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I think interactive fiction generally works best to make non-linear puzzle games. Games like Enthralled do a good job of presenting choices to the player without feeling repetitive, because you’re primarily exploring the game world.
If you want a gameplay loop to never feel repetitive in a text game, basically the only option is to write new (even if it’s only slightly different) content for each click, which is doable but a lot more work. I agree that just clicking “eat more food” a hundred times is usually underwhelming.
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Big strength in imageless Text-adventures is that you let the reader make the images in their own mind. The second you put a picture, you take the infinite imagination and tell it what to see. This is the same reason most people prefer books over their movie adaptations.
A few good examples of WG Text-adventures that don’t use images are Abducted!+ and Tramp. There was a period where the dev of the latter was going to add images, but opted out because of what I mentioned.
Non-linear stories can be done with Text-adventures, but work best as diverging paths. (See The Nebutori’s Tale) The obvious downside to making these games is the amount of effort needed. Each diverging path essentially doubles the amount of work you need to do.
I understand your concern about the “repetitive” game-play loops, but making more shit happen in between helps make it interesting. I personally don’t mind skipping through the text as long as long as there’s something new to find, see or do. The first time you encounter a new bit of text, (I’ll call this “Fresh Text”), it’s exciting to read through each detail. As you go through the encounter over and over again, it becomes “Worn Text,” words that you’re used to being there. For me at least it simulates the repetitiveness of daily life, not in a bad way but in familiarity. Of course you never want the loop to be too repetitive, or else getting to the next stage becomes a headache and a hastle.
(Going to diverge from Text-only games for a second). Good example of where this balance is struck IMO is Big Aspirations. Just enough “Fresh Text” to keep you hooked, and the “Worn Text” doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Sorry this is such a long post lmao. I appreciate the prompt. Made me think about why I like what I like.
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Singling this bit out because I feel completely the opposite. The text games that draw me in are almost always the ones where I’m put into a sandbox and told “go explore, eat stuff, get fat, and have fun!” A linear text adventure needs some seriously impactful choices and branching paths to make up for the lack of freedom, or else it may as well be a book instead
I think Gandulf has the right of it about repeating text too. I’ll add it’s nice to see how the same events play out differently as your character grows. I’ll also add that I think Abducted+ did a really cool compromise by peppering in a couple one-time events into its repetitive base
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i do think that if you execute it well you can make good with the tools available its just that i haven’t seen anyone do it without using 3d which is a fine tool to use, however i feel as ifit can limit what can be done and i personally much prefer 2d as stylization is key in my enjoyment of any media nsfw or otherwise
As someone who tried to go the all text route a few times (as that is what I enjoy the most myself) I am sorry to say that most people buying and playing games now a days seem to want simplicity and imagery. That may also be because they want to play the games one-handed…
This has turned my games from an intended pure text-adventure series to more of a point and click text-adventure with images for people and weight stages. People seem to enjoy it, but I myself loved writing my little Devlin spin-off that is text only. The simplicity of a screen of text and using your imagination can’t be beat for us old folks, but the younger generation doesn’t seem like it clicks with this gameplay style as much. Probably also why reading in general isn’t as popular of a passtime now a days as it used to be when I was a kid.
As most modern games now are quite sandbox-like, that is often what a player expects. Striking a balance between the missions that are more streamlined and the ones that gives the player more creative input is always hard, and when polled my players vary wildly in their preferences here. Half each on linearity and sand-box gameplay, making pleasing everyone a project doomed to fail.
I will slightly defend the use of AI imagery. It does work as a shorthand for some transformations, and can heighten a moment when used in combination with the text. I can also find myself preferring some sort of visual to go with my games sometimes. Should I probably find myself a good artist to draw them all? Yes, definitely. But, one of my games can contain as many as 400 individual pictures, and finding artists that work as quickly as I write and code (and for the money I can afford) is simply not viable when you make games that costs a dollar a pop. Even less so if you go the free to play route as I did in the beginning. Trust me: people do not pay when there is a free option, and pay less if what you are selling isn’t what they are wanting.
Also: as a single man dev “team” you tend to want control over every aspect of a game’s development, and AI imagery can give you just that. Would I put my AI-images forward in an art competition? NO, that I leave for the actual artists. But: for a single dev AI-art is a tool like many others. My writing on the other hand I would pit against most in a writing contest.
