This list may contain spoilers for games in which the interface is a reveal or twist.

Pure interface games

Game is presented as though the software itself is the diegetic interface

Fantasy OS Games

These games have a degetic interface, but it is embedded in a fictional desktop OS. Arguably these would still be pure DI games, as it is possible to emulate an entire OS and computer desktop on machines

Need to play or replay to check how these work

Embedded interface games

Games that are largely interface based, but involve a framing device in which players are given a virtual body and the interface is embedded into a gameworld - whether on a digital screen, control panel, or paperwork.
The edges of this are extremely fuzzy. For example, Papers Please may qualify, as the only "game world" outside your interface are the faces that cross your desk. Where as in Return of the Obra Dinn, the game experience is largely exploring a virtual environment in a virtual avatar, despite the game state interactivity being restricted to the log book interface.

Non DI games that claim to touch non-diagetic interfaces

Games that provide a virtual game-world environment to navigate, but feature a fourth-wall break where the game world reaches into the players non-diegetic computer system for narrative effect. This may involved reading or writing files, but for now this list includes games that only claim to be aware of their status as software. Eventually I should split this list to differentiate.

Referenced by others but I haven't played

  1. Haven't personally played. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Haven't finished. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