Text-based pet simulator
This game will be a text-based tamagotchi. You are in charge of the wellfare of some sort of pet. The only interface with the pet that you have is a parragraph of text, the last sentence of which describes the pet’s untimely death. By editing the parragraph before the last sentence, you can delay and change the pet’s cause of death. The ultimate product of the game will be a biography of the pet’s monotonous, useless existence.
| ASDF died dry as a husk, the sides of its cage scratched bare in a desperate search for water. He only lasted a few days.ASDF was given some water. | ASDF died of terrible hunger, tiny ribs showing through his patchy fur as he feverishly gnawed at his own body. ASDF’s life barely lasted a couple of weeks.
ASDF was given some water. Then, ASDF was fed. | ASDF died rotting alive in his own fetid waste. ASDF didn’t even make it through a month of your care.
>> Wash
>> Feed
>> Give water
Modular sex explorer
This game is an interactive sex game where you chose from a cloud of words to construct an invented reproductive process in a modular fashion. This cloud generates an animated representation of your non-traditional (or traditional if you are a complete dullard) sex-act. The words you choose from are a combination of organs, actions, and adjectives.
Fleshy + torpid + tendrils + stroking + entwining
This is an interesting idea but since we are using Twine to tell our stories, how will you incorporate animation into it? And what is the story behind this idea?
I find the interactive pet idea more do-able, and the way that the story progresses along with how it is phrased/written will provide strong entertainment. It may be very linear, seeming to give the ‘player’ to merely solve problem after problem. What would happen if the pet was thirsty and i choose ‘wash’ instead of ‘give water.’
Modular sex-explorer seems to be more interactive and curious, but I’m not sure how you would make so many animations or images that would correspond well with such a large variety of words.
I’m confused about the implementation of the modular sex explorer. Is this just a series of photographs which can be selected by the correct series of words? It seems to me that the Tamagotchi is a better option, but I think it could be expanded beyond your current food/water/hygiene response to a less linear one.
The purposeless gameplay of the Text-Based Pet Simulator makes it seem too obvious that it is a social commentary rather than a game, but this might be because I’ve read your explanation. I would try to disguise at first that there is no ‘end goal’ other than to prolong your pet’s life.
The concept of the Modular Sex Explorer is intriguing, but I wonder how interesting/exciting the final product will be to a player. I would like the words to interact in some more complex way than just to be placed in sequence.
Out of the two I am more interested in the sex one but at the same time I find that the sex one is much less of a story and more of one of those quizzes you take to see what you are. I like the idea of the image being taken from the cloud to best represent it, but I feel as though you lost the story aspect of it.
As far as your tamagotchi story I think it is creative and uses the idea of out of chronological order really well. I would like to see something more though. Perhaps visuals? or something not so linear? But at the same time it is a tamagotchi so there isn’t much to do there anyway.
I think the modular sex explorer is very funny, but I’m curious as to how animation will work its way in here if we’re using Twine. Despite that obstacle, I really want to see this work somehow. Perhaps an in-depth paragraph a-la “50 Shades of Grey” describing what is taking place?
The tamagotchi thing is pretty hilarious, and I’m reminded all too awfully of my own struggles with the stupid-ass creatures. It’s just as much a biography of your own useless actions as it is of the pet’s meaningless existence. You will need to get a little more involved and complex than basic needs, obviously.
Now, I’m not sure just what the capabilities of Twine are, but I think the second idea is doable, if very ambitious. You either need to have relatively few possibilities or a damn lot of time on your hands to cover all animations (perhaps Flash would allow for modularity?).
I see the first option as having more potential in terms of being a narrative. I don’t really see much branching for the second, except in the word chioce, that would lend itself to the structure of a CYOA. I think if you want to use this second option, you will need to explore more events that could lead up to making the various choices and eventually the sex-act.
I think the first idea is interesting because it seemingly gives the user the ability to actually help write the story of his/her pet, instead of just choosing some options that will lead to a predetermined outcome. This suggests to me that the text has some awareness that it is being played which is an interesting dynamic. A few ideas I think you should explore further in the development of your game if you choose option one are:
1) does the user get to decide his/her pet? does it even matter what type of animal it is? does the user have the opportunity to name it/build a relationship with it before the fact that the pet is going to die is know?
2) have you considered graphics for your game? since you are basing the idea off of a tamagotchi, you may want to use basic graphics following that visual style.