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IF Vault

IF Vault is the public-facing gateway for TerpVault: RetroRealm’s curated interactive fiction catalog, metadata library, and eventually browser-play launchpad.

The dream is simple: make IF approachable without stripping away its history.

What IF Vault should do

  • Present curated game entries with friendly descriptions.
  • Track source, author, year, format, IFID, and rights/provenance.
  • Offer browser play where legally and technically appropriate.
  • Link to IFDB, IF Archive, IFWiki, author pages, and walkthrough/hint resources.
  • Provide beginner notes for historically important but less beginner-friendly games.
  • Support package metadata through a human-friendly game.yaml, while staying compatible with IF ecosystem standards such as Treaty of Babel/iFiction metadata.

Suggested entry fields

YAML
title:
author:
year:
format:
ifids: []
series:
genre:
difficulty:
estimated_play_time:
source_url:
ifdb_url:
ifwiki_url:
ifarchive_path:
rights_status:
playable_in_browser:
recommended_interpreter:
summary:
beginner_notes:
hints_available:
walkthrough_available:
provenance_notes:

Starter vault shelves

  • Beginner Friendly
  • Classic Cave Lineage
  • Infocom-Era Context
  • Modern Parser Favorites
  • Fantasy & Mythic IF
  • Short Works
  • Games With Built-In Hints
  • RetroRealm Featured

Page integration idea

When TerpVault is ready, this page can become a landing page that pulls from the plugin. Until then, it works as a polished placeholder and concept page.