Anyone play Twine games?

Off-Topic Other Interactive Fiction
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I’ve dabbled in Twine in the past as a programmer, but I have to admit I haven’t played as many Twine games as I’d like. Mostly because the huge playing field gives me decision paralysis. I know lots of our forum-goers are aficionados of other forms of interactive fiction, so I was hoping to get some solid recommendations.

I’m especially interested in games that utilize the classic “amnesiac in an unfamiliar room” opening. To be clear, I’m still looking for twines and not parser games.

Ideally, for the best results, name the game, link to it, and give a couple of words about why you liked it (even if it’s just “it was scary” or “it had a surprising twist ending”).

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Any reason why just twine in particular? Inkle has some good ones like 80 days, and Galatea is a well known parser game for example. Delusion Gallery is another good one but I don’t know what the engine it is.

As for twine I can’t think of any that I remember as being pretty good and fitting your description off the top of my head.
Pretty sure seedship is twine and I think it’s well made but probably not what you’re looking for.
I’d also recommend Bogeyman
And there’s a lot of good short ones on sub-q like After the giant’s war, Thanks for the memories and
Pretend You Love Each Other

Thanks for the memories is probably the closest out of those for what you’re looking for I think.

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I played uh, Queer Trans Mentally Ill Power Fantasy once. That’s it. I don’t play twine games much.

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I’m planning a con lecture on Twine. I just didn’t want to get into the details.

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Twine games always seem to be weird stuff to me. I mean I did pick up a book about making games in Twine and I considered trying to make the ultimate time travel game with it but that never quite took off. It’s a shame that Twine doesn’t really have a central hub like we do here.

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I never said I hated them all, I just noticed that just about every Twine game I have come across has been a horror game, which doesn’t interest me. Like I said there’s no easy location to find various genres of Twine games (the IFD doesn’t have an easy search system personally).

Twine seems most ideal for an exploration experience, but I sadly haven’t seen many of them around.

Seedship is great though, I have played that one. :grin:

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I’ve only played one Twine game so far, and that has admittadely not the amnesiac trope.

It’s called Superstition and is written by the author of the HG “Dragon Racer”. It has a modern world plus supernatural beings setting.

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I absolutely love Twine games, and have seen many more of them than Choicescript.

Porpentine was an early Twine author with great games. I can recommend

an award winning game featured in museum exhibitions. It deals with feminism and a sort of dissociation from reality. She also wrote the very good:

which deals with identity (you have to find your face)

Birdland has won more interactive fiction awards than any other game out there and had a big tumblr following:

https://birdland.camp/

For amnesia specifically, check out Lux, a puzzle-heavy Twine game:

http://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2018/Lux/Lux.html

and this sci-fi classic:

http://www.makoian.com/jedediah/fabricationist/FabricationistDeWit.html

Also I love Eidolon, about a child finding a hole in the sky late at night:

http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2014/Eidolon/Eidolon.html

Edit: also Bogeyman is very good. And Animalia but it’s not amnesia.

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I was going to tag @Brian_Rushton as he’s played gazillions of IF! He’s made a lot of recommendation lists on the IFDB which may be helpful. Strongly second the Birdland mention and the Twine work on sub-Q magazine!

You may have played some of these before, but here are some of my favourites:

Vesp by porpentine: surreal cyberpunk horror with insects.

With Those We Love Alive by porpentine: you’re the servant to an inhuman empress in a surreal world and must make hard decisions.

My Father’s Long Long Legs by Michael Lutz: unsettling psychological folktale-feeling. Short, punchy, reminds me of Emily Carroll.

The uncle who works for Nintendo by Michael Lutz: low-key, unsettling creepypasta feel.

Detritus by Mary Hamilton: a journey through life and relationships via objects, a packing sim that packs a punch.

To Spring Open by Peter Berman and Yoon Ha Lee: a moody speculative rebellion game chockful of intriguing worldbuilding details

Invasion by Cat Manning: not wake-up amnesia, but very concerned with memory loss, abandonment, and alien invasion

Swan Hill by Laura Michet: courtly intrigue, magic, family and guilt - lovely worldbuilding and great writing

Tangaroa Deep by Astrid Dalmady: a contemplative journey in a submarine exploring the underwater world

I don’t know if it’s unclassy to link my own stuff but hey, here is also a list of my work, much of which is Twine.

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What love about twine is twine get werid and it great!

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