IFComp 2025 Recommendations

[jaclynhyde]

I took it easy this year with only twenty-something played during the competition, but I'll keep going through them and add to my recommendations!

Favorites
Choice

• Saltwrack: Lead an expedition to the center of the apocalypse to find out what happened--or at least get out alive. Beautifully atmospheric polar expedition sci-fi/fantasy horror; survival is not easy, and you won't make it out unscathed.
• The Secrets of Sylvan Gardens (Walkthrough): Find out why you keep sleepwalking to a beautiful--magical?--garden while getting to know the garden's keepers. A lovely fantasy story with great watercolor art and music; the friendships and romances are great.
• The Tempest of Baraqiel: Translate an alien language to help the Terran fleet to defeat a terrifying enemy--or join a rebellion, watch some holos, or figure out what isn't being said. Fascinating worldbuilding, excellent writing, really cool art and music, and so many choices to make. Manual saving and loading doesn't work, so turn on the back button and follow where your choices lead.

Hybrid

• The Wise-Woman's Dog (Walkthrough): As the faithful dog of a Hittite wise-woman affected by a curse, use your affinity for curses and blessings to save her. Well-written with fantastic puzzles, and the setting is meticulously researched with tons of footnotes. The game is a hyperlinked parser and can be played as choice or full parser.

Parser

• The Little Four (Walkthrough): As Arthur Hastings, solve Hercule Poirot's low-stakes mystery during a day with your family. Extremely heartwarming with absolutely perfect Hastings narration; just examine everything and delight in the atmosphere.

Other Recommendations
Choice

• A Conversation in a Dark Room: You're sitting in front of a man you've just met who will soon die by your hands. Talk. This is nicely atmospheric, and it's fun replaying to find out what connection (or lack thereof) you can form over one conversation. 
• *OVER*: Survive a chaotic 90s vacation with your homophobic family while stress and insomnia takes more and more of a toll. Lou's story takes some time to ramp up, but it's really affecting; it's very long with no back button, so there's a lot of crucial story you'll miss without a very long replay. The family member you name apparently has her own queer awakening, but you can't experience both.
• A Rock's Tale: You wake up as a rock on the side of the road, with a cast of colorful characters with interesting problems who come walking by. Super charming and chill, with a bunch of fun endings to discover.
• Your Very Last Words (download only): While standing before a firing squad during the Mexican Revolution, think upon your last words. It's a little janky but short and very atmospheric.

Hybrid

• whoami (Walkthrough): Navigate a computer to upload your consciousness to its server before your body succumbs to radiation poisoning. Subtle, fascinating story and worldbuilding delivered through exploration of a file system, with some crazy formatting done in Twine.

Parser

• Frankenfingers (Walkthrough): You awaken by Frankenstein's creature, your body reduced to a hand; thus starts a poetic adventure of searching for one wedding band. Narration and puzzles together work splendidly as you go forth. Avoid the roadblock that annoyed me--at the West Side know you can go north.
• Mooncrash (Walkthrough): The end of the world is nigh; align yourself with four powerful individuals to do what you can in the face of the inevitable. This has four sections and a final route, each with different gameplay; a lot of it is under-implemented, but the conversational routes are excellent. I recommend starting with Watcher and ending with Fateweaver to end on a high note.
• Us, Too! (Walkthrough): Claim your inheritance through wordplay. Every wordplay Andrew Schultz game is a ton of fun that will have you muttering weird rearrangements of words for at least a day. This one only has one incredibly esoteric puzzle, and the rest is a lot of fun with a lot of hint mechanisms. Play now--your brain won't go "Plain ow!"