So the reason I wanted to ask this was because I’m still learning CS using CS IDE (because it seems easier,thanks to the one who made it)before I actually start writing something.So I actually want to know your favorite CoG/HG and WHY is it your favorite?Is it because of the choices?Because the choices put you in a dilemma or so in-between life and death?Is it because of the deep and real-life-like characters and the constant change in your relationship with them?Is it because of the well-written story?Or something else?
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COR, well written and amazing replay value.
We’ve a few other threads on this subject around. I’ll answer anyway though since tastes change, new games are released and all of that.
My favourite game is Jinni of the Seven Winds. It was the one that inspired me to join the forums, to post here, and I just loved it. The author disappeared and so it never got finished. I loved the setting, the whole stat system and how personality traits were integrated with magical ability and sins. I loved the NPCs. I loved the choice. And I liked being able to flip between appearances as amused me. That said I’ve not replayed it since I first joined, so maybe it isn’t as good as I remembered? I’m somewhat scared to replay it just in case.
I’m also a huge fan of Choice of Rebels, which again has a really rich setting, plenty of choice, an intriguing plot and an NPC I found captivating.
You know, I could list off all of the games I’ve played and say what I love about them. There’s so much good out there, so many games I’ve enjoyed and there’s a lot of differences between them. What matters most is what aspects of games do you enjoy? What do you love writing? It’s best to focus on that, if you do so you’ll find an audience.
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CoG: I couldn’t choose just one so it’s a tie between: Mecha Ace and Creatures Such As We.
Mecha Ace: For one, the title cards are hilarious and definitely accurate in their satire of old school anime. Actual gameplay-wise however, I really liked that there was a good spread of stat challenges and emotional ones, and it’s one of the few games that did gender-flip romances well. Plus it was very engaging writing. I usually get bored with Mech fighting stories, but the game kept me wrapped up in it the whole way through.
Creatures Such As We: I really can’t explain why I love this game, but I really do. Unconventional plot: check. Unconventional themes and messages: Double Check. Adorable and surprisingly moving romance: check plus. It also is the only game I’ve ever played in the CS language that really stumped me with a choice. It’s also the only one that left me like, “Damn what do I do with my life now?” when I finished it. It’s VERY GOOD!
HG: Gotta be Zombie Exodus. I had been lurking and playing these games for a long time prior to that game, but it was the one that finally got me to start writing them. Characters are great, plot is impactful, writing is engaging and fun, there’s like a million different ways you can play your character, I really liked Heather specifically, because her character type is almost always played off as an obtuse villain, good only for getting eaten, but in ZE she had just as much humanization as the rest. Devlin too! I, honestly, feel like ZE set the bar for most of the HG that came after it in almost every way. I remember anxiously awaiting parts four and five with more hype than I did for big budget video games, including that other incredibly popular five-part zombie-based adventure game///.
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SoI, because it offers everything: meaningful choices, epic story, a refreshingly unusual setting that I like to explore, well-written characters, good writing style.
There are several games that beat SoI on one or two of these aspects, but the overall combination makes it the best so far.
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I’d say the Heroes Rise trilogy, because it was the first game I ever saw on this website. If not for hearing about that game, I may never have played any of the amazing games on this site. Besides, who doesn’t want to be a super hero?
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SoI for the excellent writing, characters, and story as well as the rich lore and meaningful choices. It also inspired me to make a account once the WIP for Guns was posted.
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I can’t pick one favorite, but I can pick a few! My favorites right now are (in no particular order)
Seven Bullets: The writing is great and witty, some of the characters have great development, and there is an utterly insane amount of replay ability. You can read it like 5 times and still get drastically different experiences - ones that hadn’t even been hinted at in previous play throughs. Not to mention it has a crazy, cool mix of science fiction and fantasy. My only complaints are that the choices can be vague and simple sometimes, there are some typos, and a few of the characters could definitely use some more descriptions so we can actually visualize them.
Life of a Wizard: it has crazy replay ability, the writing is tight and fun, and the story is just addicting. My only complaints are that the characters could use a lot more development, but I’m well aware that the story wasn’t necessarily supposed to be centered around characters.
Zombie Exodus: It’s really long and cheap, the characters are really rich and in depth, and the story is exciting. Not to mention that your choices really matter and some scenes actually managed to freak me out. Very gripping! I don’t really have many complaints on this one, except that maybe more characterization for the MC would be nice.
Trial of the Demon Hunter - lol JK because reasons
Choice of the Star Captain - Although it’s fairly linear, the characters are great and Lloyd is hilarious. Not to mention that your choices can drastically effect the endings and achievements, which is nice.
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Hard to pick a favourite, but some I enjoy (in no order, and some are not complete):
Choice of the Vampire
Tin Star
Guenevere
Slammed!
Magikiras
Zombie Exodus (and it’s sequel WIP)
Drágóneer (in very early stage still)
…and that is all I can think of right now, but there’s more… I just tend to be rattlepated. 
What they have in common is re-playability, a major point for me. Some games I play once or twice and never return to. Those above I almost wear out.
