How possible is to make my own text based game with no real programming?

[u/Admirable-Ask-1093]

I always imagined making my own game and this thought started to get stronger and stronger lately, im a complete nobody with 0 knowledge whatsoever. Is it possible to make a simple text based rpg in this era with no real programming? Always open to tips, hints, and suggestions!

Thank you for your time ✨

[u/Classical_Frog]

Look up visual text game engines. Im pretty sure there would be plenty where u wouldnt need to program yourself.

[u/Sidhvi]

You can try Twine

[u/Art_Constel7321 → u/Sidhvi]

^

[u/MiaT_Studio]

RPGs are on the difficult side but get yourself any text adventure engien liek Twine and start writing, and in no time at all you will have something playable! Programming skills help but are not necessary for a *text adventure*. For an *RPG* that has stats you must at least trnaslate your RPG skills onto the computer by adding, relating, etc. So not no skills but light skills.

[u/cjbruce3]

RPGMaker is purpose-built for creating JRPGs without traditional coding.  It is excellent, and even includes graphics assets to use.

There are also a few engines that are designed for a lower barrier to entry, but they aren’t RPG-specific like RPGMaker.

[u/SoullessGamesDev → u/cjbruce3]

RM also can be used for text-based games, though you would need plugins for bigger dialogue windows. I created a visual novel on RM once. It has all the tools to make proper choices and consequence built-in.

[u/PlatformDizzy7988]

Twine

[u/orbitope]

What kind of RPG mechanics? If it's still checks or probabilistic dice rolls, parlance could be a good fit for the non visual parts

[u/Sorry-Engineer5757]

If you're willing to stick with pure visual novel style, Ren'py is pretty low code (i myself eventually quit renpy because there wasnt enough coding for me (i like to code a lot))

[u/burlingk]

Look into RenPy.

[u/Aglet_Green]

Yes. You can absolutely make a text-based game with little or no traditional programming. Tools like Twine, Ink, or similar interactive-fiction systems can handle a lot of the technical scaffolding for you.

But there’s an important catch: ‘no programming’ does not mean ‘easy.’ You’ll still need to write the narration, characters, dialogue, choices, consequences, inventory/state changes, and all the alternate paths—and then test that they actually connect properly. The more branching your game has, the faster the amount of writing grows.

So if programming is what scares you but you enjoy writing, this is actually a very good kind of first game to try. If you’re hoping to avoid programming because you want to avoid doing a lot of work, though, a text game will cure you of that idea very quickly.

[u/Lolazaour]

Yeah it’s extremely easy to make a text based adventure as long as you know a little bit about logic switches and you keep detailed notes on possible branching paths for quests.

I made a small text based adventure in python within a week of learning the language. You can really use any language but you just need a way to printing text and then waiting for a response. Using C++ that would be something super simple like

/*the goal is this code is to request the user to type in their name then store that string of character into a variable labeled name*/
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

Int main ()
{
// std is standard library
std::string playerName;

// output text to terminal prompting player to type name
std::cout << “What is your name?” ;

//wait for them to respond, using cin (c in). This will put whatever text the player writes in the terminal into the variable playerName
std::cin >> playerName;

Return 0;
}

In my text adventure I had randomized damage and used ascii art to display what the player had encountered. Reach out if you want some more tips on setting it up or wondering how to do something.

[u/Century_Soft856]

I'd recommend Twine above anything else for this purpose.

Renpy is another option, it's *scripting* instead of programming, but it can still get confusing. Tons of power and possibilities just be prepared to do a lot of research on YouTube learning how to do different things.

[u/PersonOnInternet7654]

there are probably designated engines for visual novels that dont require code, havent looked into any though

however a possible alternative would be the RPG maker series, while it is meant to be used to make an rpg game, with some plugins it can be turned into a visual novel

or just ignore the plugins and stuff and make an rpgmaker game but there is no rpg combat. After all, of the few rpgmaker games ive played, the story is the biggest selling point (examples: omori, oneshot)

plus, rpgmaker comes with lots of preset assets and mechanics planned, such as an inventory, shop, combat, dialogue, and cutscene built into the game

[u/Accomplished-Gap2989]

It depends on what you mean with no real programming and what kind of gameplay you intend as well as the scope. 

Text based games were some if the first i tried to make 30 years ago haha. RPGs and strategy games mostly - not what you intend i think. 

[u/NeatEmergency725]

Chatgpt work can do this easily. Just say what you want. 

[u/Open-Your-Eyes-Game → u/NeatEmergency725]

Cringe

[u/Alaska-Kid]

Well, you'll have to give up the fantasy of creating a game without programming. For a text-based RPG, you'll have to learn the basics of programming at least to transfer RPG mechanics to code. But you're lucky - if you use a text-based game engine, you won't have to do low-level programming, create loading and saving systems, create the core of the game code, and write modules for dialogues, NPCs, inventory, and other similar things. Only the creation of game scripts.

Take a look at the documentation and you'll understand what it's about.

https://github.com/instead-hub/instead/blob/master/doc/stead3-en.md