counterfeit-monkey VS wesnoth

Counterfeit Monkey by Emily Short. https://github.com/i7/counterfeit-monkey/releases

If you don't want to install a parser on your computer, you can play it online by putting the link to the .gblorb file into https://iplayif.com/ I.e. https://iplayif.com/?story=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fi7%2Fc...

Modern games are generally going to be more approachable than old ones. Tastes have changed considerably. In the days when you couldn't pull up a walkthrough in a few seconds, taking days to think of the next step was part of the fun, and just getting permanently stuck at some point was fairly common. Also, letting the player keep going even after they have done something to make the game unwinnable is now considered very uncool. Navigation is much less tedious these days as well, fast travel for example, although the exact mechanics depend on the game.

And that's not mentioning the amount of CPU and RAM available, not only for the game's runtime, but also for tools like I7 (which was used to write Counterfeit Monkey).

For an quicker introduction to modern "interactive fiction", as it's called these days, check out competition entries. https://intfiction.org/c/competitions/7 These are generally written in a shorter amount of time and the results are quicker to play through.

Various old skool text adventures:

If you are already experienced with them then "Counterfeit Monkey" takes it to the next level with a great twist based on anagram-like magic:

> Anglophone Atlantis has been an independent nation since an April day in 1822, when a well-aimed shot from their depluralizing cannon reduced the British colonizing fleet to one ship.

> Since then, Atlantis has been the world's greatest center for linguistic manipulation, designing letter inserters, word synthesizers, the diminutive affixer, and a host of other tools for converting one thing to another. Inventors worldwide pay heavily for that technology, which is where a smuggler and industrial espionage agent such as yourself can really clean up.

> Unfortunately, the Bureau of Orthography has taken a serious interest in your activities lately. Your face has been recorded and your cover is blown.

> Your remaining assets: about eight more hours of a national holiday that's spreading the police thin; the most inconvenient damn disguise you've ever worn in your life; and one full-alphabet letter remover.

> Good luck getting off the island.

https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=aearuuxv83plclpl

https://github.com/i7/counterfeit-monkey

If you're new to the genre then "Lost Pig" is a good place to start, though technically it's licence (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0) is not open source.

Official site Steam Itch.io

I don't think there's much in terms of managerial/4x f2p games (afaik)...closest thing that comes to mind would be The Battle for Wesnoth which I wouldn't recommend for "turning off" your brain.

Wesnoth, obviously: https://www.wesnoth.org/

The Battle For Wesnoth? (Keep in mind it's been around since 2005, and had more simplistic graphics at one point - a random example.)

The Battle for Wesnoth

Battle for Wesnoth - free https://www.wesnoth.org/

I read that as Wesnoth at first and was very confused.

I used to love tactical RPGs, but as I've aged I don't have the patience for them. I really wanted to play Battle of Wesnoth (https://www.wesnoth.org/), but it was not to be. Then I found this gem and it scratched my space sim itch, https://endless-sky.github.io/.