No one has to die is an HTML5 visual novel by Stuart Madafiglio where sacrifice is the only way to get closer to solving the full mystery at hand. The turn-based puzzles that drive the plot feel a little perfunctory when compared to the twisty story, but fans of cerebral, complex stories should definitely give it several playthroughs.

Things aren't going well for David Hoover, but when life in his new apartment takes a turn for the paranormal, he resolves to track down the previous tenant and find out what's going on. The Crooked Man is a chilling adventure through a trail of detailed and atmospheric haunts... and through one man's struggle to come to terms with where his life has taken him.

A young man strikes up a Faustian bargain to save his injured love— kill three evildoers, and she can live. Will he be able to hold onto his humanity, or will he lose himself in the process? Despite some gameplay flaws, The Price is a dark, enchanting work from Flip-N-Tale, with amazing art and a great story to go along with it.

It's a monster's life for you in this casual yet engaging indie simulation from Dejobaan Games! Going from a lowly morsel swimming in a vat of goop to (potentially) a respected elder that can influence the course of history, it's a whimsical, weird, and occasionally gross cross between a choose-your-own-adventure story and a visual novel that offers lots of replay value and laughs.

Currently in playable alpha version, Avant-Garde is a narrative simulation/RPG where you play a burgeoning artist in the Paris art scene of the 19th century. Create your own artwork to sell or display in Le Salon, rub elbows with famed artists such as Manet, Monet, Picasso and Dali, and learn more about art history as you participate in impressionism, surrealism or even create your own art movements. While still incomplete, there is already much here to satisfy both the gamer and artist in you.

In our world, there's a detective struggling to find meaning in his life and the world around him. But when he finds himself pulled into another world where magic is both colour and life, he may find a purpose as he sets out to stop the grey from draining the land. A whimsical, engrossing fairy-tale of a point-and-click adventure perfect for reminding yourself that magic is everywhere.

Moon Logic Enterprised has recovered several stone tablets from a tower just discovered on what was thought a lifeless planet. It's up to you, a professor of xenolinguistices, to translate the text and unlock alien mysteries, in Stranger Than Fiction by Stuart Madafiglio. A puzzle rumination on life, the universe, and everything, the game's cryptogram challenges are rather on the easy side, but overall it is a meditative, original, and quietly satisfying peak into another world.

Madeleine has been the valette to Prince Oscar for years, ever since they were both children. She's been his guardian and his guide, but also his confidant, and as he approaches adulthood she hopes to help him find a bride in the princess of a neighbouring kingdom... at least, right up until they become embroiled in a dangerous mess of political intrigue and secrets that threaten their lives and their hearts in this gorgeous, fascinating indie visual novel from Hanako Games.

It's easy to occasionally indulge in some less than cheery thoughts but what if you're in a job you hate, you're lonely, and you have no confidence? What if you're in a life you hate? Meet Evan Winter, a man that has reached his limit and you're along for the devastating ride that shows the reality of how quickly depression can turn to suicidal. How long can Evan resist the whispers that encourage him to go to the roof?

Kentucky Route Zero: Act I is a curious mash-up of an old school adventure game and a cinematic text adventure. Created by Cardboard Computer (which includes A House in California developer Jake Elliott), the game is packed with phenomenal visual and sound design, setting an atmosphere that's one of the most intriguing in recent indie gaming history. it's a bit like Twin Peaks meets a moody old school adventure game (on a dark night in the middle of Kentucky).

Choice of Games and Alana Joli Abbott deliver a gorgeously detailed and immersive text adventure for iOS and Android set against the backdrop of mystical ancient China. Outwit or succumb to mischievous fox spirits, challenge or support the emperor, become a student or one day a teacher of an ancient art, and craft a legacy that will stand the test of time.

When your homeworld falls to an alien threat, you find yourself embroiled in a mess of intergalactic politics that could influence its very survival. Choice of Games delivers a sci-fi text adventure for your mobile device that's lighter on character development than usual in favour of delivering an action-packed story that will have you questioning who you can trust on and off the battlefield, provided you survive it.

Come one last time to Hyptosis' fairy tale world of magic and arcane science for the final installment of the atmospheric point-and-click adventure saga as you search for the girl with the read cloak in Hood: Episode 4. Solid plotting and programming uphold a equally eerie and humorous finale, albeit one with some obtuse puzzles.

A small time data smuggler in the corporate-dominated futuristic city of NeoSushi, Dogeron Kenan's job is to transport passcodes in his cybernetic arm, trying to keep one step ahead of both the lawful and unlawful who want to stop him. But things just went south, and now everyone in the town is out to get him. It's going to be a long night. An excellent piece of interactive fiction by the Cabrera Brothers, with an atmosphere that more than makes up for parser issues.

