PyramidIF

Fhtagn!: Tales of the Creeping Madness is a roguelike boardgame-style interactive fiction adventure for 1-4 players drawing on Lovecraftian mythos with all the expected summoning of cosmic-horrors and depraved human sacrifice, but taking a slightly zanier turn at going gleefully full-evil than Weather Factory's stellar Cultist Simulator and Failbetter's Fallen London trilogy. There's a fart joke that goes on for a good number of clicks. That aside, the mechanics of the game give the player(s) six rounds to bring about universal pain and destruction by exploring locations where events occur that toggle seven character traits up and down. Ideally, a player will build two traits high enough to fulfill a role in the climactic lunar-eclipse ritual and not fail their assumed task. Problem is, there are hints about which traits will grant success in any of eight roles, but nothing is explicitly spelled out. Each round, every player visits a location on the map and choos...

"Who could look at this title screen and not be like 'I'm having a good time already!'?" -- GG Danny It's not like the Literature Club needs more members, but I have been obsessed with this game despite the fact I never played it outright. I didn't initially think I was a VN/dating sim fan. It's not my thing , and I never would have made it through the three-hour slow build intrinsic to the plot. But I've watched dozens of playthroughs and partial playthroughs. As a huge fan of meta-horror and games that aren't what they seem on the surface this is my jam . Plus it's amazing to watch Let's Play-ers - especially grown men jaded by every other horror game  - have the absolute wonkers scared out of them during the uncanny-valley terror the game dishes out, and linger on edge when the game is cheekily playing "normal" and ramping up the paranoia of familiarity that was the whole gimmick of P.T. I almost believe DDLC might hav...

The Stanley Parable is a really interesting short game available on Steam.  It is a first-person exploration that plays with the idea of player agency and the concept of free will as it is implemented in computer games.  The new version is an expansion of the original free Half-Life mod, and contains all new art and music, and brilliant honey-voiced British narration by a guy I wish would read me a story every night before falling asleep.  With all the meta-commentary and magical realism, it gives off very strong Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy vibes, with a dash of Portal .  For me, this is vibe heaven.