"The Catalog" - Writing Games

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	Writing Games / Unsorted		This is a list of games that produce text and texts produced by games. It also contains some things that are nearly those things.								Taxons				Initial codebook / tags (for games)
2	Game Name	Constraint Description	Author	Link/How to Find	Year Published	Category	Collaborative / Solo	Digital / Analog	Notes	Added By	Is a Game? Does it involve systems? Is there an operational logic?	Is a Constraint? (If not a game)	Do the players produce text?	Is it a work produced by a constraint / game?	Contains prompt set	Conditional prompting? Prompting based on game state / system state	Aleatoric ? (depending on the throw of a dice or on chance; random.)	Send/Recieve writing?	Self-reflection (explicitely about self reflection)	Player writes a prompt	Player is anonymous	Digital / Analog print and play = analog rn	Writing Environment (provides graphical / audio framing)	Some visual / audio / artistic cues	Is the resulting work interactive?	Suggest that you write...

3	Gadsby	Write without the letter e	Ernest Vincent Wright				Solo	Analog	a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright, written without words that contain the letter E, the most common letter in English. A work that deliberately avoids certain letters is known as a lipogram. The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of Branton Hills, which is revitalized as a result of the efforts of protagonist John Gadsby and a youth organizer.		No	No		Yes											No
4	La disparition (1969) / A Void	Write without the letter e (again?)	Georges Perec	Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					“The most famous lipogrammatic work is Georges Perec’s novel La disparition (1969), a three-hundred-page book the author composed without using single “e” (translated, remarkably, into English by Gilbert Adair as A Void).16” ([Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 9](zotero://select/library/items/GZUNYI4M)) ([pdf](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/GJ8X2VX8?page=10&annotation=CJMMXAFD))					Yes
5	The Last Tea Shop	Prompts via draw cards	Spring Villager	https://springvillager.itch.io/last-tea-shop	2021		Optionally Collaborative	Analog	classic solo journaling game	oliver	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	Yes	No
6	Feathers	sets of moves given character role	Thursday Garraeu	https://thursday-garreau.itch.io/feathers	2019		Collaborative	Analog	found because it reminds me of fluxus score where the instructions are a poem	oliver	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Analog	No	Yes	No
7	Viscious	roll a die to get a random scenario as a prompt	Budget Versailles	https://budgetversailles.itch.io/vicious	2022		Collaborative	Analog	found while looking for a regency genre game to play w friends	oliver	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Analog	No	Yes	No
8	Blackout	die roll decides what to blackout	Budget Versailles	https://budgetversailles.itch.io/blackout	2022		Optionally Collaborative	Analog	found while looking at who made Viscious Really an implementation of the broader Blackout Poetry	oliver	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	Yes	No
9	Princess with a Cursed Sword	prompts from tarot card draws	Anna Anthropy	https://w.itch.io/cursed-sword	2020		Solo	Analog		oliver	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	Yes	No
10	Princess with a Cursed SRD (System Resource Document)	prompts from tarot card draws	Anna Anthropy	https://w.itch.io/princess-sword-srd	2023	not a game - guidelines for making your own game		Analog		oliver	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	n/a	Analog	No	Yes	Yes
11	The Quiet Year	prompts/events from card draws	Avery Adler	https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year	2013	tabletop RPG	Collaborative	Analog	map drawing game, prompts center worldbuilding no "writing"...	raven	Yes	No		No											No
12	Exquisite Corpse	adding to a composition without seeing the previous addition	André Breton and friends, fellow French surrealists	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse	1925		Collaborative	Analog	also played as a drawing game with the same base constraint (being unable to see previous collaborators' additions). sometimes played with additional formal constraints (i.e. Adj, Noun, Verb, Adj. Noun)	raven		Yes	Yes	No											No
13	Story Cubes	storytelling game using dice-rolled symbols	Rory O'Connor	Story Dice - a creative storytelling tool from Dave Birss https://www.storycubes.com/en/	2004	storytelling game	Optionally Collaborative	Analog		raven				No											No
14	Pilish	lengths of successive words represent the digits of Pi	James Jeans	Writing in Pilish	1900s		Solo	Analog		raven	No	Yes	Yes	No											No
