Are Text Based games still relevant?

[Puralto]

I noticed the lack of new titles in this genre, and while there are a few good games out there, a lot of them are fairly limited with their interactions. So, I am thinking about creating a game with inspiration from games like "Eratohok," "Lillith's Throne," "DOL," "Strive," etc., with a focus on extensive character creation, high replayability, and player freedom.

If yes, what tags/mechanics would you like to see in a game like this?

 

[Nadekai]

Highly depends, I know there are people who would enjoy pure text games, but I require atleast some visual aspect to it.
Games like TiTS and CoC2 are still very popular.

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

I noticed the lack of new titles in this genre, and while there are a few good games out there, a lot of them are fairly limited with their interactions. So, I am thinking about creating a game with inspiration from games like "Eratohok," "Lillith's Throne," "DOL," "Strive," etc., with a focus on extensive character creation, high replayability, and player freedom.

If yes, what tags/mechanics would you like to see in a game like this?

I think also yes. For simple choose-your-own-adventures-lewd-stories, there is even a whole platform of it's own:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[kytee]

Depends. AI generated erotica is pretty good these days. Nothing is more sandbox than that. You'll have real competition soon if it keeps advancing.

 

[Puralto]

Highly depends, I know there are people who would enjoy pure text games, but I require atleast some visual aspect to it.
Games like TiTS and CoC2 are still very popular.

Depends. AI generated erotica is pretty good these days. Nothing is more sandbox than that. You'll have real competition soon if it keeps advancing.

Indeed it's exciting and scary at the same time to see how fast AI is changing the game. I am planning to make the game a little more visually and mechanically involved, in order to avoid a direct clash with pure text adventure games that might get completely overtaken by AI the near future.

 

[Nadekai]

Indeed it's exciting and scary at the same time to see how fast AI is changing the game. I am planning to make the game a little more visually and mechanically involved, in order to avoid a direct clash with pure text adventure games that might get completely overtaken by AI the near future.

AI is getting scarily good...

 

[kytee]

Indeed it's exciting and scary at the same time to see how fast AI is changing the game. I am planning to make the game a little more visually and mechanically involved, in order to avoid a direct clash with pure text adventure games that might get completely overtaken by AI the near future.

It's still shit in that it doesn't have an idea of where to take things, no end goal in mind. It's just randomly responding to shit you write. This forces the player to lead the way. In this way, an actual writer is still better. You, the writer, are the pioneer of the adventure, you set where the story will go and, unlike the AI, you can delay gratification to build up a better story/sex scene. AI doesn't know how to do that. You say I want sex, it gives it to you. You say I want you to tease the fuck out of me until I can't take it anymore, it'll tease you until it forgets that it's supposed to keep teasing you and then you have to remind it to do that. It also can't remember things that were said 4 pages ago unless you kick it in the gut and tell it to remember. You spend enough time with it and you realize it's kinda soulless, just responding to whatever you want it to do. Its like a sex doll you can dress up and fuck when and how you want. But at the end of the day, you're still all alone in your room fucking a sex doll. But most people probably won't play long enough to reach that point.

 

[ErrantVenture]

You have listed five games that - as far as I know - are all still in active development (or at least have successor projects in a similar vein). Assuming they qualify as text-based games, you seem to have indicated a lively-enough scene (audience-wise) all on your own. The rub is that sandbox games are rough to create and erotic games in particular invite a lot of scope creep if you wish to cater to various 'tags'.

Personally I would recommend finding a fetish or two you feel you can write for, and then come up with a decent mechanic for indulging that fetish, and working from there.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Depends on what you can do. Are you a good writer? Are you a good illustrator? Are you a good coder?
Any random yolo can try and wing it, but they won't make a good game in most cases.

Anyways personally i like well-made ones like Strive, and this one is a good example to follow if you wish to go for a somewhat complex game.

 

[Puralto]

I have dev experience, mainly scripting and 3d, so I don't plan to make the game very text heavy like tits-coc. Strive would be something closer to what I am aiming for, but not a slave management sim.(even though I love the game)

 

[Satori6]

while there are a few good games out there, a lot of them are fairly limited with their interactions.

That's because building a true sandbox requires a ton of work.

A real sandbox will take a long time to get to a point where it's enjoyable: a true sandbox means that means that the player should be able to go anywhere, at anytime, having access to most areas and characters right away.

DoL is a good example of this: you start the game and can go to any area and explore its available content right away, and then different events will happen based on your decisions.