In conclusion let me say: every game I make is a project of pure passion. They usually contain somewhere north of 50000 words a pop, meaning they contain as much or more text than most young adult novels. I develop new systems, write new code, research every setting I put my characters in and spend a lot of time writing the dialogue and flavor text for each object and character. The monetary gains are small compared to the time and effort I put in (ask my wife, I work more now than when I had three jobs). AI-“Art” is here to stay. What we do with it should be what matters, and I as a man who can only draw stickfigures and technical drawings by myself I will never be an artist in that sense, but still consider myself a writer, a coder and a game developer. I am slightly insulted to be honest, both for myself and for other developers that makes some great little games, about the constant notion that the use of some AI-images instantly makes the game less than what it should be. It is what it is. Take it or leave it.
Just my two cents on the matter (maybe more like $2.50), no more, no less.
-WeirdoBeardo89
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For me, I think there are actually a couple of different types of text-adventure games, and they tend to get conflated. Which makes this conversation difficult (as people are talking about different things), but I think is useful for the overall discussion.
Some text adventure games (which I believe are usually Quest games, though there may be other engines that do similar) are best thought of as short story sandbox games. Think something like Anna’s Wedding. You get to move around, interact with some objects, and see what happens if you do certain things. These are generally short (though there are some longer ones) and focused on interacting with your environment. They have little repetition and no pictures. Indeed, both would likely be more annoying here, as the fun is the exploring and trying to see if you can find all of the pieces to interact with to get multiple endings or your weight as high as possible.
Other games (generally Twine games) I find are best thought of as more of an interactive story. The story has branches that each make for unique plot lines. The individual stories are usually linear, but you are able to take different paths to get different story endings. These stories generally should have pretty little repetition, though some wording in certain descriptions may be reused in order to more easily handle the different paths where some parts of the stories change but others stay the same. I think LifeBook is a good example of this type of game. I tend to not prefer images in these type of games, but a few sprinkled in here or there can certainly add a little life to the game.
Finally, you have games that work on a repetitive loop. These can either be Ren’Py games or Twine games. I strongly prefer these games on Ren’Py, as I believe these types of games I find work better with pictures and being able to easily skip content you have already seen. A large part of the appeal (for me) of playing repetitive games is seeing the different scenes that come at different weight levels, and I find that without those scenes the repetitive text makes it really difficult to finish the game. I think Gandulf best describes how to think about balancing this type of game-play loop. I’m also anti-AI art here, as I find that the lower quality of AI art makes the repetitiveness much harder to sit through.
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Have you tried adding a video of subway surfers to the bottom of the screen? Maybe some soap cutting?
I think this a fairly reasonable opinion that most would agree with. Having visuals in a game can be an important part of one’s creative vision, and I also believe that AI is a solid tool for circumventing a lack of skill or resources to spend in that area.
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My personal opinion is that you need to make sure your artstyle is not going to waste. I mean by waste, that i know what you are capable of with your art. I have a pretty high level imagination so i enjoy text very much, but sometimes i like to compare my inner picture to the represented one, especially if its your quality. As for the scarcity; I played a twine game long ago where your current fatness level was always represented with a picture in a side panel, it was only a silhouette, i watched eagerly after every decision what would happen to it. So… if it is meaningfully placed i think there could be picture for every entry. For example a stuffing or bloating sequence. Again, i can imagine it for sure as i wish to, but not everybody… Yes, we could always say that if you dont like text adventure than dont play it… But as a dev, you care for your player base. And i am going to repeat myself intentionally, your artstyle is too precious to go to waste.
But, if i had to choose between pictures and sounds, i would definietly go with sounds. I dont know if it is possible in twine but for me the gurgles, burps, and moans would add another 100% if the story is good.
Sadly, i need to join the AI disliker group, but i can understand the tool aspect of it for a programmer. If i had to create a game now i would use it as well. Actually i use it regularly for concept arts and references but for detail you will always need a good artist. For example a grabbable lovehandle, a juicy fupa, or a deep navel, fat rolls, belly content etc… You cant explain it to an AI what you like about theese, and how. Sure you can try but the result is a two faced monstrosity with several spare limbs… We need artists for that tiny little line that depicts that this belly is totally stuffed to the brim…
As for linearity, if the story is good and immersive i dont care, and i think nobody is. If the base plot is excellent you will always go back for the choices you did not make for the first time.