Winners of the 2022 IFComp

← 2021 results
2023 results →
Switch to compact list view Browse / download 2022 game files

1st place

The Grown-Up Detective Agency

Cover art for The Grown-Up Detective Agency

Brendan Patrick Hennessy

Cover art by: Beck Kubrick

The only thing Bell Park likes more than a mystery is solving it on her own. But when a time-traveling 12-year-old version of herself lands face-down on her rented co-working desk, she'll have no choice but to take the displaced kid detective along on her latest case.

FOLLOW THE TRAIL of a missing heterosexual on the strange streets of Toronto! Investigate a QUIRKY CAST of drag kings, chicken wing enthusiasts, and women in elaborate cat make-up! Thrill in the PERVASIVE ENNUI of your early twenties! Struggle to remember where your preteen self was at with the whole BEING GAY THING!

Will Adult Bell make peace with the figurative and literal ghosts of her past? Can Kid Bell navigate the uncanny world of the 2020s and find her way back home? How's the chicken in that creepy basement food court? These questions and more will be answered in THE GROWN-UP DETECTIVE AGENCY.

From the author of BIRDLAND, KNOWN UNKNOWNS, and BOAT PROM. Featuring art by Beck Kubrick.

Mystery • One hour • Choice-based

This work also won 3rd place in the 2022 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 8.25
Votes Cast 85
Standard Deviation 1.35

2nd place

The Absence of Miriam Lane

Cover art for The Absence of Miriam Lane

Abigail Corfman

Sometimes people give pieces of themselves away.

Sometimes they give too much and who they are wears thin.

They become an absence. A hole in the world.

And a terrible Light shines through.

Eldritch Mystery • One hour • Choice-based

This work also won 2nd place in the 2022 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 8.17
Votes Cast 78
Standard Deviation 1.59

3rd place

A Long Way to the Nearest Star

Cover art for A Long Way to the Nearest Star

SV Linwood

A thief on the run from the galactic police finds refuge on an abandoned spaceship. A lonely ship AI finds unexpected company.

Explore the ship, solve puzzles, uncover mysteries, and befriend an AI who probably isn't trying to kill you.

Sci-fi • Two hours • Choice-based

This work also earned its author the Rising Star award.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 8.13
Votes Cast 46
Standard Deviation 1.58

4th place

The Archivist and the Revolution

Cover art for The Archivist and the Revolution

Autumn Chen

The world is ending, and you are still paying rent.

Post-post-apocalyptic life sim • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.90
Votes Cast 77
Standard Deviation 1.57

5th place

Trouble in Sector 471

Cover art for Trouble in Sector 471

Arthur DiBianca

The power just went out in Sector 471. You had better go take a look.

Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.79
Votes Cast 86
Standard Deviation 1.37

6th place

According to Cain
An inquiry

Cover art for According to Cain

Jim Nelson

Cover art by: Kawanabe Kyōsai

Two brothers.

One murder.

And a mystery as old as mankind.

You are a medieval investigator sent back in time to learn the secrets behind mankind's first murder. Using an alchemy system, observation, and your wits, you must discover the untold truth about Cain and Abel.

Religious fantasy • Two hours • Parser-based

This work also won 1st place in the 2022 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.77
Votes Cast 64
Standard Deviation 1.92

7th place

January

Cover art for January

litrouke

Cover art by: Addictivities

A year in the life of a man after the end of the world.

Dynamic fiction, story-based, heavy themes.

Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.36
Votes Cast 44
Standard Deviation 1.67

8th place

The Only Possible Prom Dress
Return to Stufftown (an interactive shopping emergency)

Cover art for The Only Possible Prom Dress

Jim Aikin

Ten years ago you had to burgle every store in Stufftown to get your hands on the sought-after doll called Sugar Toes Ballerina so your 7-year-old daughter Samantha wouldn't be heartbroken on Christmas morning. ("Not Just an Ordinary Ballerina," 1999.) Sam is 17 now, and tonight is her senior prom -- but her little brother spilled black ink (accidentally? maybe...) on her prom dress! The clerk at the fashion boutique in Stufftown said on the phone they have the identical dress in the right size, but most of the stores have closed up early because there's a parade downtown. So now it's back to Stufftown to try to get your hands on the Only Possible Prom Dress.

