IF issue - The Imaginary Engine Review

“The world is sick and ugly”

Nov 1, 2025 7 min read IF issue

The limitations of Interactive Fiction provide a unique avenue for horror. Text based games cannot replicate the kind of tension that many survival horror games thrive in. The possibilities for emergent gameplay from

Game Poems, Doors to IF of the Moment

Oct 16, 2025 5 min read IF issue

A digital poem that features both text and interactivity is a type of “Interactive Fiction” in the traditional sense.

A Conversation with Nathalie Lawhead

Sep 22, 2025 26 min read IF issue

Nathalie Lawhead joined us on Zoom to talk about their work, interactive fiction, internet subcultures, social media and lots more.

My Waltz into the IFComp

Sep 5, 2025 8 min read IF issue

This essay was made possible through the support of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation. Just a month before I entered it, I had no idea what the IFComp was. The year was 2017.

Repeat the Ending: Where Do Personal Games Go?

Aug 29, 2025 7 min read IF issue

If anything, outsider art exists because our expectations of art are not at all inclusive. We don't need excuses like historical significance to justify the existence of personal games like Repeat the Ending.