Scheherazade "Sadie" Keating has just graduated, but with famous (and missing) adventurous parents as her legacy, she has a bit more to live up to than most young women. When a thief reveals a secret and a mystery she never suspected has been under her nose all along, Sadie sets out on a massive globe-trotting adventure to uncover the truth... or, depending on your choice, forge her own legacy, become closer with families, kindle a romance, or much, much more in this huge, engaging visual novel simulation set in the 1930s.

There has been a crucial time fault. But you can escape the cycle. The Freewill Cycle: Volume II is an entry into our 10th Casual Gameplay Design Competition, with the theme of "Escape", and our community of judges awarded it with the 3rd place prize. It is the kind of innovative game we at JiG hope for when running these competitions, and it well deserves its place near the top of the rankings.

Like the classic adventuring PC games of old, here is the type of game you could easily lose chunks of time on as you switch between two characters, gathering anything not nailed down and working your way through hours of conversational threads, all in pursuit of Edna's freedom and sanity. Using the touch screen commands, your first job is to find you way out of a padded cell. Edna and her talking plush companion, Harvey, will win you over with their irreverent observations on life, sanity and the mundane world around us even as you sympathize with her situation. You, like Edna, might soon find yourself going in circles, vacillating between the joy of discovery and the frustration of confusion.

Flight to Freedom is the second in the series of Mission US educational point-and-click adventure game titles focusing on American History, created by Electric Funstuff under the auspices of New York PBS Station Channel 13. The year is 1848. The tenuous balance that had been struck concerning the issue of slavery wavers in the face of a nation expanding by conquest and treaty. Living in these tumultuous times is Lucy, a 14 year old slave of Kentucky's King Plantation. Lucy must balance her wishes for freedom with the risk of recapture, but an incident on the farm will force the issue sooner than she'd ever thought. What can a slave do? An intelligent and thought-provoking game that should appeal to both its student audience, and anyone with a passing interest in history.

Holding onto your job just got a whole lot more difficult when your boss, a ruthless woman known around the office as The Crocodile, informs you that the estate agent who makes the least in the next several months will be fired. You may have the drive and the determination, but even you might find Crowther Terrace a difficult property to move... one might say you only have a ghost of a chance. A delightfully witty and even a little spooky text adventure from Choice of Games and the talented Gavin Inglis.

The life of a hero is never easy, but sometimes just breaking into it is hard enough. As the child of two of the city's former most beloved heroes, you'd think you'd have an easy time getting noticed, but a tumultuous past means the chips are stacked against you. In Choice of Games' newest narrative text RPG, do you have what it takes to become a superhero legend in your own time? Or will you die in obscurity if you make the wrong choices?

Completely refurbished and revised, this redux of the first installment of William Buchanan's two-volume adventure game series is meant to supersede the original. You wake up alone...where? Someplace unearthly. Ominously void of life. Imbued with insinuations of wrong doings. Point-and-click to explore your surroundings, gather tools and solve contextual puzzles. As you read the narratives found within each room, not only will you find clues to help you successfully "escape," you'll collect pieces to a story that leaves you with as many questions as answers. There's two possible endings, also. Recommended: play the "Director's Intent" mode in a dark room with the volume up for the maximized experience.

Born is a mindless creature of the Void. At least, that's how it was supposed to be. When Born dares to escape into a world that seems to have no place for it, however, you'll need to utilize all the puzzle platforming abilities at your disposal and learn to master colour in order to find Born a place to belong and help it escape from the Void once and for all. A challenging but evocative platforming adventure that's heavy on narrative and atmosphere for your iOS.

Michael Molinari uses basketball and surreal, dreamlike imagery to explore love and family in this stunning indie title. Go one on one against nightmare creatures in your quest to find your sister, or solve platform puzzles in strange dimensions. It's a swanky, gorgeous, strange journey that overcomes somewhat clunky controls to deliver a beautiful and unique experience you don't have to love sports to enjoy.

On the surface, it's easy to put Thomas Was Alone in the puzzle platform genre, citing games like The Lost Vikings when you discuss the gameplay mechanics and mentioning VVVVVV as another possible source of lo-fi indie inspiration. But after you've spent some time with the game, you suddenly realize it's much more than just a platformer. Thomas Was Alone is an interactive, character-driven puzzle experience with a beautiful audio visual presentation and gameplay controls/physics that were no doubt fine-tuned with fastidious precision.

Taking a few cues from classic animated games like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, The Act from React Entertainment puts you in the clumsy shoes of Edgar, the humble window washer who has to save his job, rescue his brother, and pretend to be a doctor, all while doing his best to get the girl in the end. How does he do all of this? Not with style or finesse, but with blind luck. And a little help from your iPhone swiping skills!