Lilith's Throne is an example of a fake sandbox: an open map where most of the content is locked behind rather uninteresting quests and arbitrary thresholds, so in the end you're left with what seems to be a big world that once past the surface reveals to be nothing but a bunch of areas with the same content pasted over and over.

Building something like DoL requires passion for the project, as I reckon we're talking about at least a year of development before a 0.01 version can be released with enough content to be considered a sandbox.

One of my projects is of this style, and I had to put it on hold and take a step back because I was getting way over my head with how quickly the different paths would fork based on the smallest choices. I'll revisit it once I'm way more experienced.

I wish you good luck, and recommend that you spend a good month designing the thing on paper before writing the first line of code. These kind of games can get out of hand real quick.

 

[Brosewood]

Depends on what you mean by 'relevant'.

Having some form of art is always going to be a benefit for you. It's the no.1 complaint I've received with Stuck in Sutton. The main benefit I've had from going artless (apart from one picture) is the fact I've already turned a profit. It's also allowed me to get updates out every 1.5-2 months, which is a solid pace and I do think has helped me build an audience. Finally, being HTML based has allowed my game to be playable on just about any browser and any website that'll host me.

Ideally, you'll want to do something like Hard Times in Hornstown with character art to one side. Both Female Agent and Blue Swallow are pretty popular too and have paperdoll avatars of the MC. All three of those games are very text-heavy and are doing good numbers on Patreon (both Hard Times and Female Agent are making above $5K and Blue Swallow is at minimum making double what the vast majority adult games ever make on Patreon, even at an early stage of development).

I'm also going to give an obligatory for the love of God don't make a sandbox game for your 1st project. Even a game as small as Stuck in Sutton has given me plenty of headaches.

 

[Feds Suck This White Cock]

I noticed the lack of new titles in this genre, and while there are a few good games out there, a lot of them are fairly limited with their interactions. So, I am thinking about creating a game with inspiration from games like "Eratohok," "Lillith's Throne," "DOL," "Strive," etc., with a focus on extensive character creation, high replayability, and player freedom.

If yes, what tags/mechanics would you like to see in a game like this?

I'm not a fan of these games but I'm interested in 'em. Maybe something good can come out of em. The problem is the lack of pictures in most of these games. I do understand that it's a "text based" genre but some pictures, and Im not even asking for animations, never hurt anyone before.

 

[Puralto]

Depends on what you mean by 'relevant'.

Having some form of art is always going to be a benefit for you. It's the no.1 complaint I've received with Stuck in Sutton. The main benefit I've had from going artless (apart from one picture) is the fact I've already turned a profit. It's also allowed me to get updates out every 1.5-2 months, which is a solid pace and I do think has helped me build an audience. Finally, being HTML based has allowed my game to be playable on just about any browser and any website that'll host me.

Ideally, you'll want to do something like Hard Times in Hornstown with character art to one side. Both Female Agent and Blue Swallow are pretty popular too and have paperdoll avatars of the MC. All three of those games are very text-heavy and are doing good numbers on Patreon (both Hard Times and Female Agent are making above $5K and Blue Swallow is at minimum making double what the vast majority adult games ever make on Patreon, even at an early stage of development).

I'm also going to give an obligatory for the love of God don't make a sandbox game for your 1st project. Even a game as small as Stuck in Sutton has given me plenty of headaches.

Thanks you for the input. Being able to work on anything makes HTML pretty tempting.
I was entertaining the idea of doing it in unity with stylised 3d avatars, do you think it could work on this genre?
I have published a game in the past, but it was not erotic in nature.

 

[Brosewood]

Thanks you for the input. Being able to work on anything makes HTML pretty tempting.
I was entertaining the idea of doing it in unity with stylised 3d avatars, do you think it could work on this genre?
I have published a game in the past, but it was not erotic in nature.

I don't see any reason not to use Twine - Sugarcube for anything heavily text-based. It'd probably be a lot simpler to do than using Unity.

That being said, Unity is a lot more flexible as a game engine, which has its advantages.

 

[GTK/HLK]

Can't Bother to read what others have already posted, as to not retread the same grounds.

Yet it largely depends what a Dev wants their game to head towards. While some Community/Player input is good, too much of that makes the End Date become unreachable.

Personally to start one needs to find what the basic premise and how far you'll let folk use.

You can even get ideas from CYOAs from reddit. (/nsfwcyoa)
I got a pretty good one built up from one of those in there, which would make a good story if someone was to build it.