It's not going to be easy. "The Only Possible Prom Dress" is a parser-based puzzle-fest in the classic mode, packed with chatty characters and unlikely perplexities. For best results, the cross-platform QTads interpreter is strongly recommended.

Fantasy • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.34
Votes Cast 41
Standard Deviation 1.52

9th place

The Princess of Vestria

Cover art for The Princess of Vestria

Kai Oyinloye (writing as “KPO”)

Cover art by: DALL.E

‘Be brave, listen to the voice inside that guides you…’

Inspired by a dream to take action to save her seriously ill brother, Princess Imelda must escape the palace and embark on a quest of danger and discovery that will be the making of a queen. Will the Princess be diplomatic or devious, kind or ruthless? Will she succeed or fail? Her fate – and the fate of the kingdom she will one day rule over as Queen – is in your hands.

The Princess of Vestria is a consequence-heavy fantasy adventure.

Fantasy, adventure • An hour and a half • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.26
Votes Cast 42
Standard Deviation 1.46

10th place

Prism
A Tale of Heterogenous Futures

Cover art for Prism

Eliot M.B. Howard

Cover art by: Me, regrettably

Born to a city of wonders beyond your reach, scarcity has always been a close friend. As a courier, the city’s human infrastructure, you scale its roofworks, evade its constables, risk death every day for others’ convenience — until opportunity crosses your path, and you’re allowed to discover what you believe beyond survival.

Given a scrap of power, how do you reinvent yourself, your relationship to the city, its people? Will it allow you to maintain a companionship based on mutual struggle?

And, beneath it all, from where do the canals in this desert flow?

Notes:

You'll likely want to play online rather than download. If you’d like to explore alternate endings, it is recommended that you save when you reach the Waterworks Hub.

You’ll have to forgive me the grungy-90s-album-cover art. The intended artist was experiencing some life circumstances!

And for your listening pleasure, here is a selection of sounds which kept me typing:   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0kUtdRfDPcGgf7QkKdqJqj?si=xCM49LqZSKmT2vgAJnFhLA

The Signs of the Sojourner Soundtrack

GoGo Penguin's A Humdrum Star

Portico Quartet's Monument

Ben Lukas Boysen's Mirage

Deep gratitude to my playtesters! Credits included at Prism's end.

Contemplative Industrial Fantasy • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.22
Votes Cast 51
Standard Deviation 1.65

11th place

A Chinese Room
A sociological horror story

Cover art for A Chinese Room

Milo van Mesdag

A one or two reader experience, A Chinese Room is one story in two, an outsider's impression of Russia, a story of power, control, inhumanity, and love.

Societal horror, political, romance. • Longer than two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.07
Votes Cast 46
Standard Deviation 1.98

12th place

Blood Island
A Slasher Dating Sim

Cover art for Blood Island

Billy Krolick

Become the Final Girl or Guy (or anything in between) of your dreams on Blood Island.

You're a new contestant on the hit reality dating show Passion in Paradise, where you can be who you want and date who you want. There's only one problem. Shortly after the season starts, you discover there's an uninvited guest on the island: a killer who stalks you and the others in a plastic Barbie mask. Who will live and who will die? That's up to you and the choices you make. Will you play the role of traditional Final "Girl" or show us something new entirely?

Horror, Dating Simulator, Thriller • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.98
Votes Cast 53
Standard Deviation 1.72

13th place

The Thirty Nine Steps
A tale of murder, travel and adventure

Cover art for The Thirty Nine Steps

Graham Walmsley

Cover art by: Photograph by Alex Berger (virtualwayfarer)

The man on the floor was quite dead, a knife through his heart skewering him to the floorboards. At a quarter to eight, the train would take me from London, where people would be searching for me, into the moors and villages of Scotland.

The Thirty Nine Steps is a thriller, based on the novel by John Buchan, with original music.

Adventure, thriller • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.95
Votes Cast 55
Standard Deviation 1.02

14th place

A Walk Around the Neighborhood

Cover art for A Walk Around the Neighborhood

Leo Weinreb

Cover art by: Leo Weinreb

The sun is filtering hazily through a partly-cloudy sky on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon. You're feeling lazy and a bit glued to the couch, but your partner insists on you getting some exercise. And although you complain, you have to admit – it looks to be the perfect day for a walk.

