You, an international man/woman/person of mystery, have been tasked by the secret spy agency you work for to infiltrate a casino and track down an agent of a nefarious enemy organisation. But there is more going on here than you know. Whether you solve every problem with high-tech gadgets or your suave charm, you’ll need to be on your game to make it through this mission.
Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned Awoken. But Awoken is too big and too developed to really be able to mess around with coding just for the sake of it. So this is kind of an experiment in several things: using gosubs, writing to the CoG-guidelines approved three-choice minimum without things getting too branchy, and writing a plot that merges back into itself while still giving enough choice to be interesting and allow for replays.
This is a short story and complete. For now. I’m tempted to continue at some point in the future but I need to write more Awoken first.
EDIT: Also, don’t lose all your money at the roulette table before you’ve done anything else, as this will get you stuck. That bug’s difficult to code against.
Romance: sort of? There’s a Bond-girl type character in there
Customisation: Yes, but only the basics, name, gender, plus your general spy style
Scars: No, the story’s not that long/in-depth
I assume I’m not the only one who grinned like a loon when you found you can get the game to say “Bond, James Bond.” on more than one occasion. But good premise, I like it.
Serious question though for those who’ve played: do you think it works as a proper choice game (in minature)?
Part of the reason for making it was to explore how to use skill stats in a way that doesn’t punish the player for not picking their best option every time, but still has an impact so it doesn’t make the stats seem pointless. Hence how your escape method is determined by your highest stat, but you can’t fail and get eaten Would you be happy with a similar scenario in a longer game, or would it feel too much like railroading?
I think it works. I like having a character that can have more than 1 defining skill and is maybe okay at one other thing but you’d never use that other skill it in case you fail. Sure, you’ll still rely on your best skill in dangerous situations but if you wanna solve problems in other ways than you can.
And, this is my opinion, but I don’t think it’s railroading. Your not forcing the character to do something they wouldn’t do if you’re basing it off the stat the player has favored the entire game. It’s still based off the player’s choices, just off the ones they made throughout the same.
Something I was thinking about with regards to Angel: I know some people still like villains as love interests, but mostly when a villain has a romantic subplot it involves them turning towards good again. I kind of like the drama of having the love interest who is just a terrible option and stays like that, but would anyone go for it?
I would be ok with a villain LI, but only if they get redeemed.
I would be ok with a villain LI even if they don’t get redeemed.
I don’t think the relationship even has to be doomed–I’d super love it if you two even stayed on opposite sides of the metaphorical fight, just sort of flirting and doing whatever levels of post-flirting action the MC and Angel are comfortable with in the midst of your duels of wits–stuff like them kissing you and leaving you in a deadly trap they know you can get out of, you cuff them and bring them in even though you know they know a way out halfway to wherever you’re going, just kinda keeping up the cat and mouse with some level of implied commitment.
I do think that towards the end of however much you want to do, you ought to give the MC the option to jump over to Angel’s side, or at least ditch their own for the sake of getting a more solid relationship with them. I get that that would have to kind of end the story, but as a sappy romantic I think the option for an (admittedly atypical) happily ever after would be nice
This is the issue - I’m pretty sure that Angel is the kind of person who would leave you in a deadly situation where you might actually die, just as a kind of test. You’d never really get the ‘retire and settle down’ kind of happy ending.
Eh, still, I stand by it. “Retire and settle down” isn’t the happy ending I pictured anyway, you can still have a compelling romance with one person being a genuinely not good person. It’d be kind of nice if it would be possible for like, actual romantic feelings and some level of caring to come into the relationship, but I think it’s sort of a given that classic running off into the sunset of white picket fences and 2.5 children isn’t really a thing that’ll happen
Please do not revive opened [edit: WIP --JSH] threads that have had no activity for over 3 months. We want to keep active and regularly updated Works in Progress high on the activity listing so volunteers will help test those.
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