The People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction met on Thursday, April 27, 2026 over Zoom. Attending: Doug Orleans, Michael Stage, Josh Grams, hugh, Carl Muckenhoupt, Allyson, Zarf, Michael Hilborn, Stephen Jablon, and anjchang attended. A special welcome to Carl, who joined us with a link to his long‑running review archive, The Stack. Warning: What follows is probably not proper English, but just a log of notes from the meeting to jog people’s memories.
Links & Lightning Round
Carl kicked things off by sharing The Stack https://wurb.com/stack/
Michael followed with a recommendation from his current “non‑games for the talk” research: Don’t Escape: 4 Days to Survive https://www.gog.com/en/game/dont_escape_4_days_to_survive
Allyson reminded everyone that ClubFloyd continues every Sunday on ifMUD: https://allthingsjacq.com/interactive_fiction.html#clubfloyd
Instructions for joining collaborative plays: https://www.ifwiki.org/ClubFloyd
Spring Thing 2026 Highlights
Spring Thing was discussed, with several notable mentions:
- EnigMart, a game composed of many small EnigMarch‑style puzzles
- Strings, a cute little parser game was explored (tied for best in show)
- Our Lady of Thorns, another standout atmospheric entry (tied best in show)
We also talked about how Spring Thing’s identity continues to evolve. Historically, it was the home for longer works that didn’t fit IFComp’s soft two‑hour limit. This year, though, many entries are short, experimental, and atmospheric— blurring the old expectations and making the festival feel more like a playground for form.
EnigMarch & Puzzle Culture
It was noted that EnigMarch continues to influence the community, and Spring Thing’s EnigMart is a direct descendant of that tradition.
Ryan Veeder’s ongoing puzzle work came up again, especially with the upcoming Iron Chif battle on May 22nd: https://intfiction.org/tag/iron-chif
Ryan’s recent win was by a narrow margin, and the group is excited for the next round.
Tools, Toys & Works in Progress
Allyson has been experimenting with Josh’s ink‑based Visual Novel tool, which she described as “great” and fun to prototype with. This sparked a short discussion about lightweight VN tooling and hybrid IF formats.
Zarf shared updates on several fronts:
- Murder at the Birch Tree Theater, a thinky mystery game https://thinkygames.com/games/murder-at-the-birch-tree-theater/
- The Visible Zorker and ongoing work toward Visible Deadline https://eblong.com/infocom/visi/
He also mentioned travel plans for the Albany gathering for Narrascope. The train is cheap, but definitely a “leave Monday” situation.
Reading & Recommendations
A surprising amount of the group is reading Dungeon Crawler Carl, a long, pulpy, surprisingly engaging series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Crawler_Carl
It’s described it as “a grittier, less‑PC Harry Potter x Hunger Games”, and several attendees chimed in with enthusiasm.
Miscellaneous Mentions
- Universal Robot, a choice‑based game by Agnieszka Trzasko (creator of 4×4 Archipelago, a sci‑fi comedy)
- A few years back, Spring Thing’s Jelly was recalled fondly
- Josh shared a link to rtdcp8xzxnzi9c2t on IFDB https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=rtdcp8xzxnzi9c2t
The IFTF Discord also came up for those looking to stay connected: https://discord.com/invite/DPQYuDV
Closing Notes
As always, the meeting ranged from tools to festivals to deep‑cut IF history. The mix of experimental games, puzzle culture, and community reading habits made this month’s conversation especially lively.
Looking forward to seeing everyone next month.