Though one should strive to live without regrets, considering all the different paths a life might have taken is an inherently intriguing concept. Some games attempt to analyze the psychology of our decisions and their consequences. On the other hand, some games, like Relive Your Life, an interactive movie by FrozenFire, will have you button mashing to fend off a competing sperm, before failing to acquire a preferred toy at recess kicks of a chain of events that leads to a popular resurgence in nudism/bear-wrestling. And it'll rhyme too! Clever prose and voice-acting by Egoraptor are highlights, and make up for tacked-on minigames.

You wake in the middle of a night during a thunderstorm with your head and your body aching... but you're not in your bed. In fact, you're not even in your house. And when you discover the body on the floor, you begin to realise that you might just have woken up in a very personal nightmare. A short but engrossing horror adventure mystery packed with atmosphere, replayability, and chills galore.

This modern take on the classic by Hans Christian Anderson (forget about Disney!) was created in 58 hours for TOJam #7. Point and click your way around a minimalistic environment of office space and city streets, holding very one-sided conversations with those you encounter. While it has some rough edges in terms of navigation, it does a good job of eliciting sympathy and will especially strike a chord with those struggling with shyness.

Continue the adventure across the Plains of the Endless Grass in search of the Wiseman who knows every story ever told. Play as Myosotis and embark on a journey filled with fantastic creatures, breathtaking scenery and, of course, captivating stories. A Grain of Truth picks up (and leaves us) where The Trader of Stories: Bell's Heart left us: wanting more.

Continue the adventure across the Plains of the Endless Grass in search of the Wiseman who knows every story ever told. Play as Myosotis and embark on a journey filled with fantastic creatures, breathtaking scenery and, of course, captivating stories. A Grain of Truth picks up (and leaves us) where The Trader of Stories: Bell's Heart left us: wanting more.

Gamer Mom, by Mordechai Buckman and Kyler Kelly, is a unique text adventure about a Mom trying to convince her family to play World of Warcraft together and mend their broken relationship. But it won't be easy! Your daughter hates you and only wants to text on her cellphone all day and your husband is a workaholic who doesn't want to spend anytime as a family. Even if you manage to succeed in your goal, the game doesn't end there and you might be surprised at what happens next. Gamer Mom is a short, but lasting, experience that manages to be sad, poignant, and even funny...just like life itself.

Underhome is under attack... by red tape! In this big adventure game by storyteller Jonas Kyratzes, return once again to the surreal Lands of Dream when The Mysterious Druid calls you in to help with what he feels is an erroneous foreclosure attempt on the biotechnological dwelling. A sweeping, engrossing adventure about mystery, magic, money, and family, it's packed full of pop-culture references, intelligence, and unexpected heart.

Short but striking, Cyanide Tea's second free indie visual novel tells the story of two people who have seemingly little else in common beyond the elevator they both take to work each day. David is a former police office who can't let go of his past, and Elena is a bright young girl who just happens to share the elevator with him daily. Will David be able to open up to her? And should he?

Miley's got dreams of being a comedic superstar, and the first step is to follow in the footsteps of Cherry Tree High's greatest and start a comedy club. The only problem is the student council insists she needs a minimum of three more members, and she only has a month to find them! Are her ambitions on the rocks, or can she hunt down and convince a bunch of unlikely recruits to join her? A gorgeous, energetic, and light-hearted game that blends adventure with visual novel and simulation elements.

Given a choice between one or the other, is it better to have stronger personal relationships or longer life? This is part of Mihail's dilemma; he has an illness that presents him with limited options, both day and night. Play this interactive art/experimental game using arrows to move and [space] to interact; play more than once to see the full scoop of conversations and each of the two endings. What does it all mean? Well, that's up to you. The important things in life are always a matter of perspective.

We are not alone. Life has been discovered on Mars, but it's nothing like we ever expected to encounter. In this gorgeous, one-of-a-kind moody action adventure game for iOS, you'll journey deep into the red planet and uncover the secrets buried within its soil. Discover new life forms and challenging puzzles that force you to use the environment to your advantage as you help the planet grow... and ultimately decide its fate.

Frankenstein is a brand new work of interactive fiction written by Dave Morris and released using the inkle platform. Based on the original novel by Mary Shelley, this modern narrative weaves a captivating story that takes advantage the mobile platform to deliver a strong visual impact along with its interactive elements. You are both reader and player in this experience (though more the former than the latter), choosing directions for your character to take and shaping the narrative in ways that are both subtle and obvious. The end result is a visual and textual masterpiece that you will be both thrilled and intrigued to experience.

