i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.

anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.

Games

Tools

Non-Games

thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.

A monster has its teeth in your companions.

It builds nightmares out of their worst memories and drinks their pain.

One of your companions has a particularly bad worst memory.

Play Here

Dream of Silence Update: Act 1, Patch 1

Act 2 is now playable.

Dream of Silence Update: Act 2, Patch 1

Act 3 is done. This is now a complete game.

Act 3, Patch 1 Notes

"Astarion shudders."

"While you hold him, he makes a few noises like he's stopping himself from crying."

A full fanart inspired by "A dream of silence". For now the hardest work I've made

anything u think about YOUR life after 10pm is bs to be ignored. anything u think about a character’s life after 10pm should be posted about online and expanded on for paragraphs. :)

The amount of slavery in Ancient Rome was legitimately terrifying tbh

Y’all know that I’m into ancient Roman history and I do a lot of research on it but even though I should be used to it by now sometimes I read an anecdote about how an individual slave was treated and I’m hit with the realization that like a third of the population was living like that and I just need to put my head in my hands for a second

Emperor Hadrian randomly stabbed a slave in the eye in a fit of rage and he was supposedly unusually sympathetic to slaves.

There’s other instances of people randomly punching slaves that they didn’t even know because they got in their way or something. This was just normal behavior.

And slaves didn’t rebel en masse because if even one slave committed an act of violent rebellion it was common practice to kill every slave and former slave in the household.

People only took notice for posterity when these mass executions got into the hundreds of people. One of the few recorded for the history books is of over 400 people being killed because one guy stabbed his enslaver.

Like how many people throughout history were beaten to death because some rich asshole was angry and there was no legal or social consequences for doing so? We don’t know.

When you study ancient history you’re reminded that slavery has never once been kind or justified. It just takes on different forms of evil in every time and place that it infects.

Lurking under this is also the fact that most Roman mining operations were done by slaves in conditions that were far more brutal than those of household slaves, to the point that sending a slave to the mines is a threat I’ve read leveraged multiple times in separate texts

also Rome’s slavery is considered chattel slavery.

The Twilight Zone: Our episode "A Slot Machine Chases You Around Physically" was meant as a cautionary tale about the predatory nature of the gambling industry

The Gambling Industry: We've invented the slot machine that chases you around physically from The Twilight Zone episode "A Slot Machine Chases You Around Physically"

That’s a real episode, for anyone who didn’t know.

"Close Personal Friend Mr. Drugs" has had me roaring with laughter for the last few minutes.

"Iggy Pop and I were a couple of very naughty boys who went to Berlin to learn how to be good. Or was I watching the Travel Channel?"

-David Bowie, VH1 StoryTellers, Intro for 'China Girl'

shoots you with a beam that immediately takes effect

oh my god i can feel the effect…

hey guys feeling demotivated so im making a note challenge!!

1 note: I quit being a sheriff

10 notes: I start a rebellion

100 notes: I take over the dynasty

1,000 notes: I start the first golden age of China

1,000,000,000 notes: idk I seduce qsh or something you guys let me know

great news guys I just started a rebellion 👍 thanks for all the support, wish me luck defeating xiang yu!

new dynasty new me 😎

GUESS WHOSE GOLDEN AAAAAAGE

STOP REBLOGGING THIS SEDITIOUS POST YOU TRAITOROUS TRAITORS!!!!! THIS IS AN ORDER!!!!!

if this gets to 3k i'll bribe an itinerant scholar into writing anonymous slash fic

NO THE FUCK YOU WILL NOT!!!!!!

4K and liu bang tops

DETLE YUOR FUCKING BO G

wooo ya boy's getting paid tonight!!!!

what do you mean by this, social media intern? his royal highness has made it clear this is an unpaid position.

;O_O i mean i have grown rich in patriotism and legal knowledge under bixia's most illustrious tutelage.

maybe if we get this to enough notes @strike-the-zither will arrange the slashfic as a ballad and immortalize it in song

me finishing the most middest, time wasting art known to human kind but I lowkey fw it:

Figured I'd make my own ship bingo for my specific ship opinions. (Feel free to steal!)

shapeshifter wife

excuse me while I obsess over this specific shot for 10 more years.

numbers if they had youtube drama