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I get tired of having to play as a guy in most games. I read a comment on Guenevere (great wip here) about how it was kinda annoying to be forced to play as a girl which made me realize that not everyone has had to pick a different gender/race/orientation in a game. So for me the option to pick a gender is a relief. Sure sometimes its just pointless fluff but I don’t think removing those options would help.

As for game recommendations, the best stories I’ve found are here but otherwise I’d recommend delight games Paladin, Magium, and maybe playing the free demos/wip so you can get more of a feel for the game. On playstore if you make a purchase I think you can get a refund in a set amount of time. There are horror games on the app store that follow the same formula as well as the lone wolf gamebook (if you can ignore the fact that lone wolves are the weakest wolves).

Otherwise browse around here https://forum.choiceofgames.com/c/off-topic/other-interactive-fiction most free text adventures I’ve seen are, well, not good.

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@mjhuntley For me it’s no question. It doesn’t matter what kind of game I’m playing, I want that fixed state world. It bugs me and takes me right out of a game when everything is too obviously a set piece on a stage being arranged around me because I Am Protagonist.

One of favorite RPGs of all time is Morrowind, because it’s still such a great example of a game world that doesn’t care about you at all. You’re just some n’wah fresh off a boat and the NPCs are wholly unimpressed. The main quest has to be hunted down and even then Caius is just like ‘whatever noob, here go buy yourself a new pair of shoes I guess and then get back to me when you’re worth something’. The world is full of stories and adventure and fabulous loot but if you’re not willing or able to go after it, tough luck. Most of the game’s content is not at any point going to throw itself into your lap.

A game like King of Dragon Pass where you have to learn about the culture and THINK like a magical Viking lord if you want to get anywhere because your RL sensibilities are completely out of place is also fantastic. That’s actually the one that got me into choice - based fiction in the first place.

e: oh and quick question for you guys. What would be the most appropriate board to babble about plot ideas and story plans and the like? The WIP section and Game Development seem to be for projects that are a little farther along, so maybe Writing?

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Well, as you mentioned, when playing a specific, semi-historical character, gender-locking seems obvious. So of course Guenevere would be gender-locked female, while the Mordred WIP would be gender-locked male. Then there are historical games. I’m a bit more wary about it, because “historical accuracy!” to justify gender-locking is a card some are rather quick to play, and not always justified in doing so. That being said, there are cases where it is definitely justified. I believe there’s a WIP where the MC is a soldier fighting on the western front during WWII, thus male gender-locking doesn’t seem out of place. Finally, there’s the case of having gender identity being a vital part of the plot. Let’s take @Moxie 's idea of the MC being a girl aspiring to become a paladin despite in a world where it is extremely uncommon at best. Here, the MC gender seem to drive a good part of the plot, and thus, once again, gender-locking seem obvious - from what I read, the story simply wouldn’t work with a male MC.

When neither of those elements are present… I think that’s when people can begin to question whether or not gender-locking the story is necessary.

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I stick all my random thoughts in the ‘mother’ Game Development board.

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Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time as well! It definitely had an overall aesthetic (both graphically and gameplay-wise) that’s rare to find in contemporary mainstream games these days.

I think it’s worth pointing out though that Morrowind is a game that let’s you pick your gender and appearance purely for fluff reasons. As far as I’m aware, nothing in the game changes significantly or even moderately based on your gender, and certainly not your appearance (that is, the specific head and hair combination you pick. Of course your race and birth sign affect gameplay). The game isn’t concerned with interpersonal relationships but instead focuses on actions within the world, and because it’s never brought up, the player’s orientation and gender identity never become something that needs addressing.

Your paladin story sounds super interesting by the way, Moxie. Looking forward to seeing how it manifests as a CYOA game.

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I completely understand your feeling! I have the very same frustration I want meaningful choices and that if it’s in any setting but current contemporary times. Example of the Broadway one that takes place in 1849 NYC none binary gender choices. Understand gay or lesbian and the character being closeted.

Hands-down my favorite strategy games ever! You have to learn the culture of the mythology legends the mindset of the people to actually be successful in the game.

