I've been playing around with interactive fiction, and I had the idea to create a text adventure somewhat based on <<hypnohub.net/forum/show/27776|this post>> by TheKinkyFinn.

Which leads me to ask you: what makes for a good mind-control game? Titillating graphics aside, what distinguishes a fun MC game, from a fun game with MC elements?

Huh, someone actually read that? Anyway, it depends on what you're trying to do, but overall I'd say player options are key, whether you're experiencing the game from a sub or dom perspective. If dom, they let you feel like you're actually in control, and if sub you at least should have the choice to resist or give in.

A good porn game allows you to ignore the gameplay entirely. And doesn't spend too long on plot.

This is kind of writing 101, and I assume you don't actually need this advice, but it's a pet peeve of mine, so I'll throw it out anyway:

A lot of MC fiction is about the inner details of experiences that don't actually exist. No human being in history has ever actually been shot with a hypno-ray or been driven wild by aphrodisiacs or had their memories blanked by a hypnotist, or so forth. Imagining what that looks like from the outside isn't hard, and neither is describing those scenes in the abstract...

... but what sets good MC writing apart from bad, IMO, is describing inner experiences in a way that's concrete and easy to imagine. A good MC scene can be every bit as visceral as a close-quarters brawl, or it can be a meeting of the minds, but the only way to actually bring the reader there is to describe it in terms that are actual sensations that you could have.

How to do that in practice, I don't know. I'm writing this off the cuff so I don't even have any examples of particularly good or bad scenes to show. But for a start, at the level of just looking at single words: I'd consider any use of the word "mind" (the noun) suspect. We don't experience our minds, our minds are our experience, so if you're describing something happening to the player character's mind, there's probably a more direct way to say what you're trying to say. As a bit of a more personal pet peeve, "pleasure" is a word that covers a lot of sensations in a way that makes it easy to overuse. I'm not saying that either word should be tabooed, those are just the first few I could think of that that I see used badly a lot.

if you're going the porn route, focus on the mind control more than the sex or nudity

we're not there for the sex and nudity specifically, we're there for the accompanying mind control

we could go to half a trillion other places for the basic sex and nudity porn

The most important thing is to give the characters plenty of personality, because it's no fun to rewrite someone's mind if there wasn't anything in there to begin with.

Options! A major lure of MC is being in control. So you want plenty of options as to what you can make your thralls do. Otherwise you get more the feeling that your just reading a story where you're just clicking to turn the pages.

This. I see a lot of MC games that don't really make you feel like a dom. Choice makes all the difference.

First of all, thank you for the feedback, everyone! The consensus seems to be giving the player a lot of options and opportunities to interact via MC. One of the gameplay aspects I've been considering was allowing the players to implant triggers on hypnotized characters, which should work fairly well towards that goal. So I'll definitely try to include that in my text adventure.



I have to partially object to the idea we can't experience our minds, because we do have a certain degree of self-awareness. We can tell when we're mentally tired, whether we're focused on something as opposed to bored of it, and so I wouldn't exclude it altogether.

In the particular case of hypnosis, all of my experiences being hypnotized I felt an objectively different state of mind, I usually describe it as being stuck inside my own head. But from an artistic point of view, I can understand where you're going. It's difficult for a reader to feel mind controlled when they're not being mind controlled (as far as we know), but it's easy for them to appreciate the sensations that might come with it.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*scratches tin foil hat* wha?

Pretty much seconded. Unlike regular smut, where you can often rely on simply the physical sensations of erogenous zones, with mind control it's often imperative to go deeper (pardon the pun). Consider painting with words, engage those mirror neurons and the five senses. Describe a familiar sensation in an unusual or even impossible manner, like the feeling of having your brain gently caressed with velvet gloves, or a soft, soothing hum reverberating through your body. Strange as it may sound, horror can be a useful reference for this as it too relies on making the reader experience something (in this case often the exact opposite) through a combination of previous knowledge and imagination.

*Edit* Hell, there's nothing stopping you from using that not only in narration but in dialogue, now that I think of it. Might add that extra layer if the sub's being told to experience the same thing by a wordsmith dom.

Giving the player more options as they gain more control / control more people might be obvious, but it stands to be repeated. I also think that good cause/effect setups are very valuable too. When you start mind-controlling characters, the story can go in a LOT of different directions very quickly. That makes things actually unpredictable, not just for your protagonist but also for the player. Taking advantage of that creative space can be really fun, but I find many games have twists that end with a result that's too fixed - while you might need certain characters to remain close to the main character, those situations should present hard choices for your player, driving them to exercise their authority more often / more carefully, or to spend time find something that will help them.

Good gameplay.

It may sound like a no brainer, but if I'm playing an MC *game*, I want the game to actually be *playable*. No amount of good writing can save an unplayable game (I'm looking at you Last Demon Hunter!).

I'm looking at you Last Demon Hunter!

I'm not 'calling you out' or anything, but I wanna hear your concerns with that game. Mostly to see if they match with mine.