IFWiki.org

IFWiki is a wiki containing information about interactive fiction, including IF history, theory, craft, tools, and people. IFWiki serves as both a historical record of community knowledge and a guide to resources for playing and creating interactive fiction.

What is "interactive fiction"?

In the past, the term referred mainly to parser-based programs (usually called "games" or, less often, "works") that let you type commands to a character. This character wanders around in a simulated world of some sort, typically one that is described in text. These parser-based games are sometimes called "text adventures." Examples include Adventure, Zork, Deadline, Planetfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Hobbit, and Curses.

More recently, the IF community has expanded its definition of interactive fiction to include choice-based works (sometimes called CYOA) as well. In choice-based IF, players navigate through the story by selecting hyperlinks, or by periodically choosing from a list of options to determine how the story will progress.

Some people include gamebooks and graphical adventure games such as Myst when they use the term interactive fiction, but those sorts of works aren't the focus of this FAQ, nor the main concern of the IF community.