Apart from Guenevere, choice of gender (I like Guenevere because it’s my gender, and I tend to stick to it almost always). I have tried those with male lead and find I cannot be sufficiently invested in them.
Some of these games are more or less linear, others branch more, but whether you affect characters (the linear game) or plot (the branching), they do let you affect things quite a bit indeed.
I want to feel part of the world the author made, and have an effect on it. Characters I care about, or dislike. Choices that matter. So, yeah, all of that.
I am less keen on too much stat-heavy games that leaves me feeling like an outside observer rather than an active participant, but others love those – so to each their own, and we all can find what we want here. 
In other words, write what engages you, what you want to see. Otherwise you will end up like so many dead projects here that have followers but not the heart and mind behind it from the author.
One advice you can get as a writer is ‘Write to please one person – yourself’. Others will no doubt enjoy it, as is evident on here. 
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@anon48296871 Yes,it seems that writing style and replay value have a lot to do with these games(since they’re choice-based text games.)
@FairyGodfeather It seems I need to play Jinni of the Seven Winds,sounds great plus I checked out the beginning and the stats and it seemed really interesting with the sins and all that.And about CoR,the complex writing is the thing that first kept me from playing this game,and after I ACTUALLY started playing it was ONE of the things that kept me from stopping.I mean,all the detail put in the world is crazy,and amazing.
Ah,there it is.It’s funny because in almost every post I’ve personally seen you write when other authors ask for help in their WIPs you always seem to finish with a question of that sort,and to me it sounds like you want to remind the author that it’s their own story and they’d be better off writing what makes them happy.
@SpaceLesbian I also hate mechas,but Mecha Ace had a few twists that always kept me interested in the story.As for Creature Such As We I understand how you felt in the end 
I mean,the part about playing the video game with someone you love without being able to talk in real-life instead connecting through a screen with fictional characters seemed awesome and sad at the same time.
@WulfyK @Verand It seems the author of SoI has gotten the hang of writing an amazing story while balancing everything that a writer could put in a game like that and combining them to make an epic game.
@Samuel_H_Young Life Of A Wizard was really amazing.I loved the setting (since I’m a real fan of fantasy,and that is also one of the reasons why I think Trial Of The Demon Hunter is awesome,including the combat and choice variety),plus it took me somewhere three tries to defeat that god-damn dragon,since in the beginning I thought I’d become a jack of all trades,but then I was like:You know what,I’ll master conjuring and blast everyone’s ass.
@JTAL I mostly love when the game branching is great and every replay is at least a bit different.You know,speaking of stats I actually thought once if I could pull 10 different outcomes for each 10% of each stat.For example:Combat 50% and if you choose to fight with someone you might get hurt,but you might be able to defeat them,depending on a few more combat choices presented afterwards,but the people would be less amazed at your combat skill and nothing would really make you earn more recognition than you already have.In the other hand if Combat:80% you might be able to easily defeat your enemy and your allies would praise you for your combat skills and how strong you are and stuff like that.But I think that’s quite difficult to make,but hey,one can dream.
I’m gonna need to write that down somewhere to remind me of what the hell I’m doing when writing stuff.
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It’s important though. Anything you write will find an audience, so you might as well write what you love, write what interests and fascinates you. When you start the most important thing is that you finish and you’ve got the greatest chance of doing that if you write something that you’re passionate about, on a subject that you want to write, and not just something you’re writing to appeal to the masses.
Of course questions like these, analysing what others enjoy in games, are good to help you decide for yourself what sort of direction you want to go. But, I’d hate for an author to get so tangled up in writing something just to please other people, instead of writing something that pleases themselves.
Write what pleases you first. Then, once you’ve finished something, beta-test it. Listen to all of your feedback, even if you don’t follow it all (don’t follow it all you’ll go mad).
You can look at the games and see the author’s own interests reflected in them. And what a wide array of interests there are.
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@FairyGodfeather Thanks,I’ll keep it in mind (well,the most part).Damn,you really know how to give good advice don’t you? 
Also 1 more totally random question I’ve been wondering…how the hell did you come up with that name and where did you find the perfect pic to match it??
An astute question that begs an answer. 
(And yes, @FairyGodfeather is full of good advice and stuff.)
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I personally like SOI (Sabers of Infinity) [And its WIP Sequel GoI], Lords of Aswick, Zombie Exodus, Guenevere (WIP), Choice of Rebels, and the Way Walkers series, and also CCH (Community College Hero)
As for why… Well, for me, story (and its cohesion) is pretty much a giant requirement. To me, things must MAKE SENSE (Which is one reason I REALLY dislike Seven Bullet’s story, nothing made sense to me.), something that the aforementioned games do brilliantly. They have an overarching plot-line, and you are directly involved in said plot-line, even if not everything is focused on you (In Sabers you are just one small part of a much bigger army, even if you become a friggen well-known war hero who the military leader wants on his staff XD). Im just fine with playing a supporting role (A reason I didn’t have the same problem with Way Walkers 2 as others did, as Sem seemed to be the bigger focus there.), so long as the story is enjoyable and i get to make some choices (Im a giant fan of Visual Novels, which have MUCH less interactivity a lot of the time, im also a fan of “Kinetic” Visual Novels [Ones where you get NO choices] so), so long as they affect the story (Ala most visual novels where a different set of choices will give you a different ending [Foremost in my brain of these is G-Senjou no Maou, where making different choices {EX, behaving in certain ways towards certain cahracters} gives you a vastly different ending]
To me, the story is paramount, and that is what i primarily judge Choicescript games on.
