Shade (interactive fiction)

Shade is a one-room Interactive Fiction game by Andrew Plotkin that takes place in the player character's apartment the night before a planned trip to an arts festival. Your ostensible goals are to complete your household chores and make sure that you have everything ready for your trip. Of course, things become more complicated later on...

To say anything more would spoil this game's unique playing experience; in fact, most of the tropes listed below are major spoilers in name alone, so it's strongly recommended to play through the game at least once before reading them (and the YMMV page). Just keep in mind that Shade won the 2000 XYZZY award for Best Setting and was a finalist for many other awards in spite of it taking place in only one location, which should tell you something about its quality and ability to linger in players' minds long after completion.

You can download the game here or play it online here.


 * But Thou Must!: Either you do the actions required to advance the plot, or you stay stuck until you do.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * Last Place You Look: Your airplane tickets will always be in the last of three possible locations you search.
 * Mind Screw:
 * Foreshadowing:
 * Last Place You Look: Your airplane tickets will always be in the last of three possible locations you search.
 * Mind Screw:
 * Last Place You Look: Your airplane tickets will always be in the last of three possible locations you search.
 * Mind Screw: