NarraScope

Narrascope 2025 | Celebrating Narrative Games NarraScope 2025 at Drexel University is an event that supports interactive narrative, adventure games, and interactive fiction by bringing together writers, developers, and players.

Additionally, a whole host of volunteers helped with the various subcommittee tasks! A full list of conference staff is available on our website: 2025.narrascope.org/about/ - thank you to all of them! (3/3)

IFTF Treasurer Colette Zinna served as conference treasurer, @natmesnard.bsky.social chaired communications, @reidts.bsky.social was the website guru, and Darya Ramezani coordinated programming and helped from the Drexel side alongside Rob Lloyd. (2/3)

If you enjoyed NarraScope 2025, here are the folks who made it happen! Our Chair was @mifga.bsky.social, @jdcalvelli.itch.io was the Junior Chair & showcase organizer. @eblong.com & @lordhuffnpuff.allfatherproductions.com served as emeritus advisors and did other varied tasks (food, website). (1/3)

Weekend in Philly: epic cheesesteak, first NarraScope, and a mind-blowing gift—the last spare Twin Peaks ring prop, hand-made by the original craftsman for on-screen use. ✈️🥪💍

NarraScope’s passion was unreal. Pros, academics, and fresh voices all jamming on narrative. Hope to return!

🥳 💜 Find us at @narrascope.org this Friday! We're excited to participate in this interactive fiction conference from @iftechfoundation.org at Drexel University in Philly.

We'll be sharing a workshop on how to make narrative games fast in our Turbo game engine⚡ Come say hi!

Get the NarraScoop on Brigitte Winter! @brigittewinter.bsky.social

Here’s the NarraScoop with Jess Erion! @jjerion.bsky.social

Read the NarraScoop on Tony Errichetti!

Today is your 💥 last chance 💥 to purchase online tickets to NarraScope 2025! Join us on Discord for a fully hybrid conference experience. The ticket portal closes at 11:59 ET: www.eventbrite.com/e/narrascope...

I'm super looking forward to my Narrascope talk this weekend!! I hope you'll come check it out!

Read the NarraScoop on Francisco González! @grundislav.games

Read the NarraScoop on Julia Minamata! @juliaminamata.bsky.social

Join the Philly Game Mechanics Discord Server! Check out the Philly Game Mechanics community on Discord - hang out with 1088 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

On Saturday, June 21, @phillygamemechs.bsky.social will host the NarraScope Saturday Post-Party at The Post (129 S 30th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104). Hang out, network, and play more games! RSVP here: www.meetup.com/phillygameme...

Join @comradery.bsky.social and the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance at the Queen & Rook Board Game Cafe (123 South Street Philadelphia, PA 19147) for a board game mixer on Friday, June 20 beginning at 6:30pm. RSVP here: www.eventbrite.com/e/cocktails-...

Party with NarraScope in Philadelphia this year! We've got some evening events planned on June 20 and 21 with local orgs to play games, talk shop, and make friends during the conference. 🧵

⌛Time is short to purchase an online NarraScope membership and join us for the 2025 conference this coming weekend! Sales close at 11:59 ET on June 18: www.eventbrite.com/e/narrascope...

Re-learning Narrative Design Lessons from Children’s Books: A Preview - Essay Games Blog Below is an edited/condensed preview of a talk I'm giving at Narrascope on Saturday, June 21, 2025. I haven't included all of my slides, and I've removed some bits before delivering my presentation (I...

I haven't posted to the blog in a minute, but I wanted to share a preview of my upcoming @narrascope.org talk:

www.essay-games.com/blog/re-lear...

It's about re-learning narrative design techniques to appear impatient readers (inspired by my kiddos!).

A map of the United States of America is shown, with a logo for Yarn Spinner and a callout that says “book a chat!”, along with a series of map annotations with the following dates. New York City says 14th to 19th June. Philadelphia says 19th to 23rd June. Portland says 23rd to 25th June. San Francisco says 25th and 26th June.

One of our team - @hey.paris - is in the states for the @narrascope.org conf this weekend, and he’s hitting a few cities on the way in/out.

