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Engine for a Spreadsheet Game

larondan

Newbie
Nov 12, 2016
23
55
216
Hello Folks,
i am thinking about creating a breeding game similar to Breeders of Nephelym and Monster Black Market, but in more of a Spreadsheet Style.
While both games are great, for me they always seemed to be lacking in depth and consequence to their main mechanic. In Breeders of Nephelym the main reason for you to breed a specific trait was because a quest demanded that trait. In Monster Black Market the variety of traits and races was a little too limited and you honestly almost always went for the same traits in every run, also there was no breeding of hybrids. (I know there is a mod that changes exactly that and it is great, but still kinda trapped in the setting of the game.)

So, I was thinking about making a game which will focus more on the mechanics and less on fancy art, so it is easier to extend said mechanics without the need to create expensive artworks and animations for all of it. Something along the lines of Course of Temptation or Degrees of lewdity.

I have coding experience, but limited knowledge about making games. My main question therefore is: what Engines are there that you guys could recommend?
Godot will very likely work, but I would a) only use something like 10% of the feature the engine offers and b) would still need to learn a fairly complex engine just to get enough understanding for me to get started. As this is a hobby project I would like to avoid needing to spend weeks to learn fundamentals before actually starting with the project.
If all things fail, this would be my default though.

There is also of course which seems considerably easier to learn and I like to make User Interfaces through HTML.
But is it the engine used by the more complex html games on this site? Like the two mentioned above and games like Fort of Chains, Unholy Arts, XXXivilization and Mercanoid?
Or is there a HTML based game engine that I am missing? Also how time consuming is it to make the engine do all the fancy stuff, like the combat system in Unholy Arts or the town map in Fort of Chains? Can someone share his/her experience here?
I fear Twine would be too limited for my goals and is more of an engine to tell stories, and less to build a sandbox.

Are there other Engine you guys know that you could recommend? It should be
- fairly easy to learn and get started
- have the possibility to create a complex sandbox game
- preferably HTML based
I am probably looking for something that doesn't exists, but let me know if you have any recommendations.
Needless to say that Engines like Unity or Unreal Engine are completely out of the question. :)

I know I am not giving a lot of details about what I want to make, but I am looking only for general advice here.
 

Winterfire

Conversation Conqueror
Respected User
Game Developer
Sep 27, 2018
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Godot will very likely work, but I would a) only use something like 10% of the feature the engine offers
This statement makes me angry, but I could be just hungry (I am fat)

Everyone uses a x% of what an engine offers, even more so on a general purpose engine (like Godot, Unity, etc.), that never comes up (or should come up) when deciding on the engine you need to use.
I use Unity for my Visual Novel. BuT yOu CoUlD uSe ReNpY!!12 No. Because I want a wysiwyg editor without going insane with trying to create a simple screen, I like and have experience with C# and I also got tired of people "compressing" my games and breaking them on each release.

So, ultimately, you pick the game engine for your convenience and needs. I am assuming you want to make a mostly text based game with some images, so any engine would get the job done. I saw that with RPGM (The Last Sovreign), Unity (Slut manager, Atlantia, etc.) and of course Twine.

Pick what you have experience with, and feel most comfortable with using.
 

larondan

Newbie
Nov 12, 2016
23
55
216
Fair Point.
What I was trying to get at here is that if there is a) a html based engine that is b) not a general-purpose engine and thus easier to learn and get started.
Of course you are correct, but the point of my post was to determine if I can get away with not needing to learn a general purpose engine. :)
Giving your reaction, I guess this seems to be a "heated" topic though...

Pick what you have experience with, and feel most comfortable with using.
I dont have experience with any game engine and I am thus not comforatable with any of them. :)
 

Winterfire

Conversation Conqueror
Respected User
Game Developer
Sep 27, 2018
6,363
9,138
800
Fair Point.
What I was trying to get at here is that if there is a) a html based engine that is b) not a general-purpose engine and thus easier to learn and get started.
Of course you are correct, but the point of my post was to determine if I can get away with not needing to learn a general purpose engine. :)
Giving your reaction, I guess this seems to be a "heated" topic though...


I dont have experience with any game engine and I am thus not comforatable with any of them. :)
My bad, I should really use the /s. Not heated, I just like to act dumdum from times to times, but what I've said is true.
The more simple is a game, the more can be done anywhere, so you can literally pick any of them.
If you really want something more specialized, either make your own (which is also a strong possibility, again due to its simplicity) or use twine.

-Edit-
If you want to see twine's capabilities, check out this game: https://f95zone.to/threads/love-and-corruption-v0-4-5-public-airell.86091/
Very beautiful UI, very functional RPG mechanics (which could be "monster traits" in your case) and of course some art should you decide to add it.
I think if you want something truly specialized, Twine is the most common one for a reason. It has a lot of devs, and therefore you can even get your questions answered fairly quickly.
 
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MMT Games

New Member
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Sep 17, 2025
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Yes, they use Sugarcube and Twine, honestly it's the best software out there to build a spreadsheet game, only competitor I can think of is QSP, which is not as advanced
 
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peterppp

Well-Known Member
Donor
Mar 5, 2020
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Hello Folks,
i am thinking about creating a breeding game similar to Breeders of Nephelym and Monster Black Market, but in more of a Spreadsheet Style.
While both games are great, for me they always seemed to be lacking in depth and consequence to their main mechanic. In Breeders of Nephelym the main reason for you to breed a specific trait was because a quest demanded that trait. In Monster Black Market the variety of traits and races was a little too limited and you honestly almost always went for the same traits in every run, also there was no breeding of hybrids. (I know there is a mod that changes exactly that and it is great, but still kinda trapped in the setting of the game.)

So, I was thinking about making a game which will focus more on the mechanics and less on fancy art, so it is easier to extend said mechanics without the need to create expensive artworks and animations for all of it. Something along the lines of Course of Temptation or Degrees of lewdity.

I have coding experience, but limited knowledge about making games. My main question therefore is: what Engines are there that you guys could recommend?
Godot will very likely work, but I would a) only use something like 10% of the feature the engine offers and b) would still need to learn a fairly complex engine just to get enough understanding for me to get started. As this is a hobby project I would like to avoid needing to spend weeks to learn fundamentals before actually starting with the project.
If all things fail, this would be my default though.

There is also of course which seems considerably easier to learn and I like to make User Interfaces through HTML.
But is it the engine used by the more complex html games on this site? Like the two mentioned above and games like Fort of Chains, Unholy Arts, XXXivilization and Mercanoid?
Or is there a HTML based game engine that I am missing? Also how time consuming is it to make the engine do all the fancy stuff, like the combat system in Unholy Arts or the town map in Fort of Chains? Can someone share his/her experience here?
I fear Twine would be too limited for my goals and is more of an engine to tell stories, and less to build a sandbox.

Are there other Engine you guys know that you could recommend? It should be
- fairly easy to learn and get started
- have the possibility to create a complex sandbox game
- preferably HTML based
I am probably looking for something that doesn't exists, but let me know if you have any recommendations.
Needless to say that Engines like Unity or Unreal Engine are completely out of the question. :)

I know I am not giving a lot of details about what I want to make, but I am looking only for general advice here.
every game you ask about except fort of chains and xxxivilization, you easily see they are made with twine plus sugarcube because of the < button on the side panel
Untitled.png
you're not limited to what twine or sugarcube can do since you can use javascript for more complicated things
 
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