What kinds of games might you recommend with deep worldbuilding and interaction that aren’t RPGs?
I like worldbuilding and stories, and I like when they’re mixed with the interactivity of games, so RPGs seem like they should be a natural fit. Problem is, I dislike the stat-heavy, grindy progression of many RPGs.
I enjoy point & click adventures and visual novels but they’re often more limited in their interactions. What kinds of game might I be missing combining the two?
Have you explored text adventures / interactive fiction? They’re even more niche than VNs but there’s some good ones out there. I remember liking Worlds Apart back when I played it. (15+ years ago…
o___o)One of these days I should go dig back into them again.
I have, a little, and have enjoyed those I’ve played, but I’m also fond of more visual art in games, so on the text heavy front I lean towards point and click adventures and visual novels more.
However like yourself, I tend to think I should play more of them, see what they experiment with and push boundaries on.
Btw you might check out The Trackless if you like interactive fiction. It mixes some light text parsing with a 3D adventure game, making for a unique experience.
Thanks. I’ll check it out.
BTW, I thought of another game that might be of interest to you. Have you seen Not for Broadcast? It’s an unusual game where you play as the controller in the studio switching between multiple video feeds of actual actors presenting the news on TV. You get to make choices about what to show, what to cut, and what ads to play in your broadcast – which affects the world in an exaggerated fashion. The game timeskips to show you how things play out over the years. There’s some distractions that make it a bit more gamey than a VN but you can turn most of them off if they’re too annoying, I think.
It sounds kinda familiar, but I don’t know if I have or not. I’ll have to look into it!
I’m also bookmarking Worlds Apart to check out later, so thanks for both suggestions!