15	Abecedarian	each word/line/stanza guided by alphabetical order		https://poets.org/glossary/abecedarian Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical	Solo	Analog	Chaucer writing an abecedarian,	raven	No	Yes	Yes	No											No
16	N + 7	replace each noun in a text with the seventh after it in a dictionary (or some other word bank)	Jean Lescure	Jean Lescure, from “The N+7 Method (An Individual Case of the W±n Method)” - McSweeney’s Internet Tendency		Oulipo, W + N (shifting a word, W, by N places in a dictionary) Constraint	Solo		online demo: http://www.spoonbill.org/n+7/	raven	No			No											No
17	Metro poems	written while riding the metro, lines/stanzas ideated between stops and only allowed to write when the train is not moving	Jacques Jouet	Metro Poems	2001		Solo	Analog	person observes while on a metro only allowed to "write" text when stopped	raven	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes											No
18	Thousand Year Old Vampire	prompt-driven, prompt page is determined via dice roll, memories you jot down are liable to change/be forgotten	Tim Hutchings	https://thousandyearoldvampire.com/collections/basic-book-selection/products/thousand-year-old-vampire	2020	journaling game, tabletop RPG	Solo	Analog	you're a vampire detailing events that have occured throughout your undead life, trying to preserve your memories, from https://heartofthedeernicorn.com/?v=2f344a923437	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No											No
19	The Machine	your character is meant to fail; last journal entry must be incomplete, writing ideally reflects descent into madness	Adira Slattery	https://adira.itch.io/the-machine	2020	journaling game	Optionally Collaborative	Analog	players take role of an inventor obsessed with making an impossible machine. in multiplayer, you must work in one journal that's passed down to the next player to continue (to "continue" their character's unfinished work). meant to be played over a prolonged period of time	blythe		No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	yes?	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	yes?	No	charictater archetypes? narrative possibilities
20	A Mending	prompts from card draws	Shing Yin Khor	https://sawdustbear.itch.io/a-mending	2021	"keepsake game"	Optionally Collaborative	Analog	mapmaking with needle and thread (ideal) or pen and paper, about memories and friendship keepsake game - no 'pen to paper' / writing	blythe		No	No	No											No
21	Field Guide to Memory	collaborate with game makers (at least during the Kickstarter)	Jeeyon Shim, Shing Yin Khor	https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeeyonshim/field-guide-to-memory , https://jeeyonshim.itch.io/field-guide-to-memory	2021	"keepsake game", journaling game	Collaborative	Analog	made by same person who made "A Mending"	blythe		No	Yes	No											No
22	Fiasco	prompts from card draws, determine relationships with other players' characters through card draws	Jason Morningstar	https://bullypulpitgames.com/products/fiasco	2009	storytelling game	Collaborative	Analog	played in CMPM 110	blythe	Yes	No	No	No											No
23	A Hundered Thousand Billion Poems	writing 10 14-line sonnets in such a way that a line from one sonnet can be placed interchangably with a coresponding line in any of the other 10 poems	Raymond Queneau		1961	Oulipian preauthored writing	Solo	Analog		Punya				No											No
24	Magnetic Poetry	Using themed kits of word magnets to come up up with a poem		https://magneticpoetry.com/pages/play-online	1993		Solo	Analog	Contains both free and bound morphemes ("dog" and "s") seems to be a trademarked brand	Punya				No											No
25	Ella Minnow Pea	Lipogram, each chapter progressively loses a letter, that letter cannot be used in writing anymore	Mark Dunn		2001	Lipogram/Gadsby	Solo	Analog	Epistolary, written as letters	Punya				No											No
26	Beautiful Outlaw (belle absente)	Lipogrammatic, but each line omits a different letter that corresponds to the letter in that place of the name [of the person poem is adressed to]			1900s	Lipogram	Solo	Analog		Punya				No											No
27	Acrostic	First letter of each line spells out a phrase or name (counter to belle absente)			1900s	Constraint?	Solo	Analog		Punya				No											No
28	Mesostic	acrostic but the words are shifted to make a column, rather than first letter of each	John Cage	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesostic	1990s	Constraint?	Solo	Analog	acrostic via shifting words around to get a column. but there's an extra rule "In a one-hundred-percent mesostic, "Between any two [capitalized] letters, you can't have either [letter]."	Oliver	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
29	Nanogenmo		Darius Kazemi	https://nanogenmo.github.io/	started in 2013, annual/ongoing							Yes		No											No
