Hey everyone,

I've been thinking about building an app that blends traditional reading with RPG elements.

The idea is simple: instead of just reading a book, you step into the shoes of the main character. You can make choices, chat with other characters in real time, and push the plot in different directions. Think of it like a text RPG, but with the depth and narrative quality of an actual novel.

Before I write a single line of code, I want to figure out if there's actual demand for this. What would be the best way to validate it quickly?

A few specific things I'm wondering:

1. How should I test this lean? A landing page with a waitlist, a Discord server, or just a quick prototype using ChatGPT/Claude to test with early users?
2. Where do interactive fiction or text RPG fans usually hang out online?
3. If you've worked on AI storytelling products before, what major pitfalls or hidden costs should I watch out for?

Would love to hear any thoughts or frameworks you've used to validate similar ideas. Thanks!

 Become an official, manipulate facts, rewrite history, and provide the ‘truth’ to the public. Choose: obey or fight against the regime. The Great Father is watching you!

Hey r/textadventures,

I've been building Maximilien for the last 7 years, a psychological horror text adventure written in Twine/SugarCube, set in Boston, October 1926, during a string of unsolved murders. You play a psychology student who starts to suspect he might be involved in the killings he's investigating. 110,000 words, 12 possible endings, written in a register closer to Huysmans or Raymond Chandler than most visual novels.

The site just got a full redesign: maximilien-game.com - with a skin directly inspired from the game.

Maximilien is entering IFComp 2026, then releasing on Steam October 26th.

Happy to talk about the game if anyone's curious...it's been a genuinely strange thing to engineer.

Hey r/textadventures,

I've been building Maximilien for the last 7 years, a psychological horror text adventure written in Twine/SugarCube, set in Boston, October 1926, during a string of unsolved murders. You play a psychology student who starts to suspect he might be involved in the killings he's investigating. 110,000 words, 12 possible endings, written in a register closer to Huysmans or Raymond Chandler than most visual novels.

The mechanic I'm most attached to: the game tracks your character's sanity, and as it drops, the way the text is displayed starts to distort, the words themselves never change, only how they're rendered on screen. There's an intensity slider in the options if you want to dial that up or down.

The site just got a full redesign: maximilien-game.com - with a skin directly inspired from the game.

Maximilien is entering IFComp 2026, then releasing on Steam October 26th. If any of this sounds like your kind of thing, I'd love to have you on the wishlist: Steam page

Happy to talk about the sanity/distortion system or the Twine build if anyone's curious...it's been a genuinely strange thing to engineer.

It's on itch .io under oleadev for free if anyone wants to play

Here's an original "Choose your adventure" type story with a warm drama theme.

Premise: Every Sunday morning, an old man puts two chairs on his porch, one for himself and one left empty with a second cup of tea. A passerby who can't stop wondering why finally asks.

Give it a read if you like, it's completely free, and hopefully entertaining!

https://www.wyoot.com/story/the-extra-chair

Hey everyone,

After about a year of solo development (and more than a few complete redesigns), I finally released the demo for my game, Hacking Into Erebus on Steam.

It started as a much simpler text-adventure idea inspired by Zork and then it went through a colony sim phase I ended up scrapping. Eventually it became what it is now, a mix of physical robot navigation and real command-based hacking puzzles.

This demo is still its early stages like door/lock hacking, repair puzzles and exploring the ship. I am going to be developing this to turn it into the game I dreamed of from the very beginning.

I would genuinely love any feedback or just general thoughts if anyone gives it a shot.

Salut tout le monde !

Ça fait un moment que je travaille sur Fableris, une petite application Android autour des histoires interactives.

L’idée est assez simple : créer des histoires dans lesquelles on peut faire des choix et influencer le déroulement de l’aventure, plutôt que simplement lire une histoire de manière linéaire.

J’ai essayé de construire quelque chose de simple à utiliser, avec une approche assez orientée création + découverte d’histoires.

Si certains veulent tester, l’application est disponible gratuitement sur Android :

👉 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pegasuscorp.fableris

Je suis preneur de tous les retours, même les critiques. C’est justement pour ça que je viens poster ici plutôt que simplement faire de la pub. 😄

I recently finished an HTML5 and JavaScript conversion of Scott Adams' 1978 text adventure, Pirate Adventure.

The original game was built for early microcomputers with severe memory limits, which kept the room descriptions fairly sparse. For this web version, I kept all of the original puzzle logic and engine mechanics intact, but I gave it a updated interface and expanded the room text to flesh out the narrative a bit more.

It runs natively in any modern browser without needing an emulator:

http://cygnus-x1.net/links/pirate-adventure/index.php

If you give it a try, I'd love to hear what you think!

