I love interactive fiction games… I’ve been playing them since the early 1980s. (I know… I’m old.) That era was the heyday of IF, but these games are still being created today, and they’re usually free to play.

Which brings me to Coloratura, by Lynnea Glasser. You play as a Lovecraftian entity:

It’s the kind of alien that comes from the ocean depths rather than from space. It is sentient but incredibly unlike humans. The alien has been brought aboard a research ship — a realistic, meticulously designed ocean-going research ship, based on real vessels — and it wants to get back home immediately. But the human crew can’t understand its attempts at communication, so it has to convince, control, or manipulate them — somehow — to get them to put it back. (From Emily Short’s blog entry on Coloratura)

Coloratura has won several awards: “First Place and Miss Congeniality in the 2013 Interactive Fiction Competition. Coloratura also was awarded 4 XYZZY Awards, including, “Best Game”, “Best Puzzles”, “Best Individual Puzzle”, and “Best Individual PC” and nominated for 6 other XYZZY awards, an unprecedented sweep.”

You can play the Twine version or the parser version. If you’re new to IF, I recommend the Twine version of the game. 

In addition to being a game designer, Lynnea is also a writer; you can read her latest short story in the new anthology Cthulhu Lies Dreaming: Twenty-three Tales of the Weird and Cosmic.

By the way, if you enjoy IF, there are a couple of other games you should check out: The Lurking Horror and Anchorhead. Both are excellent, and free to play.