All submissions have been counted and compiled as of May 24, 2026! Thank you to everyone who submitted a game and voted :) You can find all the rec lists below.
Hope it helps with discovering your next read!
The rec lists are complete, but may undergo slight changes as authors/readers send in clarifications.
Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Action/Adventure
Modern/Slice-of-life
Historical fiction
Horror/Thriller/Misc
Results of the voting and interview features coming up soon!
IF Seal: Lack of audience engagement makes me want to quit
A long question and answer below, on the subject of feeling inadequate in writing, yearning for more engagement, and being unsure whether to continue.
A brief note: if you are someone who enjoys playing IF, please consider rating/reviewing, sending a message to the author saying that you liked their project (and even better, what you liked about it!), reblogging, or clicking a like on the project. It has a far bigger positive effect than you may think!
Read the rest of the IF Seal archive here
Ask a question through Tumblr or on this anonymous form.
I've been mulling this over since yesterday, and I feel like if I don't get it off my chest it's going to suffocate me.
Have you ever felt like all your effort — in writing, or any kind of art — is for nothing? Have you ever wanted to just stop sharing your work altogether, delete your Tumblr, and vanish from the scene? Because that's all I’ve been thinking about lately.
I've been part of the IF community for a while now. Over the years, my Tumblr has slowly built up a following — a little over a thousand people. I’ve stayed consistent with my updates and kept putting in the work, but when I post, out of those thousand followers, only one person might reblog and maybe ten will like the update.
I follow other IF writers, and it honestly breaks my heart to see so many of the same people who follow me actively reblogging their work but not mine. I know, logically, that readers can reblog whoever they want, but is it too much to want that kind of support for my own writing too?
The other day I posted an update… and I barely got any reblogs. Imagine writing and coding over 100k words, only for it to feel like no one cares enough to even drop an emoji, click “like,” or hit reblog.
If I’m being honest, I usually sit down and write back-to-back because I always want to be producing words — but this month? My document is blank. I know what I want to write, but I don’t have the strength or motivation to actually do it. What’s the point? It feels like it’ll just get tossed into the void like every other update.
And that’s why I’ve decided that if I really can’t write anything this month, I’ll just delete my blog and my game and move on with life. I’m not hungry for fame or money — I just want to know that all my effort isn’t in vain. It’s depressing to watch those numbers dwindle every day.
I know a lot of people lurk, and I get it — I’m a lurker too. But when have I not reblogged another writer’s update or at least left a heart? I support them because I know what that feels like. So why shouldn’t I feel hurt?
And yet, I still catch myself thinking I’m just being selfish or ungrateful. Maybe I am the problem. Maybe my whole thought process makes me a cancer in the IF community.
You don’t have to respond to this — I just needed to say it somewhere. I’ve always appreciated the advice and kindness you show to new and upcoming authors, and that’s why I chose to vent here. You’ve never judged people for being honest about their feelings, and right now, I just needed that. I have a million more thoughts, but I’ll stop here.
~depressedpotato😔
-
Dear Depressed Potato friend,
Please allow me to reach out my flippers and pat you on the shoulder. I am so sorry to hear that you are feeling so down.
It is so very hard to compare one's inside to others' outside, especially when there are metrics like notes, likes, and reblogs that so easily feel objective.
I do not feel the urge to delete my work or vanish, but I do sometimes need to take time away from being so active online. (I am doing that currently, for there are house renovations going on in my roommate @hpowellsmith's home and it is Extremely Noisy All The Time both literally and in the brain.) I do sometimes need to mute words and phrases, and filter websites so that I don't inadvertently spend too long on them.
There is no shame in this. If you need to mute the names of IF projects that push you towards negative comparisons, that is OK.
Also: there is so very much going on.
Times are never easy but right now in a lot of places there are atrocities going on, economic troubles, escalating costs of living, news cycles full of horror. It means that we as writers have less capacity, but also readers do too.
That doesn't make it any easier, though, and I very much feel for you. As I do for the many other writers who have sent me messages on a similar theme.