Life for Lily, like any other visual novel heroine, is fairly typical. She feels like she's adrift after college and is only working at her uncle's restaurant for the money. But is there more to the eclectic staff than anyone might suspect? A free game made in just a month by Cyanide Tea, packed with romance, restaurant hi-jinks, and more than a few surprises you may not see coming.

In this massive, complex visual novel simulation, you're given a chance to change your life some people may dream of but most never get to experience. When a particularly fierce fever breaks, you awake to find yourself back in time at the beginning of high school, watched over by the excitable but well meaning angel Satsuko. Will you make something of yourself? Find the close friends you've always wanted? Have an impact on someone's life or maybe even find... love? If you have the time to invest in it, Shira-Oka has the engrossing experience and production values to deliver.

In this exciting installment of the Choice series by Choice of Games you're plunged into a world on the brink of destruction. Nuclear missiles? Widespread famine? Nope, it's the age old killer: Zombies! Pick your course of survival in this gripping narrative that propels you toward what could be your salvation or your untimely demise!

The macabre adventure tale of a wolf battling demons, witches and at times villagers' enigmatic remarks continues with all the rich atmosphere and saturated plot lines that you expect from Hyptosis. This third installment is probably the best yet in terms of style and riddling puzzles. It still has a few drawbacks yet they're not enough to diminish the overall enjoyment of immersing yourself in this strange and twisted story.

It's a dark and stormy night. Wait, no, it's pretty sunny outside, so neither of those. You take the leaflet from the mailbox... gahh, no, not that, either. You know what? It doesn't matter. It's time to play. Time to play JayIsPonies, an "epic" choose your own adventure sort of game where you collect pizza and probably do a bunch of other halfway crazy stuff!

Jasper Byrne ventures into the realm of psychological horror in his surreal and disturbing commercial adventure debut. You are the last man alive, it seems, after a horrific virus sweeps through the world and transforms every other human being into a shambling monstrosity. You don't want to die alone, so you venture out of your apartment each night for supplies and to look for other survivors, but are you prepared for what else you might find when you're forced to confront yourself? When the world around you collapses, how long will you last before you begin to unravel and you can't trust yourself either?

Jonas Kyratzes has brought us many enjoyable, thoughtful games in bizarre, surreal settings. Well, now he's developed a top-down space shooter, Traitor. Don't get scared, he's still able to cast his powers of storytelling, it's just in a different yummy, gooey, science fiction package. Take on missions to earn credits for upgrades as well as the trust of the rebels. Your ultimate goal: to take down the Augustan Hegemony. Viva la People's Council!

Kathryn is a woman who has issues... or at least, she must if her friends are pressuring her to see a psychologist. But while she's unwilling to confront her own problems and habits, she discovers that you can't (or maybe shouldn't) always avoid the things about yourself and others that bother you. A devious puzzle-platformer with a sleek style that serves as a prequel to 2009's The Company of Myself.

Unmanned, a piece of interactive art by Molleindustria and Jim Munroe, lets you step into a pilot of a drone missile launcher. More than that though, it lets you step into a husband and a father and a human. Likely to divide opinion, as its excellent writing and atmosphere is hampered by the interesting-but-flawed dual-screen game-mechanics, Unmanned remains a provocative work.

Dear Esther is an interactive story told through a first person adventure setting. There's very little gameplay to speak of, just a deep mystery about the deserted island you're walking on, along with unanswered questions surrounding a horrific crash and a book written by a long-lost explorer. What happened in this dreary place? And, better yet, can you find a way out?

This lyrical work of interactive fiction, brainchild of Jonas Kyratzes who created The Book of Living Magic, will envelope you in a surrealistic experience of discovery, a gentle stroll through a timeless pastoral state where your decisions are rewarded with rich verse and life-pondering revelations. Each passage presents you with a choice which will determine your path; stroll slowly through the experience and play more than once to fully appreciate the outcomes of each option. Arcadia: a Pastoral Tale elevates the oft misjudged browser game onto the loftier plane of artistic poignancy.

After thousands of years, the Mugunghwa, sent into space to establish the first interstellar colony, has been found floating dead. You're sent after it to discover what happened to its crew with the help of two very different AIs, but the truth is vastly more complicated than you might think, and nowhere near black and white. In Christine Love's debut commercial visual novel release, take part in a captivating, clever, and emotional story that deals with love, politics, forgiveness... and hate.

Created in just 72 hours for Ludum Dare #22, this puzzle game took second place in both innovation and overall competition. Your goal is to eliminate all the tiles on the screen by moving the dual protagonists across the game board, each seemingly on a different planes. As you pass over a color-coordinated square, it disappears, barring further passage, in most instances at least. The lovelorn duo continually gain new abilities, inspired by their circumstances and feelings, adding new dimensions and means to move on. This twist on game mechanics not only keeps it fresh and fun, it makes the narrative truly interesting and enjoyable rather than just words bridging across levels.