Okay Sam, time to go through the usual checklist: Clothes? Phone? Keys? Wallet? Mask? Now where could you have left those...

Explore 20 different endings in this poignant and humorous adventure through the mundane!

Comedic puzzle adventure • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.84
Votes Cast 67
Standard Deviation 1.49

15th place

Arborea
A traditional parser-based adventure with an arboreal/ecological theme

Cover art for Arborea

richard develyn

Cover art by: www.critical-hit.biz

'The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.' William Blake.

Historical/Fantasy/SF • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.73
Votes Cast 44
Standard Deviation 1.42

16th place

Use Your Psychic Powers at Applebee's

Cover art for Use Your Psychic Powers at Applebee's

Geoffrey Golden

You are a Psychic Brand Ambassador for Schtupmeister Beer. Listen to the thoughts of customers at the local Applebee's and convince them to try your syrupy ale. But will being in these peoples' heads convince you to get involved in their lives?

Sci-Fi Humor • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.66
Votes Cast 122
Standard Deviation 1.38

17th place (tie)

Esther's
A Brunch Story

Cover art for Esther's

Brad and Alleson Buchanan

At Esther's cafe your adorable host / Served cheese to the mice when they wanted toast! / That won't bother Harold's robust appetite, / But Janie insists that the order's not right.

Children's literature • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.53
Votes Cast 98
Standard Deviation 1.34

17th place (tie)

Under the Bridge

Cover art for Under the Bridge

Samantha Khan

Cover art by: Samantha Khan

Survive as a monster that has taken up residence underneath a bridge, interact with strangers who pass over your bride and see if you can not only survive the encounters, but create a home for yourself.

Fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.53
Votes Cast 73
Standard Deviation 1.42

19th place

The Alchemist

Cover art for The Alchemist

Jim MacBrayne (writing as “Older Timer”)

Ezekiel Throgmeister, commonly referred to by the villagers as The Alchemist, has left you in charge of his currently-running experiment while he attends to other pressing business. Can you succeed in completing his task?

The Alchemist is a large text-only interactive fiction fantasy game, very much in the 'old-school' style. It was written from the ground up for the PC using qBasic64, and has a comprehensive and powerful parser. Included in the game are detailed HELP instructions.

Also included are in-game hints, accessed by the command HINT.

Fantasy Adventure • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.50
Votes Cast 24
Standard Deviation 1.15

20th place

Admiration Point

Cover art for Admiration Point

Rachel Helps

Cover art by: Rachel Helps

You work as a virtual exhibit artist at a digital culture museum. There is a glimmer of attraction to your co-worker. You are married and Mormon.

Anti-romance • An hour and a half • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.48
Votes Cast 65
Standard Deviation 1.53

21st place

CHASE THE SUN

Cover art for CHASE THE SUN

Frankie Kavakich

Cover art by: Fragile Design Co.

It's the end of the world and everyone's handling it in their own way.

CHASE THE SUN is a game about running, family, and death. It features topics that may be considered surreal, unsettling, or upsetting to some.

Slice of life, surreal, apocalyptic • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.44
Votes Cast 72
Standard Deviation 1.17

22nd place (tie)

Crash
A routine maintenance job becomes a harrowing mission in deep space!

Cover art for Crash

Phil Riley

Cover art by: Tom Wham

Space Station Omicron-5 in the Deneb system is the biggest Space Authority outpost for many light years. You have the honor of being a member of the Repair Corps, repairing appliances and the like on Space Marine vessels that dock at the station.

Today you have what looks a routine mission. That is, until disaster strikes. Then it's all hands on deck (that's precisely two hands) to save the ship and yourself!

Science fiction • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.43
Votes Cast 42
Standard Deviation 1.56

22nd place (tie)

Lazy Wizard's Guide
Lazy Wizard's Guide to Passing the Very Final and Super Difficult Magical Exam

Cover art for Lazy Wizard's Guide

Lenard Gunda

It is time to take the final exam in your magician studies. The only problem is, for all the years you have spent in this prestigious school of magic, you have been really lazy. Really, really, "you don't remember a single spell" lazy. As you enter the examination room, you wonder how on earth you are going to pass this one, and become a licensed wizard? Lazy Wizard's Guide is a parser based text adventure that runs in your browser.

