A text-based spy game that remembers your cover.
A cover name, a handler who has gone quiet, and a city where every friendly face is a question. Run the asset, burn the contact, lie to the people who trust you, or come in from the cold. The Game Master writes the city and everyone in it around what you do, and it keeps track of every lie, who heard it, and which name you gave to whom.
Or start from a first line, no setup:
Free to play in your browser and on Android. The full memory system is on every plan, including free.
A real session, recorded
This is what the cold sounds like
The radiator hisses, a rhythmic, metallic rasp that does nothing to cut the damp chill seeping through the embassy walls. You stare at the grand piano in the corner of the reception hall.
> I go to the Thursday reception and give the interior ministry attache my old cover name, Bauer, to see whether anyone reacts.
You cross the polished floor, the sound of your footsteps echoing slightly against the high, vaulted ceiling. As the man in the overcoat pauses to adjust his gloves, you stop a few paces away and offer a curt, knowing nod. "Bauer," you say, keeping your voice low and steady.
> After the reception I go down to the music room and check the piano to make sure the film is still where I hid it.
The hallway to the music room is quiet, the heavy velvet drapes muffling the distant murmur of the embassy guests. Inside, the room is bathed in the pale light of morning. You approach the grand piano, lift the lid with practiced care, and reach into the dark, wooden interior.
Recorded on 2026-10-16 on the free-tier model: a fresh account, the first line "a text-based spy game: I am a cultural attache at my country's embassy in a cold divided capital, my real job is running one asset inside the interior ministry, my handler has been silent for a week, and I hid the last roll of film inside the embassy piano", then the two actions above typed in. The AI named the story "Shadows of the Embassy Breach". The cover, the handler and the hidden film all come from the first line; two turns later the film is where it was left, and the Game Master has already put a face on the person watching. The Game Master's lines are cut to a few sentences each here; the whole exchange, every word, is published as a JSON file.
A text-based spy game is a story you play by typing, turn by turn, with an AI writing the city, the contacts and whoever is already watching you. You set the situation in a sentence: an attache whose handler has gone quiet, a courier with a sealed package and a stranger who knows your real name, a double agent asked for the same file by both sides. The Game Master writes the city around you. Then you decide what to do in your own words: "give the attache the old cover name," "check the dead drop at the tram stop," "tell my handler the asset is dead." The city answers with what it costs.
There is no list of commands to learn and no menu of choices. You can run the asset or sell him, keep the cover or confess it, carry the package or open it. A cover only holds if the game remembers which name you gave to whom, which lie is still live and who saw you where, which is why memory decides whether a text-based spy game is worth playing.
What you can do
How a text-based spy game plays
Work the city
Dead drops, safe houses, embassy receptions, a tram at the wrong hour. Where you went and who saw you there carry into the next day.
People, not targets
Handlers, assets, counterintelligence, the clerk who knows too much. Every one of them is played by the Game Master in their own voice, and some of them are lying too.
Lies that keep
Auferet keeps characters, places and events in structured libraries, so the name you gave on day one is the name that gets checked on day twenty.
Your kind of operative
A handler, a courier, a double agent, a defector, an analyst in the field for the first time. Your first line decides who you are and who you answer to.
Any kind of cold
A divided capital, a colonial port, a border town, a modern city of cameras. Slow tradecraft or a chase. The opening sets the tone and the Game Master keeps to it.
Free to start
Play whole operations before you pay anything. Auferet's free tier includes the full memory system and 10 free daily credits, in your browser.
Why memory decides it
A cover means nothing if the AI forgets it
Most AI games feed the model one fixed window of recent text each turn. In a spy story that breaks the game. The name you gave the attache changes, the contact you burned is back at the reception, the film you hid is in your pocket. When nothing you did lasts, there is no cover to hold.
That is measurable, so we measured it. Five facts were planted in the first turns of a story on the free model and asked about at turn 20, 40 and 60: once with only recent conversation to read, the way most AI games work, and once with persistent memory, the way Auferet works.
| Asked at | Recent conversation only | Persistent memory |
|---|---|---|
| Turn 20 | 3 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
| Turn 40 | 1 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
| Turn 60 | 1 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
Run on 2026-08-22 and again on 2026-08-27: both runs fell to 1 of 5 by turn 40 on recent conversation and held 5 of 5 with memory. Every question and raw answer is in the result file; the method is on the benchmark page, and how the memory works explains what it stores.
How it compares
Text-based spy game with an AI vs a choice-based spy story vs a parser spy adventure vs a character chat
| Text-based spy game with an AI (Auferet) | Choice-based spy story | Parser spy adventure | AI character chat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes the story | The Game Master, around what you do | Writers, in advance | One author, one puzzle at a time | The AI, as one character |
| What you can do | Anything you can put into words | The choices on the page | The verbs the parser knows | Talk |
| The people | Characters with their own motives | Scripted characters | Scripted responses | One character |
| Consequences | Carried across the whole story | The branches the writers planned | The puzzle state | Rarely tracked |
| Memory | Persistent across the whole story | Flags the writers set | Room and inventory state | Varies, often a short window |
Rather a cape than a cover? Keep a secret in the text-based superhero game. The same engine runs every text-based game and every AI story game.
FAQ
Text-based spy games, answered
Is there a free text-based spy game?
Yes. Auferet is free, with 10 daily credits to claim, and the free tier includes the full memory system. It runs in your browser; unlimited actions start at $10/mo.
How does a text-based spy game work?
You describe your cover, your city and your assignment in a sentence, or pick one above, and the Game Master builds the embassy, the contacts and whatever is already watching you. You decide what to do in your own words, and the story answers with what it costs.
Does the AI keep track of my cover and the lies I told?
That is what Auferet is built for. It keeps characters, places and events in dedicated libraries and can search the whole story, so the name you gave the attache, the dead drop you used and the contact you burned are still there weeks later.
Can I play a handler, a double agent or a courier?
Yes. Your first line sets the game. Run an asset from a safe house, work both sides, carry one package across a border, or come in from the cold, and the Game Master writes the city around that choice.
Can I run an operation with friends?
Yes. Auferet has multiplayer: one player hosts, friends join, and everyone plays their own character in the same story, each with their own Game Master.
Can I play online without downloading anything?
Yes. Auferet runs in the browser on desktop and phone, and there is an Android app if you want it on your home screen.
Your handler has been quiet for a week. What do you do?
Start a text-based spy game free in your browser and see whether the city remembers the name you gave.
Go under free