#text game dev
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
I used to write a bunch for MUDs, and a few years ago, I decided I wanted to try making my own game. I started as a writer/QA/project management for my first few game jams because I was struggling to create something fully on my own.
This hybrid “help as needed” role let me get hands on experience and showed me a deeper look behind the scenes of how games are made, without being overwhelmed by all the setup needed to get my hands in the mess – I had previously been daunted by the basics of just setting up engines and SDKs and CLIs and virtual environments and all that stuff.
This was the result from the first game where I did design/heavy writing focus and no code: https://misc-mike.itch.io/bookworm
We had envisioned something impressive with the player changing the story, but as development continued we learned about scoping and timelines: our coder ran out of time, so I focused on finding us public domain images and twisting together a concept of a thing that would work with the functions we had coded. The result is kinda cute.
From there, I tried out making my own games using a range of different engines which focused on text-heavy development:
Twine: webdev (eg CSS, html) for interactive hypertext
Choicescript: uses very basic scripting for interactive cyoa novels
Ren’Py: uses python for visual novels
Quest and QuestJS: for text adventures
Adventuron: designed to teach children how to code via making text adventures
This is not an exhaustive list – https://intfiction.org/ is a great resource for even more options such as TADS.
Read more on my blog because I'm old and still have one and apparently Tumblr has a character limit for posts: https://thoughts.games/2024/09/30/getting-into-game-dev-as-a-writer/
#yes i still have a blog#shh#gane narrative#creative writing#writing#interactive fiction#twine interactive fiction#video game writing#writing for games#text game dev#choice of games#hosted games#twine games#twine if#twine#Adventuron#quest#quest js
1 note
·
View note
Text
so like. at what point are we going to stop listening to game companies saying "the game was poorly received and didn't meet our sales targets, and that's why we're removing it from storefronts and taking down all the servers mere months or even weeks after release" for titles that had a long expensive development, were barely marketed, and nobody knew they'd even released until after they heard they were getting shut down and couldn't be played/purchased anymore?
I feel like the prevailing takeaway for anyone who doesn't just conclude "yeah, game was pretty mid, makes sense to me" has usually been "this company just has unreasonably impossible sales expectations and treats every project like a failure if it doesn't print a trillion dollars". but these ARE allegedly experienced business execs who aren't complete idiots, and after this most recent debacle with Concord I'm starting to wonder if a bunch of these "games getting wiped out of existence when they underperform instead of just being allowed to persist as they are and maybe improve with time" cases in recent years might be more of a Warner-Discovery type situation, like nuking an entire animated series or film that was worked on for years and preventing it from being sold because it has to be officially unprofitable for the company to use it as a tax write-off. I look at a game that was worked on for 8 years and only made available for 2 weeks, and it's hard not to see the parallels.
great work, AAA games industry, really normal and sustainable stuff you're doing over there as usual
#buny text#concord#was talking with friends about this and there are at least a few other examples of this i think#where a game seems to be deliberately underbudgeted or undermarketed and then shoved out the door and shuttered within months#square enix has had like 3 or 4 of them in the past few years and i feel like redfall might've also been a case of this but it's hard to sa#for the record we had no idea why warner-discovery was doing this stuff with animation until some whistleblowers busted it open#so there's really no way to say for sure what's going on with the AAA games industry rn. just conjecture#but one thing's for sure#whatever they ARE doing is for money and public relations and not at all in the best interests of devs or consumers
710 notes
·
View notes
Text
DEMO OUT!
Awaken in a derelict factory with your only view outside constrained to a set of security cameras. Explore a politically tense industrial environment, with a point-and-click and text adventure style of gameplay as you uncover the fate of those who worked there… before the same fate falls upon you.
279 notes
·
View notes
Text

Where are all these red choices coming from 😯❓ That choice means reaching out to pet Vere’s ears, right? No? Ok
961 notes
·
View notes
Text
the more I think about the current state of the Mistria lore, the more I feel like the museum is one of its weakest parts
most of the tutorials and interactions tip toe around trying to not break the 4th wall too hard, to avoid saying "yes, you need to do that because you are The Player, and we cannot do that because We Are NPCs" but you're telling me that this happy go lucky community that gather together to do renovations and Friday gatherings and all that cannot donate a single bug to the Museum? Cannot bring in a flower? A shrimp?
You're telling me Luc keeps every single worm and beetle he finds and never had a thought to donate one to the museum? Celine, the all caring and kind Celine, never thought to help the town get a higher status by bringing in some flowers? Terithia wouldn't want to immortalise some of her best catches by bringing them to the display? Olric, the member of the Historical Society (when he remembers it), wouldn't bring in a cool rock he found? I feel like even Balor would chip in with some old pot he thought has no value (until Eiland starts elaborating for 5 hours about the historical value of it).
