You’ve seen the screenshots. High-fidelity engines like Unreal 5 are pumping out worlds that look more like a photograph than a digital plaything. But then there’s a quiet, persistent corner of the internet where people are still obsessed with words. Text-based games. Honestly, if you want to understand logic, narrative branching, and player agency without drowning in C++ memory leaks, learning how to make a text based game is the smartest move you’ll ever make. It’s raw. It’s basically just you and the player's imagination.
Let's be real. Graphics are a distraction when you’re starting out. When you strip away the textures, you’re left with the bones of game design: choice and consequence.
The Reality of Text-Based Development
Most people think you need to be a Python wizard to get started. That's a lie. While Python is great, you have options like Twine, Ink, and Inform 7 that handle the heavy lifting. Twine, for example, is basically just a visual map of sticky notes that you link together. It’s how games like Depression Quest or the early drafts of 80 Days were built. You write a passage, you create a link, and boom—the player is somewhere else.
It’s about the flow.
If you're looking at how to make a text based game that actually sticks in someone's brain, you have to realize that text is high-bandwidth for the imagination. A single sentence like "The air in the cellar smells like copper and wet dog" does more work than a $500 3D asset ever could. You’re not just a developer; you’re an architect of mental imagery.
Why Choose Choice Over Graphics?
Budget. That’s the big one. If you’re a solo dev, you can’t compete with a studio of 200 artists. But you can compete on writing. You can create a sprawling space opera with 50 planets and 1,000 unique characters using nothing but a keyboard and a lot of caffeine.
Don't overcomplicate it.
Start with a "Room." In the world of Interactive Fiction (IF), everything is a container. A room can be a literal bedroom, a cockpit of a ship, or a specific moment in a memory. You define the boundaries. What can the player see? What can they touch? If they type "Look at desk," what do you tell them? This is where variables come in.
Maybe the desk is locked. You need a flag—a simple true/false variable—to check if the player has the key.
if (hasKey == true) { "The drawer slides open." } else { "It's locked tight." }
That's the fundamental logic of almost every video game ever made, from Zork to Elden Ring. It’s just logic gates.
Picking Your Weapon: Tools of the Trade
You've got three main paths here.
Twine is the king of hypertext. If you want your game to live in a browser and feel like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, this is it. It uses HTML and CSS, so if you know how to style a website, you can make your game look incredible. It’s non-linear by nature.
Inform 7 is weirdly beautiful. It uses "natural language" programming. Instead of writing code that looks like a math equation, you write: The Kitchen is a room. The stale bread is in the Kitchen. The bread is edible. The compiler understands that. It’s designed for "parser" games, where the player actually types commands like "Get bread" or "Go North."
Python (Ren'Py or Custom) is for the control freaks. Ren'Py is technically for visual novels, but it’s a powerhouse for text-heavy games. If you want to build a complex RPG with stats, inventories, and combat systems, Python is the way to go.
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The Pitfall of "The Infinite Story"
New devs always do this. They try to account for every single thing a player might do. You can't. You shouldn't. If you try to write a response for every possible typed command, you will die of old age before you finish Chapter 1.
Focus on the "Critical Path."
What is the one thing the player must do to progress? Build that first. Then, add the "flavor text" for the obvious distractions. If there's a giant red button, people will press it. Have a response ready for that. If there's a random decorative vase, just give it a generic "It's a dusty old vase" description and move on.
Structure and Branching (The "Diamond" Method)
A common mistake when learning how to make a text based game is creating a "Tree" structure. The player makes a choice, the path splits. They make another, it splits again. Within four choices, you have 16 different endings to write. That’s a nightmare.
Instead, use the Diamond Pattern.
The story splits for a moment—maybe the player chooses to be rude to a guard or polite. They get a different dialogue scene (the split). But then, both paths lead back to the same destination: the prison cell. This "bottlenecking" allows you to give the player a sense of agency without actually doubling your workload every five minutes.
Keep track of those choices using "State."
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Instead of writing two different versions of the entire game, just write one version that changes small details based on the player’s history. If they were rude to the guard earlier, maybe the guard doesn't give them a hint later on. One variable ($rudeness = true) can change sentences throughout the whole script.
The Importance of the "Verbs"
In a text game, your verbs are your mechanics.
In Call of Duty, your primary verb is "Shoot."
In a text game, it might be "Investigate," "Lie," or "Persuade."
Decide early on what the player is actually doing. Is this a mystery where they are gathering clues? Is it a survival game where they are managing "Hunger" and "Warmth" variables?
Let’s look at a real-world example: A Dark Room. It starts with a single line of text and one button: "Light fire." That’s it. By clicking that one button, you trigger a sequence of events that eventually leads to a complex resource management game and a sci-fi mystery. It’s brilliant because it introduces one verb at a time.
Don't dump a manual on your player. Give them one thing to do. Let them do it. Then give them the next.
SEO and Getting People to Actually Play It
If you’re putting this on the web, you need to think about how people find it. Google Discover loves "interactive" content. If you host your game on a site like Itch.io or your own domain, make sure the landing page is rich with metadata.
Describe the vibe. Use terms like "Interactive Fiction," "Choice-based RPG," or "Text Adventure."
People search for "Browser games to play at work" or "Short story games."
Putting it Together: A Practical Workflow
Stop planning and start typing. Seriously.
- The Hook: Write the first 500 words. Make the player want to know what happens next.
- The Variable: Introduce one choice that matters. Save that choice in a variable.
- The Loop: Create a sequence where the player has to achieve a goal (find a key, talk to a ghost) to unlock the next area.
- The Polish: Go back and add sensory details. Sounds, smells, the feeling of the wind.
You don't need a fancy UI. You need a compelling hook.
Think about 80 Days by inkle. The brilliance isn't in the map; it's in the character of Passepartout and the sheer volume of cultural detail in every city. They used a language called Ink, which is open-source and incredibly powerful for narrative branching. If you're serious about this, go look up the "Ink" documentation. It's the gold standard for modern text-based games.
Realities of the 2026 Market
We are in an era of "Low-Fi" appreciation. People are tired of 100GB downloads and microtransactions. A text game that loads instantly and offers a deep, emotional experience is a breath of fresh air.
Don't be afraid to be niche.
Write a game about being a Victorian lighthouse keeper. Write a game about being a sentient piece of malware. The more specific your "hook," the more likely you are to find an audience that actually cares.
Actionable Next Steps
Forget about the "perfect" idea. It doesn't exist.
- Download Twine (it's free). Spend exactly 20 minutes making a "Room" that connects to a "Hallway."
- Pick one variable. Make a door that only opens if
$has_coffee = true. - Read the masters. Play Photopia by Adam Cadre or Counterfeit Monkey by Emily Short. See how they handle space and objects.
- Export to HTML. Host it on Itch.io for free.
- Share the link. Get one person to play it and tell you where they got stuck.
The barrier to entry has never been lower. You have the tools. You have the words. The only thing missing is the actual game. Get to work.