30	The Universal Character	shows what things mean on the basis of how you write them, has a set of codes that reveal what each word means	Cave Beck	https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-universal-character-_beck-cave_1657/mode/2up , https://andydrummond.net/cavebeck.html	1657	constructed language	N/A	Analog	not a game; part of movement to apply logic to language creation; precursor to creation of scientific notation and hierarchy	blythe	No	Yes	Yes	No											No
31	Consequences	each person is given a theme (person, place, etc.) and writes a line down in that category; paper is passed off to next person with previous lines hidden	N/A	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequences_(game)	presumably around the Victorian Era?	parlour game	Collaborative	Analog	possible precursor to MadLibs; also see Exquisite Corpse	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	Yes											No
32	Life: A User's Manual	order of the book (by apartment block) follows the Knight's Tour (as in chess), partially generated using 42 lists of categories with 10 elements each and bi-squares	Georges Perec	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life:_A_User%27s_Manual	1978	Oulipian writing	Solo	Analog	this entry as a whole is not a game but the generation process when writing the book is game-like (resembles sudoku). this is one of a couple of writings that follow the Knight's Tour mathematical problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight%27s_tour	blythe	No	No	No	Yes											No
33	Kavyalankara	"a specified verse of the pair is written serially (left to right and top to bottom) one syllable a cell to fill up 8 × 4 cells– half of a chess board– the other verse follows the path of the Knight’s Tour" (GSS Murthy)	Rudrata	https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/025/08/1095-1116 , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudrata	9th century AD	poetic treatise	Solo	Analog	first written reference containing the Knight's Tour; interesting in the sense that it's a constraint originating from a game's mechanics (chess) but not actually part of the game (while it's based off the movement of the knight chess piece, completing a Knight's Tour isn't one of the goals of chess). maybe this should just be included in a broader entry for the Knight's Tour	blythe	No	No	No	Yes											No
34	Larding	pick two sentences. Add a new sentence between the first two; then two sentences in the new intervals that have become available; and continue to add sentences	Warren Motte	Oulipo comendium page 169 of pdf page 167 of scan		Oulipian writing	Collaborative	Analog	recusively add sentences to the middle of something	oliver	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Analog	No	No	No
35	Invisible Seattle	Walk around Seattle asking people "we are building anovel can we borrom a few of your words?" and then right them down??	Invisible Seattle the group co founder is Philip Wholstetter	Oulipo compendium page 165 of pdf 163 of scan	1979	Oulipian writing	Collaborative	Analog	ARG where you are trying to revive "civic life"	oliver	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
36	Epithalamium	marriage song made of only the letters in the names of the people getting married		Oulipo compendium page 148 of pdf 146 of scan		Oulipian writing	Solo	Analog		oliver	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No						Analog	No	No	No
37	Eodermdrome	put 5 letters on a pentagram so that you get a 'meaningful sequence of 11 letters' each edge only used once and end where you started (hamiltonian)	claude berge / oulipo	Oulipo compendium page 146 of pdf 144 of scan		Oulipian writing	Solo	Analog	could be turned into a game. it reminds me of the 'letter box' game on the new york times puzzles site which is like this but with a square and other changes	oliver	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
38	Definitional literature	Meaningful words in text are replaced by their dictionary definitions	stefan thermerson	Oulipo compendium page 136 of pdf and 134 of scan		Oulipian writing	Solo	Analog	reminds me of when people on social media reply with a link to a wikipedia article instead of actually responding	oliver	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
39	Alone Among the Stars	52 card deck-based prompts	Takuma Okada	Alone Among the Stars by noroadhome	2018	RPG/journaling	Solo	Analog		raven	Yes		Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
40	Together Among the Stars	"	"	Together Among the Stars by noroadhome	2019	RPG/journaling	Collaborative	Analog	two-player version of Alone Among the Stars	raven	Yes		Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