I feel like it'd make more sense if Errol said that everyone is involved and that "the best ones will be put on display" and when the wings open you'd see your flowers next to Celine's and your fish next to Terithia, some beetles from Luc, maybe a frog from Dell (it's not required for the museum but Dell insisted), and ofc there'd be some weird rocks from Olric (when he remembers), and some relics from Eiland and Balor.
And then there'd be more variety to the NPC lines too. Terithia being competitive on who gets the bigger fish into the museum. Balor finding it funny that he submitted the same artifact as you did earlier this week and he didn't even know it was an artifact until Eiland- you know.
#Fields of Mistria#Mistria#I dunno if I should send it in the feedback form to the devs#I already have a long list of suggestions#feels bad to be like#I LOVE the game here are a few suggestions#and then send a 3 km long text#voron rambles#jrcss
138 notes
·
View notes
Text
In just over a week the 2025 Amare Games Festival will begin!
A celebration of love and diversity in story-focused games.
For this game festival we invite you to create or update an existing game.
Changes This year we have made a couple of changes to the festival to better suit the needs of the community. The main change being that the festival now takes place in February and runs for 6 weeks till mid-March.
For those who have participated in previous Amare Festivals, we kindly ask you to review the rules of the festival so you are aware of any changes that have been made.
Make sure to sign up on the festival page below!
#Amare Games festival#Amare Game#Otome Game#Diverse Games#LGBTQA+ Games#Visual Novel#interactive fiction#text-based game#Romance Game#Game Jam#indie dev#Amare#Otome#indie game
120 notes
·
View notes
Text

Requested by anon
#Don't Shit Your Pants#browser games#flash games#video games#gaming#video game polls#polls#tumblr polls#indie#indie game dev#indie games#adventure#text based game
67 notes
·
View notes
Text
Well this hella sounds like their other statement, from months ago, just before their huge layoff. They even used some of the same words and phrasings. Really this doesn’t sound too good for bioware in general 🥲


#they really love using agile and focused team fir their layoff texts in game dev huh?#also: didn‘t the relocating of team members to EA go badly??
56 notes
·
View notes
Text
December Dev Log
Happy New Year everyone!
December was busy with lots of feasting and family time, but I did manage to get a lot of writing done :)
As always, as this year winds to a close, I want to thank all of you guys for being with me on this journey, and supporting me through everything. Your messages and love for the game always, always make every hour I spend working on Merry Crisis or CT:OS worth it. <3 Interacting with you guys is a huge part of what made 2024 so incredible for me.
I don't know if every creator is so lucky as to feel this way, but I honestly get out of bed every morning excited to read the new messages you guys have sent at night (though definitely time difference is a huge factor in this haha) and get started with writing!
This is the second instalment of the monthly dev logs that I'll be writing to keep you guys updated on what's been happening! (This was last month's.)
Read the Dev Log here!
#interactive fiction#if#choicescript#text-based games#developer's log#dev log#monthly dev log#happy new year!
81 notes
·
View notes
Text
Play as Preacher Abrams, prolific vampire hunter (and pathetic preacher) in Larkin! Demo out now!
#preacher abrams#larkin game#larkin mc#rpg#indie game#text based game#cyoa#choose your own adventure#indie game dev#text based rpg#romance game#cowboy game#cowboys#vampires#vampire fiction#vampire hunter#vampire games#cowboy fiction#vampire romance#cowboy romance#interactive fiction#twine interactive fiction#if#THERE WAS A TYPO.................AND NO ONE EVEN SAID IT...........................#except u ari.....you're a Real One
273 notes
·
View notes
Text
yk it's always something when a game borrows from middle-eastern culture, aesthetics, and mythology or just outright takes it all as the main hook, and when you check the long list of supported languages, Arabic is nowhere in sight
#yeah I'm talking about the new sultan game and many other ones#feels like they just wanted to wear a costume#“oh but the dev doesn't have recourses or knowledge”#then why the fuck are they making a game set in a culture they cannot speak or understand a lick of its language#hell i don't even care if the dev can't but the least they can do is add arabic language support in text??? I'm not asking for voice acting#if it's an indie dev and the game only has English support then sure#but when you have English French Spanish Russian Japanese and Chinese BUT ARABIC IS WHERE YOU DRAW THE FUCKING LINE?#THE GAME IS SET IN THE MIDDLE EAST GODDAMIT ITS STORY IS BASED AROUND AN ARAB MYTHOLOGY AND SO ARE ALL THE CHARACTERS#and I'm being generous by only mentioning Arabic. Kurdish. Turkish. and Persian are just as equally important#The standards bar is literally in fucking hell and yet they're failing to meet it#“but you speak English just fine” that's not the goddamn point is it??#و تشوف ستوديو عربي و تضن انه حيضيفون لغتهم الأم بس لااااااا خلي نتلوك للأجانب احسن#♧other
36 notes
·
View notes
Text
sigh...
