Wrongly assumed to be a "hobbyist niche", interactive fiction games have proven to captivate players through strong writing and design unique to the genre.

While mainstream games have many tools that can be utilized to evoke emotion, like camera angles and facial expressions, IF must oftentimes rely on providing the same experience without those luxuries. 

In this GDC 2015 session, Choice of Games' Heather Albano provides some examples of important interactive fiction games released over the last few years (including commercial and free titles), suggesting ways that IF techniques can be adapted to other types of games.

The session also explores some successful interactive fiction titles, and developers interested in learning about the tools to create their own IF can (and should) watch Albano's full talk for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.