There are a ton of free TF games, especially adult oriented ones. But with so many games, how do you know which kinds are the best? Even if the games are free, your time is still a precious resource. Here is how you and find the best transformation games.
Free Transformation Text Games
There’s lot of TF games that are completely free and do no try to make money, such as highly complex game The Merging, by Xeylef . The game itself is a complex adventure that contains multi-threaded plotlines, though it appears to be unifinished.
As far as I can tell, Xeylef has no social media presence, no Patreon, no store of any kind. Their game is the only content on their site. This is the model I took for my first few years posting stories – all were free, with no social media campaign. I didn’t try to make money or promote myself in any way.
CYOC has a section called A Game of Change , which is a free, collaborative text adventure game. It does not appear to have any financial support mechanism either, although CYOC does ask for donations on its front page. A Game of Change, while an interesting idea based on an older story by writer Morpheus, suffers from the main flaw of most collaborative stories. It does not have any direction. The first choice contains nearly 100 options, as most collaborators to the project prefer starting their own story path rather than building up existing ones.
For more on these, check out the top 5 Transformation Text Games .
Free to Play TF Games, with Patreon Support
Most free TF games use Patreon or some other donation service to provide them with cash from backers. With donations comes the opportunity of the creators to invest more time and funding in their project, and as a result these are often more polished than the completely free projects mentioned earlier.
In addition to feeling good about supporting creators, donating to a Patreon can also provide other benefits. But the quality of these perks can vary widely.
Games like the TG TF game The Company by Westane, Corruption of Champions, by Fenexo, or TF Battle Cards by Apollo Seven, allow you can get access to the latest builds a little sooner. All of these games have used their funding to invest artwork, so these games are more than just text adventures.
AustinHaney6969 , the creator of The Making of a Slut, a free TF TG game, has a several unique rewards for his Patreon. At $5 a month, you get access to a poll that allows you to help determine the direction of the project. And at just $25 a month, you get to design a custom scene for the game. Austin also promises a refund if he can’t find a way to implement your scene idea. This one seems like a great value for the money.
Kellianne , creator of the free TG game Life Lessons, has a similar set of rewards, with voting in polls at $5 and a custom character or scene at $25. While the reviews for their content are positive, I wasn’t able to find a working download link to the latest version of the game.
Changeling, a human to anthro TF game by Little Napoleon, is not quite as generous. They have a free to play demo, but require you to subscribe to their Patreon at $3 a month to get the game.
From playing the demo, it’s clear that Changeling’s art is beautiful, and there is quite a lot of it, so it is clear that the money is being well spent, at least.
Why Free TF Games are (Rarely) Finished
You may have noticed a common trend in many of the above projects. Almost none of these games are actually finished, and those that are playable are being extensively revised or remade. Why is that?
Paid games that are a product have a natural end point. But games which are developed as side passion projects, or which rely on donations to support a long update cycle, do not have natural endpoints. If you are being paid monthly for updates to your project, there’s no reason to consider the project “finished” and move on. (I am glad that Fenexo, at least, is doing this.)
But a never-ending development cycle does have certain benefits. For one, the fans can have a continuous impact on the story, especially with some of the more generous reward options as mentioned above. Creators can also put huge amounts of work into creating games which are massive in scope, and be supported along the way in the process.