Fantasy • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.43
Votes Cast 63
Standard Deviation 1.92

22nd place (tie)

Cannelé & Nomnom - Defective Agency
a Disaster Duo game

Cover art for Cannelé & Nomnom - Defective Agency

Younès R. & Yazaleea

Co-written by:

Cover art by: Arisae (@arisae_art on Twitter)

Set foot in Falaisant, an enigmatic city full of magic and mysteries. You are an amnesiac individual who, in a desperate attempt to find out who you are, hires the only agency willing to take the case. There's only one issue: They. Are. Catastrophic.

Follow Cannelé and Nomnom, a duo of disastrous detectives on their chaotic investigation to solve those three mysteries: 1. Who are you? 2. What's your magical ability? And 3. Who erased your memories?

CONTROLS: Spacebar to advance text / Mouse controls for links and using the conspiracy board

Mystery, Fantasy, Comedy • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.43
Votes Cast 40
Standard Deviation 1.66

25th place

Into The Sun

Cover art for Into The Sun

Dark Star

Sitting on the cold side of Mercury, you've waited two months for space debris to drift through the system, caught in the sun's gravity well. Satellites make for great salvage, and you've earned enough before to scrape by, keeping the Kratos flying. But, this time, nothing so far. The radar is barren. You're running low on fuel, and repairs will be costly after being out here so long.

Sci-Fi • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.42
Votes Cast 55
Standard Deviation 1.30

26th place

No One Else Is Doing This
a community organising simulator

Cover art for No One Else Is Doing This

Lauren O'Donoghue

You are a community organiser. This is your job, four nights out of five; you sell people hope on their doorsteps.

But your passion for the work is waning, and you're struggling to hit your targets. Can you recruit enough members before the end of your shift? Or will your fallible human body get the better of you?

A short workplace simulator about knocking doors, slacking off, and falling out of love with a movement.

Workplace Simulator • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.37
Votes Cast 104
Standard Deviation 1.48

27th place

Nose Bleed

Cover art for Nose Bleed

Stanley W. Baxton

Please, stop embarassing us.

Horror • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.24
Votes Cast 94
Standard Deviation 2.04

28th place (tie)

Lost Coastlines
a game of dreams and discovery by William Dooling

Cover art for Lost Coastlines

William Dooling

> SHARE all your stories

> RECORD all your secrets

> ANSWER all your questions

> RENOUNCE all your possessions

> WAKE UP...

(For a *slightly* less surreal mapping experience, improved fonts, and a manual, download the game)

Open World Role-Playing Game • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.23
Votes Cast 39
Standard Deviation 1.95

28th place (tie)

Let Them Eat Cake

Cover art for Let Them Eat Cake

Alicia Morote

Cover art by: Mell Davison

The small riverside town of Sangnoire holds a deep and dear tradition: the Saving Day Festival. Each year, the citizens gather and offer their best tributes to celebrate the town and its continued existence. It's a miracle how anything so small should survive. Your serendipitous arrival coincides with preparation, and comes with opportunity. In order to help you assimilate to your new surroundings, your mentor has tasked you with gathering the ingredients and making a cake for the festivities. How badly do you want to get to know you neighbours?

Horror, fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.23
Votes Cast 66
Standard Deviation 1.62

30th place

One Way Ticket

Cover art for One Way Ticket

Vitalii Blinov

Cover art by: Vitalii Blinov

I was heading for a new life and my train brought me here. Nice town: friendly people, corn cuisine, mysterious architecture... So why am I sure that I need to get out of here as fast as possible?

Surrealism • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.09
Votes Cast 33
Standard Deviation 1.62

31st place

The Counsel in The Cave

Cover art for The Counsel in The Cave

Joshua Fratis

Graduate. Become lost. Imagine what's possible.

Magical Realism • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.07
Votes Cast 43
Standard Deviation 1.32

32nd place (tie)

Elvish for Goodbye

Cover art for Elvish for Goodbye

David Gürçay-Morris

Cover art by: David Gürçay-Morris

"To think of 'living' there was to reduce the miraculous to the mundane; one does not 'live' at Xanadu." — Joan Didion, "Goodbye to All That"

---=+=---

The great elvish city of Wild Idyll disappeared when our grandparents were still young, and all of the elves along with it. We each know dozens of stories about this near-mythical place, and hundreds more about the near-immortals who built it; but who can say what is true about a place that barely exists in memory?

