GameDNA vs Interactive Fiction Database
GameDNA
gamacy.comInteractive Fiction Database
ifdb.orgSide by side
| Figure | GameDNA | Interactive Fiction Database |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 0 |
| Spec score · Game Databases | 7.4 (#8) | 7.4 (#9) |
| Privacy | The maker says its website sets no cookies, does not sell personal data, and uses analytics that collects no personal data and sets no cookies. | Many features are accessible without personal information; IFDB says it does not sell or commercially exploit registration information. |
| Security | Gamacy says personal data submitted through its website is transmitted over encrypted connections and stored in access-controlled systems with limited internal access. | IFDB's policy prohibits circumventing passwords or other features that protect personal information and using exploits that may disrupt the site. |
| Support | The maker advertises support that scales with its licensing tiers and offers access requests with a sample slice and tier recommendation. | Users can contact the IFDB committee by email or report technical issues and suggest features through its GitHub repository. |
Plans
In their own words
GameDNA
GameDNA is a commercial video game database covering titles from 1971 to today, with tens of thousands of games across major platforms. Basic records include titles, genres, player counts, publishers, developers, and descriptions. Premium adds barcodes, product IDs, Amazon ASIN, eBay EPID, pricing data, and affiliate-ready mapping. The Corpus tier supplies AI training data modeled from real-world game materials, validated for model use and accompanied by provenance data. New titles, identifiers, and pricing are added regularly. Delivery is available through Datarade, Snowflake, and Databricks marketplaces, or by direct and API delivery on request. Shared-dataset queries and versioned snapshot exports are available. Commercial products and platforms require a separate written license agreement. Pricing depends on tier, license term, and use case, with a quote required and no fixed prices shown. GameDNA Telemetry is still in development, with a waitlist offered.
Interactive Fiction Database
Interactive Fiction Database (IFDB) is a free community catalog that helps players find interactive fiction games and decide what to play. Members can add and edit listings, search by title, author, or description, and narrow results with filters for genre, language, authoring system, format, rating, and publication date. Discovery tools include personalized recommendations, lists, polls, reviews, ratings, competitions, and member profiles. For supported titles, a Play Online option opens a game in a browser without an interpreter download; IFDB catalogs game information rather than hosting the games. Developers can use HTTP APIs that return JSON to search, retrieve listings, edit tags, or publish iFiction XML. Those APIs are intended for low-volume, user-driven applications, not frequent crawling or high-load mirroring. Full SQL exports excluding personal information are available through the IF Archive and updated roughly quarterly. IFDB also has web access and supports Z-machine, TADS, Hugo, and executable applications. It is maintained by the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation and funded by supporter donations.