I've been thinking of combining two things I love, game development and story writing.

So currently I want to work in a project that its main thing is to offer an interactive story telling to the player, the focus is on engaging the character in the story, with choices being important, as depending on the dialogue options the player chooses, the way the story goes will change much, leading to multiple different 'paths'. It's a game that has no 'camera', or a 'being' the player controls, but rather the player chooses what to do by selecting out of possible options that are presented through dialogue interface.

But while I think that the story itself will be interesting enough to keep players wanting to see what will happen next and keep playing, I have some doubts, and because of these doubts I try to think of ways to enhance a game like that, perhaps with features that traditionally belong to other genres.

What kind of activities or other gameplay mechanics could I add to a text adventure game ?

Hmm... I thought of adding puzzle mini-games, when the player's character would have to do things like hacking a terminal for example, but their usage will be limited, as such actions happen just a few times in the game's plot.

Will the whole thing have a combat system? Some of the old text adventure books, like Lone Wolf, had a fairly well developed combat system.

If your focus is on story and you're set on a text format, it might be best to add mechanics as they add to the story you're developing rather than choosing some arbitrarily at the outset. What kinds of challenges and story events will the player encounter in your game?

I'm inclined to think that players who pick up a text-adventure are likely to find text-adventures interesting, when well-made; I'm not convinced that a text-adventure calls for additional mechanics in order to hold the attention any more than a shooter calls for puzzles in order to keep players interested.

However, that shouldn't be taken to mean that text-adventures can't benefit from new mechanics--just as a shooter can benefit from puzzles, if they fit well into the game, I feel.

Additionally, I agree with Khaiy, I believe: additional mechanics should probably stem from the story that you have in mind, rather than being forced into it for no further purpose than to add mechanics.

All of that said, one idea does come to mind: ASCII-exploration.

In essence, this would have the player moving about, exploring an environment from a top-down perspective, using ASCII symbols to represent features, as in games like Rogue. It could be separate from the text-adventure gameplay--say a catacomb into which the character descends at a specific point in the game, before and after which is standard text-adventure fare--or an alternative interface, with the top-down view on one side of the screen and the text-adventure descriptions on the other.

Finally, I rather like Cyril's suggestion of combat--perhaps something similar to the system in the tablet version of Sorcery (see here and here (with regards to the latter, sorry that it's so late an episode in the series, but it was the only one that from a brief look seemed to clearly include combat)).

I recently have been pondering too on new mechanics for a text adventure. Some things occured to me that may be useful for you depending on your story and your overall project.

One thing I thought of was the introduction of text art in some points of the game. Something like THIS

It doesn't need to be necessarily interactive, just another tool you could use.

The idea I envisioned had more to do with a simulated chat in which you would talk with different character and solve some sort of puzzle. In this case I would change the background and font colors for each character you are interacting with in different "rooms".

Maybe you could have some king of "mind control" on the player in which no matter what they typed, a predefined text would appear on screen.

I liked a lot the idea of Thaumaturge of the ASCII-exploration, it would definitely be a good surprise to have that somewhere in the game.

Anyways if I think of something else I will gladly share, I think text adventures have so much more to give.

I've been thinking of combining two things I love, game development and story writing.

So currently I want to work in a project that its main thing is to offer an interactive story telling to the player, the focus is on engaging the character in the story, with choices being important, as depending on the dialogue options the player chooses, the way the story goes will change much, leading to multiple different 'paths'. It's a game that has no 'camera', or a 'being' the player controls, but rather the player chooses what to do by selecting out of possible options that are presented through dialogue interface.

Yesterday, I came across a 10 minute video about moral choices in video games. Because your primary focus is on the game's story and choices, I think it'll be helpful to you.

[media]https:

As far as gameplay suggestions go, you might be interested in a game called Sanctuary RPG for inspiration. Determine which parts of your story are the most interesting, and try to turn those moments into interactive gameplay. Whatever they might be, build the minigames around your story (a game called Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors does this). I'm not sure what genre you're writing (science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, etc.) or what your story is about, so I wouldn't be able to provide any specific recommendations for minigames.

Good luck!

On Rye