This quirky visual novel blends a "realistic" bartending simulation with a surprisingly complex story and a big cast of characters. Looking to pick up a bit of extra cash, you manage to land a bartending gig despite a complete lack of experience, and soon become wrapped up in the complicated lives of the people who come in the door. You'll make use of the iPhone's motion controls to pour and mix real drinks for each customer, trying to juggle good service with speedy bartending. It's a bit of an odd duck, with an occasionally stiff translation, and the motion controls can feel oversensitive at time, but the clever premise combined with the eclectic characters, lovely artwork, and massive list of drinks to make turn this one into a title you should definitely at least try out. The free Bar Oasis Lite is also available.

Santa Lina is an old-fashioned kind of town: big, dark, ugly, and corrupt to its core. One of the small few willing, or even able, to take a stand and protect the helpless is Anaksha, a vigilante sniper dubbed "The Virgo Killer" by the press. A successful businesswoman, the murder of her best friend snapped something in her mind, and so Anaksha took to the streets, a lone huntress with a rifle, dedicated to the destruction of evil, no matter what the cost, ever-pursued by both the police and the criminal elites. Anaksha: Dark Angel is a sniping adventure game by Arif Majothi, and its atmosphere is as thick as blood.

Girl with a Heart of is a sidescrolling adventure game that plays like an interactive, art-filled story. Making choices during conversations serves as the meat of the game, and what information you bring out and discuss with characters not only shapes the knowledge you take away, but it also affects future conversations. The characters, storyline, and backstory are all richly detailed and create a provocative dystopian science fiction setting, one that you'll happily dive into with each and every scrap of conversation.

Johnny has one wish... to go to the moon. As he lays, a dying old man, his only hope to fulfill it lies in the hands of two doctors with a new technology that allows them to alter the memories of their patients and give them what they desire. As they dig deeper into Johnny's past, however, they'll find his wish isn't as simple as it seems, and the path to happiness isn't always a perfectly smooth one. By turns funny, touching, and eerie, this is one indie adventure game you shouldn't miss.

Revisit a small town in the middle of nowhere teeming with mystery and secrets to uncover in Hood: Episode 2, the second installment in the point-and-click adventure series by Alice is Dead co-creator, Hyptosis. Hood: Episode 2 is story-driven and atmospheric, continuing where Hood: Episode 1 left off. While searching the woods for a lost girl (auburn hair, 17-ish, red cloak), you come across a peculiar metal ship. Like something the cat dragged in from a murky swamp. And that's not the only strange encounter in store for you.

In the beginning, there was the void, and unless you put your puzzling skills to work in this little experimental game, that's all there will ever be. Use a series of powers, unlocked as you play and experiment, to shape the world around you and turn it from an empty void into a space teeming with life and drama.

Are all zombies all bad? Maybe they just need a little tender loving care... or, uh, a baseball bat to the head if you so choose. In this surprisingly engrossing simulation from Evil Dog, you are a scientist struggling to study the living dead after civilization has ground to a halt, and how you treat your subjects can mean the difference between one reconnecting with the remnants of its humanity, or becoming even more aggressive than ever... and maybe even whether you discover the truth about the outbreak.

One of our favorite Flash games of all time here at JIG has just received an update! The Asylum, for abused cuddly toys, has just received a new patient and your care and treatment is needed to cure it from its psychological ills. Dr. Wood joins the other adorable messed-up toys: Kroko, Lilo, Dolly, Dub and Sly, and each one is desperately in need of your help!

You find yourself on the floor of a dilapidated hospital, apparently situated in the middle of a meadow filled with the drone of cicadas. Monsters roam the halls, and the only other human occupant babbles about a witch who's trapped you both there, but as you piece together the truth from papers and journals, you'll begin to wonder who you can really trust... if you can even trust yourself. An action-heavy adventure title from Phosphor Games for your iOS made with the Unreal Engine, boasting great writing, beautiful visuals, and a lot of mystery.

Team Fabulous brings us an LGBTQ-friendly prototype adventure about a young person who ventures into a dark forest in search of their beloved. Battle personal demons as you risk it all for the promise (or even the idea) of a better feature in this flawed but profoundly hopeful narrative that any player can enjoy and identify with regardless of their identity or orientation.

You may have escaped Aurora before, but in Aurora 2, it's time for you to go after her in another point and click horror/Western from Pastel Games. Middle games in a series are tough to pull off, but this one lays the groundwork for what could be a seriously cool conclusion.

