What would your ideal text adventure game contain?

Game Development
1

If anyone wouldn’t mind answer a few questions for me that would be great!

-What would your dream text adventure include?
-What wouldn’t it include?
-What type of interface would you like to see?
-Which features would you like to have/remove?

Thanks for reading

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2

Hmm those are tough questions… A lot of it depends on type of game and story it is.

My ideal text game? I guess it would have:

  • Deep, well thought out (philosophical maybe?) conversations with/between the characters,
  • An intriguing story of course,
  • Something I’ve never seen or thought of before - Text based games are so much more flexible than their pixelly counterparts simply due to the fact they require imagination on the part of the author and the player. You can do limitless things in writing that would be hard to depict with graphics. Games that exploit that would be high on my list.

The best interface for a text based game is a simple one that fades into the background (not literally) and that you don’t even notice is there.

3

I like stories where I have power, super powers magic, loads of henchman possibly all of the above
a in depth world I like to have a feel for the world and I like to have my questions answered ( example why if this world have mad scientists is the world not hundreds of years ahead technology wise)
the chances to be Evil! Mwahahaha!!! but not too evil invade the kingdom and marry the princess evil not send her to the torture chamber evil.

4

Hmm . . . for me I think a good bunch of characters and some good plot twists would make a text adventure worth it. I also love the idea of being able to be evil, and not the ‘you’re still a good guy, just in a bad way’ type of evil. You don’t seem a lot of fantasy stories where you get to be the antagonist.

As for what I wouldn’t like to see? I can’t think of anything right off the back. I know I don’t like pointless choices and to many stats, it gets a bit hard to keep up with. But I normally go with the flow as long as the story is intriguing.

1 Like
5

a game where you play in a normal world doing normalish stuff. Loved alternate reality(think that’s what it’s called, already played it to death :stuck_out_tongue: the life game) for sale haunted house etc. I’d also like to play as an underpowered character, in a lot of games you have to be an overpowered, total badarse. Some people like escapism, I kinda do, but prefer realism and a character I can relate to :stuck_out_tongue: . Only COG games I can think of that do that(where the opportunity to play an overpowered BA was there obvs) is Burnt and zombie exodus safe haven(though that lets you be OP too :stuck_out_tongue: ) Divided we fall kinda does, and like burnt feels a lot more like an interactive novel, than a CSYOA.

So my ideal game would have a base character, it’d still have choices of course, but you couldn’t say…take on a whole bunch of enemies single handidly/directly or not without taking massive damage. The infinity series is basically it tbh, as the choices are there but not massively plentiful and when I tried playing as a weak character it really screwed me over for the rest of the game :stuck_out_tongue: . And the mc feels impersonal, so I do enjoy playing it, but with a character nothing like real life me :stuck_out_tongue: . So yeah a game like guns of infinity, but with a real world setting and an mc who is the opposite of the infinity mc lol(so female, not tough, doesn’t tackle all situations head on etc.)

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6

I really want more games set in the 20th century. There aren’t very many, and I feel like the entire era’s being avoided for some reason.

I think that a story focused around historical events could be interesting. If I ever write a story, that’s what I’d write about.

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7

First off it would have to have romance, then either an overpowered MC or an underpowered MC (wouldn’t want to play as an average Joe that is inbetween), I wouldn’t want the story to be all happy, maybe some part of the story where the MC can’t handle something and just sorta breaks down, and an ending that can be very bad or very good depending on the choices (but not stats, because sometimes the stats limits the choices that are allowed to be made) and a good story.

8

My only tip is dont use the heroes rose system or samurai of hyuga system,it just limits player option,use something like the system from tin star,choice of vampire or zombie exodus,on story and stuff,the characters,you don’t need to have many,but the ones you do make them deep,when it comes to romance don’t be afraid to get graphic and also don’t be afraid of bittersweet romances,and make the main character have a personality,not just some blank hero

9

text, ideally.

1 Like
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I really really want a game where taking the friendship route rather than the romance option gives more, not less, of a connection with the character.

I wouldn’t want any forced emotions, especially attraction.

As for the interface, I’d say that unless they’re things that you really can’t have both of, avoid using opposed stats (for example, Cataphrak’s Infinite Sea games have Mercy vs Ruthlessness, which makes sense, but Art vs Science or Character A vs Character B would not).

As for features, I suppose pronoun choice and save points would be nice.

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