Then I met the last person to have lived in Wild Idyll.

---=+=---

A choice-based story about telling stories, leaving cities, and cities leaving us.

Fantasy with a dash of steampunk; slice of life • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.98
Votes Cast 43
Standard Deviation 1.96

32nd place (tie)

Lucid

Cover art for Lucid

Caliban's Revenge

Cover art by: Caliban's Revenge

"The train stops at the rain slick station. The lights are going out on the platform. No one has ever seen the sky from here, but you can tell it's black outside. It will be black here too, very soon.”

Lucid is a surreal adventure game in which the player explores a city at night, struggling to overcome bad memories and outrun the darkness. Break free from the nightmare, or stumble through the streets forever.

Surreal Adventure/Exploration • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.98
Votes Cast 50
Standard Deviation 1.67

34th place

A Matter of Heist Urgency
An Anastasia the Power Pony Adventure

Cover art for A Matter of Heist Urgency

FLACRabbit

"CROWN JEWELS STOLEN!" scream the headlines of the Meighsalot newspapers. Anastasia the Power Pony is no ordinary horse, and she's not going to let the Smashy Llamas get away with their latest villainous plot...

Enjoy a delightfully short action-comedy featuring quirky characters, a robust >HINT system, tropical hideouts, and intense fights with kung-fu llamas.

Comedy Adventure • Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.79
Votes Cast 70
Standard Deviation 1.46

35th place

Who Shot Gum E. Bear?
A Bubble Gumshoe Mystery

Cover art for Who Shot Gum E. Bear?

Damon L. Wakes

Gum E. Bear lies dead in a pool of his own liquid centre, and only Bubble Gumshoe - private eye extraordinaire - can deliver sweet justice on the rain-sticky streets of Sugar City. Explore the area, seek out clues, interview suspects, and finally ACCUSE the murderer. But be careful: you only have one shot...

Thanks to G. Deyke for playtesting!

Contains violence, sex and drug use, all involving colourful candy characters.

Detective/comedy • Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.74
Votes Cast 77
Standard Deviation 1.35

36th place

You Feel Like You've Read this in a Book

Cover art for You Feel Like You've Read this in a Book

Austin Lim

A time-sensitive mystery puzzle game with multiple endings. As you explore your surroundings, you get the feeling that your surroundings are vaguely familiar.

Puzzle • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.73
Votes Cast 75
Standard Deviation 1.48

37th place

The Thick Table Tavern
Mix some drinks, talk to patrons, collect coins!

Cover art for The Thick Table Tavern

manonamora

One dream. Fourteen days. Serve drinks and gather enough tips to make it happen in time. Or choose chaos and mix whatever you feel like, damned the consequences.

- Story Mode with 6 endings, 3 difficulty levels for the drink mixing and randomly generated paths. - Arcade Mode with 3 game type (Endless, Perfection and Timed) where you can just mix drinks. You can play with either a mouse or a keyboard (links are keybinded). Recommended to clear your cache before playing.

Bartending simulation, fantasy • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.61
Votes Cast 56
Standard Deviation 1.92

38th place

You May Not Escape!

Cover art for You May Not Escape!

Charm Cochran

You are one of the unlucky many to enter the maze. Will you be one of the lucky few to escape?

Contains brief strong language and some mature themes.

Parable • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.50
Votes Cast 50
Standard Deviation 1.93

39th place (tie)

Graveyard Strolls
A Walk With Ghosts

Cover art for Graveyard Strolls

Adina Brodkin

The sky is grey. The sun is setting. You’ve never been a believer in ghosts, but they still want to tell you all their secrets as you wander their graveyard.

Become a ghost therapist as you explore a graveyard at night.

Horror • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.45
Votes Cast 51
Standard Deviation 1.56

39th place (tie)

Thanatophobia
A session with Madeline

Cover art for Thanatophobia

Robert Goodwin

Cover art by: Midjourney

A session with Madeline.

Probe into the psyche of a frightened young woman in an experimental psychological horror game built around conversation. (not scary)

Chat-based, psychological horror, online only • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.45
Votes Cast 31
Standard Deviation 1.76

41st place

Low-Key Learny Jokey Journey

Cover art for Low-Key Learny Jokey Journey

Andrew Schultz

The Burning Bright Spurning Sprite had nothing better to do than dumping you here. Maybe they'll give you a backhanded compliment if you stumble through!

