Recommending Story-first games

[jufot]

So there was no book Drummer?

Drummer is in the books. She starts out as head of security at Tycho and becomes much, much more in the later books that we never got to see on the show But yes, TV Drummer is an amalgamation of multiple book characters.

 

[Tulrek]

Drummer is in the books. She starts out as head of security at Tycho and becomes much, much more in the later books that we never got to see on the show But yes, TV Drummer is an amalgamation of multiple book characters.

And knowing her actress's true personality, she's fantastically well embodied.
One of the best caracter of the serie.

 

[bacienvu88]

And Mass Effect. Actually, almost anything by Bioware. The only one of theirs that disappointed me was Andromeda.

Tlaero

Speaking of Mass Effect. I highly recommend reading

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where he with great detail deconstructs the trilogy. It is pretty long though; 50 fairly long parts.

 

[bacienvu88]

Speaking of Telltale, Tales From The Borderlands is by far their best work. I'll die on this hill

Aren't they the ones bringing out The Expanse game as well? Can't wait to see more of Drummer. Beltalowda!

Not the same Telltale though. The original

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closed down in 2018 and then the company that bought out the IP rights started

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.

 

[MrFuckNuts]

Speaking of Telltale, Tales From The Borderlands is by far their best work. I'll die on this hill

Fuck yeah it is. That opening to episode 2 when "Kiss the sky" starts playing is a MASTERPIECE. Somehow they brought back Handsome Jack in a way that didn't seem like a lazy asspull, and pretty much all the characters were so damn endearing.

 

[jufot]

A Father's Sins has been added to the OP. I've been enjoying it for a long time, just forgot to add it, I guess.

If you're not familiar with the game, it's heavily story-driven with little to no choices or sex. It's great

 

[MrFuckNuts]

Seconding Bioware games, specifically a few that have been mentioned earlier:
Mass Effect Trilogy, SW: KotOR I + II, NWN - A Dance with Rogues

Other games most notable for good companion dialogue and worldbuilding:
Planescape Torment and Tides of Numenera
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines
Telltale's The Walking Dead

Lee . I loved the Wolf among us too. I just wish a game like that got more funding and time (this goes for their other properties as well) since it seemed pretty clear that they had endless ideas that were occasionally teased, but somewhat floundered so they could hone in on the plot.

 

[moskyx]

A Father's Sins has been added to the OP. I've been enjoying it for a long time, just forgot to add it, I guess.

If you're not familiar with the game, it's heavily story-driven with little to no choices or sex. It's great

At this point, it's so story driven that the dev has been forced to release a companion game with some non-canon lewds because the main game just can't have sexy times due to how the plot has evolved.

 

[turbojoe]

I'm interested in games where the story takes precedence over everything else.

And Mass Effect. Actually, almost anything by Bioware. The only one of theirs that disappointed me was Andromeda.

Tlaero

Sry if this was mentioned yet (just found this thread randomly) or it isn´t a game you had in mind when starting this thread, but as Tlaero mentioned Mass Effect / Bioware I remembered the best game story for me is still Dragon Age Origins

 

[jufot]

Sry if this was mentioned yet (just found this thread randomly) or it isn´t a game you had in mind when starting this thread

Well, while we do get a bit side tracked occasionally as you've seen, this thread is mostly about the kind of games you find here. Think indie AVNs, not AAA games

 

[bacienvu88]

A Father's Sins has been added to the OP. I've been enjoying it for a long time, just forgot to add it, I guess.

If you're not familiar with the game, it's heavily story-driven with little to no choices or sex. It's great

Sounds interesting. I haven't been paying attention to it because I just assumed it would be similar to The Professor and it's sequel which are very porn driven games.

 

[turbojoe]

Well, while we do get a bit side tracked occasionally as you've seen, this thread is mostly about the kind of games you find here. Think indie AVNs, not AAA games

I believed that my replay might be a little OffTopic

But I also have a more suitable recommendation: just fiinished Toro7 (https://f95zone.to/threads/toro-7-ep-6-tora-productions.111945/) - thrilling story, unfortunately ended after 7 episodes and left great potential unused.

 

[jufot]

But I also have a more suitable recommendation: just fiinished Toro7

It's already listed, as are all Tora games

 

[jufot]

Swimsoot (of op-listed Camp Klondike fame) is apparently working on a new game in parallel, called Shoulder Season. Apparently, it's in the same vein as Klondike, with new characters and setting.

 

[Dragon59]

I want to present a hypothesis and see if anyone else feels that that connection has merit.

We have a number of people who find sex scene animation to be critical to the games they like. I was thinking today:
Is the emphasis on such animations likely to be a product of the immersive fappers (who play "porn games")?

Someone had made an observation this week that a great animation is not worth it if it delays progress in the story.

This got me to thinking--perhaps developers of good story based AVNs have less need to spend the time and effort on animations, choosing instead to do the still renders to advance the story rather than slowing down the process.

I know there are a number of story based AVNs that also put a lot of effort in animation, but perhaps they could be considered outliers.

Thoughts?

One reason I'm curious is that since I'm writing projects that are heavily story based, do I really need to perfect my animation skills at this point or can I pretty much ignore that expectation because my intended audience will be less attached to that aspect?

 

[camube]

I want to present a hypothesis and see if anyone else feels that that connection has merit.

