Choose Your Own Text Adventure

[Qlip]

I guess I just was curious if anybody here was a fan of interactive fiction. This includes Text Adventures, Interactive Novels, perhaps interactive Graphic Novels, Choose Your Own Adventures, maybe MUDs. If you are, what have you played and what do you recommend? I realize this is a very niche area, but I'm doing some research, figured it wouldn't hurt to start here.

 

[meme duchess]

Yeah, definitely! I used to be somewhat into them, and my obsession started off with this website which includes a variety of different settings, characters, and plots for all sorts of different people. All created by the same developer, of course. Though, pointing that out is somewhat unnecessary. I mean, obvious since they all have just somewhat identical graphics and writing styles if you get into it but - anyway, yeah. The site that I linked prior to this is generally good. I'm not sure what genres you're specifically into but here are a few others that I've played:

https://www.playalterego.com This site has just a somewhat longer gameplay but you basically form your whole entire life from "birth" and make choices which change your stats in terms of who you are characteristically. It talks about how you interact with the world and the narrator also kind of takes part as well with amusing thoughts as to the choices that you make.

Coming Out Simulator 2014 by ncase I think this game counts as one. Short, but amusing. It's about someone gay who plans to come out to his parents but his mom discovers out he's gay before he can really do anything about it. It raises awareness to a few misconceptions and while it's not too long, still progressive and interesting to play and see how each thing you say affects others and yourself.

Those two specific ones are the first that popped into my mind but I'll update as I remember more.

 

[Qlip]

Thanks! I checked them all out and played the Coming Out Simulator all the way through once. I really like it. I'm mostly taking a survey of them, mostly their interfaces and playstyle. I grew up with Choose Your Own Adventures, Text Adventures and MUDs, I'm working on developing some IF myself. I've had some ideas for a while, but I'm getting serious now. Here's one that never ceases to amuse me:

A Triangle Morning's Which Way Game

 

[Hawthorne]

I am a fan. I highly recommend demoing some of the games over at choiceofgames.com. They developed out of a desire to provide an inclusive gaming experience and many of the games allow you play as different genders (including non-binary sometimes), races (human and non-human), ethnicities, nationalities, sexualities, etc. Some of the games are short and rather formulaic but there are several well written gems in both the main and hosted sections and many developers have public WIP projects where you can contribute ideas and help them beta test.

I've always been big on customization and I find that many text adventures fall the way of "interactive fiction" which can feel very railroaded at times.

- - - Updated - - -

lol. Just realize [MENTION=25708]Meme Duchess[/MENTION] just recced them already. Great taste.

I've played a couple of CYOAs and MUDs but it's been a while so I'll need to think about it. I know that EndMaster's games are well regarded on ChooseYourStory. Necromancer and Eternal are some of his most popular ones.

 

[Qlip]

[MENTION=23915]Sinclair[/MENTION] Thanks so much! I was wondering where to start on Choose Your Own Story.

Like I mentioned, I have a lot of nostalgic feeling about text based entertainment. But also, I do love the fluidity of language making for an immersive experience, and the inclusivity. One thing that I find really inviting about developing and writing something is the fact that IF is probably the most accessible form of gaming for the vision impaired.

Currently, I'm thinking of going with something with a very fluid feel, something like an inventory based game that ends up playing more like a choose your own adventure. Also with a highly polished interface. I'm a web developer, so for me the hard part will be figuring out an experience that will work and writing content.

 

[Luke O]

Text adventures are great but I haven't played any for a very long time.

Here is my favourite parody: Don't Shit Your Pants

 

[Qlip]

Text adventures are great but I haven't played any for a very long time.

Here is my favourite parody: Don't Shit Your Pants

Hah, I won first time through. Not sure how many ways there are to win this one, but my brain must be properly warped by years of Text Adventure story logic. I'll have to explore this more after work.

 

[Luke O]

Hah, I won first time through. Not sure how many ways there are to win this one, but my brain must be properly warped by years of Text Adventure story logic. I'll have to explore this more after work.

Shouldn't take you long to get all the different wins but you will kick yourself

 

[Olm the Water King]

Zork is pretty cool.

 

[small.wonder]

I read some multiple choice adventure books growing up, and used to play this weird computer game called Rockett's New School (by a now deceased company called Purple Moon) that was definitely Chose Your Own Adventure style. I also always preferred RPG's because of the freedom to wander around in a free and varied way.

A Triangle Morning's Which Way Game

I find the entire concept of this thread so interesting! I played this, and guess what! I ended up a shoemaker's apprentice. RIGHT!? What are the odds.

 

[Qlip]

I read some multiple choice adventure books growing up, and used to play this weird computer game called Rockett's New School (by a now deceased company called Purple Moon) that was definitely Chose Your Own Adventure style. I also always preferred RPG's because of the freedom to wander around in a free and varied way.



I find the entire concept of this thread so interesting! I played this, and guess what! I ended up a shoemaker's apprentice. RIGHT!? What are the odds.

Of course you did.

Wandering and exploration will be the main themes in mine. I want it instead of wandering a map, wandering through plot narratives. I, of course, have no idea how to achieve this, yet.

 

[Lark]

I'm a major fan of the Fighting Fantasy series, its almost like a religion to me, I owe the series, genre and authors so much because I would not have become a reader without them, it was pretty late in life as it was, and because I became a reader I was able to largely self-teach myself to a post-graduate university educated level.

