For personal reference.
Since this VN does not have a goal of wild commercial success, I’d rather create a game that I would enjoy! Based on a discussion with Joe wherein we discussed gameplay in hybrid VNs (narrative vs. “mini-game” or ~actual game components).
I’m not interested in arguing fine points of categorization. The point for me is an overview of my preferences in games I enjoyed and find memorable. The answer was a bit surprising!
Numbers are not rankings. They’re alphabetized. Literally so I can keep count of how many games in what category. 🙂
gameplay-centric
- Balatro
- Castle (MS-DOS)
- Chess
- Chinese Checkers
- The Crew
- Doom
- Eye of the Beholder II
- Fluxx
- Gloomhaven
- Golden Axe
- I Love Hue
- I Love Hue Too
- M.A.X.
- Mechabellum
- Minesweeper
- Munchkin
- Realms (Virgin Interactive)
- Red Alert
- Silent Death
- Slay the Spire
- Space Hulk Death Angel
- Sprawlopolis
- Starfighter (Yskari Games)
- Star Realms
- Turing Machine (board game)
- Wolfenstein 3D
- Yomi
leaning toward gameplay
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd ed.
- Azure Bonds
- Desolate and its first two expansions
- Diablo II
- Dungeon Solitaire: Labyrinth of Souls
- Dungeon Solitaire: Tomb of Four Kings
- Fights in Tight Spaces
- Gateway to the Savage Frontier
- Hades
- Pandemic
- Race for the Galaxy
- Regency Solitaire
- Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
- Space Quest III
- Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition: Crisis
- Warhammer 40,000
leaning toward story
- Colostle
- Creature of Havoc (Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Steve Jackson)
- Delta Green (TTRPG)
- Fallen London (formerly Echo Bazaar)
- For a Change (IF, Dan Shiovitz)
- Legend of the Five Rings CCG
- Lone Wolf (gamebook series, Joe Dever)
- PataNoir (IF, Simon Christiansen)
- Planescape: Torment
- Pytho’s Mask (IF, Emily Short)
- Shade (IF, Andrew Plotkin)
- Slouching Toward Bedlam (IF, Dan Ravipinto and Star Foster)
- Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! (Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Steve Jackson)
- Thousand Year Old Vampire
story-centric
- Coming Out on Top (visual novel, m/m romance)
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- Lifeline
- The Magic of the Unicorn (Choose Your Own Adventure)
- Slay the Princess
…that’s right! I tilt strongly toward gameplay rather than narrative. Upon reflection, perhaps that makes more sense than I’d realized. I often want to play videogames or TTRPGs to fight things or think happily about small-unit tactics…because my day job (…writing novels) involves being steeped in characters and narrative all day long, so I need a break so my brain can recharge. :3