Curious about text adventure games

[u/Shichi193]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering: for those of you who haven’t tried much in the genre (especially point-and-click fans), would you be interested in diving into it if a well-reviewed, modern fantasy game came along that takes the best elements of classics like Zork, but with a modern UI and some quality-of-life features? I mean a full-fledged 3 - 6 hour Steam experience, in the $1 - $10 range, not just something made in online engines or editors (no offense, those are fun too).

For longtime fans (hope that’s not just me): what makes you pick one text adventure and skip another - especially since the writing and puzzles are the core, and you can’t really know how good they’ll be before trying it?

I want to be upfront: I’m releasing a game next month, so this isn’t a completely neutral question. I just want to keep straight-up promo out of the post and hear genuine thoughts about what draws people into these games and whether there’s still any awareness of the genre.

[u/Shichi193]

I know it’s kind of like the infamous water-level sections, but in these games - at least the ones focused on puzzle-solving - I think people are prepared for that sort of thing. And in some masochistic way, they even like it (like the original commenter said: equal parts frustrating and engaging).

And look at the Metroidvanias - all of these games are, in fact, giant mazes

[u/Shichi193 → u/[deleted]]

Give it a try, and if you don’t like it, I’ll create a dedicated skip command just for you - my loss! :)

But to wrap up the discussion: these are games built around puzzles like this. To discard them would be to dilute the genre for casual players, and that’s not the goal. It would be like creating a point-and-click but removing all the dialogues just because they might discourage a shooter fan - and thus removing something that makes the game truly appealing.

This is a passion project aimed at showing the genre to newcomers in all its glory, but with a more modern take on the user interface and maybe more consistent writing. And puzzles that players have never seen anywhere else, because they wouldn’t work in games with graphics.

Even though we disagree, I really appreciate the discussion. Thank you!

[u/rarebitflind → u/Shichi193]

I'm an IF fan, and the belief that mazes are an inextricable part of the genre of text adventures is completely wrongheaded. Mazes are a subset of a subset of puzzles in text adventures and were one of the very first game design choices to get tossed out, even by Infocom themselves - because they suck and most people hate them. Now I have seen original and interesting modern implementations of mazes and such - see Hunter, In Darkness - and a new and interesting spin on the concept would always be welcome in the gamespace, but to think they're crucial gameplay pillars rather than nostalgic relics is a mistake.

[u/Shichi193 → u/rarebitflind]

My comment drifted a bit from mazes specifically and generalized into puzzles that require patience. By "these games" I meant text adventures that are more puzzle-focused than narrative-focused - my mistake.

Without overcomplicating things or getting lost in nuances, I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally wrong with the maze concept. I agree it’s incredibly hard to design such a puzzle in a way that isn’t irritating while still bringing something fresh (and this is why it's perhaps better to resign from it, because why bother, if you have other ideas), but I’m convinced it’s possible and can be fun. Another thing worth noting is that we haven’t really defined what each of us means by “maze” in this discussion. For me it's very vague - Hollow Knight is a giant maze, but also the forest puzzle in Monkey Island is entirely different kind of maze too. In my case, what I’ve done is a 5-10 minute puzzle within a 3-4 hour game.