 

[Lark]

I've got most of the game books besides FF though too, the horror game books with Dracula and Frankenstein, the way of the tiger ninja gamebooks, the choose your own adventure and relaunched choose your own adventure books, some of the blood sword books.

I regretfully got rid of some of them to charity but I replaced some of them too.

 

[Qlip]

I've got most of the game books besides FF though too, the horror game books with Dracula and Frankenstein, the way of the tiger ninja gamebooks, the choose your own adventure and relaunched choose your own adventure books, some of the blood sword books.

I regretfully got rid of some of them to charity but I replaced some of them too.

I had to look these up. I had one book that was similar to these when I was a youngster, it was based on the Hobbit. I remember it being the coolest thing in the world.

 

[Lark]

I had to look these up. I had one book that was similar to these when I was a youngster, it was based on the Hobbit. I remember it being the coolest thing in the world.

I'm a fan of the genre, it was really taking off once more and I remember packed out bookshops and the FF range being huge with promotional materials, then all the pretenders, imitators and clones, lots of them but the rise of consoles and surge in console gaming wiped it out almost overnight.

Console gaming got a lot of free promotion around about that time by the fact that lots of TV shows in the UK were taking up the topic of gaming like never before.

The principle authors of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks went on to create the gamesworkshop, warhammer and space crusade and warhammer 40K, I'm pretty sure that warcraft and world of warcraft may be tied into all that too if I'm not mistaken.

There's a great book on it all called You Are The Hero, which I think was launched at a convention of the fans in London if I remember right.

The writing within the genre, at least the FF books, is pretty interesting, it has some interesting archetypical use of the hero and socially constructs heroism in a particular way, there is one book which is a departure from it called Prisoners of The Abyss, which supposedly follows an eastern version of heroism in that while you succeed and save the day you are unable to save yourself and effectively have to sacrifice yourself, it was a difference between Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone because one of them thought the hero should triumph and get the girl and the booty/treasure not perish and only receive a reward of becoming the subject of song and story alone.

 

[small.wonder]

[MENTION=10714]Qlip[/MENTION] Aw, crap. I just discovered this app called Episode and it is exactly what we are talking about on this thread, but dunked in cheesy, collegiate, sorority slop. I'm like three chapters in and hooked.

My character has definitely been a contrarian so far though. Sadly satisfying.

 

[Null]

[MENTION=10714]Qlip[/MENTION] Not sure if you're still looking for choice-based games, but if so I absolutely recommend Choice of the Dragon. It's so much fun and one of the few non-commercial 'choose your own adventure' games that are actually good. You should also check out Creatures Such As We, which is a philosophical romance game - not for me, but a lot of people loved it.

If you don't mind spending money, Choice of Robots or the Heroes Rise series are really awesome, too.

 

[magpie]

https://www.playalterego.com This site has just a somewhat longer gameplay but you basically form your whole entire life from "birth" and make choices which change your stats in terms of who you are characteristically. It talks about how you interact with the world and the narrator also kind of takes part as well with amusing thoughts as to the choices that you make.)

I was kidnapped and killed during childhood.

 

[Fregoli]

I've played a few of the old Infocom games; the best were Wishbringer, a very approachable game; Enchanter, where you cast magic spells; Infidel, where you're a treasure hunter exploring an Egyptian pyramid; and The Lurking Horror (my PC speaker is screaming at me). Too many of them, though, are aimed at the Mensa crowd - even with a walkthrough, I have no idea what I'm doing or why in Zork III or Spellbreaker.

I much prefer the later graphic adventure games, the ones with sound and pictures and animation, where you either steer the character around with the keyboard and try to type furiously before you're eaten by an ogre, or point and click at things until something happens. The LucasArts games are probably better known these days, but I'm a Sierra fan; they have more emphasis on adventure, they have better stories, and they're often more immersive. People complain that you can die, but that just adds to the fun. Quest for Glory, King's Quest, Space Quest, The Dagger of Amon-Ra, and Conquests of Camelot are all great.

I don't rate Monkey Island 2, Day of the Tentacle or Grim Fandango very highly. Tentacle has some clever puzzles involving time travel (the wine bottle), but comes across as a series of baroque logic puzzles rather than a story in its own right; while the first version of Fandango is unplayable, and I got to the wheel puzzle in the remastered version before figuring I had better things to do with my life. I really liked the Telltale Sam and Max series, though, especially the episode set on the Orient Express and in a pyramid, where you're jumping between film reels.

The Last Express (Orient Express again, this time in in 1914), the Broken Sword series and Discworld Noir are also brilliant games. If you can track down a copy, get hold of The Gene Machine , a very funny Jules Verne spoof.

[MENTION=7280]Lark[/MENTION]: Fighting Fantasy rocked! Back in primary school, everyone played these; I got a job lot a few years back, and have been playing through them when I get the chance. I generally prefer the earlier ones - Citadel of Chaos, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon - although the real stand-outs are Creature of Havoc, in which you play the monster, and don't get free will until well into the game; House of Hell, a Hammer Horror pastiche; and the Sorcery! series, which has cool settings (Kharé, Cityport of Traps; the Archmage's castle) and a really clever time travel spell in the fourth book. The later ones are often formulaic or convoluted, or bizarre (Sky Lord?).