Electronic Literature Collection
New Media Writing Prize (open "archive" to see all works)
Itch.io (home page)
Itch.io (Twine Games)
Itch.io (The Bitsy Essay Jam)
National Film Board of Canada Interactive
The New River Journal (open "archive" to see past works)
The interactive fiction competition

Your task is help build our list of works, including hyperlinks, brief summaries, stars, and tags. As our list grows, we can begin to organize the material differently.

Here's an example:

A Vast and Lonely Desert by Gavin G. See
In this minimalist Bitsy game, we travel through vast, empty spaces of the desert with a friend making our way through the desert toward a campfire and star gazing. The work is about friendship, grief, and poetry with a western vibe. It's sparse and powerfully moving precisely because of its sparseness.
Info:  made in 2020; serious game; authoring tool: Bitsy; on the Electronic Literature Collection, vol 4 and itch.io
tags: spatiality, navigation, orientation, friendship, loss, LGBTQ
[entry posted by k.kelly]
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RECIPE FOR LOVE by Shelly Alon
In this Twine Game, you play as a human who has been hired by a robot, attempting to help it understand what love is. This game is about exploring multiple factors that make up the "human" concept of love. Through a futuristic lens where robots are the overarching species,  helping two robots have a passionate romance, and in the end, successfully completing your task, this game is a simple but cute play. 
Info: A short twine game on itch.io, released in January for a challenge
Tags: discovery, romance, futuristic, humor, crafting 
[entry posted by Mazlin McGrath] 

Rainy Day by Thaisa 
A twine game that focuses on the day of a person who struggles with anxiety, showing the difficulties that arise with the mental challenge. The work walks the player through how simple tasks can become monstrous, tasks such as getting out of bed, choosing an outfit, to taking a shower. The game has a mellow vibe with soothing rain sounds that accompany the gameplay. 
Info: A twine game on itch.io created to bring awareness about anxiety disorders and their severity. There are 3 possible endings. 
Tags: anxiety, self-talk, overthinking, criticism, listlessness, educate, reality 
[entry by Mazlin McGrath] 

Papers, Please by Lucas Pope
In this dystopian puzzle game, the player takes on the role of an immigration officer at a border checkpoint in the dystopian state of Arstotzka. The player must decide who to let in and who to turn away, balancing obeying the regulations of the state and making moral choices. The player affects the world through their choices, highlighting both the dehumanizing nature of totalitarian regimes and the struggle between “just following orders” and upholding one’s morals
Info: made in 2013; serious game; authoring tool: HaxeFlixel; on Steam, iOS and Android app stores
Tags: bureaucracy, ethics, surveillance, totalitarianism, morals, immigration
[entry posted by Nathan Camporeale]

 

We Become What We Behold by Nicky Case

In this game made by the renowned Nicky Case, the player acts as a cameraman for a news station which displays its photos through a TV shown to a crowd of people. The work focuses on the idea of media violence and propaganda. Its short yet graphic narrative sends an impactful narrative to not so easily be swayed by what the media says. 

Info: made in 2016; serious game; itch.io

Tags: exploration; violence; propaganda; popular media

[entry posted by Seungbeom]



It Paints Me by ENDYSIS

This mysterious, horror game has you play in the perspective of a painter who is using his art and uses the different choices we make for a means of catharsis and come to terms with a traumatic experience. The game focuses on explaining the tragedy that the main character dealt with and how he is trying to come to term with it through its ominous, dark horror tone and means of relaying the information of specific moments from the past.

Info: made in 2023; serious, dark game; Itch.io
Tags: Atmospheric, Dark, Gothic, Horror, Male protagonist, Multiple Endings, Psychological Horror, Romance, Story Rich
[entry posted by Ishan Datla]




A Shower Story by Atjscreams

In this short Twine horror game, the player experiences an intimate and unsettling encounter moment alone in the shower as the ordinary act of bathing turns into a scene of body horror. The experience centers on confronting the body as both familiar and alien when exploring the themes of menstruation and shame. Through minimal text and visceral imagery, the work evokes feelings of discomfort, transformation, and vulnerability. The game’s simplicity amplifies its tension, creating a deeply personal and physical sense of dread. 

Info: made in 2021; horror game; authoring tool: Twine (later adapted in Ren’Py); available on itch.io
Tags: body horror, menstruation, transformation, discomfort, identity, gender, short narrative
[entry posted by Eric Chen]




THE MOSTLY BE AN FAT by Sporegrooby

In this Twine story game, the player follows a narrative centered on weight gain and bodily transformation. The work explores how food, consumption, and physical change interplay with identity, attraction, and compulsion. Through branching storylines, the player participates in incremental shifts in the body whilst stuck in a conflict between the lines of desire and discomfort. The narrative leans into fantasies of stuffing and binging with psychological dynamics of body dysmorphia and surrendering.

Info: released in 2025; interactive fiction; authoring tool: Twine; available on itch.io
Tags: eating, fat, foods, weight gaining, stuffing, body transformation 
[entry posted by Eric Chen]

How to Rob a Bank by Alan Bigelow
In this game, players get to interact in a 5-part digital interface that goes through a bank robber’s (Ted) and his accomplice’s (Elizabeth) journey of robbing banks, similar to Bonnie and Clyde. This work is presented through a phone-like interface, allowing players to clearly see the integration of social technology and gameplay, and how this enhances the character’s bank-robbing experience and romantic relationship. Through sarcastic, yet relatable game features (Instagram, mobile games, WikiHow), players can understand and see the effects of technology and how that can change one’s moral views.

Info: made in 2016; satirical game; authoring tool : webyarns; on the Electronic Literature Collection, vol 4.
Tags: phone; sarcastic; social technology; moral.
[Entry posted by: Pooja Jadeja]

Untime by Kulu 
In this graphic story-driven game that puts you into the perspective of a murderer who escapes the responsibility of her actions by time-travelling with a watch. She takes advantage of this power to murder people that has supposedly done wrong to her before travelling back in time to avoid these consequences. However, when the watch breaks, the character is forced to face her actions and all the people she has murdered, as well as her past self that she abandoned by time travel. This shows players how everything has consequences even if you escape from it initially.

Info: Released in 2025; Itch.io; Unity; Interactive
Tags: Watch, Time Travel, Consequences, Emotional Wellbeing
[Entry posted by: Ariel Hadiyanto]