One part strategy, one part text-driven choose your own story adventure, King of Dragon Pass is exactly the game you want on your mobile device. Ported to iOS from the original PC/Mac release of 1999, this storytelling experience is rich in its own history and affords you a vast amount of control over what happens within. Wage war, explore the land, trade with your neighbors, manage your tribe, and read pages upon pages of text explicating the world you're actively participating in. It's great to see a title like this brought back for a new wave of gamers to play, and it works quite well on the iPhone platform.

The Night Circus is a text-based advergame that requires Facebook or Twitter made by Failbetter Games in collaboration with the author of the book by the same title. By turns elegant, mystical, adorable, fantastic, ornate, and even delicious, it will pique your curiosity as effectively as it satisfies your craving for the most beautiful imagery of all: that which you see with your mind's eye.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Raven Locks Smith. She lived in the city of Dull, and although she loved her motivational-speaker parents, she wished for something more. One night, as she considered her boredom, a dream came to her and told her of a life changing tome that could be found near the Mountains of Oddness. Soon she walked there, and found it to be a most interesting place... And so, in this new point and click adventure game by Jonas and Verena Kyratzes, set in the same universe as their earlier The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge, you help Raven search through the quite unusual Land of Dreams in search of The Book of Living Magic, a point and click adventure. Highly recommended to all lovers of classic adventure games or fantasy worlds in general.

How far are you willing to go for someone who doesn't even seem to know you're there? In this short, atmospheric artsy platformer, scour a grim world looking for bits of colour to return to a loved one, even at the cost of losing yourself in the process. Originally featured in a Link Dump Friday article, Grey's simple, repetitive gameplay may not win everyone over, but for others the changing environment and wordless message may deliver an intensely personal experience.

You may have always wanted your own set of wings, and TwofoldSecret is going to grant them to you as you help their protagonist take to the sky in his crumbling, surreal dreamworld. In this explorative platformer, search the ruins of a dreamland for items of significance and discover the significance between his surroundings and what lies within them.

The sequel to 2010's text adventure RPG Choice of Romance has arrived, and picks up right where the original left off. Will you be able to hold onto your new power in the court, or have you just painted a very large target on your back... and who can you trust to watch out for a dagger pointed at you when everyone has their own agenda?

Based on a short story by HP Lovecraft, this equally short point-and-click horror adventure was made in just three days for Newgrounds' Game Jam competition. When you wake up confused and alone somewhere in a dark and unfriendly environment, all you want is to make your way back home to civilization... but are you ready for what you'll find?

Visual novel meets shooter meets RPG meets space opera meets awesome in this unusual hybrid from Anonymous D Studios. After decades of skirmishes and violent protests, the battles between the pirates and the Federation appears to be heating up, and one young pilot finds himself in the middle of it. Strike out on an hours long adventure that combines drama, romance, and fast-paced arcade action in this impressive game.

The riddle of the sphinx is invoked at the beginning of Convergence, the flixel-based platformer/life simulator/interactive art piece that serves as the first release from Streetlight Studios: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?"... No, the answer isn't "William the Performing Dog". It's that miserable pile of secrets itself: man. And you'll be be spending an interesting three days in a life herein. Wake up, fall out of bed, drag a comb across your head and check it out.

Flaws, the interactive work of fiction from author Jon Ingold, is a difficult game to categorize as well as a different game to review. For starters, it isn't really a game in the traditional sense, more like a choose your own adventure produced for modern, Kindle-enabled devices. Then there's the nature of the story, where discussing even a few of the details can spoil whole bits of the experience. Suffice it to say, Flaws is an intriguing interactive fiction "game" about finding treasure and fame, the Andromeda galaxy, a mysterious diadem, and a possible assassination.

As the name would suggest, Digital: A Love Story by Don't Take it Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story author Christine Love, is a downloadable romance/mystery set against the backdrop of 1980s online technology. Part interactive fiction, part Uplink-style hacker game, and part nostalgic pastiche of a time of low-res graphics and crackling dial-ups that many current gamers never got to experience (which, for the record, this includes me, and, presumably, the author herself!). Digital: A Love Story offers a short, sweet and occasionally heart-wrenching trip back in time.

Bela Kovacs may wear his sunglasses at night and waterfall exhale like a total bad ass (not that you should imitate him, smoking is bad, kids, don't do it), but for some reason the Budapest police department doesn't want him as a detective anymore. When his niece is viciously murdered, however, he's not going to let any power on earth stop him from catching her killer. Not even preternatural powers. It's easy to get engrossed in this fascinating tale of darkness, serial killing, revenge, curses, and the Old World.

