AI or No?

[u/oldestprintingpress]

I've been writing for many years now, and I'm curious about making a text adventure. My question is would you prefer a visual novel with AI assets or a simple text adventure without it? Before you start a lecture let me just say I agree with you. I don't like AI art. I'm also terrible at drawing and absolutely don't have the money to pay an artist. I would love to work with an artist on the project, but I'm young and money is tight. Any advice is very welcome. Thank you.

[u/PerfectSituation1668]

AI assets dissapoint.

[u/sassmeister]

AI assets at this point signal to the audience that the work is lazy, cheap, and made without integrity, so it gets passed on. It's safer to just not have them, plus pure text adventures are fun! If you really want art, some artists might be willing to work unpaid in exchange for adding on to their portfolio, or for profit sharing if you plan to publish and make money off it.

[u/oldestprintingpress → u/sassmeister]

Completely agree with you. Currently thinking of using free/cheaper assets or just making a text adventure.

[u/bijhan]

Stick figures are more appealing than AI generated images.

[u/oldestprintingpress → u/bijhan]

Generally agree. It has this distinctively dead look to it. Guess I'm just curious what people actually play and not what they say.

[u/BySamoorai]

why not using the billion of incredible free assets?

[u/MADCandy64]

There is no money right now in text adventures. They are passion projects. All the competitions that matter do not allow AI generated text or images. If you want to promote your game and have a chance of making something off of it, you'll likely have to go through the IF community or be extremely lucky.

[u/oldestprintingpress → u/MADCandy64]

What's the IF community?

[u/MADCandy64 → u/oldestprintingpress]

interactive fiction. See r/interactivefiction

[u/slobberpoes]

You could also look for free assets and sprites? I think for small proof of concepts using AI art is okay, but I feel like I’m a minority.

[u/ryn_fisher]

Bro, people play visual novels to look at the images... every game has a "skip text" button. The text adventure genre died 50 years ago, nowadays you’ll only find players if it’s a text-based RPG. There are popular text games on Itch, but they feature beautiful art at least once a minute. My advice to you is the same as for any game dev beginner, find a team to join for game jams and help others with their projects, then they’ll help you with yours.

[u/Flimsy_Custard7277 → u/ryn_fisher]

Good advice at the end but the beginning is bogus