This month we will be highlighting a bunch of queer authors within our community, and trust us, there’s plenty.
All of the mods here at interact-if are queer (and non-binary!) so it goes without saying how grateful we are about the massive queer representation these stories and games include. Throughout this entire month we will be celebrating the path interactive fiction has created for the queer community, both offering representation in media and giving voices to queer creators!
Ames, author of Attollo & Metamorphosis
“…and it was a singular, terrible thought, which burrowed itself into your mind like an engorged maggot. This was not a man nor a monster. This was a concept, an ideology, a terrible myth, which had personified itself to stand before you now.
You were, to put it simply, screwed.”
After several years of radio silence, you receive a message from your younger sibling that carries a strange sense of urgency to it. Either out of familial concern or boredom, you embark on a journey from your residence to your sibling’s apartment in New Hampshire to see what’s going on and, hopefully, be home before the weekend.
Too bad it’s never so simple.
Read more about Attollo [here] and read about Metamorphosis [here]
Demo | Author’s Ko-fi | Author’s Patreon | Discord
Tags: cybernoir, thriller
Astra, author of Unmourned
You are V. Frankenstein, a science prodigy with an ambitious streak a mile wide. The eldest child of the Frankenstein family, you went to university to further your understanding of the world, and made a name for yourself as a hard-working innovator and radical thinker. Unsatisfied with the academia-approved learnings your teachers saught to instill upon you, you’ve instead turned your attention to a goal more suited to your ambitions: discovering the secret of life.
After spending the better part of a year perfecting your craft and selecting the finest speciments for your experiment, you succeed in doing what none thought possible — you’ve reanimated a body carefully pieced together from multiple corpses. Now, it’s time to face the consequences of your actions.
Read more about Unmourned [here]
Tags: retelling, thriller
Eleana, author of Heart of Flame: The Unforseen Flame
You were born into an impoverished family— an impoverished Fae family. Not that there were any wealthy ones left. You have lived a life filled with hardships and scrutiny, but you’ve persevered. Keeping your head high and your heart pure. You knew that your life would be filled with these people. Filled with the hateful looks and the barbed words, and you were prepared for that. You were prepared to live a life in the shadows of everyone else.
Until one event changes your life forever. You’re chosen by a dragon and become a Dragon Rider.
There has never been a commoner chosen before. So you’re not only the first Fae Dragon Rider but the first commoner Dragon Rider as well? Your life has just gotten exponentially harder, but with new places come new friends—and possibly even more.
Explore the world of Gallinia and become the greatest Dragon Rider the world has ever seen!
Your journey starts here…
Faede, author of Full Moon
Welcome to Maryville, Indiana; more of a collection of houses that are close to each other than a town, but it’s home. But something strange is afoot in Maryville, and you’re about to end up right in the thick of it. Your life as a simple farmer is about to change forever.
Read more about Full Moon [here]
Tags: supernatural, romance
Ian, author of The Masked Defenders & Dartun Station
The City of Cascadia is in peril as a new super powered villain rocks the ocean city. Couple that with mysterious disappearances and one very persistent vigilante, the city is close to collapsing into chaos. Luckily for its citizens, a team of superheroes is already on hand to deal with the mounting crisis. The newly reformed Masked Defenders. Though it’s up to fate, and their ability to work together, to whether or not they’re capable of such a feat.
Take on the role as a government agent tasked with ensuring that these superheroes succeed in their efforts to restore the peace. Make friends, or enemies, and maybe find something more in a city rife with danger at every turn. And maybe uncover secrets that were never meant to see the light.
Read more about The Masked Defenders [here] and read about Dartun Station [here]
Masked Defenders demo | Dartun Station demo TBA
Jasper, author of Crosshollow Foundations and the short stories, An Angel Among the Aspens & 13 Laurel Road
Taking place around the turn of the century, you take on the role of an ancient, incorporeal being. Many centuries ago, following a series of bad decisions, you found yourself here on Earth. To maintain your link to the physical world you must maintain a “tether” to a human- a psychic bond that can only be broken by death. And death is always close at hand, as you are being pursued by another of your kind- somebody with a grudge and infinite patience to take out his revenge.