[puts on my clown hat] alright. i need to say something.
people trying to say that trans/nonbinary representation in veilguard is the worst thing thats happened to the trans community in the last half a year (im exaggerating here but u get my point) need to sit down and ask themselves a couple of questions.
1. Are you nonbinary? If not, do you know someone who is? Have you talked to them about their experiences and what its like to not fit into the strict gender binary that permeates our society on almost every level?
2. Do you think that your experiences are universal?
if you answer no and yes in that order, then i'm going to have to ask you to please put the keyboard aside and go do some self-reflection.
Because frankly. I'm kind of starting to get sick of seeing binary people try to talk about this while completely not understanding the experience and also thinking that their personal perspective is the only true and correct one.
Like, the amount of times ive seen people COMPLETELY misinterpret the scene with Taash and Neve talking in the dining room is ridiculous.
Some things are just not about you. And that's okay <3
#valtalks#dragon age fandom critical#da fandom critical#datv positive#that scene is not about hating women. its just not#no matter how much u try to twist it to fit ur bad-faith take#like. i understood what that scene was saying fucking IMMEDIATELY#its really not that hard to grasp. and yet.#like. its not that deep. its realistic#if you want to bash a dragon age game about misogyny. how about we talk of dao. or da2.#like i love those games to bits but they did not age all that well!#and why are we treating a game published by EA of all companies as like.#something that is supposed to be on par with academic texts about the issues of patriarchy and capitalism#its an AAA game for fucks sake 😭#of course its not gona go into depth on these topics. r you like. serious rn.#what happened to the simple joy of being able to finally play a nonbinary character without having to run a constant de-gendering filter#in your head.#because there arent rly any other AAA games that give that simple joy to people in the way that veilguard does#just letting u choose ur pronouns and then forgetting about that aspect of ur character for the entire game is one thing#which isnt bad necessarily#but letting it be an actual part of your character? that you can bring up when relevant? thats kind of very good#you cant tell me that the devs didnt even try to make the trans rep in this game good#because they clearly did. and they did great#everything can have flaws everything can need improving#especially when we talk about representation of minority groups in AAA games#but why are we shitting on the genuinely good steps forward that are being made#what is this accomplishing?#like genuinely sit down and ask yourself. what is the purpose. what is the goal. what do u hope to accomplish#anyway this fandom makes me insane im going back to drawing shitposts
25 notes
·
View notes
Text
I like the little walks we can have with Theresa in kcd1 and the dialogues and and gifting her dresses (although I wish she would actually wear them during the day, not just the evening) . In so many video games, romance ends the moment you unlocked the final scene and then you can't even interact with the character anymore, there is almost 0 indication that you even romanced them. This approach in kcd is much better. She is giving me small things when i visit, i can ask her to mend my clothes, even the simple scene that repeats, where they just walk together, makes it feel like going home to the girlfriend and spending time with her.
#unlike certain games *cough cough* which shall not be named lol... from much bigger companies coming out 6 and a half years later#with over 2 times the budget (or more likely over 5-6 times the budget) while some make brilliant games from kickstarter crowdfunding lol#I know the devs said they wanted to do more for romance in kcd1 but they didn't have the funds....#but what little they were able to do they did it quite well#kingdom come deliverance#theresa#kcd#kcd mine#my post#my posts#text post#textposts#video games#theresa of skalitz
24 notes
·
View notes
Text

Hmm… This choice wasn’t in the demo 🤔 Do you think Kuras minds holding sweaty, clammy hands? Asking for a friend.
930 notes
·
View notes
Note
afaik theyre transferring ownership of forsaken so soon soul should no longer be the owner of forsaken. hope ur doing ok in these trying times
Thank you for caring about my wellbeing, I'm okay! At first I was really, really skeptical, but given the last fews days for things to span out, the new owners seem to care a lot, and have done a lot to distance themselves from Soul and apologize to the victims.
I'll stay cautiously optimistic, especially since the game got sold off to that strange third party?? I just hope the victims end up okay. They’re the ones that matter the most in all of this.
#text only#i honestly hope the remaining team are ok as well#given the fact the game was sold off without them knowing theres a chance they lose rights or get swindled depending on the paperwork#i just hope the third party isn't secretly soul#and the devs don't lose everything in the process or have to#god forbid buy it back somehow
30 notes
·
View notes
Text
Top 10 most horrifying moments in video games.
Number 3. The dastardly creature.
#gamedev#game dev#game development#vollema#wip#work in progress#indie game#games#cat#joke video to be clear. the actual text and photo here in the game are plot-related
76 notes
·
View notes