41	Elegy for a Dead World	in-game prompts	Dejobaan Games	RIP --> https://steamcommunity.com/app/252290/discussions/0/3192490241174473320/	2014	prompt-based journaling	Collaborative	Digital	game taken off steam after its online journal sharing was broken :( here's another, fanmade, discussion post about this: https://steamcommunity.com/app/252290/discussions/0/4142816719796691404/	raven	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No		Yes
42	Plant-a-Story	choice text written by previous player/writer	Maxime W.	Plant a story			Collaborative	Digital	start by titling and writing the first passage, then write choices for how to continue, you can then send a link to whoever you're playing with, and they pick a choice to continue with, write their passage and choices, and so on.	raven	Yes		Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Digital	No	No	Yes
43	Village Witch	52 card deck and tarot deck prompts	Eliot Crow	Village Witch by Eliot Crow	2021	solo journaling	Solo	Analog		raven	Yes		Yes	No	Yes	Yes		No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
44	Kind Words		Popcannibal	https://store.steampowered.com/app/1070710/Kind_Words_lo_fi_chill_beats_to_write_to/	2019	letter writing	Collaborative	Digital	focus is more on mental health and encouraging strangers than on creative writing, and the only "constraint" is to be kind. you can favorite the messages that float past randomly, and you can download your own writings Raven says: "focus is not on creative writing" We are debating if it is a game. The "system" involves creating requests and then getting text written back. Pen pal. Definitely a system. Arguably a game.	raven	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Analog	Yes		No
45	Microscope	players collaboratively set constraints of their world, cannot contradict previous rules set, players "zoom" in and out of events in their world	Ben Robbins	https://www.lamemage.com/microscope/	2011	world building game, tabletop rpg	Collaborative	Analog	work with 2-4 players to create a world and explore its history	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	No			No			No	Digital	No		No
46	Dialect	community Backdrop and Aspects chosen from a list, character Archetype from card deck. community faces challenges (drawn from cards) that results in the creation of a new word (prefixes and suffixes chosen from a list)	Hakan Seyalioglu, Kathryn Hymes	https://thornygames.com/pages/dialect, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect_(game)	2016	tabletop rpg	Collaborative	Analog	explores the birth, growth, and death of a language that players create	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD										No
47	Wretched and Alone		Sealed Library, Chris Bissette	https://sealedlibrary.itch.io/wretched-alone-srd, https://loottheroom.itch.io/wretched		solo journaling game			SRD based off of the game The Wretched	blythe					TBD										No
48	De Profundis	players send each other letters written in the style of H.P Lovecraft	Michael Oracz	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Profundis_(role-playing_game)	2001	epistolary game	Collaborative	Analog	"the game has almost no role-playing mechanics"	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD			Yes			No				No
49	Monster	players can create new objects and rooms and interact with other player-created things		https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_(game)	1980s	multi-user dungeon game	Collaborative	Digital	first MUD to feature online creation	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD			No							No
50	Lexicon	players act as scolars recounting a fictional history, writing in the style of encyclopedia entries. turns follow alphabetical order	Neel Krishnaswami	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicon_(game) https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/173810/lexicon	2003	world building game	Collaborative	Digital, Analog	Lexicon is a computer-assisted role-playing game invented by Neel Krishnaswami and popularised by the indie role-playing game community. As originally proposed, it is played online using wiki software.	raven	No	No	Yes	No											No
51	Snowballing	next word is one letter longer than the previous		Typographical Orthography — Snowball: Poetry of the Oulipo https://ouliposting.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/oulipost-10-snowball-poem/		oulipo	Optionally Collaborative	Analog		raven	No	Yes	Yes	No											No
52	Verbositi	draw card for letters and topic. create sentence using drawn letters in order they appear, relating to given topic		https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12919/verbositi	1987	card game	Collaborative	Analog	game is intended to be humorous, but I think it can be played however you want (maybe depending on topic cards)	raven	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
