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https://itch.io/t/1763600/twine-games-with-character-customization-part-1
https://itch.io/t/1910939/twine-games-with-character-customization-part-2
https://itch.io/t/2424612/twine-games-with-character-customization-part-3
A lot of these are Work-in-progress, but some are quite far along, such as this series which has 2 and a half season already:
https://13leagues.itch.io/
Thank you for the other recommendations, I feel like Iv tapped into a whole new genre and market of games iv been mostly unaware off, something I didnt really think possible at this point.
Choosing which game can be a bit overwhelming since there are a lot of titles from Choice of Games and Hosted Games, but you can try the demo for free to see if you like the writing before buying them.
I'd be happy to recommend stuff. Just let me know which genre or vibes you like, but I'm quite easily impressed, so the game might not be technically good XD, and I'm biased towards more romance-focused games, ha ha.
Another big thing I forgot to recommend is 'The Interactive Fiction Database (IFDB)'
https://ifdb.org/
This website allows you to browse and search a lot of interactive fiction with links to the games or the store that sells them. One easy way to start is to browse by highest rating first.
Lastly, another website with free stuff is: https://chooseyourstory.com/
Have fun! :D
I dont really know what to expect from other games as I kinda have a feeling that Arcedie is unique in its quality and as that is the first game in the genre for me I dont want it to neccessarily inform all of my expectations, but considering I found it absolutely wonderful (except Ariana dying, which I just cant get over :() so even if the other games provide only half the fun and excitment it will still be worth a buy.
Im also looking for story and romance focued games, the writing in Arcadie really fleshed out the characters and made me care, and I would like something similar.
I dont particularly mind if its scifi or fantasy or any period really as long as it is engaging and none too dark, im not one to go looking for bad endings.
I decided to give The Soul Stone 1 and 2 a try next, not only does it seem interesting from the info about it, the reviews are mostly in line with what I would be expecting and its also quite long with a sequel ready to go once I finish, something I would kill for with Arcadie :D
Anyways, thanks for the recommendations, its greatly appreciated.
Here are other similar games I've played from CoG and Hosted games.
All of them are at least 300,000 words long. I prefer longer games and book series.
I guess you can just try the demo before buying any.
Fantasy genre
- 'The Sword of Rhivenia': Low fantasy, book 1 already out, book 2 early in-progress.
-'The Golden Rose: Book One': Another low fantasy, alternate history in 'medieval 'spain. book 1 completed, book 2 early in-progress.
- 'A Crown of Sorcery and Steel': high fantasy, kind of like a Dungeons & Dragons party adventure. Stand alone book.
The following are not 'medieval' fantasy but I think they are good, especially with romance.
- Wayhaven Chronicles: Probably the most popular romanced focused Hosted Games title. Modern day vampire and supernatural stuff. Gender selectable ROs. book 1 & 2 out with book 3 releasing in April.
- 'Werewolves: Haven Rising' and 'Werewolves 2: Pack Mentality' 2: modern day werewolf game. 2 books out, book 3 early-in-progress. I love this one. great action and romance.
'Keeper of the Sun and Moon' and 'Keeper of the Day and Night': romance in a magic fantasy school. Book 1 and 2 out. Book 3 in good progress.
'Creme de la Creme': high-class boarding school romance. There is another game in the same setting coming out but not a direct sequel.
Other work-in-progress with free demo that already have good word count. The forum is great for keeping up with upcoming releases.
Love♡Verse: 270,000 words. Purely romance-focused game. Gender-selectable ROs.
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/love-verse-chapter-5-is-finally-here/122464
Vendetta: 233,000 words. Gender-selectable ROs.
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/vendetta-wip-chapter-5-released-february-14th-233-7k-words-total/121247
The Bureau: 500,000 words. Gender-selectable ROs.
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/wip-the-bureau-chapters-1-3-500k-words/99993
Golden: Book One: 300,000 words. Gender-selectable ROs.
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/golden-book-one-updated-october-27th-2022/92187
I have more stuff to recommend, but this is a long enough list XD, ha ha.
Have fun! :D
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/save-manager-and-editor-for-steam-open-source/107649
Not too big on vampires and werewolves, I do love supernatural stuff tbh I cant help imagining twilight when thinking of these two staple supernatural beings and it kinda puts me off :D Nothing against it, its just not my cup of tea.