Things not being TOO difficult (AKA Not the Last Heir difficulty) is a nice plus though XD
It is very hard to pick a favourite out of all of the stories we have been given but I will limit it to only released games, one from CoG and HG
CoG Slammed!: Now it was very hard to choose but there are several reasons I chose this. First was that it was about Entertainment Wrestling a topic which most people don’t know anything about or have interest in but despite that almost everyone I know who has played it, liked it. The story was executed fabulously and was done better than story lines from WWE. Fun with decent replayability, Slammed! will always be a favourite of mine.
HG Tin Star: This was also very hard to choose but I had to go with Tin Star. One of my favourite westerns, possibly my favourite western story. Western stories are not really my cup of tea but this story changed my views on them. A very long game well worth the money I payed for it with majour replayability. On top of its amazing story the gaming mechanics were amazing as well. I will always cherish my moments as The Marshal.
Honorable mentions; Zombie Exodus, Choice of Vampires, Lucid’s games, Waywalkers University, Choice of Robots, Heroes Trilogy, and my guilty pleasure To the City of the Clouds.
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@Drini7 The Goodfeathers from Animaniacs, which are pigeons. (They’re not even my favourite mind you, not even my favourite bird on Animaniacs but I couldn’t really be Chicken Boo.) And I’d been reading a book at the time where the mob boss was nicknamed the Fairy Godfather. So Fairy Godfeather, because, pigeons and fairy tales and what was once my favourite series of books. @Sandstorm drew my avatar. I love it. It’s a pink-necked green pigeon holding a magic wand.
Hmm here I am rambling off topic though.
And I’m sitting here wishing that I could go into depth about all of the games I loved and the bits I loved about them.
I’d love to see another game like Choice of the Dragon, light-hearted, and being able to play a dragon. Rarr! Being a dragon was awesome. There was one on the forum where I could be a Slime and I loved that idea. (Aha Slime Quest found it Slime Quest)
I loved Broadsides, for the gender-flip and how you could just spin the world upside down, and that it also let you romance your rival. (Which is a theme I love, loved it in Slammed! too.)
Vampire was very reminiscent of Vampire the Masquerade and I liked how it captured that. I liked that it was so immense in scope and how there felt like there was a lot more choice about it.
I liked how Romance tackled gender as well, that it did things differently than Broadsides did but it was every bit as interesting. I loved that the characters were more indepth than those we got in Broadsides and Dragon.
Those first four games are all special, and I think they set the bar for everything that came after.
Zombie Exodus is the only one of these games I’ve ever managed to persuade any of my friends to play. So, you know that’s special too. Actually, I marvel at what JimD’s done with it, how much choice there is, it’s absolutely insane really, and how he’s managed to write a game with so many different possibilities and iterations of relationships and who’s alive, who’s dead and have all of those things have an impact.
Waywalker’s University let me go to a magic school. I loved that. 
I always wanted to go to magic school.
Paradox Factor’s so extremely clever. When I first played it I couldn’t work out how Lucid had even managed to code it, and it was just so clever reading the code. I have a thing for time travel too and it’s just such a satisfying puzzle of a game. I don’t think there’s any other choice of games that implement a puzzle mechanic so well.
The list goes on and on and I just start repeating things other people have said.
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My favorite COG is Choice Of The Deathless, runner-up NOLA Is Burning, my favorite Hosted Game is Tin Star, and my favorite work in progress is Guenevere.
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@Chwoka Well, I have to say, I’m glad someone is amused by NOLA. There was a lot of…massaging?..I had to do to that one.
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@Fallaner It’s funny how almost everyone pick Sabres Of Infinity.
Anyway,thank you so much for at least telling me what you like in a game and it appears your preferences are almost the same as mine 
@CazzCity I also thought it was weird to have a wrestling interactive fiction,but Slammed! seems to be good.It’s interesting what good writing and choices can do to make something uninteresting interesting.
@122B A lot of CoG turn random things into really interesting story and events.It seems to be about finding a balance between proper writing,choice variety,replayability etc.
@FairyGodfeather Funny how every game you mentioned now is quite different from each-other.It really shows what you can do with every topic as long as you keep your interest,mind and heart in it.
@Chwoka A lot of people seem to also like Guenevere.I’ve never played it (yet,at least) but tell me how it is?
@jasonstevanhill Massaging?What?..Actually,nevermind that.What’s YOUR favorite CoG/HG?
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Eh. I mostly just see the flaws at this point.
That said, “the ORPHEUS Ruse” is one of my favorites, balancing good storytelling, interactivity, and a war of philosophies. I think Deathless has some of the finest prose. And I still have a soft spot for Eerie Estate Agent, for being one of the first projects I managed and for just being such a unique conceit.
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