After crashing your plane at sea, you end up drifting to a small island, with not much to survive. You explore, and find out the island was inhabited, years ago. But why did the people leave? And why is there a fence around the white house at the top of the hill? TRISTAM ISLAND is a text adventure made from the mold of Infocom; expect a large geography to explore, lots of prose, a rich parser, diverse puzzles, some humor and some darkness. To use Infocom's classification, I'd rate the game's difficulty as "Standard"; however, the game's design is modern and eschews all the frustrations commonly associated with 1980s text adventures. No hunger timers, no frustrating mazes, no blocking situations that force you to restart!

A murder most foul has been committed and Sherlock Holmes is on the case. You are his dog.

Two brothers. One murder. And a mystery as old as mankind. You are a medieval investigator sent back in time to learn the secrets behind mankind's first murder. Using a novel alchemy system, observation, and your wits, you must discover the untold truth about Cain and Abel.

In a world of arcane mysteries, a young doctor's apprentice unravels a conspiracy most grim. The Weight of a Soul is a mystery-horror interactive novel inspired by IF classics like Blue Lacuna and Anchorhead. A typical playthrough will comprise over 50,000 words and may take 5 to 6 hours to complete. Visit the website for more details, the Development Diary, and information about the upcoming premium version to be released on itch.io and Steam. Content warnings: illness, death, medical procedures, emotional suffering.

The call comes through. Of all the dicks; you get the call, sitting in the front seat of your car, hands shaking on the steering wheel. An urgent call; but all you were thinking of was the bottle in the liquor store and so that's where you went first. Now you're pulled up outside the house. The rear mirror's showing two steely eyes. You adjust your hat, stiffen up your collar and grab your badge off the dash. Here goes. You've one last chance so... MAKE IT GOOD An Interactive Detective Story, by Jon Ingold

Someone's been bopping the field mice on the head, and only Good Fairy, Senior Detective can find out who. A parser-driven noir adventure based on the interactive fiction of Ryan Veeder.

It's your last night of forced volunteerism as a candy striper. But the hospital is snowed in and the guy whose supposed to sign off on your volunteer hours is dead and may have been murdered. It's up to you to find the killer because you are NOT going to summer school.

A tale of literary ambition. "There are some secrets that do not permit themselves to be told." In 1849, Edgar Allan Poe disappeared among the back alleys of Baltimore. A week later, he was found delirious and in disarray. The mystery of his death has remained unsolved for 175 years. Now it's your chance to decipher the macabre enigma enshrouding the final days of Edgar Allan Poe--a tale of Faustian bargains, artistic ambition, and immortality…

The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle. (Originally entered in the 2011 Interactive Fiction Competition. The commercial release has been significantly improved and expanded with professional art and a theme song.)

Rosalita Morales is dead, and you have to figure out who did it. The four people closest to her had the motive and the means: her partner, her secretary, her ex-husband, and her sister. Re-live their memories of Rosalita's last days to discover what really happened. But be careful: Everyone has something to hide, and everyone will Color the Truth. Color the Truth is conversation-based murder mystery game that takes roughly 2 hours to finish. It is designed to be accessible to players who have never tried parser games, and comes with adaptive hints accessible by typing HINT.

Something is terrorizing the little village of Puddlecombe. As a young reporter with the Lowsea Gazette, you must pacify your grumpy editor by getting the big story...what exactly is the Beast that prowls Torrack Moor?

Since that night your life has seemed like a living dream or to be more accurate a living nightmare. Coming home and finding her like that, her still form lying in your lounge. Even now, two months later, you still can't come to terms with what has happened. Assault, murder, rape are only words, just words. But those words ended your world. You are now standing before your dear wife's grave stone, a single red rose in your pocket. Each anniversary you always gave her a rose and although she is not here today will be no different. From the evidence it appears that about four people must have been involved. The police questioned one man but needed to let him go due to lack of evidence, they wouldn't let you know his name. In your pocket is a piece of paper with a single name on it, passed to you by a good friend at the police station. Now, two thoughts are on your mind, find out who did this and then make them pay.

It was the end of another long and miserable day and I don't mind admitting that I was beat. The case hadn't gone well and I was dreading telling the client the bad news the next day. But in the world of high profile crimes that I regularly dealt with, there were times when even the ingenuity, skill and expertise of yours truly weren't enough to win the day. So tomorrow I would have to tell Mrs Harris that her cat couldn't be found and she really ought to cut down on Whiskers.

“Los Angeles, California. City of Angels.” “Not so fast, Sherlock; I’m no angel.” She pauses, the cigarette poised an inch from her lips. A stray beam of sunlight leaks from a broken slat in the venetian blinds, spotlighting her hair. Blonde. Platinum, not gold. Abruptly, she reaches across your desk to push a stack of green at you, past the halfway point. Her eyes watch yours as she fans the money out on the desktop. “I never mix business with pleasure. Do you?” Not often. Not lately.

She came into your office on a steamy city morning. A small angel desperately trying to find someone. Her name is Flood, and she wants you to find him. Shes willing to pay you a handsome fee if you bring him back to her.

The 2016 release---version 2.0---fixes numerous bugs and useability issues and enhances dialog and player interaction with non-player characters. **** Dark Angel is a noir-ish, pulp fiction detective story set in the present time. Harry, the player character in this 3rd-person, past-tense IF story, is a San Francisco private detective who gets caught up in a hunt for fabeled treasure which takes a personal turn when members of his family are drawn into the action. To tell more here would spoil the mystery. Like the old movies and dime novels, a significant part of the fun lies in discovering what the quest is. Suffice it to say, the intrigue leads Harry to Tijuana, Mexico, where he must break in to a drug lord's walled compound.

Join a dying Sherlock Holmes in a journey through his memories. Sherlock Indomitable is a direct adaptation of two Sherlock Holmes stories into a text adventure. At least 90% of the text is taken directly from Arthur Conan Doyle's writing. This game uses the clue/conversation system from my 2016 game Color the Truth.

Coming around in a lighthouse with no memory of who you are or how you got there, can you solve the mystery and win the game?

In The Z-Machine Matter, you play the role of Johnny Dollar, an insurance detective called in to investigate the accidental death of German nuclear scientist Paul Panks at the secretive Blakely Laboratory in southern California. This IntroComp entry is an Alpha Release of the opening two scenes of the game. You can think of it as a working prototype or preview version. It represents about 28% of the entire game.

A Bubble Gumshoe Mystery
Jimmy Piñata swings from a noose down at the infamous docks of Sugar City, apparently bludgeoned to death. Is this the result of some drug deal gone bad? Or is somebody trying to pin the tale on the donkey? Only one bubblegum broad has the smarts to break this case wide open and unwrap the mystery of...
...who whacked Jimmy Piñata?
Thanks to Zed Lopez for reviewing the game's code, and Robert Eggleston, Gamefic, kirihearts, Tabitha, and WindySilver for playtesting.
Content warning: Contains violence, sex and drug use, all involving colourful candy characters.