53	Tether	prompt cards, journal entries	Adam Baffoni	https://adambaffoni.itch.io/tether	2021	RPG journaling game	Collaborative	Analog	players take on the roles of two characters living in the same town at different periods of time (but are able to communicate through The Tether, which is the shared journal they're playing in). entries are prompted by cards. the players/characters "work together to discover the secrets of an ancient being that haunts the town"	raven	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
54	Mad Libs						Collaborative				Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Analog	No	Yes	No
55	Generominos	pipeline of cards make a creative prompt	Kate Compton	http://www.galaxykate.com/generominos/	2017	card game?	Optionally Collaborative	Analog	players take cards and link compatible ones to "transform one type of data into another" example: intensity of stock market graph -> intensity of fire	Oliver	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	Yes	Yes
56	Creative Story Cards	Each person gets some randomly chosen words. The first person says the first sentence and they must use their first word in it. Next person adds a sentence w/ their word in it, and so on		https://www.indigoextra.com/blog/creative-writing-exercises#creative-story-cards--dice	2020? (per internet archive first archive)	card game	Collaborative	Analog	version of story cube dice with a more clear actual game to play collaboratively	Oliver	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Analog	No	No	No
57	Poetry Gyroscope	specific poem is altered by the list of words you enter, loosely madlib style replacements		https://www.languageisavirus.com/poetry-gyroscope/pound.php#.U1_SY6KfytM	2023?	generator	Solo	Digital	the final result isn't one static poem the words continue to change to show a lot of different combinatorics. could probably be turned into a game-game instead of a generator	Oliver	No	Yes	Yes	TBD	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Digital	No	Yes	No
58	Poem Collage	create a poem from the lines of another poem		https://www.languageisavirus.com/poem-collage.php?ac=Generate		found poetry/cut up poetry	Solo	Digital	reminded me a bit of one hundred thousand billion poems	Raven	No	TBD	Yes	TBD											No
59	Poem Builder	randomly generated subject, poetic form, and word list		https://www.languageisavirus.com/poem-builder.php		card prompts	Solo	Digital		Raven	No	Yes	Yes	TBD											No
60	Letter Link Poetry	find words out of a randomly generated grid of letters, then write a poem, using each word to start each line		https://www.languageisavirus.com/letterlink-poetry/		word-search poetry	Solo	Digital	"Word search poetry" is taken from the web page. They have a similar game called Ring Game (same constraints, different letter grid format).	Raven	TBD	Yes	Yes	TBD	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Digital	No	No	No
61	Untold: Adventures Await	narrative storytelling structured by card draws and prompts by story cubes	Hub Games	https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Hub-UTD01TCH-Untold-Adventures/dp/B076KRJDQG	2017	story cubes, board game	Collaborative	Analog	Using story cubes as a game 'engine' Game board has five spaces for randomly-dealt tiles. These determine the scenes for your story. Each player creates their own character using a character sheet. Uses Rory's Story Cubes but adds a lot of structure and gamelike elements. Players spend tokens to interject ideas, ask questions, or take actions. Review/gameplay explanation. Another, more in-depth.	Raven	Yes	No	No	TBD	TBD	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
62	Vers: The Rap Game	category cards (topics) and base cards (three rhyming words)		https://spatchgames.com/	2018	poetry game	Collaborative	Analog	Collaborative/Competative game Player draws a category card and a base card. Their rap has to pertain to the category and use the words in the base card at the end of each line. Round winners are chosen by a rotating judge.	Raven	Yes	No	No	TBD	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
63	Cyrano	theme card, two rhyme cards	Angèle and Ludovic Maublanc	https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65272/cyrano	2010	board game	Collaborative	Analog	Player draws three cards (topic + 2 rhyme cards). For each unique word in your poem, Cyrano will climb one step on the board's ladder. Players then vote on the best poem. The winner makes Roxanne go down one step on the ladder. Win the game by getting Cyrano and Roxanne on the same level first. (i got the gameplay breakdown here)	Raven	Yes	No	Yes	TBD	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	TBD	TBD	No
64	Dead Poets Rise	"creation" and "chaos" cards with prompts/constraints	David Schwittek, Anna Purves	https://www.dpr.games/the-game https://www.dpr.games/product/dead-poets-rise-full-game	2023	board game	Collaborative	Analog	Here's a project reflection written by one of the devs: https://schwittek.com/special-projects/dead-poets-rise Here's a review with an example poem at the end: https://www.bigbangpoetry.com/2024/01/board-game-for-poets/	Raven	Yes	No	Yes	TBD	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
