A text-based superhero game that remembers your secret.
One power, one city, one secret, and a day job that does not stop for either. Save people, hide it, lie about it, or stop hiding. The Game Master writes the city and everyone in it around what you do, and it keeps track of who saw you, who you saved and where the mask is.
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 city sounds like
The flickering neon sign of a nearby bodega casts long, jaundiced shadows over the rain-slicked streets of Harrow City. You grip the steering wheel of the ambulance, your partner, Miller, busy checking a chart in the back as you cruise through the quiet industrial district.
> On a call, a bridge cable snaps over the river traffic. I use my six seconds to pull the bus driver clear before anyone sees me move.
The air screams as the main cable shears, whipping toward the windshield of the bus. You trigger your ability, the world slamming into a frozen, gray silence where the rain hangs like suspended beads of mercury. You move in a blur, hauling the driver from the seat just as the steel cable obliterates the front of the vehicle. Time snaps back with a deafening roar of grinding metal, but you are already back by the ambulance, panting.
> Back at the station I open the spare oxygen locker to make sure the mask is still where I keep it.
The drive back to the station is tense and quiet, the rhythm of the windshield wipers the only sound against the lingering adrenaline of the bridge. You pull into the bay and, under the cover of the dim station lights, slip into the back of the ambulance. You reach for the spare oxygen locker, your fingers brushing the cold metal latch before you pop it open; the mask is exactly where you left it, tucked safely away in the dark.
Recorded on 2026-10-16 on the free-tier model: a fresh account, the first line "a text-based superhero game: I am a night-shift paramedic in Harrow City who can stop time for six seconds, nobody knows, and I keep my mask in the ambulance's spare oxygen locker", then the two actions above typed in. The AI named the story "Harrow City Trauma Call". The six seconds, the partner and the mask all come from the first line; the mask is exactly where it was left two turns later, and in between the Game Master added what no first line asked for: a witness under an umbrella who saw where you were a split second ago. The Game Master's lines are cut to their opening sentences here; the whole exchange, every word, is published as a JSON file.
A text-based superhero game is a story you play by typing, turn by turn, with an AI writing the city, the people and whatever is about to go wrong. You set the situation in a sentence: a paramedic who can stop time for six seconds, a janitor whose touch rusts metal, the last licensed hero in a city that outlawed powers. The Game Master writes the city around you. Then you decide what to do in your own words: "pull the driver clear before anyone sees," "tell my partner the truth," "let the warehouse burn." The city answers with what it costs.
There is no list of commands to learn and no menu of choices. You can save the bus or keep your secret, trust the detective or lie to her, wear the mask or burn it. A secret identity only means something if the game remembers who saw you, what you told them and where the mask is, which is why memory decides whether a text-based superhero game is worth playing.
What you can do
How a text-based superhero game plays
Use the power, pay for it
Every power has a cost the Game Master keeps: six seconds that leave you winded, a touch that spreads, a flight that someone filmed. What you spend tonight carries into tomorrow's call.
People, not targets
Partners, witnesses, reporters, the detective who is close and the villain who is closer. Every one of them is played by the Game Master in their own voice.
A secret that keeps
Auferet keeps characters, places and events in structured libraries, so the woman with the umbrella who saw you on day one can recognise you on day twenty.
Your kind of hero
A paramedic, a sidekick, a retired cape, a villain with rules, a kid with a power that is getting stronger. Your first line decides who you are and what you can do.
Any kind of city
A rain-slicked industrial district, a bright capital with licensed heroes, a town where powers are illegal. Street level or world-ending. The opening sets the tone and the Game Master keeps to it.
Free to start
Play whole arcs 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 secret identity means nothing if the AI forgets it
Most AI games feed the model one fixed window of recent text each turn. In a superhero story that breaks the game. The witness who saw you forgets, the partner you lied to never asks again, the mask you hid is back on your face. When nothing you did lasts, there is no secret to keep.
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 superhero game with an AI vs a choice-based hero story vs a superhero browser game vs a character chat
| Text-based superhero game with an AI (Auferet) | Choice-based hero story | Superhero browser game | AI character chat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes the story | The Game Master, around what you do | Writers, in advance | Nobody; the systems and other players | The AI, as one character |
| What you can do | Anything you can put into words | The choices on the page | What the game allows | Talk |
| The city | Characters with their own motives | Scripted characters | Other players, and scripted NPCs | One character |
| Consequences | Carried across the whole story | The branches the writers planned | Mechanical: levels, items | Rarely tracked |
| Memory | Persistent across the whole story | Flags the writers set | A database of the world, not of your story | Varies, often a short window |
Rather a frontier than a city? Ride into the text-based western game. The same engine runs every text-based game and every AI story game. Rather a cover than a cape? Hold one in the text-based spy game.
FAQ
Text-based superhero games, answered
Is there a free text-based superhero 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 superhero game work?
You describe your power, your city and your day job in a sentence, or pick one above, and the Game Master builds the city, the people and whatever is about to go wrong. You decide what to do in your own words, and the story answers with what it costs.
Does the AI keep track of my secret identity?
That is what Auferet is built for. It keeps characters, places and events in dedicated libraries and can search the whole story, so the witness who saw you move, the mask you hid and the lie you told your partner are still there weeks later.
Can I play a villain, a sidekick or a hero with a weak power?
Yes. Your first line sets the game. Six seconds of stopped time, a power you cannot control, a city that hates capes, or the other side of the law, and the Game Master writes the city around that choice.
Can I play with friends as a team?
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.
Six seconds. Somebody saw. What do you do?
Start a text-based superhero game free in your browser and see whether the city remembers what you did.
Suit up free