We have a number of people who find sex scene animation to be critical to the games they like. I was thinking today:
Is the emphasis on such animations likely to be a product of the immersive fappers (who play "porn games")?

Someone had made an observation this week that a great animation is not worth it if it delays progress in the story.

This got me to thinking--perhaps developers of good story based AVNs have less need to spend the time and effort on animations, choosing instead to do the still renders to advance the story rather than slowing down the process.

I know there are a number of story based AVNs that also put a lot of effort in animation, but perhaps they could be considered outliers.

Thoughts?

One reason I'm curious is that since I'm writing projects that are heavily story based, do I really need to perfect my animation skills at this point or can I pretty much ignore that expectation because my intended audience will be less attached to that aspect?

sex scenes enjoyers pays more than story enjoyers probably

Look at Summer Heat. The game has 0 story so far. Philly Games has more patrons than Hopes Gaming too.
Freshwomen have a lot of patrons too i think
Though 1thousand does not have a lot of patrons though.

Those are sex first games and i feel like, sex-first games have more patrons than story-first games, just generally speaking.

if you don't care about getting paid, you can do whatever type of game you ideally want. It's your game/creation.
But if you want to get paid to create, there are factors to consider probably.

The market of people that patron story games is probably smaller than the market that patron sex-first games maybe. At least that's my limited observation so far.

 

[Dragon59]

sex scenes enjoyers pays more than story enjoyers probably

Look at Summer Heat. The game has 0 story so far. Philly Games has more patrons than Hopes Gaming too.
Freshwomen have a lot of patrons too i think
Though 1thousand does not have a lot of patrons though.

Those are sex first games and i feel like, sex-first games have more patrons than story-first games, just generally speaking.

if you don't care about getting paid, you can do whatever type of game you ideally want. It's your game/creation.
But if you want to get paid to create, there are factors to consider probably.

The market of people that patron story games is probably smaller than the market that patron sex-first games maybe. At least that's my limited observation so far.

I get that.
Still, I have stories pushing to get out. Quite often, I'll come up with a story either while I'm asleep dreaming, or in those moments before I fall asleep. My brain starts coming up with stories.

Sometimes I have to work to figure out how to add sexual content to make it an AVN...

 

[camube]

Sometimes I have to work to figure out how to add sexual content to make it an AVN...

you don't have to. AVN is "adult". Adult doesn't always means sex.
Just because it seems synonymous doesn't mean any devs have to fit that in

Your game can be that outlier.
There are games like that out there. Not a lot but there are.

 

[yossa999]

you don't have to. AVN is "adult". Adult doesn't always means sex.
Just because it seems synonymous doesn't mean any devs have to fit that in

9 out of 10 dentists f95ers here will disagree with you Man, I've lost count of how many times I've been told that this is a porn site, and that complaining about a certain game sacrificing story for the sake of porn is like complaining about the violence of Mortal Kombat. With this mindset of the audience, sex scenes will certainly benefit any story-based game, and their absence will lose you a part of the audience. Sad but true.

 

[yossa999]

I want to present a hypothesis and see if anyone else feels that that connection has merit.

We have a number of people who find sex scene animation to be critical to the games they like. I was thinking today:
Is the emphasis on such animations likely to be a product of the immersive fappers (who play "porn games")?

Someone had made an observation this week that a great animation is not worth it if it delays progress in the story.

This got me to thinking--perhaps developers of good story based AVNs have less need to spend the time and effort on animations, choosing instead to do the still renders to advance the story rather than slowing down the process.

I know there are a number of story based AVNs that also put a lot of effort in animation, but perhaps they could be considered outliers.

Thoughts?

One reason I'm curious is that since I'm writing projects that are heavily story based, do I really need to perfect my animation skills at this point or can I pretty much ignore that expectation because my intended audience will be less attached to that aspect?

Although my opinion may be biased here (yes, I'm a Summer's Gone fan), I dare say that the story-related animations, if done well, give the game a unique charm and look and and also brings the story to life.
I really like the cinematics in Summer's Gone. Many of them are very erotic, but they don't have to be. What I think is more important, they are ideally suited to a certain points in the game's plot, some of them increase immersion in the current scene, add emotion to it, or focus the viewer's attention on a certain aspect that the author would like to highlight. Some, on the contrary, are finalizing a certain part of the story, leaving the player on an emotional cliffhanger. And some of them serve as an interlude between different parts of the story. Many of them are built around songs, and when the song matches the story, it's the perfect combination of song, animation, story, and emotional message.
Is it possible to do without such animation? There is no doubt. But the game will lose some of its charm and beauty. The next compromise will be rendering quality and scene composition. 3D design software doesn't work well with multiple characters at the same time, let's make the scene less crowded. And in the end, you will have lifeless empty streets on your screen, as if there is a post-apocalypse. I'm sure we've seen this many times in many games. After all if the story is the only thing that matters in the game, why bother with graphics at all, maybe it's better to write a novel Or to make something like text-based The Higher Society.
And yeah, I think if you care to attract this "immersive" part of the audience, the story alone won't be enough, even if it's a damn good story. You have to give them something animated and exciting to lure them into the story and make them love it. “came for the fap, stayed for the story” is a very common statement in BaDIK reviews on Steam.