65	Sindome	writing has to be "in character," GMs have overall control	N/A (couldn't find)	https://www.sindome.org/features/	1997	MUD (MOO), RPG	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	cyberpunk-themed setting, writing: character history, character appearance, character dialogue (most of the in-game chat is supposed to be in-character roleplay), character actions. send/receive writing in the sense that a lot of the writing takes the form of roleplaying through the chat system	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
66	BatMUD	quests are defined by actions (set of tasks that make up the quest), only experienced players are given the ability to create quests	Jaf, Balanced Alternative Techniques (Finland nonprofit)	https://www.bat.org/help/help?	1990	MUD	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	medieval fantasy setting, writing: player quest creation. not particularly focused on roleplaying (unlike Sindome), player description	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
67	LambdaMOO	rooms: entrances and connections can be defined, objects: can be given a description (what players "see"), put into containers	Pavel Curtis	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LambdaMOO, https://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/moo-glossary.html	1991	MUD (MOO)	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	oldest MOO game (variant of MUD that is object-oriented), social-themed, writing: player description, room and object creation. NOTE: MOOs (MUD, Object Oriented) and MUSHs (Muti-User Shared Hallucination) are both MUDs, MOOs have a higher focus on player-created content and MUSHs tend to focus more on roleplay and narrative	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
68	Achaea	player description: no description of clothing, race, gender (displayed separately), "do not tell people what to feel when they look at you," focus on in-character interactions (penalized for being too out-of-character)	Iron Realms Entertainment	https://www.achaea.com/game-help?what=credibility-and-roleplaying-points	1997	MUD	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	one of the first ever games with microtransactions (☹️), writing: players run the game's cities thus deciding politics and history, player description, players roleplay using the chat system (there's a "credibility points" system that determines the privileges you get in the game)	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
69	Lusternia	player description must fit world and player traits/archetypes	Iron Realms Entertainment	https://www.lusternia.com/welcome/	2005	MUD	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	has monthly "Bardic contest" where you submit writing, game has new storylines every year that impact game events and how players interact with the world, players run game's cities and factions thus deciding politics and history, player description	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
70	Shattered Kingdoms	priority system for roleplay (what traits to prioritize): alignment > religion > faction > friendships	Dulrik	https://shatteredkingdoms.org/	1996	MUD	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	player actions contribute to overall ongoing game history, players can affect the world's politics and landscape over time, has emphasis on roleplay	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
71	Discworld MUD	Architect writing should be informed by knowledge of the Discworld series	David "Pinkfish" Bennett, Craig "Furball" Richmond, Sean A. "Lynscar" Reith and Evan Scott, Terry Prachett (not directly involved)	https://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/	1992	MUD	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	based on Discworld series by Terry Prachett; player councils; players can apply become "Architects" that write descriptions for things in the game (locations, NPCs, items) without becoming a full-on Creator (part of the development team)	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
72	PernworldMUSH			http://pernworld.wikidot.com/	1991	MUD (MUSH)	Optionally Collaborative	Digital	based on Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, one of several in a trend of book-related MUSHs	blythe	Yes	No	Yes	No	TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Digital	No	Yes	Yes
73	flyting			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			“flyting,” which was practiced in a number of European cultures, often in contests in which poets would trade insults and invective before an audience.
