I mean, I did just spend a couple years of my life studying history of interactive fiction. I’m well aware what the early text games are like. (Turns out I’m not suited for parser games. At all.)
Yeah, I’m not saying it can’t be done; I still think CS (and Twine) is more aimed for interactive-novel types, for the fact that it’s approachable-ish even without history of coding if nothing else.
That makes sense. I’ve noticed that a lot of developers in the Twine and ChoiceScript spaces don’t seem to have advanced coding backgrounds. You don’t really need much programming skill to create or even to mod/hack a ChoiceScript or Twine game.
In the broader interactive fiction community, a lot of designers were actually programmers, and you could tell in everything from the game’s structure to the way systems interacted. The design fundamentals were just stronger.
It’s great that newer tools allow people who don’t code to make games, but it also means they sometimes make choices a programmer would never make. For example, the UI/UX is often rough, games frequently aren’t optimized for mobile (even though Twine definitely can be), and accessibility is minimal despite the fact that there’s no reason a text-based game shouldn’t be very accessible. These are the kinds of considerations an experienced developer thinks about early in the design process, but in many amateur projects they’re either skipped or added in as an afterthought.
As a computer scientist… mere programming background doesn’t save you from those, you need some UX design knowledge too which isn’t the same thing (and is, in fact, often looked down being a “soft” skill as opposed to the “hard” skill that is the actual programming) 
Lol that’s the funny part 
UX/UI design is literally the difference between me staying on a website/app/game or closing it immediately. So many online games look pretty but have terrible UX, and instead of trying to figure out how to navigate it, I just get frustrated and exit out of the game .
I’ve seen a lot of aesthetically pleasing Twine games, but it’s clear they didn’t consider mobile users during development especially when it comes to text layout and readability. And even the ones that do consider mobile often forget about Android users. Like… hello? We’re literally more half the market. ( Last I checked it was over 60%)
It’s wild how often things just aren’t optimized for mobile at all, or they act like Android users don’t exist at all . I have never owned an iPhone and don’t plan on buying one anytime soon.
A lot of Twine authors use templates and just customize it a little, so if the template is not already mobile friendly, tough luck they’ll meddle in that.
About the term “interactive fiction”, it’s sort of an umbrella term, you could even argue that Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 are interactive fiction, but in the context of ChoiceScript it’s the same as “interactive novel”.
I think @Qianyixia386 will like Inkle’s games, if you don’t know them already.
I actually love inkle games and fail better studios who did cultist simulator .
My recent obsession is sultan’s game a Chinese game and the setting is inspired by 1001 Arabian nights you have to entertain this depraved sultan with tales of carnality ,depravity etc. it’s very interesting game it’s card based strategy game with with lots of text.
Okay, I have to ask: @Qianyixia386, have you heard of Disco Elysium? Actual gameplay mechanics, best writing in videogames since never?
Disco Elysium is like my model for text based games I love it .
Disco elysium , road warden,( For my more action/adventure) and life of sir brante for fantasy /politics aspect are some of my favorite text based games .
I’m actually stealing the inner voices concept from disco Elysium for my own game but I’m not gonna use it in the same manner they used it in.
Depends on the games in question as well. I’ve played Visual Novels that have a lot in common with IF like Scarlet Hollow and the Our Life games.
@LiliArch @dorquemada @cup_half_empty @Jacic
Do you consider idle and gacha-based romance games like Game of Sultans, King’s Choice, and Over Immortal to be interactive fiction, since the player is still reading text, developing relationships, and progressing through character-driven scenes?
Interactive fiction is usually defined as a story-focused game where the primary interaction is reading text and making choices that influence outcomes or character dynamics. With that in mind, there are also popular picture-based romance story apps such as Romance Club, Episodes, Choices, and Delight Games. These apps present illustrated characters and background art, and the player reads narrative scenes and selects dialogue options. The gameplay is simple and usually limited to two or three choices per scene, but they are extremely popular, especially among readers looking for romance-focused story progression.
