The Novelist
Skip · Narrative · 2013
The verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 38, under the fair line, at $4.99.
- Cost per hour▼
- $2.08/hr
- Reviews▼
- 75% of 1,041
- Critics
- 66 players 9 higher
- Genre rank
- Top 40% Narrative
Holding it back: Reviews, Cost per hour
Why
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 2.4h
- To 100%
- 3.1h 1.3x the story
Price and sales
- Sales
- 68 on record
- Typical cut
- 80% off
- Steam low
- $0.74 December 2019
- Sale every
- 56d last October 2026
Players and genre
- Online
- 0 now
- Cheaper than
- 59% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 47% of its genre
Price and player charts
The value story
The value story
It has been discounted 68 times in the 13 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 80 percent, about 8 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended about 4 weeks ago.
Its score sits in the top 40 percent of its genre. Among the games that feel like it, Myst ($34.99, scores 43) beats it on value, while it beats Layers of Fear 2 (2019) ($19.99, scores 21).
More about The Novelist
Critics scored it 66. Players sit 9 points higher at 75 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.
Inside the two-hour refund window, 69 percent of the 150 reviews written there were positive, against 75 percent overall, and those are 27 percent of everything written about it.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Next discount: likely in the Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4, at about $0.99 (80% off). Predictions like this were right 87% of the time when tested on 70 past weeks.
Discounted in 6 of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last discount ended 31 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
What players say
Chill and thoughtful. Would like to play more games like this. Thanks for reading.
1 more review, not recommended
I cannot recommend this game, for a number of reasons. The game *is* visually pleasing, with a pleasant art style, the story seems to be well-written, and the game runs well on a Windows 10 machine with no tweaking needed (no need to run in compatibility mode). That said: Accessibility is bad. Very small text, difficult to read, even at 2560 x 1440 . No Text or UI scaling options. Only resolution options (max is...
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
About the game
The Novelist asks one central question: can you achieve your dreams without pushing away the people you love? The game focuses on Dan Kaplan, a novelist struggling to write the most important book of his career while trying to be the best husband and father he can be.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, 256 MB VRAM video card, 799 MB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
No data upstream: achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
The Novelist scores 38/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/245150/the-novelistReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Nov 1, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.