Free story games
The Best Stories in Games You Can Play for Free
Seven free games with memorable writing, from first love to psychological horror.
These seven free games cover romance, horror, comedy and a word-puzzle adventure where changing a letter can change the world around you. Each has a different reason to care about its writing, whether that is a friendship you get attached to or a mystery you want to see through.
Three run in a browser. Four are downloads, and they're worth it for some of the best-written games ever released. Each entry tells you how to play and links to the free version.
Pick a game
| Game | How to play | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Doki Doki Literature Club | Free download | A literature club visual novel with disturbing psychological horror |
| Butterfly Soup | Free download; optional donation | A funny, warm story about Asian-American girls, baseball and first love |
| Counterfeit Monkey | Free in a browser | Word puzzles and a story about a state that controls language |
| Emily is Away | Free download | Five years of friendship and missed chances, told through instant messages |
| Anchorhead | Free original in a browser | A text adventure about a New England town and a family's horrifying history |
| Digital: A Love Story | Free download | A mystery and romance told through a 1988 computer |
| Bangkok: City of Legends | Free in a browser | My Bangkok RPG, with a cast voiced by local comedians; still in beta |
7. Bangkok: City of Legends
Free in a browser. No download or account.
I am making this one. It is still a public beta, so I have put it seventh behind six finished games.
City of Legends is an RPG and visual novel set in Bangkok, with dialogue choices, stats, quests, factions and different endings. Comedians from Bangkok's scene voice the cast, which is how it ended up on this site.
What I want to get right is how people in the city respond to your decisions. Your choices should affect your reputation and relationships as you play. There is still work to do, and feedback on the writing is welcome.
Play Bangkok: City of Legends.
6. Digital: A Love Story
Free download for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Christine Love's 2010 mystery and romance takes place on a computer in 1988. You dial into bulletin boards, read messages and get to know the people who post there.
You never see the text of your own replies. Instead, you work out what you said from the answers you receive. That leaves space for you to imagine your part in the conversation, and makes the relationship feel surprisingly personal.
The old computer interface matters to the story. Dialling in and waiting for messages gives each conversation a pace that would be lost in a conventional dialogue scene. A romance told through a modem sounds unlikely, but it works.
Download Digital: A Love Story.
5. Anchorhead
Free original in a browser. The later illustrated edition is a separate, paid release.
Michael Gentry's 1998 horror game follows a woman investigating her husband's family history in a New England town. The more she learns about the family and its connection to the place, the worse their move there begins to look.
You type commands to explore, examine objects and solve puzzles. That takes some getting used to if you have never played a text adventure, and Anchorhead rewards patience. Keep notes as you go.
The horror develops through what you find and read. Small details gradually connect, and places that seemed ordinary become threatening once you understand their history. The writing gives you enough to picture the town and leaves you to imagine what might be waiting in it.
If you like slow, unsettling horror and don't mind working through puzzles, give this one time.
Play the free original Anchorhead.
4. Emily is Away
Free download on Steam.
The whole game takes place in an instant-messaging window, starting in 2002. Buddy icons, away messages and typing sounds will be familiar to anyone who spent their teenage evenings on AIM.
Across five years of conversations with Emily, you choose what to say as your lives and relationship change. The dialogue captures how much can depend on a short message, especially when neither person is quite willing to say what they mean.
One of its best details is watching a message get typed, deleted and replaced with something safer. You can recognise the hesitation without the game explaining it. That is where Emily is Away is strongest: the awkwardness, affection and regret in an ordinary conversation.
Allow about an hour. It is a good choice if you want a complete story in one sitting.
3. Counterfeit Monkey
Free in a browser. No download or account.
In Emily Short's game, you carry a device that can remove a letter from an object's name and transform the object. Finding a useful new word is how you solve many of the puzzles.
It is a clever idea with enough possibilities to sustain a whole adventure. You start looking closely at the names of things, trying to work out what they could become and whether that would help you escape.
The setting gives those puzzles a purpose. You are on an island where the government controls language, so the wordplay is part of the politics and the danger. The story and puzzles fit together particularly well: learning how the world works also teaches you how to get around its restrictions.
Like Anchorhead, it uses typed commands. If you enjoy words and puzzles, this is a good reason to try the format.
2. Butterfly Soup
Free download for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can donate if you want to.
Brianna Lei's visual novel follows Asian-American teenage girls playing baseball and falling in love. It is also one of the funniest games here.
The friendships make it work. The girls tease each other, say ridiculous things and struggle to talk about what matters to them. The jokes give you time to get attached to the characters, so the more difficult conversations carry weight.
There is warmth here, but the story also deals with family pressure and the difficulty of understanding your sexuality as a teenager. The humour and the affection between the girls keep it from becoming a series of lessons about growing up.
It takes around three to four hours. If you want a story with characters you will enjoy spending an evening with, start here.
The developer flags written depictions of parental abuse and ableist slurs.
1. Doki Doki Literature Club
Free download from Steam or the developer's website.
Content warning: this game contains disturbing depictions of self-harm and suicide. Read the game's warnings before playing.
Doki Doki Literature Club opens with a school literature club, poems and the familiar setup of a dating sim. It becomes a much darker story. The less you know about the events, the better, but the content warning deserves your attention.
What earns it first place is how thoroughly it uses the format. Dialogue choices, menus, saves and the routes you expect from a visual novel all become part of the storytelling. You begin to question things you would usually take for granted in a game.
That makes its best moments difficult to explain without spoiling them. The surprise comes partly from the plot and partly from how the game changes your understanding of what you are doing. It is an unusually effective piece of interactive horror.
The original game is free. The paid Plus edition is optional.
Download Doki Doki Literature Club.
For more games you can play straight away in a browser, see The Top 7 Free Story Games with No Download, including Fallen London, Choice of the Dragon and The Ratchelor.