Is there any listing of how many words each story has? I prefer long, epic stories, but not all summaries include word-length and there are a LOT of stories on this site. This is just a minor detail, but I would like to save myself some time if I can.
Every Choice of Games title lists the word count in the description. So far our longest Choice of Games titles, off the top of my head:
-Choice of Rebels (600k+)
-Choice of the Cat (600k+)
-Choice of Robots (300k+)
-Empyrean (300k+)
-Heart of the House (300k+)
-Vampire 2 (300k)
So, I looked up the games and wrote down the number of words for each game (some of the games donât have the number listed in the intro description, so I only have those that had the number listed). Hereâs the list I have of both CoG and Hosted Games (only gonna list games w/ 200,000+ words).
Magikiras - 1,100,000 words
Choice of Rebels - 637,000 words
Choice of the Cat - 600,000 words
The Shadow Horror - 533,000 words
Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven - 500,000 words
(50,000 per playthrough)
The Iron Destinies - 455,000 words
Guns of Infinity - 440,000 words
Highlands, Deep Water - 340,000 words
Empyrean - 325,000 words
The Hero Unmasked - 300,000 words
Saga of the North Wind - 300,000 words
Choice of Robots - 300,000 words
The Sea Eternal - 283,000 words
Seven Bullets - 280,000 words
A Study in Steampunk: Choice by Gaslight - 277,000 words
Evertree Inn - 265,000 words
The Superlatives: Aetherfall - 260,000 words
Metahuman, Inc. - 260,000 words
A Wise Use of Time - 260,000 words
The Last Monster Master - 250,000 words
Slammed! - 250,000 words
The Lost Heir 3: Demon War - 250,000 words
The Lost Heir 2: Forging a Kingdom - 250,000 words
Itâs also worth while noting that the total words, does not always mean âepicâ length. It can mean increased branching. For exmaple Iron Destinies is at number 6, but has a number of stories that branch from the beginning. Not one very long one. So it depends if your the kind of person who likes finding all the branches or if you only read something once or twice. If youâre in the latter category, youâll want something linear.
It seems (unfortunately) common that people give a low rating to a game with a huge total count but only relatively short playthroughs.
(To which I ask once more: Why do you play an interactive novel if you intend on only playing it ONCE?)
Doubt it. Youâd need the authors to supply playthrough via running random tests.
Some are definitely known for being more linear than others though (which could be a good or bad thing depending on if you like replayablity, and thereâs definitely a sliding scale from very railroaded to very widely branched without a single âcentral storylineâ). If in doubt, Iâd ask the advice of the forum for a particular story if it is of particular sticking point as to whether youâd buy something.
Edit: youâd be surprised how many people do only play interactive novels once or twice (there have been a few discussions on it a while back but canât remember where to find them )
Still find it a bit weird, especially when people then go and say that a story with many branches was âtoo shortâ and how they were promised 200k+ wordsâŚ
Yeah, very common unfortunately. I actually kind of like some of the more traditional branching stories, but the fact is, unless theyâre very long to get the word count right up, they tend to get a lot of poor âtoo shortâ reviews in the store which is probably why you get fewer of them being written in the first place. They can be done, theyâre just a lot more work than linear plots and you have to hope people realise theyâre not linear, because youâre right I have seen a number of reviews in the app stores saying âthis was no where near x number of wordsâ even for some of the less branchy ones as well.
I actually didnât realize how rare it was still to have games over 300K words. But thereâs going to be one more reasonably soon - Choice of Magics is currently at 450K words as I write the last chapter.