Examples:
Romance Club: https://romanceclub.app
Episodes: https://episodesinteractive.com
Choices: https://www.pixelberrystudios.com/choices
Delight Games: https://delightgamesllc.com
Idle games are games where progress continues over time without constant input. The player logs in periodically to collect resources, level characters, unlock companions, or advance a storyline bit by bit. The focus is on maintaining progression rather than making frequent decisions.
Game of Sultans and King’s Choice use this idle progression model while also including illustrated characters, romantic partners, and occasional narrative scenes. Over Immortal is similar, but noticeably more text heavy, with expanded lore passages and serialized character storylines. In all three, the player reads story segments, builds relationships, and follows character arcs, but the main gameplay loop centers on resource management and character upgrading.
Examples:
Game of Sultans: https://www.gameofsultans.com
King’s Choice: https://kingschoicegame.com
Over Immortal (Google Play): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skygame.overseas
These games earn revenue primarily through microtransactions tied to character acquisition, leveling, and relationship progression. I personally know someone who spent over $2,000 in King’s Choice to obtain certain characters.
So the question is whether these romance, idle, and gacha-style text-based games should be considered part of interactive fiction because they rely heavily on reading and character-driven storytelling, or whether they represent a parallel genre that only overlaps with interactive fiction at the narrative layer.
Not at all, like I said, “interactive fiction” is an umbrella term, it’s used as a synonym for story-rich, text-based, choice-based games in certain contexts, like this forum. Depending on who you ask, choice-based games won’t even be considered IF, while other games that are almost entirely a puzzle-fest with barely any story will be. Even looking strictly at ChoiceScript games, some lean heavily towards simulation and resource management mechanics with barely a story there (except for the story elements emergent from the interaction of these mechanics).
They might as well be, but the real question is, how relevant is it? Since IF is such a loose term, it’s not really useful when classifying games. It’s much better to use more specific labels.
I consider those microtransaction-based idles a very predatory and cynical grift that I cannot understand how comes they’re not verboten or at least regulated. Whatever “game” is used for the front of the scheme, it’s just that – a front, and for me that trumps entertainment merit of it, if any.
I dislike episodes. They are IF, but basically it’s a whole lotta fake choices so they’re generally more akin to personalised novels. Now there’s nothing wrong with that per se, that is a legit style of interactive fiction, but I dislike the heavy use of microtransactions hidden via a layer of in game currency (gems from memory?) to try and trick people into forgetting how much they’re really spending. They lock “good choices” behind microtransactiosn which is uncool. For example I remember hitting a game which kept having choices like. Do you go to the party? A) Yes (pay up), B) No I’ll just go home and miss out. Or: You’re going to the job interview, do you A) Wear the professional outfit (pay up), or B) wear the stained, creased clothes you slept in. It sucks, but they make a LOT of money so…
The creator of Delight games has one published on HG. I find their publication method good, and nothing like episodes. Can’t speak to the others you’ve mentioned as I haven’t played them.
But yes, anything that is primarily text based and involves choices creating diviations in the storyline or even just personalisation (names/flavour text) is IF. Parser is also IF. VN’s are IF. Arguably things like Bandersnatch could be considered IF even though it’s in video format. It’s a very broad category.
Edit: By the way, if you want to continue this convo, it’s probably best to ask a mod to branch it off into its own thread so we don’t derail this one for game recommendations.
I recall a definition - I think it was in IF Theory Reader - that only parsers with puzzles are IF. Now that’s not the definition IFTF goes by nowadays, but I just… find that “also” funny?
I’m sorry, I’m not at 100% today.
@cup_half_empty I didn’t agree with the definition I used there were so many I found . I tried to be as inclusive as possible because honestly cog games / twine games were excluded based off several the definitions I saw . In fact only parser games , text based based rogue like,dungeon crawlers etc would qualify .
@dorquemada I agree and that’s my main reason for avoiding. I know I have an addictive personality and while I don’t think I will ever spend $2000 on a game . I don’t want to open myself up to that chance . It’s interesting thought because a decent size portion of these ppl are underage so I’m wondering how this gambling aspect of these games are even legal and how these kids afford to spend so much money on these games. I’ve read articles where kids have spent thousands of dollars on skins , game cosmetics etc but it’s usually them using their parents credit card with out permission.