74	renga			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			the tradition of linked verse, or renga, in Japan,
75	puys			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			playful poetic practices abounded during the medieval period—whether in Chaucer writing an abecedarian, in Dante basing the Commedia on intricate numerological structures, or in the form of late medieval puys, or poetic competitions, in which a group of poets would take a poetic line and each would compete to write a better chanson, say, or ballade, using that line as either a starting point or a refrain
76	rime retrograde			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			“Rhétoriqueurs, a group of leading poets and intellectuals in Renaissance France, devoted themselves to composing anagram poems, abecedarians, and riddling puzzle forms like the “rime retrograde,” which calls for one to read lines forward and then backward, in order for the piece’s meanings to become evident.” ([Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 6](zotero://select/library/items/GZUNYI4M)) ([pdf](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/GJ8X2VX8?page=7&annotation=NX34ILAD))
77	rhopalic			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			Pattern poetry and word games were all the rage in the Renaissance, leading to the emergence of forms like the rhopalic, where each word or line is longer than the previous one by a letter or syllable, as in Richard Crashaw’s
78	The obsessively detailed objects and machines of Raymond Roussel’s writings			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			“The obsessively detailed objects and machines of Raymond Roussel’s writings, which he later revealed to be the textual product of pure wordplay in Comment j’ai écrit certains de mes livres (How I Wrote Certain of My Books), were inspirational to artists such as Marcel Duchamp,” (Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 7)
79	Cut-up technique/cut-up poetry	cut a paper of text into pieces and choose at random to assemble a poem	Tristan Tzara	Cut-up poems - National Saturday Club	1920	Historical	Solo	Analog	DADAist	raven	No	Yes	Yes	No											No
80	Games of surrealist group of Bucharest			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			“Gherasim Luca, Dolfi Trost, and Gellu Naum, invented literally dozens of aleatory compositional methods and games.” (Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 7)
81	Ulysses		Joyce	Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			“Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are driven by intricate forms of linguistic play, punning, and multilingual wordplay.” (Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 7)					Yes
82	homophonic translation	TODO FIND MORE ABOUT THIS ONE		Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			“Louis Zukofsky radically subverted conventional methods of translation by exploring “homophonic translation” in his controversial rendering of Catullus (see Horáček, this issue” (Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 7)
83	John Cage songwriting		John Cage	Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			John Cage notoriously introduced chance methods to the composition of music and poetry, including the flipping of coins to determine the pitch and ordering of notes.
84	Jackson Mac Low			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,		Historical			“new American poetry” that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s was even more fully invested in the idea of poetry as play and game than were many of the strains of modernist compositional play that preceded it. Inspired in part by Cage, Jackson Mac Low employed chance operations (e.g., using dice or playing cards) to select words and phrases for his poems as a means of avoiding the limitations of conscious authorial intention
85	My Life (1980)		Lyn Hejinian	Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					One of the most famous examples is Lyn Hejinian’s My Life (1980), an experimental long poem that plays with the conventions of autobiography both in its content and its form: in its first edition, the poem consisted of thirty-seven prose sections, each featuring thirty-seven sentences to correspond with Hejinian’s age when she wrote the book. Seven years later she expanded the work so that it consisted of forty-five sections, each one now forty-five sentences long, to correspond once more with her age.					Yes
86	Tjanting (1981),		Ron Silliman	Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					Another well-known example can be found in the ambitious procedural poetics of Ron Silliman—to compose his long prose poem Tjanting (1981), Silliman used the Fibonacci sequence (in which each number is found by adding together the two numbers before it—0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc.) to dictate how many sentences would appear in each paragraph of the poem.					Yes
87	Renaissance rhopalic	TODO		Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					with its ever-expanding form.14 Connect to Tjanting “The resulting poem, which begins with very short paragraphs that quickly balloon to extreme lengths, can be seen as a descendant of the Renaissance rhopalic, with its ever-expanding form.14” (Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 8)
88	Conceptual Writing			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,				Digital	“conceptual writing” (spearheaded by the energetic poet Kenneth Goldsmith) and “Flarf ” (a movement that creates poems by collaging together found language gathered from the Web), both of which can be seen as contemporary extensions of methods inaugurated by the historical avant-garde, but from the other side of the digital revolution.
89	Flarf			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,				Digital	Flarf ” (a movement that creates poems by collaging together found language gathered from the Web), both of which can be seen as contemporary extensions of methods inaugurated by the historical avant-garde, but from the other side of the digital revolution.
