Text-Based CYOA Preferences

[BlackDahliaStudios]

I want to check the pulse of the community and get a better idea of player preferences when it comes to text-based CYOA games.

For those interested in the genre, what are your favorite game mechanics? What are the most important elements in a CYOA game to you? What are your least favorite? What are some common pitfalls? What sort of fetishes would you like to see included as a player?

If you have a niche or unpopular fetish that doesn't get a lot of attention and you would like to see more of it, I would love to hear about it!

I'm planning on developing a game that includes a wide swath of content and the more responses I get, the better the eventual product and the more players will have a game that caters to their unique preferences. I would like to hear everybody’s perspective.

On a side note, I'm debating how much content the game should include before initial release, so I would like to hear perspectives on that as well. I want to include a lot of content in the initial release, but I also don't want to wait years to release it. Thank you.

 

[Animalsfan5698]

You can try having a look at this link i give for what fetishes i like

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When it comes how much contents to make before doing the starting version of that game, it depends on how much you want to prepare before release, you need to take breaks every now and then in case it worns you out over time.

And for the other one, stuffs like corupption, arousal, hygiene, and other such things, for important elements, i guess related to arousal, sub/dom stuffs, for the pitfalls, most of the games have either humans only or female humans and male non-humans, Male-Herm, Male, Herm, and Female are the genders i can go with, but it is up to you with this game you mght create in the future.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

BlackDahlia94

Text-based games with CYOAs are an underappreciated art form.

But you haven't specified what genre you're going with? (fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, etc.) CYOAs lend themselves well to a variety of settings, but they really shine in fantasy and/or horror due to the exploration aspect inherent in such games.

Most important design element? Choice, obviously. The more granular, the better! Pitfalls are feature creep (including so many choices you bog down your development in quicksand). As far as fetishes go, you might want to start with the vanilla stuff (regular sex, bodypart worship, dom/sub, etc.), then branch out from there when you figure out what you and your supporters enjoy.

Niche fetish? Hmmm... Something that's so disgusting and perverted that few people dare include it in their games for fear of justified backlash: romantic hand-holding!

On the question of initial release, that's entirely subjective. It's ready and releasable when you yourself decide it's time - no one else can or should influence that.

Good luck!

 

[BlackDahliaStudios]

BlackDahlia94

Text-based games with CYOAs are an underappreciated art form.

But you haven't specified what genre you're going with? (fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, etc.) CYOAs lend themselves well to a variety of settings, but they really shine in fantasy and/or horror due to the exploration aspect inherent in such games.

Most important design element? Choice, obviously. The more granular, the better! Pitfalls are feature creep (including so many choices you bog down your development in quicksand). As far as fetishes go, you might want to start with the vanilla stuff (regular sex, bodypart worship, dom/sub, etc.), then branch out from there when you figure out what you and your supporters enjoy.

Niche fetish? Hmmm... Something that's so disgusting and perverted that few people dare include it in their games for fear of justified backlash: romantic hand-holding!

On the question of initial release, that's entirely subjective. It's ready and releasable when you yourself decide it's time - no one else can or should influence that.

Good luck!

It will be a fantasy game. The premise is that spiritual magic created life and that mythological/religious explanations are a mistaken attempt at explaining what actually happened. The MC may choose to pursue the Holy Arts or the Dark Arts and ultimately ascend or become entirely corrupt.

I am thinking at this point there will be at least 8 basic routes with 48 endings.

The release timing explanation makes sense intuitively but I was unsure if there was an industry best practice or at least times where it is clearly wrong to release.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

The release timing explanation makes sense intuitively but I was unsure if there was an industry best practice or at least times where it is clearly wrong to release.

I don't mean this in a snarky way, but there really is no 'industry best practice' with amateur-made ero games. Just release content when you feel it's ready. It's not like you have shareholders breathing down your neck and making you push out a half-baked game (*cough* Cyberpunk *cough*).

 

[BlackDahliaStudios]

I don't mean this in a snarky way, but there really is no 'industry best practice' with amateur-made ero games. Just release content when you feel it's ready. It's not like you have shareholders breathing down your neck and making you push out a half-baked game (*cough* Cyberpunk *cough*).

Fair enough. I think I have a good idea of when I want to release it at this point. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[slackster]

Look up some of Goblinboys games for inspiration- he was the master at txt based cyoa and runs circles around all the modern devs in erotic writing.
This site has most of them

 

[BlackDahliaStudios]

Look up some of Goblinboys games for inspiration- he was the master at txt based cyoa and runs circles around all the modern devs in erotic writing.
This site has most of them

Awesome suggestion. Thanks a bunch!

I'm going to go deep down the rabbit hole.