@LiliArch it’s funny you said that because I saw a few definitions that definitely would exclude Cog games and twine games . Mind you some of the bad reviews I see on cog games come down to some ppl not considering them games at all . To me it’s like the very endless walls of text . I feel like if I gotta read that much text then writing has to be excellent to compensate for the walls of text .
When I play choice of games stuff I feel like I’m reading a book. The problem is if I judge cog games and twine games like books very few would be ones I would pay money for. Like I was never a big harry potter fan but I say the prose and writing was tremendously better than alot of the story based interactive fiction I’ve read .
@Jacic see that is my main beef with alot of choice of games titles and twine games . The abundance of fake choices. The fact so many of them are essentially text based tell tale , Detroit being human ,last of us style games but unfortunately the writing is often not up to par with their graphical counterparts . Also I feel like ppl ignore in the graphical story based like them you do not get to choose your gender , or gender of NPCs . Alot times the characters don’t remotely feel like real ppl because of that too. It’s one thing for an RPG to let you do this but I never thought any story based game in the format of tell tale game was actually good that let you do this . The way the characters are written in order to accomplish the gender choosing is weird too it often feels like they wrote the character as male or female then artificially changed the pronouns . I know playing wayhaven it definitely feels like the female character is more or less canon. Also I feel like that contributes to why alot of these games never finish . Like even in this thread you got multiple games where you can choose gender of NPCs and their sexuality and it’s funny because they often never progress past the first few chapters . That is a lot of work to take on for very little benefit financially . Like if I’m doing all that I’m sorry but I’m expecting some return on investment of my time .
So I definitely find some way to profit from that .
Hey @Jacic I would just email the mods and have them split the thread correct .
EDIT : Instead of getting them to split I’m gonna start a new thread
I’m sorry, but. This just. You keep saying this, and… you do know a huge chunk of CS/Twine IFs are written by hobbyists and/or young people, yes? Why are you expecting ten-years-of-narrative-design level of experience of writing from hobbyists? I get that the writing is not to your liking, and nobody’s forcing you to read games or books you don’t like, but this just feels like a really unfair metric.
I mean, if you feel it’s not worth the price, them just don’t play it? No need to keep bashing the authors for not being in the top 1%.
I mean when something is free like the twine games I could understand but when you are making money I don’t really consider you a hobbyist anymore.
This is just my opinion . I feel like it’s the same web novels for free are one thing but the minute you put that web novel up for sale you are no longer a hobbyist at that point I am comparing your work to what already out there for sale.
Also not trying to be funny are we not expected to think things that are being sold for actual money not be at the highest quality possible because I don’t think like that. The minute you are making money off something I expect it to be at the quality similar products are of what you are selling .
Actually even with the free twine games it’s debate because several of them have paterons with more than 1,000 plus subscribers. I saw one where the writer had more than 2,000 subscribers so while the game was free she was definitely making income off the game .
Hm. I’m not sure if you’ve had a look at the code of any published games, but if not you may be surprised to see how branchy and complex many of them are. It’s true that some Hosted Games titles are more linear than others, but also some of those more linear ones are massively popular - in general writers are just writing what they enjoy and want to see.
I’d recommend playing the demos of completed games to see whether you gel with the writing style of the game and get a sense of whether the level/complexity of reactivity works for you. They have 3-4 free chapters up so players can get a sense of whether they’ll enjoy it.
About thread tidiness, I’d suggest returning to the “disliked elements” thread rather than making a new one as this seems like a fairly general kind of discussion.
I was gonna make the thread on idle RPG /gacha text based games and whether ppl considered them interactive fiction or not .
If it was a living wage, sure. Then you could dedicate yourself completely to writing Interactive Fiction. But the vast majority of us can’t.
I co-wrote a game a couple of years back and, admittedly also in part because of the four way split of the author’s portion of the income, that earns me, like, maybe a cookie per year? A lot of the Hosted Games catalog is made most part for the fun of it. If it’s a commercial success? Great. If it isn’t? That’s too bad, but kinda expected. At least you got far enough to publish. Most, probably at least 90% if not more, projects that get started don’t even get that far.