So I've been meaning to make a really simple, text-based game of some kind for a while, combining CYOA elements and stats. But for the life of me I can't settle on something permanently. I've waffled between high-combat focus, low-combat focus, complete CYOA focus, different settings, etc. I've done prototypes for a bunch of different ones, but keep hitting that wall of "is this really the right thing" when I start to commit.
So I guess this is me crowdsourcing my indecision. If you're the kind of faggot who would play a text-based or text-based + static images RPG/game in 2016, what would you want to see in it?
(By the way, I'm doing this purely for fun. No economic/financial interest involved, I just like writing and systems in my spare time, and making a little game out of that seems more productive than running quests or whatever.)
Sounds to me like you realize that this is going to be a bunch of work for free and you don't want to do it.
I want a game about princesses. I don't care if it is in space or in the deserts of not-sahara. I don't care if the goal is combat or political maneuvering. I don't even care if you can be a prince too. I just want to be the princess.
>>46558784
Nah, it's more like there's lots of stuff I could enjoy writing, but I at least want to have the false confidence that there is a limited audience of at least 2 other faggots in the world who would bother playing it.
I realize that it ultimately doesn't matter since I am doing it for fun, but it still helps as a motivational factor. Plus, it's just fun to see what other people like as a brainstorming practice.
>>46558866
What would this even be? Like a text adventure game? Something like a vn? An rpg system?
Maybe just write a book or something
..
>>46557705
Make ita quest._________________________
>>46558987
Basically an offline mud with a story and maybe images/music for flavoring. There was a bunch of games like this when I was younger, but I guess no modern examples really spring to mind except mobile crap.
>maybe just write a book or something
I've done that before, but there's something about game systems + writing that is more appealing to me at the moment.
>>46558784
What about this is appealing? Rulership/kingdom management, or just playing a CUTE GIRL?
>>46559027
I've tried that, I just find the trollish tendencies of people in a quest to be pretty boring. It's nothing wrong with individuals, just when you get 10 or so people together and have them collaborate anonymously, it seems like eventually the hive mind always turns towards fucking shit up for amusement.Maybe I just got unlucky.
>>46559091
>offline mud with a story and maybe images/music for flavoring
I think they call those "visual novels" these days.
Re: princesses: both the management and being the grill with the poofiest dress.
I hated plying Long Live the Queen because it was nore of an autism simulator than a princess simulator, but the setting was actually well-developed and deep. I just wish it wasn't so shitty to play.
>>46559181
Visual novels don't use really use combat or stats. And they're often very light on player agency at all beyond "routes". I'm not big into the genre, but I know a few have moments where they sort of satirize that stuff (Hatoful Boyfriend comes to mind). And I know there are cross-genre stuff people might call VNs (Alchemy Meister, Sengoku Rance), but those are really full games in their own right.
>LLTQ
Yeah, it was a time management game with lots of "fail now forever" flags. Too bad, it had a lot of potential. Reminded me of Princess Maker 2, which did such a better job with that concept.
>>46559228
If you're looking for an audience, I'm sure you could find one somewhere, povided the end result wasn't garbage. Maybe there are forums or subreddits or something that really focus on the type of thing you want to make. /tg/ is too nebulous to care about a one-time thing, unless you keep coming back for "input" every so often so people notice you and your work, kind of like what BMJ does with AdEva.
>>46559277
Yeah, I've never been able to find a truly active forum for gamey IF stuff. /tg/ was just the most relevant place I could think of. Maybe that just means the genre is dead and buried except for meme-y stuff (like that browser game where you started out in a cave and made a fire).
>>46557705
Sticks and stones a game of hurtful words.
Build up blocks for your castle by typing in things that made you feel good about yourself that day. It can be an accomplishment you're proud of, or a compliment someone gave you, or even a compliment you give yourself (but you have to believe it ;)!
Friends with the app can roast each other to knock down blocks from your castle (build it however you want!) - you get to decide how much damage their joking does, and can try to roast them in return to knock down their castle!
If someone's castle crumbles because of what you said, you get a message where all the reasons for their blocks are written down and are slowly erased by hands snatching at them and hitting them, the last words getting knocked down to the bottom and feet kicking them to death.
Then the game asks why you would do such a thing to your friends, instead of giving them compliments to build their castle up together.
It's mentioned that you can put in compliments from other people, after all, in the instructions.
You don't get any points for anything.