Wordplay/comedy • An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.40
Votes Cast 50
Standard Deviation 2.11

42nd place

Inside

Cover art for Inside

Ira Vlasenko

We were sentenced to trial by ordeal.

However, there is a way to survive. I taught you this incantation when I got into your head. Now it's time to take a deep breath and say it. Even I can't tell you what awaits us in the mind chambers, for every witch has a different path.

Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.39
Votes Cast 57
Standard Deviation 1.40

43rd place

The Last Christmas Present
A scavenger hunt in words

Cover art for The Last Christmas Present

JG Heithcock

Cover art by: JG Heithcock

"There was one present left under the Christmas tree, a wooden box with a tag that said 'I open at the close'"

When my daughter turned thirteen, I made a scavenger hunt to her last Christmas present using a Marauder’s Map of our house. Use the map to find the clues and discover how to piece them together to find her present.

Scavenger Hunt • An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.36
Votes Cast 42
Standard Deviation 1.51

44th place

U.S. Route 160
A runaway bride is forced to confront her deepest desires as she flees the demons of her dangerously religious hometown and cons

Cover art for U.S. Route 160

Sangita V Nuli

Cover art by: Sangita V Nuli

A runaway bride is forced to confront her deepest desires as she flees the demons of her dangerously religious hometown and considers what - and who - she left behind.

Gothic, Horror, Surrealist, Romance, Tragedy • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.34
Votes Cast 56
Standard Deviation 1.76

45th place

Campus Invaders

Cover art for Campus Invaders

Marco Vallarino

For some time you have been waiting for the open day of the Vigamus Academy to visit the building that also hosts the game design course taught by Professor Mark M. Etal.

Just arrived, however, you saw a great shape in motion obscuring the sky: an alien spaceship!

Extraterrestrials have started pouring in by the thousands on the streets of the city, spreading panic.

Sci-fi comedy • Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.13
Votes Cast 68
Standard Deviation 1.56

46th place

Witchfinders

Cover art for Witchfinders

Tania Dreams

Cover art by: Tania Dreams @tania_art_dreams

Middle ages left their footprints on the history of humankind: rich and poor, steel and wood, pest and wild celebrations mixed together in a one wild sauce. Technology was far from our days, but a true power existed: power, that can heal the weak and poison the strong...Witchcraft.

However, since magic was primarily perceived as bad, witches were hunted for many-many years...

---------------------------------------

Acknowledgements for testing go to: Saranya Balasubramanian, Victor Casañas

Fantasy, 1800s, Scotland, historical, witches • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.12
Votes Cast 68
Standard Deviation 1.40

47th place

i wish you were dead.
an introspection on love, relationships, regret, and how we heal a broken heart.

Cover art for i wish you were dead.

Sofía Abarca

you can’t take the burden of it anymore, no matter how strong your love is for her. but how do you tell the person you love that you can’t – or won’t – love them anymore?

in between the lies, baggage, and still-open wounds, is she still worth fighting for?

it's up to you to find out.

Dialogue-based narrative, romance. • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.11
Votes Cast 53
Standard Deviation 1.86

48th place

INK
After the death of someone important, a mysterious letter is found that changes everything.

Cover art for INK

Sangita V Nuli

Cover art by: Sangita V Nuli

After the death of someone important, a mysterious letter is found that changes everything.

Gothic, Horror, Surrealist, Romance, Tragedy • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.10
Votes Cast 58
Standard Deviation 1.63

49th place

Approaching Horde!

Cover art for Approaching Horde!

CRAIG RUDDELL

It's officially hit the fan! Cause, unknown. There's no time to worry about that now anyways...there's a zombie horde approaching! Your job...gather as many survivors as you can and hold out for as long as possible. You'd be the hero if you can find a cure, but digging an escape tunnel might be a good insurance policy.

Zombie • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.09
Votes Cast 46
Standard Deviation 1.57

50th place

To Persist/Exist/Endure, Press 1

Cover art for To Persist/Exist/Endure, Press 1

Anthony O

Cover art by: Anthony O

Thank you for calling the Agency Of Neverending Happiness and Clearing Out Monsters From Under Your Bed! We offer assistance in all matters related to your well-being and any supernatural troubles you might have.

