I’ve never seen on itch.io even one IF with gender-locked male MC and there are plenty games about females. It’s so unfair 
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I have senn only one, and bein a gay focused romance story it was a no no for me… i think ot was zorlock or something similar
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Zorlock isn’t gender locked. I mean technically you make decisions for the one teenager that’s gender locked male but you get to create a demon that can be any gender.
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–Latest addition to the list | 8 March, 2024–
Stable Minds
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Be the change you want to see!
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Oh no, there is a part of a subgenre of games that is not about males and caters to women, how will we live it down?
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Enjoy!
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I, myself, don’t have much problem with female genderlocked IF’s. Authors can do whatever they like, it’s their game after all. It’s just that sometimes it’s disappointing to find an IF that you like, but can’t get into it because it’s genderlocked. I’d like to play these IF’s but I’ve been playing as a male MC in IF’s for so long, it’s kinda hard to get into them as a female MC. It just doesn’t feel the same.
35 Likes
There is a difference between “aw well, this is not for me, I’ll go find something else” and “it’s not fair that the most opressed and erased part of humanity now has a few stories about them, i need to throw a tantrum about that!”
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That is a BOLD claim.
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A very bold claim 
“The most oppressed”
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Let us refocus on recommendations and suggestions of games from Itch.io
Thanks!
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Looks like I started a war with just one joke
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Just don’t threaten to turn the car around. The kids will settle down. 
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–Latest addition to the list | 8 March, 2024–
Help! I Can’t Find My Glasses!
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Here. Hope this’ll calm y’all nerves
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Last year’s IFComp entry. A little on the short side though.
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If one is open to a broader subgenre of IF than “COG-inspired choice-based interactive fiction written in Twine by Tumblr users”, there are tons of fantastic IF games on Itch that feature exclusively male protagonists.
Three of my favorite works of IF ever:
1. Kyle is Famous (Unity) by John Szymanski
It’s weird, funny, occasionally gross (in a gastronomic, not moral sense), and exactly the sort of untethered absurdist humor I crave. Very much taps into the “you can do that? Oh my God, you can do that” aspect of interactive fiction.
Markiplier did a Let’s Play of the game that garnered 2.5kk views, so strangely Kyle really is famous, and mainstream in a way other text adventures can only dream of.
You can also buy an expanded and polished version on Steam.
2. Will Not Let Me Go (Twine) by Stephen Granade (author of the COG title Professor of Magical Studies)
In many ways, this game is the antithesis of everything some people believe an IF needs to be good – or to be IF at all. There is no character customization, not much branching, and your choices have limited effect on the outcomes. It’s exactly the sort of game some people would dismiss as “should have been a book” or accuse of “misusing the medium”.
But I think it cuts to the true heart of interactive fiction: meaningful interactivity. Through moving writing and careful use of Twine’s text effects, it shows you don’t need any of the above to have meaning or feel interactive, because meaningful interactivity is ultimately about what occurs within the reader.
Not to be sappy, but this game brings me back to my early days of discovering Twine and reminds me why I fell in love with this medium in the first place.
The beginning starts off more like kinetic fiction, but if you give it a chance (or as the kids say, “let him cook”), it’s well worth your while.
If the Itch version is being squirrelly and won’t let you scroll, try this version.
3. Detectiveland (Versificator) by Robin Johnson
I love noir and/or hardboiled detective games, and there are never enough of them in IF for my tastes. Detectiveland is an affectionate parody and a fun mystery game. You play as Lanson Rose, private dick ordinaire in a game system best described as a parser game with a GUI.
If you, like me, are always looking for noir/hardboiled detective IF, some not-on-Itch games I’d recommend are Grimnoir (Twine) by ProP and Make It Good (Inform Parser) by Jon Ingold of Inkle fame. Both have a male protagonist.
This post is about male protags, but if you’d like to buy a game with a lady PI there’s A Case of Distrust (Unity) by Ben Wander which is on Itch and elsewhere. It’s very pretty and pretty good, though I’d recommend getting it on sale.
16 Likes
–Latest addition to the list | 10 March, 2024–
Samsara
5 Likes