Want to have a chat about what Yarn Spinner can offer your team/project, or even just dish about narrative in games? He’d love to!

DMs open 💚

Read the NarraScoop on Ash Poprik! @ashleypoprik.bsky.social

Read the NarraScoop on Nicholas O’Brien! @essaygames.bsky.social

All the shortlisted games will be featured at the Showcase event on June 20th, where the winners will be revealed!

BEST STUDENT WORK
Annota Line
bombylls.itch.io/annota-line

Road Trip to the End of the World
sharkandpelican.itch.io/road-trip-to...

Payload
blackbansheestudios.itch.io/payload

BEST EXPERIMENTAL WORK
Something to Reach For
outerplays.itch.io/something-to...

The Shaman, the Outsider, and the Diet of Worms
lithobreakers.itch.io/the-shaman-t...

THE INSIDE
archosaur.itch.io/the-inside

BEST NARRATIVE
Sisyphe’s Backspace
xiu0922koway.itch.io/sisyphes-bac...

night confessional
sweetfish.itch.io/confessional

Sunset High
store.steampowered.com/app/2997880/...

BEST IN SHOW
Perfect Tides: Station to Station
perfect-tides.com

Rosewater
www.grundislav.games/Rosewater.html

takeover
cinemaleo.itch.io/takeover

NarraScope Showcase 2025 logo

The NarraScope Showcase 2025 shortlist has been announced! Check the replies to see each award category 🏆

IFComp Seeking an Artist for the 2025 Logo We are looking for art for this year’s IFComp logo! We will pay a $250 commission. Artists should express interest by sending us a link to their past work/portfolio via email: ifcomp@ifcomp.org by...

Calling all artists on Bluesky!
The IFComp is seeking an artists for our 2025 logo!

Check this post for more info!
blog.ifcomp.org/post/7855116...

#interactivefiction #ifcomp #ifcomp2025 #artist #digitalart

Announcing the IFTF Patreon IFTF has joined Patreon, a new way to support the organization!

The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation has launched a Patreon! Now there's a new way to support us and all we do (Narrascope, Twine, IFComp, IFDB, IF Wiki, IntFiction, and so much more!)

Ready to support writers of games, interactive fiction, digital stories, visual novels, electronic lit, and the like?

Even a small donation to parent non-profit org @iftechfoundation.org goes a long way to help IfComp, NarraScope, Twine carry on.

Chip in here: iftechfoundation.org/give/

Hello fellow IF fans, game writers, players and story enjoyers! Our annual conference on narrative games, NarraScope, is less than a month away. As the event draws closer, I wanted to turn your attention to the trademark Big Thermometer on narrascope.org, which tracks fundraising for the event. We are currently at $15,005, which is 60% of our $25,000 goal. To be clear: NarraScope is not in danger of going under or being canceled. However, we rely on donations from both sponsors and individuals to make sure that we don't need to dig so deep into IFTF's treasury that it could impact our other programs you love – things like IFComp, IFDB, the Twine committee, and more. This year, contributions from both individuals and institutions have been lower than in the past, for reasons we can likely deduce by looking at the world around us. These contributions are what allow us to offer attendance at a significantly lower price point than many other conferences. The conference team is working as always to continue to fundraise, but we wanted to ask that if you have the stability and ability to do so, to consider sending IFTF a small donation. You can do so at iftechfoundation.org/give/, and if you want, put a note indicating that it is directed at NarraScope and how you would like to be credited, if you so desire. Additionally, if you know any institutions that may be interested in a sponsorship, please email sponsorship@narrascope.org with the details. This year's event looks to be our largest yet, with more programming, attendees and events than any in the past! Your support helps keep NarraScope and IFTF sustainable and ensures that the event goes off without a hitch. Our in-person tickets have totally sold out, but passes to stream talks live are still available through 18 June 2025. As always, we appreciate your support, and I’m excited to see many of you next month in Philadelphia! - Justin Bortnick, President, Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation

A message from IFTF's president about this year's event (don't panic!):