Horror, surreal, experimental • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.98
Votes Cast 92
Standard Deviation 1.53

51st place

The Tin Mug
An illustrated short children's story.

Cover art for The Tin Mug

Alice E. Wells, Sia See and Jkj Yuio

Cover art by: Sia See

The Tin Mug is a short illustrated children's story of around 10 minutes. Meet the Tin Mug and his friends, Colin the colander, Silvia the spoon and Stu the stew pot as well as several others. Find out what happens in the magic of the Mug's birthday!

Childrens • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.94
Votes Cast 63
Standard Deviation 1.47

52nd place

Zero Chance of Recovery

Cover art for Zero Chance of Recovery

Andrew Schultz

You're way behind the last enemy pawn. The enemy king's close to yours. So it's over, right?

Puzzle/logic • Half an hour

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.88
Votes Cast 50
Standard Deviation 1.89

53rd place

Glimmer

Cover art for Glimmer

Katie Benson

Cover art by: Photo by Greg Rakozy

It's bleak out there. No one would blame you for turning away.

Slice of life • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.85
Votes Cast 97
Standard Deviation 1.74

54th place

One Final Pitbull Song (at the End of the World)

Cover art for One Final Pitbull Song (at the End of the World)

StamblerRambler (writing as “Paige Morgan”)

"this is for you, a playlist for our adventures"

Track Listing: 1. The Old World Has Ended - Evanescence 2. From the Ashes I Rise - Pitbull 3. Criminales Enamorados - Shakira 4. Hidin’ in Zona - Macklemore 5. p1r@t3pr0ph3tz - Skrillex feat. Deadmau5 6. HEIST - Daddy Yankee 7. It All Goes Right (Alternately, It All Goes Wrong) - Fall Out Boy 8. How Can a Woman Choose? - Adele 9. Jailbirds - Rihanna feat. Jessie J 10. girls Like me - SOPHIE feat. Janelle Monáe 11. HoleDivers (Spelunking 4U) - David Guetta feat. T-Pain 12. Shake It! - Metro Station 13. LUV/FUK - LMFAO feat. Ke$ha 14. Getting Away With It (What She Don’t Know) - Snoop Dogg 15. I Went to Miami and I Didn’t Even Get a BBL - Cobra Starship 16. Gator $kin - Kreayshawn

Adventure, horror, romance, comedy • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.84
Votes Cast 37
Standard Deviation 2.30

55th place

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Cover art for Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Nadine Rodriguez

Cover art by: @josiecfig

Your sister is missing, and the answers lie within your dreams.

You just hope you can find her at the end of this all.

Horror, Dreamy, Modern • Half an hour

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.82
Votes Cast 51
Standard Deviation 1.38

56th place

The Lottery Ticket
A Stateful Narration™

Cover art for The Lottery Ticket

Dorian Passer, Anton Chekhov

A fool and his money will soon depart, but a fool and his thoughts will lose more than that!

---

This is another study in stateful media with an emphasis on narration-based agency. To avoid breaking a reader’s suspension of disbelief, this work eschews story-based agency.

What's this mean for you? An interactive fiction experience that is more "literary" and less "game" made by combining quintessential elements of parser-based, choice-based, chat-based, and templated-based works under a new theory of agency in stateful media.

---

Study, narrational agency, literary, sci-fi • 15 minutes or less

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.44
Votes Cast 72
Standard Deviation 1.79

57th place

Hanging by threads

Cover art for Hanging by threads

Carlos Pamies

Discover Oban, the spider-web city.

Adventure, Fantasy, Life • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.26
Votes Cast 57
Standard Deviation 1.34

58th place

The Pool

Cover art for The Pool

Jacob Reux

You work at a research institute that studies aquatic life. But you swear you just saw something strange in the water.

Creature feature, disaster • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.25
Votes Cast 44
Standard Deviation 1.75

59th place

Death by Lightning
A Key Paved Into the Road

Cover art for Death by Lightning

Chase Capener

A game that I used as a repository for writing my thoughts; made unconsciously.

Press Z to continue or choose an option.

