Opinions About Twine/SugarCube Games and Linearity

VagueRowDev

Newbie
Apr 30, 2018
22
72
This is my first post in this forum, so if this is the wrong place to open this discussion I am sorry. Just learning stuff. Anyway, I want to collect opinions from players and if possible developers about html twine sugarcube games. I've played multiple over the years and some of them are almost completely linear, with an illusion of open world or sandbox experience. For example in Realms of Lust, you corrupt a town and you have freedom to explore and chose who to engage and when to engage. However, no matter the order you do things, end point is always the same as the plot demands it. Another example, Bimbo Life Coach is more interesting, meaning that it has character altering major decisions, but you it is more on-rails when it comes to plot. The Company has a gameplay loop, but plot moves on-rails again, with npc and pc altering decisions depending on how you choose the engage situations that you encounter. These examples are not criticism in any way, developers choose these routes and I enjoyed these games.

I want to tell a story as a twine/sugercube game, with a focus on major societal impacts. However while doing it, I don't want to bog down player progression by throwing choices on what tie to wear, or searching for a critical character over a map. It will be a text-based real porn, and choices might present themselves as creating a plan or who to pursue on that day/week/month or how to approach a problem, all depending on the situation (not concrete yet), but there will be no other gameplay elements. I would like to gauge your opinions about the open world-sandbox systems or cosmetic systems in these types of games, your enjoyment or annoyance on them and if a more 'linear' game such as this raise interest. If there are previous examples that I'm missing, success and horror stories about those developments also welcomed.