Interactive Fiction in the 2025 Tagset

[moontyger]

This is a roundup of IF in the tagset, with links and nominated characters. There aren't many, but they're spread over a few categories, so can be hard to find. There are a few things I weren't sure if they counted or not, so this is just the ones I was certain of. Let me know if I've missed something and I'll add it.

16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds

1. Claire (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds)
2. Lucy (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds)

Changeling Charade on Choice of Games website or Steam

1. Alistair Farrington
2. Rowan Forester
3. Valentine Dupont
4. Worldbuilding (Changeling Charade)

Freshman Magic: Spellbooks and Tangled Sheets Choice of Games website or Steam

1. Alistair (Freshman Magic)
2. Halim (Freshman Magic)
3. Main Character (Freshman Magic)
4. Worldbuilding (Freshman Magic)

Keeper Series - Brynn Chernosky (tumblr link, but it has links to places to play in the sidebar)

1. Astrid Adtaz (Keeper Series)
2. Cressida Monroe (Keeper Series)
3. Female Main Character (Keeper Series)

Lady Thalia series (interactive fiction)

1. Margaret "Mel" Williams (Lady Thalia series)
2. Matthew "Yorkie" Barker (Lady Thalia series)
3. Oscar Knight (Lady Thalia series)
4. Theodora "Thalia" Knight (Lady Thalia series)

Stay? - E. Jade Lomax

1. Esteban
2. Myka
3. Jo
4. Worldbuilding

Type Help (Video Game)

1. Annie Beaumont (Type Help)
2. Damian Maseko (Type Help)
3. Eleanor Galley (Type Help)
4. Oswald Galley (Type Help)
5. Richard Longley (Type Help)
6. Rupert Galley (Type Help)
7. Victoria "Vic" Maseko (Type Help)
8. Worldbuilding (Type Help)

Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives - Jeffrey Dean Choice of Games website or Steam

1. Arundel
2. Qui
3. Robert Ward

Comments

[liyana]

Here’s another (it got canonized to Books and Literature):

Stay? - E. Jade Lomax

1. Esteban
2. Myka
3. Jo
4. Worldbuilding

(If that link doesn’t work, the web address is: https://ejadelomax.itch.io/stay )

[moontyger]

Thank you! Added.

I suspect AO3 put it in books because the fandom name is formatted like a book(and also why I missed it).

[elidelio]

Here's another! It also got canonised under books and literature.

Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives - Jeffrey Dean

1. Arundel
2. Qui
3. Robert Ward

[moontyger]

Thank you! Added.

[bluerosekatie]

Do video games that are slightly more than a visual novel (e.g. it is animated with multiple plot trees and some quick time events/action sequences, primary gameplay is choosing dialogue/events for the player character to take) count? Because then Minecraft: Story Mode (video game) is one!

[moontyger]

My feeling is no - IF is usually text-only.

I did consider including visual novels as a separate but related category on the list, since often those are just IF with art, but decided those were mostly all in one category and disambiguated, so it wasn't necessary. (IF is spread across Books, Other Media, and Video Games.) But I feel like something that has more video game elements than that definitely doesn't count.

[bluerosekatie]

Fair enough, it's just one of my favorites and does have some elements fitting IF so I thought I'd ask!

(I've already gotten one other Yuletider into it from last year lol!)

[mixtapestar]

Lady Thalia is another one - I've got it on my list of things to check out from the promo post. It can be found here: https://ladythalia.carrd.co/

Characters:

• Margaret "Mel" Williams (Lady Thalia series)
  
• Matthew "Yorkie" Barker (Lady Thalia series)
  
• Oscar Knight (Lady Thalia series)
  
• Theodora "Thalia" Knight (Lady Thalia series)

[moontyger]

Thank you! That one's definitely my bad. I don't know how I missed it. But it's added now!

[panickyintheuk]

I was familiar with E Jade Lomax through their other writing but didn't know about Stay. Spent a bunch of time yesterday and today playing it. It's great! Thanks for introducing me to it.

[(Anonymous)]

this list seems to be missing type help, a twine game nominated with the following characters:

Annie Beaumont (Type Help)
Damian Maseko (Type Help)
Eleanor Galley (Type Help)
Oswald Galley (Type Help)
Richard Longley (Type Help)
Rupert Galley (Type Help)
Victoria "Vic" Maseko (Type Help)
Worldbuilding (Type Help)

it's under video games when most of the others are under books for some reason.

[moontyger]

Added, thanks!

And yeah, IF appearing in multiple categories is why finding it in the tagset is so difficult.