But I will give it a go if I try the demo, that is if I ever get through the rest of these.
Everything else does sounds very interesting. I think I will prefer the ones with some overarching plotline, over just pure relationship drama but it really depends on how well its all written, execution really does trump just about everything in my book.
In your opinion, how well does Arcadie stack up against some of your other favorite titles? Im curious what you thought of it.
Thank you for the save editor, will that also work for Arcadie or is this purely for the Hosted Games etc.?
I like the other games about as much as Arcadie, maybe slightly less because I really like Arcadie, but still very enjoyable and I don't think they are technically worse of better,not that I'm a good judge of writing ;).
I also prefer a long series with multiple book, but the down side is that I have to wait longer to get a complete story, and sometimes the first book will be more of a build-up for the sequels :P.
As for the save editor, I think Arcadie uses a different engine? Also, it doesn't need one because it already has the save-load function built into the game. The save tool is more for CoG games since they don't have these function yet (although recent games have checkpoint system).
Also for some reason, Choice of Games and Hosted Games are not looked upon fondly, especially on the chooseyourstory website you recommended, they are treated somewhat like a meme, im not the best judge of writing quality either so I cant really say why.
Well, thats all just my ramblings, I dived into it a little bit and like I said before, its like discovering a whole new side of gaming, it reminds me of when I was young and reading fanfictions on random fan websites and they were trash talking each other and such :D
Anyways, so I did read The Soul Stone War book 1 and that one was quite dissapointing to me to be honest.
Mainly on account of the narrative being rather all over the place and how you barely had any agency, I was often being told how my character was feeling and even tho I could change the outcome of quite a few things, a lot, including the frustrating ending is very much out of our hands, that is part of the curse of setting up future books of your story I suppose.
There was also rather unpleasant undertone to just about all the characters and relationships, it often felt very predatory, the word was even used in the story in how they treated the character, I dont mind being made "special" but being told how attractive you are (again without my input) andh have people just throw themselves at you weirdly is rather off putting to me.
Overall, a let down, tho not a terrible experience by any means.
Siege of Treboulaine was my next try, I finished it twice and loved it, very well written and immersive for me, I fell in love with the city and its people, felt sufficiently threatened and anxious at points and heroic at others, it was a lot of fun and I loved the detailing of the magic and the city itself. I really enjoyed the different lines you get depending on your reputation with the faction or person you are adressing, often being shot down in a hilarious fasion but its really heartwarming when you are proped up and helped as well.
The downside is sadly the characters, or more specifically the romance with them. While they are completely fine as characters, as romance options they are really rather undereveloped, most of the content is accessible regardless of your route and the worst thing is that almost everything about the characters is interchangeable, with a lot of text being the same regardless of who you chose bar the name.
A separation of the story events and romantic events with your partner would have helped a great deal.
But it was seriously immense fun otherwise, having high magic here really gave me a rush and the descriptions were great, there is also a lot of intrigue for possible future story.
Now I think I will try the Buraeu you recommended (reminds me of the game) and the Captain game from Hosted games if I remember rightly, want to dip into Scifi a bit but I will explore more on the chooseyourstory website because there seems to be a vast range of different types of IF surprisingly, many of them without romance and like weird setups. Its not my first choice but I want to give something different and unique a try just to see if I can appreciate it.
And yea you were right, Arcadie is done seemingly in custom engine, Iv only tried a few different types of games so far but Arcadie was unique in its functionality, the hosted/choice games engine is a lot more cumbersone without the option to go back a few pages without the save editor (thats a life saver, like oh my god, thank you so much) and even checking your stats and such is more "annoying" process. Tho it really doesnt matter of course, thats seriously just minor bellyaching on my part :D
Yeah, I have the same criticism of 'The Soul Stone War' series, especially in book 1 where a lot of times the game decides how the player character feels about things, taking away the player's agency. I agree the overall plot is not that great. It's kind of better in book 2, but it's not a must-read. So, it may be something you play after running out of other books. For me, the series is like a 6-7 out of 10. It's still an overall enjoyable time, but nothing that special. I'm quite addicted to interactive fictions, so I need to read something while waiting for more books even if it's not that great XD.
Glad you found other books you enjoy. I wish you the best in finding more good reads :).
Have fun with reading Work-in-progress titles, such as 'The Bureau'. I like reading WIPs, but the wait for the complete book can be hard :(.