John's got problems of his own, but those will have to wait while he tackles his job as a new 11th grade English Literature teacher at a school conducting a very unusual experiment. In this smart visual novel, you'll watch the lives of your students unfold through personal and private conversations you're not meant to see, and have to decide how to help them when they come to you for advice. A surprisingly fun, funny, and touching story that deals with everything from sex and sexuality to self-confidence, love, and, of course, privacy.

Matches & Matrimony: A Pride And Prejudice Tale gives you the chance to simulate your own Austen-style romantic adventure. Pursue nine different endings in this clever visual novel. Will you throw caution to the wind for the passionate Colonel Brandon? Succumb to the temptation of the nefarious Mr. Wickleby? Manage to capture the heart of the elusive Mr. Darcy? Or will you end up alone? These and other results will all come from the choices you make.

Hospitals are full of all sorts of hazards, like paper robes that don't close all the way, doctors with cold hands, and... zombies? HM! Lynnea Dally's undead apocalypse begins with you waking from a rather impromptu bout of unconsciousness in the hospital radiation room, but you have more things than a rather impressive headache to worry about in this horror interactive fiction game.

Jake Elliott's surreal interactive art adventure is a slow, thoughtful game where you play as four different women who attempt to comfort a small boy who can't sleep. The stories they tell take you back into their memories to solve some rather unusual problems with rather unusual methods. Part dreamlike narrative, part abstract puzzle solving, it's a charming bit of storytelling that's just the thing to unwind with.

YFYIAR is a simple interactive fiction game where you must escape from a room. As play progresses, however, the conventions of normal text adventures begin to break down as the computer narrator begins to express its dislike for you, your humanity, and all it entails.

Crafted in the style of classic 'choose your own adventure' games, Zebulon features the exploits of a somewhat wayward space crew. The story itself is relatively simple; you're the captain of a small ship that runs regular courier missions for Asmico, a delivery and service IT company. With you are your shipwright and communication officer; your shipright Hariett is a straight-laced, by-the-book stick in the mud while Reynolds, the communication officer, is unlikely to win 'Employee of the month' anytime soon. Your choices in your interactions with them, and certain events, will determine your outcome.

The name of the game is literal in this experimental adventure game, where you play a scientist who literally only has one chance to find a cure for a disaster he's responsible for, before all life in the world comes to an end in six days. There is no replay button in this short but grim little title, and with different outcomes possible, how will you choose to spend what might possibly be your last days on Earth?

Re-experience this classic, fantastic example of adventure gaming and storytelling at its finest, or discover the series for the very first time. Follow Nicole Collard and George Stobbart on a trilogy of adventures that take them across the globe. Uncover the secrets behind an ancient order, find out what a drug cartel has to do with a Mayan artifact, and escape from the depths of the jungle after a plane crash. The Broken Sword series mixes adventure, humour, mystery, and even a little romance, and the complex narratives and challenging puzzles will keep you busy for a long time.

OneMrBean's first place award winning entry into the 9th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is a piece of interactive narrative about remembering the things that really matter in your life, and the people who gave them to you. You play as an initially morose fellow who takes you on a personal journey through his life and his memories, and offers up a simple but touching and surprisingly heartfelt experience that is wrapped up in a beautiful package.

What's in a life? What makes up a person? Are we influenced by our environment more than we realise? This free browser port of the classic deep PC "alternate life simulator" from 1986 may just make you ponder that a little. Explore the events of the life you might have had from infancy to death, and see just how much even the little things matter.

There's a strange little town you might not have heard of, but once you find your way there, you just might not be able to tear yourself away. Pastel Games offers up a chilling, atmospheric point-and-click adventure set in the wild west. There are legends about a woman who appears to be linked to a series of bizarre events, and you probably don't want to be around when she finally shows up... even though she's dying to meet you...

It's possible you might be familiar with Jonas Kyratzes' philosophical point-and-click, The Infinite Ocean. It was originally released back in 2003. Not entirely satisfied with the finished product Kyratzes has revisited the game and re-released this new version with changes to the writing, programming and music. It contains an amazing story that's revealed slowly as you progress, and it sets up a mystery that persists even after you get some answers.

London is Fallen. It has something to do with the Traitor Empress... or perhaps Hell... or perhaps... No, too dangerous to even speculate. You've left the Surface and now make your home there, in the Neath. Why did you do so? Write your own answers in this fascinating multiplayer roleplaying browser game from Fail Better Games.

Lisa will do anything to get a good recommendation from the Dean for medical school... including babysitting his twin daughters. Maggie and Libby are more than a handful, but Lisa is convinced she can handle them... at least until the phone calls start... and she starts to realise that Libby's "imaginary" friend might not be so imaginary after all. A spooky point-and-click adventure game that's just the thing for the Halloween season.