Though personally, I'd like games that didn't force you into a preset relationship. and if you didn't have a preset relationship, for you to be able to choose what kind of Relationship type you want.
Be it pure pleasure, emotion or sliding scales.
As well as have the option to let npcs known if you prefer to have monogamous, open, or Poly Relationships. Cause it's annoying when games force you/let you choose multiple. But it gets immediately turned into cheating.

With the extra choice for npcs to be with you or not. or you to actively choose to cheat instead of being the result of limitations from game systems.

or be able to manage your own setup as you wish

 

[qwsaq]

If yes, what tags/mechanics would you like to see in a game like this?

A point of advice:
Steer clear of randomly generated sex encounters like those found in Lilith's Throne or Degrees of Lewdity. Those systems generally make all sex scenes blend together and I'd wager exactly 0 people have actually read through all of the text during one of these sorts of encounters. Hand-crafted sex scenes with some interactivity in the form of a few choices is generally better.

A selfish request:
A well fleshed out chastity mechanic. Have a way for the player to be locked in chastity and let it impact the way relevant scenes play out in a non-trivial way.

Realistically:
These sorts of threads pop up all the time. The best advice is always "make the game you want to play and stop trying to crowdsource ideas."

 

[F4C430]

A point of advice:
Steer clear of randomly generated sex encounters like those found in Lilith's Throne or Degrees of Lewdity. Those systems generally make all sex scenes blend together and I'd wager exactly 0 people have actually read through all of the text during one of these sorts of encounters. Hand-crafted sex scenes with some interactivity in the form of a few choices is generally better.

Disagree on random encounters. I think they're necessary and when done right, they play an important role in the "everyday" experience inside these games. These are the ones that shine for when the game lets you toggle fetishes. Personally i hate the more scripted scenes because they almost always include unavoidable kinks i don't like regardless of the toggled kinks.

I can't remember how it is in LT because fuck that game, but DoL is just way too complex and a single encounter takes forever. For a more recent example, BDCC does it much better.

 

[Satori6]

A point of advice:
Steer clear of randomly generated sex encounters like those found in Lilith's Throne or Degrees of Lewdity. Those systems generally make all sex scenes blend together and I'd wager exactly 0 people have actually read through all of the text during one of these sorts of encounters. Hand-crafted sex scenes with some interactivity in the form of a few choices is generally better.

I think scripted events are best left for visual novels or RPGM games where replayability doesn't matter. They can benefit sandbox games by always offering a different story.

That said, encounters should complement a game and not be the only feature. Lilith's Throne fails because those encounters are forced and only serve to create an artificial sense of content that doesn't exist - if you take them away, there's no game.

On DoL they work great to create different stories on each playthrough. Sure, it's not perfect (sometimes you can get way too many chained encounters to the point where it's frustrating), but done properly, it can definitely benefit a sandbox game.

 

[qwsaq]

Disagree on random encounters. I think they're necessary and when done right, they play an important role in the "everyday" experience inside these games. These are the ones that shine for when the game lets you toggle fetishes. Personally i hate the more scripted scenes because they almost always include unavoidable kinks i don't like regardless of the toggled kinks.

I can't remember how it is in LT because fuck that game, but DoL is just way too complex and a single encounter takes forever. For a more recent example, BDCC does it much better.

I think scripted events are best left for visual novels or RPGM games where replayability doesn't matter. They can benefit sandbox games by always offering a different story.

That said, encounters should complement a game and not be the only feature. Lilith's Throne fails because those encounters are forced and only serve to create an artificial sense of content that doesn't exist - if you take them away, there's no game.

On DoL they work great to create different stories on each playthrough. Sure, it's not perfect (sometimes you can get way too many chained encounters to the point where it's frustrating), but done properly, it can definitely benefit a sandbox game.

As I said: my main issue with these types of sex scenes is they all kinda blend together. Like sure, you can "tell a different story," but it all comes off as the same old shit and starts to feel like a grind.
This is kinda a problem with any game that relies heavily on RNG for encounters/character generation. No matter how many billions of possible iterations exist, the template to generate these things has to be sufficiently shallow to accommodate it all. So you end up with an encounter with a horse-dicked centaur looking and behaving exactly the same as an encounter with a lithe catgirl. Because fundamentally, they are the same thing with just a tiny bit of flavor text.
At a certain point, random noise just starts to look like random noise.

One game that I think does sex a lot better is Tales of Androgyny, which I find very replayable. Just replace ToA's art with a colorful description of what's happening.