The image is a pixelated version of http://www.refuges.info/photos_points/1584.jpeg

Experimental • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.18
Votes Cast 38
Standard Deviation 2.00

60th place

The Hidden King's Tomb

 

Joshua Fratis

Built beneath a lake dark and deep, The Hidden King’s Tomb was once well protected against would-be thieves. Between its only marked entrance was built a labyrinth of locked doors and false vaults. All ways were sealed, save one which remained for the king’s foretold return.

But in the centuries since, a sinkhole has revealed a new route to his treasure.

You and your adventuring partner have come to The Hidden King’s tomb like many before you, in search of fame and fortune. You stand over the sinkhole, planning your descent.

But you’ve been tricked! Your former friend has pushed you from the precipice into The Hidden King’s Tomb, plotting to take the treasure for himself. Now you must escape the catacombs, or this tomb may become your own

Adventure • Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.07
Votes Cast 67
Standard Deviation 1.35

61st place

The Staycation
Home alone for a week is a dream (or a nightmare)

Cover art for The Staycation

Maggie H

Your housemate and her boyfriend leave for a spring break trip.

Finally, you get a taste of sweet solitude. Just you, hobbies, and cat cuddles.

Or so you think...

As the days wear on, you start questioning your decision to stay.

Navigate the unending night by dragging interaction icons to highlighted parts of the text.

Find a way out of the loop or choose to fall...fall...fall...

[Content Warnings: Unsettling imagery, surrealism, jumpscares, and minor self-harm (scratching an itch from an unknown source)]

Horror slice-of-life • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.84
Votes Cast 49
Standard Deviation 1.43

62nd place

Through the Forest with the Beast

 

Star

An adventure through the woods. Try to get through them without losing yourself in the process

Fantasy, Sci Fi, Survival • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.69
Votes Cast 65
Standard Deviation 1.19

63rd place

An Alien's Mistaken Impressions of Humanity's Pockets

 

Andrew Howe

Comedy • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.67
Votes Cast 89
Standard Deviation 1.70

64th place

Lost at the market
An interactive fiction about lost oppurtunities

Cover art for Lost at the market

Nynym

On my boatride back to my hometown after a failed music career, my insomnia seems to have finally ended, yet the world I have woken up to seems so different than the one I know of, and it talks to me in it's distinct voice known only to me.

Experimental • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.50
Votes Cast 38
Standard Deviation 1.33

65th place

HOURS

 

aidanvoidout

Go on a short adventure to assassinate a tyrannical ruler, and maybe you'll learn something along the way.

15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.48
Votes Cast 83
Standard Deviation 1.31

66th place

Headlights

Cover art for Headlights

Jordan White

You’ve made some poor decisions and they’ve brought you to this place. The clock is ticking but you still have time. Time to make some better choices. Time to turn things around. Time to get on the right track.

I know you’re probably feeling scared right now. That’s normal. But I want you to know that you have the strength to overcome this. I know you can do it.

Just keep going.

Mystery • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.41
Votes Cast 34
Standard Deviation 1.24

67th place

Jungle adventure

Cover art for Jungle adventure

Paul Barter

A rip roaring, immersive, intense and gripping text based adventure game with a generous serving of humour added at no additional cost. Escape from a dangerous jungle, confront and overcome badies, get through a deadly maze and collect points along the way.

Each scene is described with ascii word art and generous explanations. Hints are available at all stages in the game. The ability to save a game's progress and also to view the character's inventory is also available.

Fantasy • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 2.73
Votes Cast 22
Standard Deviation 1.42

68th place

Tower of Plargh

Cover art for Tower of Plargh

William Moore (writing as “caranmegil”)

Cover art by: Cover art photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Title: Tower of Plargh

Year: 2022

Genre: Puzzle

Puzzle • Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 2.29
Votes Cast 68
Standard Deviation 1.03

69th place

4 Edith + 2 Niki

Cover art for 4 Edith + 2 Niki

fishandbeer

How to renew an old story? Put some new circumstances into the game. An old dating sim of mine, made for Twiny Jam is completed with a few new details.

Dating sim • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 2.13
Votes Cast 78
Standard Deviation 1.15

70th place

Traveller's Log
by Isaac

 

Null Sandez

Fantasy • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 1.75
Votes Cast 20
Standard Deviation 0.89

The organizer of the 2022 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition was Jacqueline Ashwell.