Others Viability of text-only games

[WET FLOOR]

Hello everyone. I'm a beginner NSFW game dev.

I'm wondering if y'all can give me any pointers on the viability of text-only games (a.k.a. "interactive fiction") and possible pitfalls.

I do intend on getting artists eventually but I'd like to have a portfolio of sorts before I get anyone else involved and at the moment the thing I can offer (besides programming) is my writing.

I'm working on my own (Godot Engine-based) framework. I'd like to know what players would expect in terms of features.

If this isn't the right board to post these doubts, do let me know.

 

[Winterfire]

Try some successful ones first, such as Lilith's throne, Love and Corruption, and The Last Sovreign

 

[WET FLOOR]

Try some successful ones first, such as Lilith's throne, Love and Corruption, and The Last Sovreign

Interesting... are these really considered text-only games? They seem to feature a lot of art assets.

 

[Winterfire]

Interesting... are these really considered text-only games? They seem to feature a lot of art assets.

The last sovereign used to be text only and very popular for years, and only recently (past few years) started adding CGs, but still being mostly text.

Lilith's throne is full text.

Love and Corruption, like the last sovereign, is mostly text based but has some art assets.

They're all made in different engines, which shows you the different ways they can be done, if you try them, you can take the best elements out of them and just do your own thing with Godot.

 

[osanaiko]

Here's another one, mostly text with a few flavor images: https://f95zone.to/threads/you-throw-like-a-girl-v1-2-2-vim.123795/

Seems to be popular if you are into transformation.

(side note: why are so many of the IF games about male-to-female transformation or feminization....?)

 

[velvetdev]

You can check my game "Female Rockstar" on itchio. The first version is text based and free to download. Now i'm taking it to renpy. I guess Twine is the best engine for text based games.

 

[leerlauf]

Well - I assume when it comes to expected features these might differ depending on what kind of fetish/kink you'd like to feature. I know a lot of text-based games are focusing on transformation, which I assume is because of the big success of Corruption of Champions (not really certain about that, but this is the first text-only game that I became aware of back in the days.)

There's some text-based games that are purely CYOA, for those you would need basically no features, but if you go more in the direction of an rpg or lifesim you'll need to set up some sort of world that will slowly be unlocked based on various variables that the player can train and work on by going through events or fights. There's a trick balance you'll have to figure out: If the progress of unlocking new stuff happens too quickly, then the game might not feel very rewarding and will end up way too short. If the progress is too slow, then it will feel extremely grindy and tedious.

The best engine to do stuff like this is probably Twine, although there are some alternatives that are very similar. Having your text based games be html will make it easier to set up browser play and get players to start playing, and there is always the option to add pictures later on.

 

[WET FLOOR]

Well - I assume when it comes to expected features these might differ depending on what kind of fetish/kink you'd like to feature. I know a lot of text-based games are focusing on transformation, which I assume is because of the big success of Corruption of Champions (not really certain about that, but this is the first text-only game that I became aware of back in the days.)

I'm more thinking of general quality-of-life features... like, will people want to quickly switch between sex scenes? What about a way to make dialogue scroll by faster? That kind of thing.

There's some text-based games that are purely CYOA, for those you would need basically no features, but if you go more in the direction of an rpg or lifesim you'll need to set up some sort of world that will slowly be unlocked based on various variables that the player can train and work on by going through events or fights. There's a trick balance you'll have to figure out: If the progress of unlocking new stuff happens too quickly, then the game might not feel very rewarding and will end up way too short. If the progress is too slow, then it will feel extremely grindy and tedious.

Yeah, I'm thinking of a series of short, episodic CYOAs that I can release frequently... commiting myself to some super complex RPG thing is not a very appealing thought, especially at my skill level.

The best engine to do stuff like this is probably Twine, although there are some alternatives that are very similar. Having your text based games be html will make it easier to set up browser play and get players to start playing, and there is always the option to add pictures later on.

Oh, Godot exports to HTML. I'm aware of Twine, but I also intend on using Godot on other projects, so this style of game is a good opportunity to get acquainted with the engine's UI workflow, specifically.

 

[leerlauf]

Yeah, I'm thinking of a series of short, episodic CYOAs that I can release frequently... commiting myself to some super complex RPG thing is not a very appealing thought, especially at my skill level.

Well - if you want the basic features for this kind of stuff, then you will need a save feature, some rollback function to allow players to undo their actions and skip backwards to the previous scene, and that's pretty much it. These types of games are as simple and basic as you can go. Optionally you can add some visual cue that shows which choices the player has already taken in the past, like the color of the links/buttons changing. Depending on your presentation you can also have a skip forward function that loads all the text until the next choice, but that's more if you are going for some kind of VN style where you get fed little chunks of text each time.

 

[Bruh31]

You should try degrees of lewdity i think it uses minimal artworks and its mostly used for customization of your character if anything else, its a great text based game. https://f95zone.to/threads/degrees-of-lewdity-v0-5-2-8-vrelnir.20259/