It could also be done as a Web game maybe that you play with random people or maybe an Eliza style bot? Have people write a short bio about themselves, with some loaded questions to give others something to fight for.
>>46559329
The question about why attack others comes from winning or if you've done more damage than you've taken when you quit.
As your own castle is broken down, you get warnings in the form of questions with simple jokey drawn characters fall out style. "Are you doing okay? Can you keep going? Was that too big a hit (for a high damage hit)? Just brush it off (for a low damage hit)." Stuff like that.
Once it is collapsed, or if you quit after having taken more damage, you get a bunch of pictures of shadow people reaching out their hands to you while the questions from when you take hits scroll out. Then the fame asks if you got anyone to help you, or why you kept dealing with someone who was hurting your castle. There aren't any points to be won, and all it lets you do when you attack someone is be open to them attacking you back. You could try to disengage and build up your new castle with friends instead of getting caught up in a game of hurtful words.
>>46559314
There's SB/SV (get out ree etc.), but registered forum formats are generally pretty cancerous.
>>46559343
Not familiar with either, can you break down the acronyms?
Last time I went looking for active IF communities all I could find was tiny forums with like 1 post every few months. Even asked on /v/ if anyone knew of more active communities and got no real answers, aside from the usual shitposting. It's weird because I do see amateur games like this pop up occasionally (on the "erotic" side, DefilerWings comes to mind), but there doesn't seem to be any central community for it.
>>46559343
If you're a creator trying to find an audience, an anonymous forum is pretty much the shittiest place to do it. You will not be able to build an audience when you are anonymous. An anonymous audience is difficult to interact with.
I love posting as anon, but it is awful for trying to get noticed (which can be a good thing too).
>>46559376
I'm not really looking to be noticed, I just wanted to see what people might want out of a text-based game. Ideas still welcome, the conversation just moved in that direction I guess.
>>46559388
To be honest (and I know I'm not the only one like this) I'm not really looking for anything specific, but I'm willing to be sold on an idea.
I would probably be more easily swayed by cute things, though. Maybe that's because I'm currently running a psychologically bleak game...
>>46559428
Fair enough. I get it's easier to choose between options than fabricate them. Some ideas I've had so far, developed enough that I actually prototyped them to a basic gameplay stage:
>Stronghold Management
Basically you're put in charge of a small settlement and have to manage it "turn" by "turn", (turns being something arbitrary like days or seasons or years). Buildings unlock new options and are by design exclusionary of each other. If you build a Church you can gain access to Temple Knights, but will never be able to recruit warlocks, etc. Basic army/military system. This was inspired by Archmage (http://wiki.the-reincarnation.org/index.php/archmage) a cool browser game from the early 2000's where you got a certain number of turns per day to spend on developing your settlement, researching spells, casting summons, seizing new territory, or attacking other players.
I wanted to weld this with a more RPG-like/dialogue system where you'd have an "event" every turn or every few turns, based off the court events in Castles (image related). Maybe even have basic exploration of the settlement for exposition/story development purposes that would change as your settlement developed. Master of Magic was also sort of in my head with this idea, but I figure Archmage was inspired by Master of Magic or M:TG already. I like this idea a lot, so I did different prototypes of it with different settings: starting as a typical aristocrat, choosing between "evil" archetypes like a weakened Demon or a Minotaur, etc.
>Dungeon Crawler
What I was talking about before with the mention of "offline muds". Standard small party dungeon crawling and Monty-Haulism in a text-based game with a focus on story, since I feel well-written text is obviously the strength of this medium.
>A Cute
Isn't the strength of this diminished in text, though? People want to look at cute girls doing cute things, not read about themselves as a cute girl doing cute things. Or maybe they do. Hmm...
>>46559574
Haha, forgot the Castles pic. Here it is.
Castles was an early strategy game where you mostly just built castles in an overhead view, but it had little diplomatic interludes where you made CYOA choices.
Something like Fabled Lands but with some basic images.
http://flapp.sourceforge.net/
>>46559228
Depends.
YU-NO has a lot of stuff while still in VN territory.
Rance games are just eroge RPGs though
>>46559639
What would you say Alchemy Meister is?
https://vndb.org/v5652 (Heh, it's on a VN DB so it must be a VN.)
Personally I think the game elements in it are way more prevalent than the VN stuff, but who knows.
>>46559574
>Stronghold Management
Sounds pretty fun. I'm all about that tbs.
Just do what you want, i'm sure someone will find it fun.
>>46559672
An RPG as it is classified in Japan