On a practical basis I can suggest revisiting questions about encouraging people to send messages and marketing, and I wonder whether you have been engaging with other authors, non-anonymously? Are there writers whose work you enjoy whom you'd like to reach out to and tell them that directly? We all know how valuable and inspiring it is to hear that another writer enjoys our work! It sounds as though you're very much struggling with self-worth over this, and perhaps directing that energy towards giving feedback to others may help you feel more productive in a different way? That might help you cast off the bothersome labels of "selfish" and "ungrateful" that you're placing on yourself.
You obviously feel passionate about creating things, but it sounds like you've lost touch with the internal/intrinsic motivation so when there isn't so much external motivation it causes pain and distress, and is harder to struggle through the tough parts of the writing process. I am certain that there are people who enjoy your work and that it isn't for nothing.
I do not recommend deleting your blog or writing project unless you've been thinking about it very carefully: it would be a real shame if you regretted it afterwards. But it's perfectly possible to have a middle ground: log out and not look at it for a bit, for instance. Or create a queue and be careful not to scroll through lots of other projects.
Can I give you a little optional assignment? Maybe you would like to write something just for yourself - a game or a poem or a short story, a piece of fanfic, the thoughts of a character you love, even just a description of a place, anything to help reignite the spark of creativity in you. It's not something you need to show anyone. In fact I would recommend keeping it to yourself! Ideally this is a small, low-stakes thing that doesn't carry the pressure of many more scenes or chapters: just a small piece.
Dear friend, I hope you recover some writing joy. I wish you all the best.
DO YOU LIKE THE DARK TOWER OR BLEAK SOULSLIKE WORLDS BUT WISH THEY WERE QUEER, LEFTIST, INTERACTIVE FICTION?
What a specific wish. Anyway, I'm writing a thing you might be interested in. Westbound Travel is a weird, post-apocalyptic fantasy-western about losing your memories and wandering towards a city that, supposedly, exists and, supposedly, holds the Empress Eternal, to beg her to set right the world, fix the breakdown of time and space, and dispense once more Authority.
Be a knight or not. Romance your traveling companions or not. Try to escape your fate or embrace it. Customize yourself, try to make sense of a world in its last hours of crumbling decay. Updated 6/28/25, with a word count of approximately 180,000 words in total.
Play it HERE
And if you're cool and a part of the Choice of Games forums, provide feedback or ask questions about it HERE
Or, of course, tell me what you think right here on my tumblr.
To everyone who's been asking if we're alright, who's been waiting, who's still here after all this time: We are back.
When we disappeared in 2021, life pulled us under in ways we never expected, and for the longest time, we thought we might never return to this story, to these characters that lived so vividly in our minds, to this community that had become like family.
But here's what we discovered in the silence: the story never left.
We've spent these years not just healing, but fleshing everything out. The ROs you thought you knew? They're deeper now, more complex, more dangerous. The plot that once excited you? It's become something that keeps us awake at night, not from anxiety, but from pure creative adrenaline.
The demo will drop on the 30th of August.
We won't lie, we're both terrified and exhilarated. This isn't the same story we would have told in 2021. Every interaction choice matters more now. Every RO relationship cuts deeper. Every consequence is more grave.
To those who've been checking in, sending messages, keeping this story alive in your hearts: We thank you. Thank you for waiting. Thank you for believing. Thank you for being the reason we found our way back.
You never set out to be a hero.
You just wanted to survive.
Play as the Guardian of Oscaire, newly named hero of the war. You fought in the war, uniting your companions to infiltrate enemy lines and open the gates to end the siege, killing the King of Avlijaan in the process. Now you're returning back to Serna to the acclaim of your countrymen.
You just want to go home, to your small hovel where you lived in peace. Instead, you've been raised to nobility, invited to live in the palace as the Queen's advisor.
You've been triumphant in war, but are you prepared for life in the dangerous court of Queen Aureya? With it’s backstabbing, cutthroat politics, it seems even more lethal than the battlefield.
Make enemies. Earn allies. Change the course of the country's fate.
And do your best to stay alive.
Play as The Guardian, a hero of war and the Queen’s newest advisor.
Customize your character — choose your gender (female, male, and non-binary), pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them), and appearance (height, weight, skin color, hair color, scars, tattoos, & piercings).
Five Romance options & two optional romantic encounters.
And be careful — your decisions will change the fate of the country of Venyre.