Alongside your most recent tether, Tobias (customizable name- this is simply the default), you have been traveling around North America and staying far away from your pursuer. Short on cash, the two of you find yourselves hiding out in the remote mining towns of the Colorado mountains. The people here are not quite as they seem, however- and as tensions rise in the community and your pursuer draws near, you find yourself at the center of a conflict of both rural and cosmic proportions.
Read more about Crosshollow Foundations [here]
Crosshollow Foundations demo TBA | An Angel Among the Aspens | 13 Laurel Road
Tags: supernatural, speculative
One night, you are woken from your dreams as the ground below your humble farmhouse trembles. Your window frames smoke rising beyond the beanstalk field. Running on fumes of your own, ladled in concern, you venture outside until you come across a crash site… guarded by a heavily armed humanoid creature.
Your vision fades to black.
Know this, young one: your journey has only just begun.
Read more about Novus [here]
Mason, author of Veil: Prophecy & Dead Men’s Tales: Sunrise
In a world similar to ours where magic is known to exist, but not particularly common, humans live together in large cities away from the dangers of the earth-bound spirits in the wilds beyond. Conjurers like you are able to commune with the spirits that live in the Otherworld, a world filled with dangerous spirits that is separated from your own world by the Veil. Spirits slip through the Veil occasionally, or they can be brought over via demonic contracts with conjurers. Both of these scenarios terrify ordinary humans who find solace in a prophecy that promises a chosen one who will strengthen the Veil, permanently sealing all spirits and magic away in the Otherworld forever.
Read more about Veil: Prophecy [here] and read about Dead Men’s Tales: Sunrise [here]
Nyehilism, author of Sentinel & Project Hadea
You’re frozen, unable to move as you meet bloodshot eyes.
You can’t breathe, can’t think. There’s an awful familiarity, and for just a moment, you feel like you’re looking in a mirror, your warped reflection snarling back at you.
Then there’s a crack, loud enough to break the spell, and the monster s c r e a m s.
A brutal murder rocks the balance of your life. An old friend is lying to you, and a stranger knows more than he’s telling. You dream of people and places you’ve never seen, of flowers and buildings and vast strange skies - and during the day, you’re hunted by a creature like nothing you’ve seen before. We all have demons, but you hadn’t expected yours to follow you through death.
Your past has caught up with you, and it has teeth.
Read more about Sentinel [here] read about Project Hadea [here]
Sentinel Demo | Project Hadea Demo | Author’s Ko-fi
Tags for Sentinel: urban fantasy, horror
Tags for Project Hadea: sci-fi, +18
Pol, author of All Paths Lead to the Underground
Welcome to Deadline, the city of the lost ones. Here, in the near dystopian future, there’re only two ways to survive: engage in something illegal or pretend that you don’t notice anything that’s happening around you. Too bad that the latter one isn’t that easy in a place like this, where you need to be on guard every other minute in order to get through the day and not catch a bullet. Trying to live like normal people do wasn’t ever an option for you anyway, whether you like it or not.
And now you’re a mercenary who works side-by-side with a group of poor souls who are also unfortunate enough to be stuck in the same position. But there’s a problem, of course, because you’re not entirely human yourself, and it’s the fact that constantly puts your companions in danger whenever they’re with you. Not only this, you also have some other unplesant things to take care of, but let’s deal with it a little bit later. The consequences of the things you’ve done, or were forced to, are hot on your heels and are threatening to crush you at any moment. You’re pretty certain that your strength, that goes far beyond the limits of human abilities, can help you withstand everything that’s coming for you. But it’s not always about strength and power, is it? The beast inside of you is trying to take over, and day by day it becomes more persistent.
Can you stand against it and retain your sanity, or will you succumb to the madness like many others? Lose yourself in the icy embrace of the darkness, or fight it until your last breath?
Well, the choice is yours only.
Be careful and remember, all paths lead to the Underground.
Read more about All Paths Lead to the Underground [here]
