Interactive Fiction (IF) is a solid way to deliver a fun game experience. You can find numerous examples at the IF Archive. You can even play the IF of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!
I’m a big fan of the IF game Horse Master.
But how does one go about making these games?
Here’s an introduction for writing your interactive fiction which I recently presented:
StoryNexus and a quick start guide.
Inform 7
Versu
Twine and a great resource for Twine code.
See more on my game creation page.
Publishing interactive fiction
Once you have your piece completed your game, you should consider submitting to The Interactive Fiction Competition or WordPlay.
With Twine, you can just put your exported file online using the web host of your choosing. If you’re looking for a place to upload your Twine file you can try philome.la, there you can find free hosting.