[morelisp]

Your primary decision is parser vs. hypertext, with Inform being the default choice for parser and (I think still) Twine for hypertext with Undum also being a popular choice.

Most companies producing commercial IF have in-house tooling focused on their "house style", e.g. ChoiceScript for CYOA with "chunky" dynamic content versus StoryNexus (or whatever its modern iteration is) for a more fine-grained RPG-like approach.

How (or whether) you simulate time passing also differentiates many engines.

[anthk]

CYOA is boring, it's just hypertext before the hypertext. Even the easiest if6/ZMachine adventure such as 9:05 has more choices and interactivity.

[morelisp]

"More choices is better" is bullshit.

[anthk]

Sure? Go play Anchorhead, I-0 or, under the roguelike domain, compare the now combat-linearized DCSS against Nethack/Slashem.

Text adventures are not CYOA games, a lot of emergent gaming can arise. For instance, All Thing Devours has several methods to win by exploiting the time travelling puzzles.