Would you pay $10 for a CYOA RPG?

[Tavernking]

CYOA = Choose Your Own Adventure
This is all assuming the story isn't shit of course.

 

[Orma]

Well, some people here already paid more than 10 dollars for Age of Decadance.

 

[Mastermind]

rpg with no attributes is an oxymoron, that's what distinguishes it from any other genre

 

[MRY]

Generally, Choice of Games puts the price-point for these at $5. It looks like there are some priced around $10. So I'm sure that if you can deliver, you can find some people to buy it, though perhaps not on the Codex.

Doing it without attributes is silly, though. (Leveling up is a different question.) I'm unaware of any commercial pure CYOA without stat tracking.

 

[Efe]

i wouldn't pay that but i enjoyed reading some of free samples from android store..
like mry said they all had attributes or scoring in some form or other.

 

[Siveon]

Generally, Choice of Games puts the price-point for these at $5. It looks like there are some priced around $10. So I'm sure that if you can deliver, you can find some people to buy it, though perhaps not on the Codex.

Doing it without attributes is silly, though. (Leveling up is a different question.) I'm unaware of any commercial pure CYOA without stat tracking.

I've played one actually, it's called "Choices that matter" on mobile.

It's basically just a digital version of a few CYOA novels. Also, CYOA novels.

 

[MRY]

My sense from reading Emily Short's coverage in this space is that the overwhelming majority use some kind of stat tracking, but I defer to your experience. Incidentally, you can get all of the Sorcery! games on Steam for <$10 right now: http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/1581/Steve_Jacksons_Sorcery__The_Complete_Collection/

 

[Bester]

I once bought Choice of the Vampire, but never finished it after realizing the outcome of any decision is impossible to guess, rendering any decision making irrelevant.

Are there any CYOA that aren't like that?

 

[Urthor]

I thought that there were already a bunch of CYOA RPGs and nobody gave a shit so they went into the magical pile of very good point and click adventure games that nobody plays

 

[Tavernking]

I once bought Choice of the Vampire, but never finished it after realizing the outcome of any decision is impossible to guess, rendering any decision making irrelevant.

Are there any CYOA that aren't like that?

Nothing infuriates me more than stupid shit like that. Combat encounters where you have to choose between 'punch him in the head' 'shove him in the chest' or 'kick him in the shin' then it gives you a totally random outcome and you could have never predicted which one was the right answer. There's no strategy or decision making it's just guesswork and seeing what happens.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Which would then make that game RCYA. RNG Creates Your Adventure.

 

[MRY]

There's a long tradition to CYOAs being guesswork. The Choice of ... titles are a little different in that for the most part they don't have fail states, the choices are less about picking an optimal solution and more about picking a solution that expresses your character. Depending on the writer, that works better or worse. I found Choice of the Deathless delightful, since it's set in a law firm, but otherwise I've only played the initial free portions.

I really liked the Lone Wolf games back in the day, and around 2005 I played through many of them. They get a little old after a while, but I think they do a really nice job of having "chunky" skills that make you seem cool, interesting choices, and generally engaging adventure stories. The choices are a little random, but there aren't many insta-fail options, so it's more like picking paths in a P&P RPG than picking dialogue options in a cRPG.

--EDIT--

Also, FG does have insta-fail choices, but I try to make them sufficiently obvious that if you pick them you deserve your fate. I think it keeps the player honest to have some risks like that.

 

[Night Goat]

I won't spend a dime on any game that doesn't have some multiplayer component I'm interested in.

 

[SCO]

The thing most of these games fail at is not the no attribute thing, but the 'simple' (it's not) matter of interactivity and sequence breaking.

You know how on a (good) rpg you can do quest X before quest Y and vice versa and the results are narratively different (more than a matter of statistics, but those are not to be neglected too, as my current shameful powergaming replay of Bloodlines shows where i'm delaying all the side quests to get maximum xp after getting a +XP item near the end).