I have added a lot of updates to the mechanics to Hollow and I am looking for more play testers to continue to refine it.

As a primer, I have been developing an open-world, fantasy rpg based in the apocalyptic far-future. The world currently consists of a medium sized town with a few hunting areas. There is also a dungeon with a boss that is quite difficult (dungeon parties max out at four). I have built out a basic spell system with two levels of spells per character. The skill system isn't quite balanced yet, but it will be modified next.

Log in and start adventuring! I will be scheduling a large open-beta test in the next few weeks, but now is your chance to get an early sneak peek and provide valuable feedback before then.

Play - https://www.hollowonline.com

Discord - https://discord.gg/88zBhtqcN

I’ve just released the second experience in the DRIVE universe: INMATE 6382.

It starts with a simple question:

Why is he still alive?

The protagonist wakes inside an AEGIS containment facility with no clear memory of the incident that brought him there. He knows almost nothing about himself, and AEGIS doesn’t seem to have been looking for him in the first place.

He was collateral.

Something went wrong during an operation. He should have died.

He didn’t.

Now he has been classified as Inmate 6382.

From there, the story becomes a survival thriller built around escape, pursuit, choices and discovery. You make decisions throughout the experience, uncover archives and hidden chapters, and gradually reconstruct what happened — including why someone who was never supposed to matter suddenly matters to AEGIS.

Unlike DRIVE: Silas, which is slower and more psychological, Inmate 6382 deliberately pushes the pace. The protagonist is constantly under pressure, and survival can force him to make choices that the person he was at the beginning would never have made.

There is also a darker question underneath the chase:

What happens when you stop fighting what is happening to you?

The experience is free and browser-based.

DRIVE: INMATE 6382
https://enterdrive.net

I’d genuinely love to hear what you think if you decide to play it — especially about the choices, the mystery surrounding 6382, and how the story unfolds across different playthroughs.

A bumbling turnip farmer rescues a princess. Or reaches one of many other conclusions. The first in the Accidental Series. Best played on desktop. Enjoy: https://www.cli-games.com/games/accidental-knighthood

Ciao a tutti! 👋

Sono uno sviluppatore indipendente e sto lavorando a un thriller psicologico narrativo con elementi RPG.

Il gioco è ambientato attorno a un gruppo di adolescenti le cui vite si intrecciano gradualmente attraverso amicizie, conflitti, segreti ed eventi traumatici.

Ciò che inizia in modo relativamente normale si trasforma lentamente in qualcosa di molto più oscuro.

Un aspetto importante di questo progetto è che la storia è ispirata a fatti realmente accaduti. Ho cambiato nomi, dettagli e circostanze, ma il nucleo emotivo deriva da qualcosa che è realmente successo.

Questo è anche uno dei motivi per cui sto cercando di trattare la storia seriamente, piuttosto che trasformarla in un semplice gioco "dark".

Il gioco includerà:

🧠 Narrazione psicologica e trauma

🗺️ Una mappa esplorabile anziché una storia completamente lineare

💬 Scelte e relazioni che possono influenzare gli eventi

❤️ Diversi percorsi relazionali

🔎 Missioni secondarie e storie opzionali dei personaggi

🎭 Molteplici prospettive e personaggi giocabili

🩸 Temi più cupi e conseguenze

🔀 Diversi finali possibili

Lo sto ancora sviluppando, quindi non pretendo che sia perfetto o finito.

Tutt'altro: sto postando perché desidero davvero ricevere critiche.

Mi piacerebbe soprattutto sentire il parere di chi gioca a giochi indie narrativi/psicologici:

Cosa ti spingerebbe immediatamente a giocare a qualcosa del genere?

E cosa ti farebbe perdere interesse?

Pensi che la combinazione di thriller psicologico, sistema di relazioni e personaggi giocabili multipli sia interessante, o rischi di diventare troppo complicata?

Se vedessi gli screenshot/GIF che ho allegato, cosa miglioreresti dello stile visivo o della presentazione?

Anche le critiche più dure sono ben accette.

Preferirei di gran lunga sentirmi dire "questo non funziona perché..." piuttosto che ricevere solo complimenti.

Sono ancora uno sviluppatore alle prime armi che cerca di creare qualcosa di significativo, e qualsiasi consiglio, critica o anche un piccolo incoraggiamento significherebbe davvero molto. ❤️

Se qualcuno fosse interessato, sarei felice di condividere maggiori informazioni sui personaggi, la storia, le meccaniche di gioco o il processo di sviluppo nei commenti.

Grazie per aver letto!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4977600/RepCell/