put it right.

(Puzzle-oriented and family friendly.)

Time has stopped moving, and that might turn out to have been my fault. I didn't mean to do it. You must believe me. I'll prove it to you if you help me fix this. There are other people who might be able to help us.

Unfortunately, they are all mad.

Guttersnipe: St. Hesper's Asylum for the Criminally Mischievous is a humorously grotesque (or grotesquely humorous) game about a street urchin and her pet sewer rat escaping a sanitarium full of tinctures, brines, and other misbegotten 1920s health remedies.

Earth is overpopulated and low on resources: the puppies, the kitties, and the fishies are all gone. There are not enough jobs, yet Hiremy & Hirschl has employed robots as middle management staff, which causes much friction. According to the employees, Charlie the robot is malfunctioning. But it could be that Charlie is being bullied. And what is a Shrimp Shake?

Meanwhile, you are being tested by the ISG, and if you make the Elite® ranks, you'll be able to live on Mars and start a new civilization with people who are as intelligent as you. But the exam questions are suspect at best.

This is only the plot. Your job, really, is to ascertain the value of human existence.

Cover photo by Benjamin Sloth Lindgreen.

Made during June 2017 for the JAM "Canciones del desierto, la tormenta y el mar". The game is inspired by the song "Tuuli" from the Swedish/Finnish group Hedningarna.

Polished, extended and translated for the 2017 IF Comp.

Explore a simulated living (and dying) world inhabited by AI actors, rendered through text.

Swigian is a minimalist game. It is long, but quickly finished, with few words and few complications.

The TV is droning. The front door is closed.

You look at the clock.

You look at the door.

You wait.

Explore five unique planets across time; encounter alien societies and make difficult moral choices; experience radically different themes, narrative trajectories and outcomes with every playthrough.

Played in-browser. Chrome recommended; also compatible with Firefox. Headphones recommended for best experience.

It's disconcerting, all of this: the surface, the stars, and the vast spaces between. But out there, a speck in the sky, is your objective: the center of the galaxy.

(A Twine game about space exploration. Estimated playtime around 50 minutes.)

This parser-based game features puzzles, turn-based combat, leveling up, treasure, loot, weapons, armor, and classic adventuring. There is an integral non-spoiler hint system, and an in-game, contextual walkthrough for each puzzle and location. The player kit contains a map, a Windows interpreter, and instructions for setting up a Mac to run the game.

You stand knee deep in the water, facing out to sea.

Familiar voices shimmer behind your head.

You take a breath, and then begin.

-

A game about swimming, thinking and the distant possibility of escape.

Salt is best experienced with headphones and a keyboard.

Music by Paws Menu.

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Please Note: Online play has been enabled and tested on multiple browsers. If you choose to play locally, this story requires the HTML TADS interpreter (http://www.tads.org/tads3.htm) or the QTads interpreter (http://qtads.sourceforge.net/downloads.shtml). Universal interpreters such as Zoom, Spatterlight and Gargoyle do not support HTML TADS. You can find the stand-alone version in the zip file.

Your journey starts here.

Redstone is a parser/choice hybrid designed for desktop and mobile browsers.

Playtesters: George Haley, Javri, Brian Rushton, and JKJ Yuio

Now, you have been sent on this errand and you'll soon learn there is danger in this task.

Created with support of the Houghton Library 75th Anniversary Fellowship.

Day of the Djinn is a medium-length game with a few puzzles that should take 1-2 hours. Seven endings- but what matters is the journey and the path you choose to walk.

Even if everyone would shout below for you to come back, you want to let go. And be free.

Either way, you're doomed.

Given the opportunity to start over, what kind of person will you become?

NIGHTBOUND is a text-based RPG. It includes an inventory system, turn-based combat, and class and leveling systems. A full guide/walkthrough is included.

{Credits for testing: Andreas Bayr, Anna Bulina, Klemens Jahrmann}

Prepare yourself for a somewhat surreal "escape the room" type experience. Do you have the wits necessary to find your way to the end of "The Wizard's Rainbow"? You have two hours to make your escape...

Hurry home, your mistress awaits...

It's just another year of your normal London life – work, eat, sleep. However, in your dreams you keep meeting a translucent stranger, a person cloaked in clouds. Who are they, and how do they know so much about you? The way you approach your everyday life will change how your dreams unfold.

The Dream Self was made with Unity and Ink. The file below contains the Windows build, as well as an HTML file linking to the Mac build.

You are in your office when you receive an urgent email from your supervisor Professor Weck asking for you to meet him in the laboratory.

Travel through time, navigate the perils of academia and solve the mystery of your missing supervisor.

You are the hero, an orphan born under the sign of the Phoenix who, according to the prophecies, is destined to defeat Vourtram and his evil forces. Pick your class between warrior, wizard, and thief, each with an exclusive path to solve the puzzles. The warrior has easier puzzles, but requires some luck; wizards and thieves only require brains. It is up to you to first develop your skills as a hero, and afterwards depart in the quest to rescue the princess and destroy the evil of ... The Castle of Vourtram.

Can you catch your next meal, or will you succumb to starvation and worse?

On the right side, a woman with her head full of fears.

On both sides, desperate beings seek to break out of spheres.

To play you may need to right click and select "open" or "open with Java". You also might need to install/update Java. Visit the wiki: www.fabriziopolo.com/textcraft/wiki (contains separate spoiler-free and spoiler sections)

As you turn around, you see an old witch stand before you. "Listen carefully, Kral!" the witch whispers with a hoarse voice.

"I have summoned you here to help me clear this land from the evil mountain king, who lives in his castle up north. The mountain king terrorizes this land, and must die so that peace can be restored around here. If you succeed you will be significantly rewarded.

"You will meet various of his evil guardians on your quest, so take care. Unfortunately I could not bring you here with your weapons, so you will have to make do with what you find around here.

"Good luck!"

With those words, the witch disappears in a puff of white smoke.

Contains random combat and puzzle elements. NOTE: To play, you either need to download ADRIFT 5 from www.adrift.co/downloads or you can run the windows executable game included in the download below.

Now that your latest invention, the TIME SCRYER, is complete, nothing can stop your rise to glory.

Inevitable is a tiny one-room escape-your-fate adventure.

Note: This game was designed for the HTML TADS Player Kit (http://www.tads.org/tads3.htm). Another interpreter that appears to support the game is QTads (http://qtads.sourceforge.net/downloads.shtml). You can use universal interpreters, including Zoom, Spatterlight, and Gargoyle, but no you'll see no graphics and get no music.

Those puppets made with precious materials are of good quality.But the best ones are born to be puppets rather than selected.

It's the fifth Sunday on calendar. A murder happened in a villa. You have to find out the criminal to prove yourself innocent.

This game is made with ADRIFT and contains optional music.

On a freezing night,the classroom was surrounded by fog.A girl sent you a wired picture ,saying that she's in danger and ask for your help. She was the one you had affection with. What would you do ?

Note that you may need to download a Floo interpreter for your system.

side Beta, "Hot to Trot" edition