The First True Interactive Drama

For decades, true interactive fiction--an application in which characters' responses to a player's input are determined algorithmically rather than via prescripted sequences, and in which valid stories emerge regardless of player action--has been a holy grail for AI researchers, digital artists, and game developers alike.

Most attempts to solve the problem have been "top down," that is, attempting to handle all sorts of stories, all sorts of personalities, and all sorts of potential actions. The results have generally been never more than mildly interesting.

Andy Stern and Michael Mateas, however, chose to try to solve a specific problem, rather than the general one. They chose a story with one setting (an apartment), two NPCs (a husband and wife), one basic conflict (their marriage is on the rocks), and a limited time frame (you are a friend of the family, visiting them over the course of an evening). By narrowing the focus this way, they were actually to solve the problem. Not, to be sure, in a way that solves the general problem--but in a way that makes of Façade the first really interesting work of true interative fiction.

Game Tunnel's 2006 RPG of the Year

FastCrawl is what the name suggests: a quick-playing dungeon crawler, perfect for a way to kill your lunch hour. One of the parameters you set at game-start, in fact, is whether you want a short, medium, or long game; short ones last about 30 minutes, while long ones last perhaps an hour.

The gameplay is Rogue-like, except that this is, of course, a game with an intuitive 2D interface with decent graphics, playable almost entirely with a mouse--almost like a NetHack designed for the casual game crowd. Dungeons, opponents, and items are randomly generated each time; each turn consumes a unit of supply, and while you can find more in the dungeon, the net effect is to limit the length of gameplay. And unlike most Rogue-likes, you control a party of characters instead of a single one. All in all, a nice, fast-playing hack'n'slash experience.

Interactive Novel with Puzzles

Georgina Okerson, creator of Cute Knight returns with Fatal Hearts, a charmingly quirky adventure game, of a sort, featuring a teen girl protagonist and a chilling set of murders. Featuring anime-inspired art and teenage angst in a horror story, Fatal Hearts has several different endings -- different enough that you'll want to play more than once to explore the different outcomes -- along with puzzle mini-games and a well-written story.

It's not a point-and-click adventure game in the usual style; indeed, it's more of an interactive graphic novel with puzzle-game aspects. As such, it's very accessible even to adventure game novices.

You can think of Flatspace II as a sort of shmuppy Elite by way of NetHack. Like NetHack, the universe is randomly generated each time you start a new game; like shmups, starship combat is fast and intense; like Elite, you're a starship captain exploring a huge universe--and there are a whole slew of different roles you can take (trader, mercenary, bounty hunter, assassin, police officer, or scavenger).

Cheerful, Fast-Playing Farm Tycoon

Little sheep wander around going 'baa,' you shear them when they grow wool; pigs snort around and you butcher them when they're fat--but if you don't provide enough slops, they turn the grass the sheep eat into mud.

Funky Farm is a fast-playing, light little sim/tycoon game that's surprisingly fun given its simplicity. And simple it is; your eight year-old will probably enjoy it as much as you (some reading is required). Don't expect a challenging simulation, but if a light-hearted, fast-playing little tycoon game sounds like a good way to kill some time, it's up your alley.