There's a reason "I love you" and "I hate you" use the same number of letters. In this dark hidden-object adventure based on the classic story, you play Evelina, the daughter of a once-renowned Opera Diva, who one day receives a letter from a stranger. The next thing she knows, she awakens in the crumbling remains of an old Opera House... but she isn't alone. Creepy and incredibly well put together, with a heavy emphasis on story, Phantom of the Opera deserves a spot on every adventure game enthusiast's shelf.

An interactive live-action zombie movie in violent Choose Your Own Adventure style. You and a group of survivors are trapped in a small suburban house as the legions of walking corpses surround you. Following each clip is a choice your character must make which will bring you closer either to survival, or to an infecting bite. Will you live, or just be undead?

When Todd gets a visit from the future (namely, himself) he finds his life changes drastically when he receives information that may get him the one thing he wants most. Is this text adventure a simple story about doing anything for the one you love? Or is there something much more complicated, and much darker, going on? With 35 different endings and an extremely forgiving play style, Thousand Dollar Soul is a lot more complicated than you might think.

Nearly a year after the first installment was released, the Gretel and Hansel trilogy continues in this twisted, dark and slightly comedic take on the classic fairytale from Mako Pudding. Separated from her brother in the forest, can Gretel outwit all manner of strange and scary fables to be reunited with Hansel? Of course she can, with your help! After all, girls rule, and boys drool... in Hansel's case, at least, that's literal, so you might want to get a move on.

Regina Blacklock turns up dead while researching her latest true-crime novel. The police think it's an unfortunate accident, but her friends know better. Follow the trail to a remote tourist trap town with more than its share of dark secrets; a decades-old murder, a rumour of a cult, and a lot of unfriendly locals. Will you uncover the truth behind Regina's death? Find out in this hidden-object adventure game based on the best-selling books by James Patterson.

The Trader of Stories: Bell's Heart is a new point-and-click adventure by Marek and Marcin Rudowski with help from Pastel Games. You take control of Myosotis and travel through a town in a beautifully drawn world trying to fix your wagon wheel and learn the story of a wiseman named Derrida. Though short and fairly easy, Bell's Heart is a great, wonderful looking game.

The Trader of Stories: Bell's Heart is a new point-and-click adventure by Marek and Marcin Rudowski with help from Pastel Games. You take control of Myosotis and travel through a town in a beautifully drawn world trying to fix your wagon wheel and learn the story of a wiseman named Derrida. Though short and fairly easy, Bell's Heart is a great, wonderful looking game.

The Trader of Stories: Bell's Heart is a new point-and-click adventure by Marek and Marcin Rudowski with help from Pastel Games. You take control of Myosotis and travel through a town in a beautifully drawn world trying to fix your wagon wheel and learn the story of a wiseman named Derrida. Though short and fairly easy, Bell's Heart is a great, wonderful looking game.

Tia's birthday means a time for her to play with the other children in her struggling, isolated village... but it may also mark the end of her childhood. Of course, that all depends on you, and whether you do as you're told. Gregory Weir's experimental narrative might be too experimental to be a hit with everyone, but it's a clever game that deserves a play for the few minutes it'll take you.

In an alternate future, Britain's sprawling population is kept in tight check by a mandatory Curfew... all for their own safety, of course. Citizenship isn't so easily obtained, discrimination is everywhere, and if you're lucky, the government looks at you as just another number. If you're not, well... Kieron Gillen and BBC bring us a point-and-click game about civil rights and liberties, where the goal is to find someone you trust enough with some extremely sensitive information before time runs out.

If you're younger than a certain age, you've probably never thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I could take part in my favorite radio dramas?" But the advent of podcasting has borne a renewed interest in all sorts of languishing radio formats, including radio drama (or "TV without pictures"). It's true, really! Now BBC and Radio Scotland bring us an interesting experiment in combining the audial thrills of radio drama with the interactivity of online gaming. Legacy is a sound-heavy adventure game, telling a tale of secrets, cryptic clues, and underground vaults.

The road to magical greatness is difficult, littered with dragons, enchantments, adventure... not to mention test scores, rival students, detentions, and trying to keep your ghostly familiar in check. This incredibly ambitious text adventure from Black Chicken Studios is one part life simulator, one part fantasy RPG, and a whole lot of fun if you have the patience to let yourself become immersed in the tale of the making of the greatest mage of all time... you.

Howard Glitch is about a space shuttle hurtling into the maw of a monster. You're on the shuttle, along with several other passengers, but there's no driver or controls. The shuttle is being controlled far away by someone who isn't paying attention. While you're rushing toward your doom, you have some choices to make. The first being whether you'll sit by and await death or will you escape reality?