IFWiki:Literary genres
 Adventure |
The defining feature of a game in the Adventure genre is that it has a PC who is an adventurer, explorer, or hero by trade. The PC explores exotic and forgotten lands in search of treasure to acquire, monsters to slay, and captives to rescue. Examples:
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 Comedy |
Any game which tries to make its audience laugh is comedic to an extent; a true comedy is one which tries to do this regularly. Examples:
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 Drama |
Games in the Drama genre feature strong emphasis on character, plot and theme; they deal with relationships, the human condition, and inner lives. Examples:
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 Espionage |
Espionage games are characterised by a protagonist who is a spy or secret agent, who must infiltrate hostile territory in order to gather information, carry out sabotage, steal items and so forth. Examples:
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 Fantasy |
Fantasy games are characterized by magic and myth. Magic can be in present in the form of spells, magic items (scrolls, potions, wands, etc.), wizards and witches. Myth can be present as mythic creatures (such as dragons, elves, dwarves, trolls, gods, demons, etc.) or mythic artifacts (eg: Excalibur, or the golden fleece). Examples:
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 Ghost |
Examples:
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 Historical |
Examples:
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 Horror |
Horror games are characterized by death imagery (skulls, corpses, graveyards), blood and gore, hideous monsters, torture, death, and fates worse than death. Sometimes the PC's main motivation is simply to escape and survive. IF in this genre tends to draw heavily upon established styles of horror, such as that of HP Lovecraft. Examples:
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 Medical |
This category is about works of interactive fiction with a medical or healthcare theme, including mental health themes. Works that mostly take place in a hospital, doctor's office, insane asylum, or other medical facility probably fall into this category by default.
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 Mystery |
Mystery games allow the player to play a detective who must search for clues, interrogate witnesses, and solve a crime (usually murder or theft). Often, the goal of the game is to make a successful arrest of the criminal. Detective PCs may be police officers, private investigators, newspaper journalists, amateur sleuths, suspects trying to clear their names, or witnesses who want to see justice done. Examples:
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 Porn/Erotica |
Games where sex and nudity is the main point of playing the game. Usually this means the PC is motivated to either have sex or witness sex as often as possible; such games are pornographic. Less explicit games, or erotica, might instead focus on sexual items (like undergarments, condoms, vibrators) or sexual or lewd talk rather than the act of sex itself. All AIF (adult interactive fiction) games belong to the Porn/Erotica genre, by definition. Examples:
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 Religious |
Religious games are usually characterized by frequent use of themes associated with religion, particularly Christianity (the cross, Jesus, the Bible, churches, etc.). Bibical verses are likely to appear. Religious games also usually try to touch on at least some religious issues, such as the nature of the soul, morality, sin, the afterlife, salvation, and so on. They are not necessarily written by authors of that religion. Examples:
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 Romance |
Romance games focus on love and related emotions like attraction, infatuation, jealousy, and heartbreak. Unlike games in the Porn/Erotica genre, explicit sex rarely occurs in Romance games. Romance is about the chase, the conquest, the wooing of that special lady or gentleman. Once that special someone has been won over, usually the story (and the game) will end shortly afterwards. Examples:
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 Science fiction |
Science fiction games are similar to Fantasy games except the trappings tend to be electronic and futuristic rather than magical and medieval. Science fiction games tend to contain things like spaceships, aliens, zapguns, robots, and artificial intelligence. Travel through time and outer space may be possible. New technology can also be used to explain cloning, teleportation, telepathy, etc. Examples: |
 Slice of life |
Slice of life games take place in ordinary reality, during modern times (any time after World War II), featuring events that could plausibly happen. Note that "plausible" doesn't rule out "unlikely" or "far-fetched". Fonzie jumping over a shark? Unlikely, but it could happen with actual motorcycles and sharks, so that's slice of life. Fonzie meeting Mork from planet Ork? No, there's no planet Ork or aliens from outer space, that's science fiction. Please don't treat this as a "miscellaneous" sort of category. Examples:
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 Steampunk |
The steampunk genre is characterized by an anachronistic setting based on exaggerated versions of late 19th/early 20th-century era technology such as steam engines, Babbage computers, telegraphy, and zeppelins, sometimes incorporating elements of mysticism or magic. Steampunk works may be set in an alternate history or an entirely original setting. Technologically focused stories in real-world historical settings may also be considered steampunk. Examples: |
 Superhero |
Superhero games feature "superheroes": do-gooder vigilantes with unusual abilities, such as flying, super-strength, or shapechanging. They boldly wear colorful skintight outfits, capes, and masks and they use their powers to protect humanity and the planet itself from all sources of danger, especially "supervillians" who are their evil counterparts. True heroes will always foil their dastardly plans! ZAP! POW! Examples:
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 Surreal |
Surreal games are distinguished by heavy use of bizarre or nonsensical elements. They may employ heavy, opaque symbology, distort language, or lack coherent narrative; they subvert their audience's expectations of reality. Many games contain brief surreal elements (for instance, in dream-sequences) but this label is for games which are mostly surreal. The line between fantasy and surrealism is not always obvious. Examples:
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 Time |
Examples:
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 War |
Examples:
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 Western |
Western games are games set in America's Old West. Typical featured things in a western include cowboys, horses, saloons, poker, stagecoaches, a sheriff, bandits, the new schoolmarm, losing the deed to the ranch, and a gunfight at high noon. Examples:
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 Wordplay |
Games including Wordplay. Examples:
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| Game icons |
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| Interaction styles • Literary genres • Locations |