The People's Republic of Interactive Fiction

February 2026 Post Mortem

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by

Angela Chang
in , ,

The People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction convened on Monday, February 16, 2026 over Google Meet. Kirill Azernyy,  JP Tuttle, Michael Stage, Zarf, Michael Hilborn,  Matt Griffin, Josh Grams, Doug Orleans,  Allyson, and anjchang attended. Warning: What follows is probably not proper English, but just a log of notes from the meeting to jog people’s memories.

Monday, February 16, 2026 over Google Meet Kirill Azernyy,  JP Tuttle, Michael Stage, Zarf, Michael Hilborn,  Matt Griffin, Josh Grams, Doug Orleans,  Allyson, and anjchang attended.

Opening: Retro-computing & Early IF Discoveries
Members kicked things off by sharing personal archives and early experiments with interactive fiction:

Kirill talked about hosting a panel of electronic literature and game‑studies scholars. He shared his digital literature site, https://illitera.com/, which features experimental writing, digital art, and critical theory. He presented ideas from his current research on digital interaction and the changing role of the reader in an AI‑mediated literary landscape. Key themes included:

  • the shift from authorship to readership/usership
  • how AI complicates authorship but heightens the importance of human interpretation
  • electronic literature as a form that demands active, embodied engagement
  • the tension between engagement and disengagement as part of digital reading
  • the need to understand how humans maintain meaningful reading practices as writing becomes increasingly machine‑generated

This sparked a rich discussion among attendees about failure states in IF, the cognitive interactivity of traditional literature, and how puzzle‑based IF evolved into broader interactive reading practices. We then moved on to recent discussion topics posted on the mailing list.

Other Topics Discussed
Iron Chif: A Game‑Show‑Style IF Challenge
The group revisited the Iron Chif (Iron IF) challenge — a playful, time‑boxed competition where two authors create games in a week based on a shared theme. Participants discussed the upcoming installment, daily progress posts, and the fun of watching authors work under constraints.

Videotome: Engine, Community & 2025 IFDB List
Josh and Matt introduced Videotome to those unfamiliar:

  • A family of engines for kinetic or lightly interactive visual‑novel‑style works.
  • Designed for plain‑text‑first creation.
  • Supported by a small but vibrant community, including the Domino Club.

The group discussed how Videotome works unexpectedly appeared in the 2025 IFDB awards after Freya encouraged nominations. The winning piece originated from a game jam using digitized museum laserdisc archives.

Referenced resources:

Game Poems Magazine
Josh highlighted the January release of Game Poems Magazine, Issue 1:

Members discussed the short, lyrical nature of the works and the need to clarify interactivity for new readers. Several attendees planned to explore more pieces.

Awards & Competitions Landscape
The group compared the major IF awards and competitions:

There was also discussion of the XYZZY Awards hiatus and how the IFDB Awards have partially filled that gap.

ShuffleComp 2025
The revived ShuffleComp wrapped up judging with 15 entries this year. Members expressed interest in playing through the submissions and seeing how authors interpreted their shuffled playlists.