[technofeudalism]

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

[technofeudalism]

since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.

anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.

Games

A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.

corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.

Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.

Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.

Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.

sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.

Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.

Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.

The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.

Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.

The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.

Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.

Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.

The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)

Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.

Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.

EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.

You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.

The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)

Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.

Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.

ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.

PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.

Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.

FarmRPG - simple, mobile-friendly, text-based farming RPG.

Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.

PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike

Tools

Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)

Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.

Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)

Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.

PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.

Non-Games

Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.

Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.

17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.

Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.

The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)

Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)

Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)

If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.

r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.

r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.

thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.

[heartsl0b]

road trip

[herpsandbirds]

(HOMO)SEXUALLY ACTIVE FISH ARE SEXIER TO FEMALES

Homosexuality occurs in most animal species, from insects to mammals, and it is more common amongst males. But how could homosexual behaviou

[folkloregirlfriend]

oh look at me i'm travel kelce. taylor swift is feeding me pasta airplane style. fuck you

[sapphireh3arts]

did you know literally *everyone* is raised racist. like by society at minumum, if not specifically by their parents. if you aren't constantly questioning the prejucides around and inside of YOU, yes even you, then you aren't taking enough action in your daily life to be a traitor to the state of white supremacy.

[cyrjovie]

Saw a solarpunk creator spreading the news of scientists in China (if I remember correctly) experimenting with making plants bioluminescent to light cities instead of using as much artificial street lighting.

The conclusion was "this must be solarpunk" and I cannot emphasize how incorrect that is.

Whether or not this particular experimentation leads to less harmful man-made lighting, it isn't solarpunk.

Solarpunk is technology and infrastructure engineered to work in harmony with nature and community.

Changing nature to better fit human wants is NOT solarpunk.

[moniquill]

Bullshit.

Changing nature to better fit human wants and needs is fundamentally human.

Every vegetable you've ever eaten is the product of humans changing nature to better fit human wants.

I don't know that bioluminescent plants are a function solution to anything and I'm sure there are a number if very valid reasons that utmost caution should be taken with their potential implementation, but there is nothing 'not in harmony with nature' about messing with plant genetics.

Thank paleoindigeous genetic engineers from mezo/South America for the existence or corn, for example:

Zea Mays is a wholly human invention.

[alpaca-clouds]

This.

I also want to note: I think the research OP is talking about is actually from Europe, because I am aware of both a French and a Swedish research project on this topic. And admittedly, when that Swedish one released (that was in 2018, I think) I was also not fully sold, because it felt fairly gimmicky. But in the test areas where they implemented it a bunch of things happened over the test period. Distress in wild animals went down, air quality got better, and a bunch of other stuff. And now there is a project in France testing something similar since... 2023, I think?

And, yes. The general goal of those projects is basically to say: "Here is a thing where humans are negatively influencing nature. We cannot change that we are in those areas, but we can lessen the negative influence we have. Let's try this way."

Solarpunk is not about like... going back to the neolithic. It is about developing technology in a way that we can better live with nature. And this is doing that.

I do not even get OP's issue here. Like, having poles filled with water and bioluminiscent algae or fungi is not negatively impact the algae, bacteria, or fungi. Because algae, bacteria, and fungi, for the lack of a nervous system, quite literally do not care whether they grew in the ocean or in a bioluminiscent pole. But we know that this light is less disturbing to wild animals. We have shown that. Because light pollution is right now as much of an issue in some areas as other forms of pollution. So finding ways to reduce light pollution is very important.

And it should be noted: this idea about bioluminiscence as a form to light cities has been around in Solarpunk as a genre since 2014 and then of course has been a core idea that went into Lunarpunk. So while I do not know if those scientists were inspired by it or just came to the idea independently, it definitely connects to solarpunk.

[vermilionstarlight]

age regressing to 2 years old but i was an especially erudite and articulate baby so you don't even notice

[ryebreadgf]

my dad is very intensely involved a battle with his city’s public administration over a playground they have tried to forcibly remove like five times in the past 20 years and DID remove once in like 2005 but then had to rebuild because my dad was such a pain in their asses and came through with undeniable receipts of the zoning plan from the 60s/the historic/cultural value of the urban planning…. like there’s a woman in the city office who is his arch nemesis. he is literally the daredevil of urban planning

[ryebreadgf]

everyone in the tags needs to stop saying they want to fuck my dad.

[jarring]

[ulan-bator]

[endreal]

it says SO MUCH cool shit about 1) animation, 2) are generally, and 3) the human brain that this series of lines and 5 dots is so clearly recognisable as a bear. 🤯

[sandersstudies]

My other new bit has been mentioning really obvious stuff as “eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed—“

Like I’ll spill milk all over and say “eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that there is milk on the floor.”

My husband does NOT like this bit so it’s been traveling with me outside the home.

[handweavers]

people like the idea that there is an identity they can claim that will absolve them of the responsibility to examine their beliefs and actions and adjust them accordingly to better align with their values and desired outcomes but there isn't, we all have to practice humility and do the work regardless

[scalproie]

I hope I'm not just a blog to you guys but also a gateway to acquire secondhand knowledge of medias you'll never get into

[redlipstickresurrected]

Bebhinn Eilish (Irish, based Wicklow, Ireland) - Púca, 2024, Paintings: Watercolor, Ink

[dogpuppy]

[cilantrhoes]

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

and what if I told you guys that virtually everyone you ever meet will turn out to be really interesting if you give them a chance

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

some real miserable fucks in the notes I fear

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I'm not even saying you have to talk to every single person you meet. and you're certainly not going to LIKE all of them. but every person does have a rich interior life and complex feelings and unique worldview. sorry.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hey man how's it going

sorry for getting self righteous about uuuuh my belief in the innate wonder of human life and connection I guess

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hey man how's it going

[bunjywunjy]

wow. made it less than three months in

[ooklet]

this is truly one of the most tumblr posts i've ever seen. i know chronically online people exist in all corners of the internet but i feel like this is the only place where someone could say something as uncontroversial as "you will find out that people have personalities when you talk to them" and get responses like "oh so you're making the ABLEIST assertion that i should FORCE MYSELF to push past my SOCIAL ANXIETY to talk to BIGOTS????" amazing work, guys

[headspace-hotel]

I truly believe that everyone is interesting.