Text Based Games

[darkduck09]

This thread is mostly for the text based loving crowd, but other input is always welcome (just don't be a dick).

I'm an enjoyer of text based games; I've played games like Trials in Tainted Space, New Life, Lilith's Throne pretty extensively but I've also played the "dime a dozen" twine games where the writing is almost non-existent (or not decipherable). I have my own ideas about where the market lies in this regard, but I figured I'd pick your brains a bit.

So the first question is this: What text based game is your favorite and why?

I'll start, since I asked the question in the first place. My favorite is Trials in Tainted Space. While games like New Life and Lilith's Throne give the player more agency in the moment to moment scenes, Trials in Tainted Space has, IMO, better writing and a more coherent story. There are actual characters and the scenes largely make sense (for the lore/setting). In Lilith's Throne I tend to get lost in the UI, so to speak. I focus less on the writing and more on what choices opened up when I clicked a button. For New Life, well, I don't want to start a shit-throwing fest in this thread but honestly after 3 "plan your week" rounds you've basically hit 90% of the content.

Second Question: Since it's the writing and story that matter, does intermediate gameplay matter to you? IE, if the story is an RPG maker game rather than Renpy, or if the game has 3D characters moving around a 3D world but the interactions and story are all text?

My answer here would be that I skip 90% of renpy games. At one point I hated walking from point A to point B that RPG maker games are notorious for but if done right, it can be far more rewarding IMO than a game that I skip until I see tits and then follow along. That's what I like about Trials In Tainted Space and similar games: The intermediate gameplay, though text based, is still quite fun and engaging.

Third and final question: Does it need art?

For me: No. TiTS and LT would play the exact same without the portraits. It's flavor, for sure, but definitely not needed for me to support the dev.

Let me know what you think! I'm curious

 

[Jofur]

What text based game is your favorite and why?

Lilith's Throne. Mostly because it allows you to disable content you don't want. A LOT of text based games seem to be very niche fetish driven, especially furries, gay, and transformation stuff. None of which I enjoy. So even if I want to play games like TitS or CoC it's a pretty frustrating and boner killing experience.

If anyone knows of any decent gameplay oriented text based games that doesn't require you to have very specific fetishes to enjoy it please send them my way. Because I really struggle in finding them.

Does intermediate gameplay matter to you?

Not sure I 100% understood the question. But to me the moment-to-moment gameplay of clicking on things is really important. It's how I feel immersed in the game, like I have some personal input and isn't just reading a novel. It also helps the game not just be endless reading. That also goes for Renpy games. It's very rare that I play a game that is just a visual novel. I need at least some agency, even if it's largely trivial or grindy. I just like the pacing and being able to do things on my own time.

For me the reason I play text based games is because they allow for more open and "complex" gameplay that a lot of more visual games often struggle with. Sort of like a classic rougelike game. If I want to experience a story I'd rather just play a visual novel type game and get the best of both worlds.

Does it need art?

No. Having some art is appreciated but it's never gonna influence if I decide to play a game or not. As long as it's original. I straight up refuse to play games with real porn or stolen anime images and what not. Just kills all immersion.

 

[Barnabas Collins]

My favs would be Free Cities Pregmod and Lilith's Throne. I enjoy customization and meaningful decision making. At the very least, I need to be making decisions and sort of "choosing my own adventure" in some way, if it's just a linear novel I feel like I'm not participating in a game but reading a book instead. I also don't like walls of texts, just give me enough to put me into that situation and give me the info I need and the smut I want.

As far as art goes, I think having art is a major asset. I'm debating this myself since I have some ideas I can implement using carefully selected real porn for, and another project where I'd have to commission an artist if it were to ever have images.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Corrupted Saviors

- Best and most intricate gameplay of any ero-game I've played (which is not saying much at all, but this would have some appeal even without the sex stuff)
- Amazing replayability
- Non-linear corruption progression
- Asstons of variations of different personalities interacting with each other based on their corruption levels

One of my favs, Star Knightess Aura, initially had only text-based sex and I got hooked on it regardless because it does a couple of my fetishes so well. The gameplay definitely does matter too, working in the game's favor. I like having something to do in between scenes, especially if the writing is otherwise enjoyable. That said, even just having a map with no real gameplay, something like Alansya Chronicles, is a slight improvement over just reading and making choices.

Does a game need art, no it doesn't, but if it doesn't have art then my imagination is going to have to do the heavy lifting, which I find cumbersome. I'm not much of a reader, so if I'm going to play something text-based, it had better hit my fetishes and provide acceptable gameplay.

 

[Cryswar]

I was really into Monster Girl Dreams for a while. Used to be purely text-based tho it eventually upgraded to art. I remember there being a lot of excellent text-based content to explore if you haven't already.

While I am not big on the core fetishes, I was very pleasantly surprised by Unholy Arts; it's well written and delves deeply into the simulation aspects. There's a bit of portrait art but that's about it.

It's debatable if this qualifies as a primarily text-based game, but House in the Rift is one of the few 3d/daz type games I was very impressed by. The main draw is the growing relationship aspect I think; there are high-quality renders, animations, etc. but ultimately I stuck around because I liked some of the girls' personalities and growth enough to get invested.

Admittedly I don't play many text-based games currently. I have kind of the same issue as Jofur . I'm looking for vanilla-ish content, and well, most of the text-based games out there are... not that, even if they started out that way.

Divine Dawn was sort of a Thanos-ish "Fine, I'll do it myself" decision of wanting to add another option for vanilla-ish text games. Turns out I was really underestimating how much work went into trying to juggle RPG mechanics, relationship stuff, and porn, mad props to devs that do. But it's been a fun struggle, so I'm not complaining.


For question #2; it depends on the game. To use the games I listed above; House in the Rift didn't have many mechanics besides generic affection points, but I was there for the writing, so it was fine. When I was into MGD, I liked the mechanics a lot and felt the game would have been significantly lessened without them. Just don't make me play shitty fucking minigames; if you're going to add actual mechanics, make them meaningful.


For question #3; It doesn't NEED art, but I've slowly come around to believing that it does help a lot, so long as the art is of decent quality. I would legit prefer no art to shitty art, but I think that good art is ideal from both an accessibility standpoint and the player's. I don't have any issue envisioning decently-described characters, but seeing art lets me focus more on envisioning the scenes with them

 

[F4C430]

So the first question is this: What text based game is your favorite and why?

I don't have a "favorite," but my most-played one is Trap Quest. It's true open-world and you have a lot of control over your character's actions. It also doesn't really make you read novels of text and it has some of my fetishes. I do have my complaints about it as well though, which is why i won't call it my "favorite."

Second Question: Since it's the writing and story that matter, does intermediate gameplay matter to you? IE, if the story is an RPG maker game rather than Renpy, or if the game has 3D characters moving around a 3D world but the interactions and story are all text?

Hard disagree. Just because it's text-based doesn't mean the writing and story has to matter. I'm all about gameplay which is why TQ is my most-played. I hate reading lots of text.

Third and final question: Does it need art?

Does anything truly need art? Images are the most efficient way to convey an idea though and many people won't bother if there's no art. Would i play TQ or any other game without any images at all? It really depends on how good a job the dev does in presenting the information without images. I'm not opposed to it though. In fact, i actually hate the pre-rendered art in TQ and would prefer an option to disable it without affecting anything else.