Yeah, that rarely happens on CYOA, digital format or not (multiple paths appear more often). Very rarely will a game of this kind incorporate a map and allow you to 'get back'. Because this takes possibly even more work than on a normal game, and the logical problems of sequence breaking are just as unpopular for devs as in normal games.

Fabled Lands is basically the only example. If you don't count King of the Dragon pass as a CYOA, which i don't.

 

[MRY]

I believe Sorcery! had that element.

I actually find the forward-motion of these games one of their key charms. It whats makes them feel like pulp adventure stories to me, in contrast to RPGs where it never quite makes sense that the hero is stopping to engage in all these side quests rather than focusing on the main thing. How often in a fantasy story do the heroes circle back, except for the grand Return stage of the hero journey?

 

[Luckmann]

I voted for the second one, because if it doesn't have attributes (but not necessarily level-ups, but the answer baked them in together; in fact, I would probably prefer it if such as game didn't have levels or experience, except possibly from one arc to another or one chapter to another, etc.) I wouldn't consider it an RPG. It would just be a CYOA game.

Which isn't necessarily bad, but I'd definitely be much more interested in a CYOA RPG, where my character would turn out tangibly different as the adventure evolve, and not just the narrative changed in minor ways.

Beautiful illustrations, especially for scenery, would definitely be a huge plus, but not strictly necessary. I mean, this actually goes for most books I read too, and none of them have illustrations and it's just fine. Would just be a big fat bonus.

 

[Bohrain]

Picked the illustration option. I feel that you are underutilizing the strengths of the medium if there is no visual feedback and I have a hard time imagining there would be enough branching content to justify "mere" text.

 

[Tavernking]

I won't spend a dime on any game that doesn't have some multiplayer component I'm interested in.

How have you survived on the codex this long?

 

[dream expert]

I won't spend a dime on any game that doesn't have some multiplayer component I'm interested in.

How have you survived on the codex this long?

He probably means he can pirate any SP game he wants, and MP being something you might have to pay for.

Generally, Choice of Games puts the price-point for these at $5. It looks like there are some priced around $10.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/375130/Tin_Star/ - $5
http://store.steampowered.com/app/339350/Choice_of_Robots/ - $10

 

[MRY]

Yes, Choice of Robots was the $10 I was thinking of.

 

[Tavernking]

I won't spend a dime on any game that doesn't have some multiplayer component I'm interested in.

How have you survived on the codex this long?

He probably means he can pirate any SP game he wants, and MP being something you might have to pay for.

Generally, Choice of Games puts the price-point for these at $5. It looks like there are some priced around $10.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/375130/Tin_Star/ - $5
http://store.steampowered.com/app/339350/Choice_of_Robots/ - $10

AHAHAHA that fucking trailer. The game is entirely text based! Without graphics! Or sound effects!
Wow, a game without graphics or sound effects? This will revolutionise the industry!

Most of these CYOA games look like shit by the way.

 

[SCO]

Yes, Choice of Robots was the $10 I was thinking of.

BTW, MRY if you like Lone Wolf, you'll probably like this version of it. It has 'alternate rules' and extra items properties in combat so it's not always a no-brainer to use the sword.

https://www.projectaon.org/staff/david/

 

[Neanderthal]

Yeah Seventh Sense is more than worth a tenner, just remember to pick Animal Kinship in Fire on the Water, fucking Helghasts.

 

[Tavernking]

While this thread is alive I'm going to ask a similar question. Does anyone know what the genre is where you can type what you want to do? And any modern games like this? For example, you see a box. You think of what you want to do (no prompts) and manually type 'open box' or 'destroy box'.

 

[Luckmann]

While this thread is alive I'm going to ask a similar question. Does anyone know what the genre is where you can type what you want to do? And any modern games like this? For example, you see a box. You think of what you want to do (no prompts) and manually type 'open box' or 'destroy box'.

As far as I know, that's not a discrete genre, it was just a staple in early adventure games, but was eventually replaced by mouse/interface options, and later with contextual interaction, almost universally.