And speaking of WIPS, here are 2 others that is quite far along:
1. it's another magic boarding school theme. About 300,000 words for now with about 140,000 per playthrough.
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/the-one-chosen-wip-updated-16-2-2023/57811
2. Fantasy romance. It's on itch.io. 11 chapters out of 12 completed.
https://the-night-market.itch.io/the-night-market
The CoG Save Editor works great, right :D? As a person who is bad at tech stuff, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to use it, ha ha. I hope all goes well for you.
For me the funny thing is that most WIP demos on Dashingdon have a save-load function, but the completed games don't :P.
Have fun :D
There are a lot of Choice of Games that are incredibly good. Now, I do prefer Hosted Games - which are games by independent authors published by Choice of Games (as opposed to the Choice of Games line itself with their contracted authors). Hosted Games authors have more freedom in how to write their stories, and are not necessarily as stat oriented, which is nice for an easier time with no min-maxing (though that's not always the case).
At some point a while ago there was a drama related to the company which made a lot of authors leave and port their games to the twine engine (they usually publish on itchio), so that may also be a reason why some games are not as well noted in some places (though that's unfair to the authors in my opinion).
Anyway, if you like long fantasy stories that take multiple books, my main suggestion would be Samurai of Hyuga. Just a warning though - the story can get very dark at points. You can find it on Steam.
I'm also very biased towards A Mage Reborn, but I'm a betatester for that one so yeah. Keep in mind it's a work in progress - only the first game is released.
On itch you may want to check out the Throne of Ashes and The Bastard of Camelot (WIP too).
Dont get me wrong, I do enjoy Hosted Games, well all three that I played so far anyway, but I do see the uniformity and it does feel like some things are there simply because they are supposed to be, tho the writing is generally very good, upon further replay a lot of the game falls apart for me when I realise how much the characters are interchangeable or how shallow the relationship system is and such. The variation of the story and the roleplay do make up for it, but it does bring me down at times.
I do find the lack of save and go back options to be surprising but the save data editor I was recommended here entirely erases that issue so Im ok with it, I assume its all done so that the engine is easier to work with for the writers, which is imo laudable. That being said, without having known about the data editor, I would probably think it a bigger issue.
I dont think im prepared for something very heavy, ironically enough I think that written word is the most impactful for me with these sort of things so I am quite hesitant, no reason to give myself depression :D
But thank you for the recommendations, I will likely be looking into something more focused on character writing now as the game I just finished (Life of a Space Force Captain) left me a bit unfulfilled in that regard, tho it was very good overall.
I noticed that there is a large quantity of IF on Itch.io as well, many I have to say, the biggest annoyance, altho at the same time one of the biggest reasons for my excitement, is how spread out this genre seems to be, so many websites and so many different approaches, all these WIP, multiple books or even one offs.
So far I still havnt found IF that would trumpf my first experience with Arcadie but with the amount of choices available im sure I will strike gold at some point.
I will step outside of Choice of Games now, maybe try the Wayhaven (I think its called) from Hosted Games instead, but at the same time I want to go for Bureau as per recommendation here, we shall see. Its been exciting so far but man Iv done so much reading over the past two weeks my eyes hurt :D
As for Mage Reborn, I have checked that out a bit and it is interesting, can you give me some more info?
But well, there is more to the story of the main character than what one may think at first, and after a while things go down and take a pretty unexpected turn, to say the least.
Now... well, thing is... It's quite hard to actually tell more without spoiling the core points of the story.
Beta testers are awesome :D. I'd do it but I'm terrible at giving good feedback.
'Throne of Ashes' and 'The Bastard of Camelot' are great WIP too. I agree.
Oh, now that I re read 'theBureau', there are some heavy stuff so you might want to skip it for now. At least untill there is more content to resolve the heavy stuff.
Have fun!
I finished my first playthrough of Love Verse per your recommendation Crocoduck and it was pretty fun, thanks :)
I dont think I will replay it at the moment, I went with Noelle and it would feel kinda mean to just redo it for another route immidiately. It was quite short tho, and I feel like the 5 characters were probably too much for IF of this length, it didnt really feel like you get to know them that much, tho from what I understand the last chapter is unique to each girl which is amazing idea.
Any other recommendation like this?
Gonna dive into the keeper of sun and moon now :)
Hope you are doing well, thanks for your help as always.