Text only games

[Doctor Depravity]

Do people still like these? I'm currently working on an erotic text only game. I wanted to know how people feel about them, and how much would people be comfortable paying to play one? I've seen a few patrons, and in fact one of the highest payed adult patreon making such games, but I don't know how much to charge per month. I was thinking $5, because most games with visuals charge $10, however they offer less content per month and obviously since it's text only I would be releasing much more per month.

 

[Avaron1974]

Depends.

Fenexo makes as much as he does because CoC and TiTS have some kinks you won't find in many places.

He also built up a fan base over the years. He's active on his blog and forums which got his players involved and more people started writing scenes and his community took off, you don't see that much anywhere else.

People see that 30k+ a month he makes and think they can hit that but it took him quite some time.

Some other games like Lilith's Throne take off because the writing is good.

You also get outrunners pop up like Wanton Cove, Academy of Fetishes and E-Wardrobe that grab a few people.

It's all down to what you write about and how you do it.

There is a market for anything and everything if it's done well. Do it well and they will come, do it badly and they won't.

You have made 1 critical error though, you have put the money before the product. As it stands right at this moment in time, you are a nobody, you have no track record, no proof you can deliver a finished game and no fan base. Thinking anybody will pay is the last thing you want to be thinking about, getting people interested should come first.

Fenexo took years to get to where he is, some other text based devs haven't been around as long nor have that kind of player base and earn barely a fraction of the money.

This isn't the get rich quick industry it was when it was niche. There are only so many patrons and far more competition. Before thinking about how much to charge think about how to get people playing.

In other words, sort your priorities because you won't earn shit for months.

 

[Winterfire]

Couldn't have said it better myself. *Points at my patreon for practical example*

First and foremost you must love doing it, AKA you would be willing to go from start to finish with 0 patreons.
I have completed a game with 1 patreon and recently reached 3 with my newest game.

Also, in general, locking up releases behind a paywall (especially if you are new) isn't a good idea, those that support you by giving you a dollar should get something back too (other than the classic "Thanks").

 

[Doctor Depravity]

Fair points and I appreciate the advice. I guess I'll just try my best and see what happens and adjust accordingly

 

[whiskeyrose]

Text only games are an uphill battle, as most people (myself included) will gloss over them.

There are a few that are fantastic, Free Cities, CoC/TiTS, Liliths Throne, a few others that I can't think of atm. But all of those projects took an incredible amount of time to get to a decent stage. In a sense text games are harder than image games because you're doing so much work in all the descriptions and changes. That an writing a scene is a lot more tedious than showing a scene.

And yeah, don't think about the money first. Unless its going to be a furry game, then for whatever reason people will throw hundreds at your .txt document.

 

[MrGhostRider]

Don't forget about NewLife. That guy is milking those patrons dry and yet they support him.

 

[gunderson]

Some free advice:

Nobody knows you or your work. That means that you don't have any right to ask more than $1/month from anybody to play your game unless you at least have a demo that's outright amazing or so completely insane that it captures the imagination of some really specific fetishists. You of course can accept more money than that, and your situation will change if/when you become a more successful author, but right now you're trading purely on goodwill and nobody owes you anything.

Even then, your ass had better be a) humble, b) grateful, and c) overtly anti-capitalist. I realize that last one might be a little confusing, but here's the deal: text-based games don't get to do the paywall bullshit that games with images (that presumably cost actual money to commission) do sometimes where they just don't let anybody play any new builds beyond the demo unless they cough up. So you had better be happy that a place like f95 exists, either release the games for everybody to play when they're ready or let everybody play all versions of the game but with different release windows, and not bitch about it when a higher-tier version your game inevitably gets posted early here before your public release of the same version if you decide to go with the release window scheme.

Oh, and as others have said: you'd better be emotionally and financially able to make steady progress developing this game for at least six months on less than $5 per month of Patreon funding, or else this shit is never getting off the ground.

G'luck!

 

[grobulos]

i played once "My Sister Emily" from palmer, best textbased sexstory ever.
if you can do it with passion? i would play it and give em a try