90	Writing a Poem a Day for a Year	Writing a Poem a Day for a Year		Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					“for example, writing a poem a day for a year (David Lehman), mashing up words from Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” with words from the Patriot Act to create a poem (Timothy Donnelly),” ([Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 10](zotero://select/library/items/GZUNYI4M)) ([pdf](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/GJ8X2VX8?page=11&annotation=9LLPZVD9))
91	A variety of constraint experiments	TODO organize into Major works		Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					Well beyond the confines of these two movements, however, a wide range of writers have recently embarked on an array of experiments driven by constraints, procedures, and predetermined rules: for example, writing a poem a day for a year (David Lehman), mashing up words from Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” with words from the Patriot Act to create a poem (Timothy Donnelly), making a series of poems from what’s left when one erases large portions of the works of Emily Dickinson ( Janet Holmes), writing a series of sixty-sentence works based on a set of sixty-minute walks in New York City, one sentence per minute (Andy Fitch), writing in a notebook for five minutes, every hour on the hour, for two days, and then publishing the transcript (Steve Benson), writing a long documentary prose poem that exhaustively lists the detritus found in Dumpsters and gutters along the Bowery in New York City (Brenda Coultas), hiring a private eye to follow you for a certain period of time, and then compiling the investigator’s notes about your daily activities into a “Conceptual Self-Portrait” (David Buuck), and so on. Even one of the most celebrated young novelists of our moment, Jonathan Safran Foer, recently published a “project” work of his own, in which he took a novel by Bruno Schulz and literally removed chunks of the text (carving into the page and leaving spaces where the omissions are), creating his own narrative by process of erasure.
92	Erasure /			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					“Jonathan Safran Foer, recently published a “project” work of his own, in which he took a novel by Bruno Schulz and literally removed chunks of the text (carving into the page and leaving spaces where the omissions are), creating his own narrative by process of erasure.18” ([Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 10](zotero://select/library/items/GZUNYI4M)) ([pdf](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/GJ8X2VX8?page=11&annotation=YJGZQ2M6))
93	Google Search Composition Strategies		Shirinyan	Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,				Digital	(cutting and pasting language directly from the Web’s vast archive) “The next article in the collection likewise approaches the poetic reuse of “readymade” language from the perspective of postcoloniality and transnationalism, in this case studying the effects of Google search–based composition strategies.” (Eburne and Epstein, 2014, p. 13)
94	Your Country is Great	Google Search Composition Strategies	Shirinyan	Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,				Digital	Rettberg instead demonstrates how Your Country is Great impels readers to recognize both the poet’s and our own complicity in the forces of globalization and neocolonialism.					Yes
95	Shaped poems	poems written so their words/lines form a shape		Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,
96	Automatic writing			Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					"Automatic writing is a technique in which the writer surrenders control of their words and allows their thoughts and ideas to flow freely, without premeditation or editing" (https://www.languageisavirus.com/creative-writing-techniques/automatic-writing.php)
97	Language poetry	"the use of elaborate procedural methods to generate poetry, as a means of avoiding conventional lyric subjectivity"		Introduction: Poetry Games Author(s): Jonathan P. Eburne and Andrew Epstein Source: Comparative Literature Studies,					"The avant-garde movement known as Language poetry, which emerged in the wake of the new American poetry in the 1970s, was likewise committed to the use of elaborate procedural methods to generate poetry, as a means of avoiding conventional lyric subjectivity—especially by designing predetermined systems that involve the counting of sentences, repetition of units, and gradual expansion to structure poems" Example: My Life by Lyn Hejinian (1980), Tjanting by Ron Stillman (1981)
98	Consequences	Each player is given a sheet of paper, and all are told to write down a word or phrase to fit a description ("an animal"), ... Each player then folds the paper over to hide the most recent line, and hands it to the next person.	Unknown	https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequences_(game)	?1940s?	parlor game	Collaborative	Analog	Precursor to madlibs, picture version is the same as exquisite corpse	Oliver
99	Epitaph	Write a eulogy for video game NPCs when you kill them	Anna Anthropy	https://w.itch.io/epitaph	2020	roleplaying game	Solo	Analog	Requires a digital component	Oliver	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No (kind of implied though)	No	No	Analog	No	No	No
100	Letters That Will Never Arrive	Write a fictional letter hiding a secret meaning	Anna Anthropy	https://w.itch.io/letters-that-will-never-arrive	2018	roleplaying game	Solo	Analog	Epistolary	Oliver	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Analog	No	No	No