The People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction convened on Monday, September 29, 2025 over Zoom. Doug Orleans, zarf, David J Hall, Hugh, JP Tuttle, Josh Grams, anjchang, and Stephen Eric Jablonski welcomed special canine guest Milo (not pictured) Warning: What follows is probably not proper English, but just a log of notes from the meeting to jog people’s memories.
PRIF September participants were happy to welcome Milo (not pictured)
We had a great discussion about the finished comps, acknowledged they happened, and anticipated playing InfoComp and Ectocomp entries.The scent of Fall and Halloween was in the air, so we also talked about… murder, and solving murders. It was mentioned that many people don’t actually finish games due to lack of time, and lack of interest in grinding. In some cases, slice of life type games may fill a gap. We also discussed the importance of setting the time and place, and how people might just want to explore a particular time period, e.g. Edwardian or Victorian, Steampunk eras.
🧩 Interactive Fiction Competitions & Tools
- IFComp is happening! Browse and play, games mentioned were:
- ParserComp 2025 happened, with 12 entries.
- IntroComp 2025: had 8 entries this year, and you can find them using the IFDB tag.
- Mentioned .22LR by Damon Wakes.
- EctoComp 2025: is coming up! Submissions open until Oct 1st!
- IF Art Show: Noted for landscape entries (IFWiki)
🛠️ Tools & Resources
- We talked about Josh’s Grid Maker, a tool for logic puzzles.
- Tweego GitHub Repo:command line compiler for Twine/Twee story formats, written in Go.
- Draw.io great for making diagrams offline for those having trouble with Miro, recommended by hugh.
- Blender was used by JP for the intro graphic for Shattered Dust.
- IOCCC 2024 winner: International Obfuscated C Code Contest Winner from 2024 was Christopher Mill’s implementation of a Z code interpreter.
🎮 Games Discussed
- Shattered Dust a scenic demo by JP, made in Tweego. It’s an example of slice-of-life exploration, taking in the different settings and exploring. We appreciated the Blender rendering of the first image and attention to the use of ASCII in the headings.
- What the Bus? A Transit Nightmare: IF inspired by Boston’s public transit (IFDB)
- Detritus: New survival/crafting game by Ben Jackson (Google Forms escape room creator)
- Hen ap Prat get smacked in the Twat: Written in DendryNexus; explores annoying choices in storylet systems
- Lady Thalia series: Edwardian lady-cat-burglar heist games
- The Wise-Woman’s Dog, Dialog-based game by Daniel Stelzer; you play a dog in the Hittite Empire with rich historical footnotes
📚 Slice-of-Life IF Recommendations (thanks JP)
- All Quiet on the Library Front
- A Walk Around The Neighborhood
- BOFH
- School Days
- Snack Time
🎵 Cultural References
- Sherlock Holmes and the importance of time and setting. There was a story called Herlock Sholmes that used great detail to conveyed the setting in the Victorian era.
- Murdle Daily Mystery Puzzles
- M.T.A. Song: Wikipedia, YouTube
- Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October
- Infinite Zest had a ton of endnotes by David Foster Wallace. Mention of the Eschaton game, a turn-baed nuclear war game played with tennis balls.
- Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson and Steampunk genre.