Story-rich games with short chapters you can finish on a phone

The best story games used to ask for a whole weekend and a big screen. Not everyone has either. If you play on a phone, in the ten minutes before work or the half hour after, you want a game whose story comes in pieces you can actually finish: a chapter, an episode, one reign, one journey.

Here are our picks of story-rich games that break into short sittings and run on a phone. They are picks, not a ranking, and the facts about each one are checked against the sources at the bottom.

At a glance

Our picks

AJ Cities

This one is ours. AJ Cities is a free open-world game in your phone’s browser, with nothing to install, and it was designed phone first: touch controls, readable instructions, and testing at phone width before desktop. It is 18+.

Its story comes in two forms, and both suit short sittings.

To play: Chapter 1 of AJ’s story is played as missions. You are AJ, deported from London and two weeks back in Lagos, broke, in Room 3 of Iloro House. The early steps are each a small, finishable thing: talk to Chuks at his coal pot, follow a map pin, say hello properly to Funke, work as a ball boy at the street football in the bush, borrow and return a shotgun, and start paying the gate police their ₦2,500,000, a little at a time. In this chapter the story starts from the beginning each time you play, so there is no save to keep track of.

To read: the site has AJ’s Story written out in six chapters, from a raid at a party in south London to a night outside Prizm and a handshake with the Warden. Each one is a short read on a phone. There are stories for the other characters too, from the officers to the Warden.

Reigns

From Nerial and Devolver Digital, 2016, on Android and iOS as well as computers and Switch. You are a monarch; advisers bring you cards; you swipe yes or no. Each reign is short by design, because one bad answer can tip one of four parts of the kingdom too far and end it. Then your heir takes over and the longer story carries on. It is about the most phone-shaped story game there is.

80 Days

inkle’s 2014 adaptation of Jules Verne, released first on iOS and then Android, and later on computers and Switch. You are Passepartout, valet to Phileas Fogg, choosing routes and transport as you race round the world. A journey breaks naturally into stops, so it is easy to play one city on the way to work and the next on the way home. TIME named it its game of the year for 2014.

Choices: Stories You Play

Pixelberry Studios’ 2016 app, free on iOS and Android, is a library of interactive stories told chapter by chapter. Keys open new chapters and Diamonds pay for special choices; both can be bought in the app. The chapter structure makes it a natural fit for short sessions.

Life Is Strange

Dontnod Entertainment and Square Enix released it in five episodes through 2015, on PC and consoles. Episodes came to iPhone and iPad from December 2017. If you want a longer story but still in clear pieces, five episodes is a good shape.

A Dark Room

Michael Townsend’s game, under the name Doublespeak Games, first appeared in web browsers in 2013. The browser version is free; the iOS and Android versions are paid. It starts with a cold room and a fire and quietly becomes something else. It is one short game rather than chapters, but it plays well in small bites.

What makes a story “rich” in a short game?

Length is not the same as depth. A story feels rich when the people in it seem to have lives that go on when you are not looking. In Reigns, it is the advisers who return reign after reign. In 80 Days, it is the strangeness of each city. In AJ Cities, it is the street: Funke at her gate at half past six on weekday mornings, Chuks always at his pot, Officer Sola always on his phone, and a purple sign lighting up over Prizm every night. You can play for ten minutes and still feel you have visited somewhere with its own rhythm.

Tips for playing story games on a phone

• Charge first. 3D games, AJ Cities included, use more battery than text games.
• Use headphones. A lot of a story game’s mood is in the sound. In AJ Cities, the estate radio plays the same song at the same moment for every player.
• Pick a natural stopping point. End on a finished chapter, reign or episode, not halfway through a conversation.
• Read ahead if you like. With AJ Cities you can read a chapter of the story on the site and then play it.

More: story games you can play free online and choose-your-story games for adults.

What story games have short chapters for a phone?

Our picks include Reigns, 80 Days, Choices, Life Is Strange, A Dark Room and AJ Cities, a free 18+ browser game set in Lagos.

Does AJ Cities work on a phone?

Yes. It was designed phone first and runs in the browser, with touch controls and nothing to install.

Do I lose my progress in AJ’s story?

In this chapter the story starts from the beginning each time you play, so there is no save file to lose.