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Well, I’ve never felt like I couldn’t like and enjoy and respect a book or movie because the protagonist belonged to different groups than me. I have, however, felt really excited when books or movies have been about gay (or other LGBT) people, because I feel more included. It’s nice to feel like people like me exist in stories :slight_smile:

Yes, this! Well, with some caveats and exceptions :thinking: but generally speaking :smile:

Mainly what bothers me are situations in which choosing to have a character be female and/or belong to a minority results in a worse story. Depending on the setting and situation, sometimes some differences can work well, as long as they don’t cross that line. (Things like “heterosexuals can be happy and find love, while gay people are doomed to misery and loneliness” for example, would cross it.) I also rather like options like in Slammed! where there was an optional plotline for a female main character to tackle sexism, but you weren’t forced to deal with the discrimination storyline if you didn’t want to.

I do also think stories dealing with discrimination can be useful and powerful, but it would generally make more sense for those to be specifically focused around that, which would be a different writing experience altogether.

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In fairness to @AnneR, there have been a couple of WIPs where the protagonist’s gender has a meaningful impact on the story.* And they were both well received by the forum community. So, I’m not sure it’s true to say that there isn’t a demand for games where gender is more than a purely cosmetic choice.

I’m also a bit sceptical of the idea that the protagonist needs to share the reader’s gender to be relatable. For example, I’m very capable of enjoying @jeantown’s excellent Guinevere. My enjoyment of her work wouldn’t be increased in any way if she allowed the reader to create a male protagonist. Similarly, some of the readers who seem to be enjoying my own work on Mordred the most are female.

  • IIRC, one was inspired by Game of Thrones, and the other by Robin Hood.
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This indeed - and in my case, it even seeps into other games, which I personally think is good - I rather spend money on something that gives me more choice and even connections to the characters there in than to linear stories where you cannot even affect the attitude of the characters. I won’t be a, ahem, telltale but yeah, there are those out there, lying every time. Not CoG, though.

Sometimes I find myself thinking CoG games are short, but I believe that is another credit to them - I simply want more, just like when a good book (or film etc) ends. I don’t want it to end, I want more!

I don’t buy many games, already being picky, but I buy most CoG games (and hosted). Why not all? I don’t care for the setting, usually, or I find something in the demo I don’t care for, so I pass.

On another note, for me, character creation is an insane plus - more so if people react to some aspects of it, be it big or small - and to go to a well known game where it doesn’t matter on the whole (wish it affected more, like in previous titles) - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Did I spend too much time there? You bet your wholly socks I did. So I love myself some custom characters.

Lack of gender choice often leaves me, well, cold? I find it odd. Can not explain why, but there it is. And one gender, unless it is my own, is even worse, I fear. Why? I be a curly little pigtail if I know.

Branching stories is something else about CoG, by the way - not splitting and never meeting, but diverting and then rejoining in a wholly natural fashion. That is, for me personally, another huge appeal as I love replaying games unless they are 100% linear with choices of no consequences (see above).

Oops, all out of rant! :sweat_smile:

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I think I remember something about one of the specific reasons ChoiceScript is pretty awesome, belayed branching or something?

As in, they can offer a lot of choices which still have an impact of the game by letting paths diverge later on, saving the create hundreds (or more) hours creating content many aren’t even like to see!

And I loathe Delight Games, the whole system of lives and coins and shizzle, especially since it encourages them to make unhelpful choices (like go left or right, if left you die) so we buy more stuff, a terribly annoying positive feedback loop.

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Had you heard of Visual Novel ? a latest trend in interactive story…
Eternal Studio had comes out with some good touching story lately… but it may not be everyone’s cup of tea

One free story i would recommend is “Connected Hearts” , a truly wonderful and touching story with kindle story telling

However, i don’t mind paying for good CoG story that i like , such as Hearts of The House… which i feel every single cents that i paid is well worth it

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Well scripting for delayed consequences for choices are pretty standard in this kind of fiction to be fair, even on ChooseYourStory and of course when using Twine and the like.(Infinite Story is lacking there however…that created some headaches and a lot of tedious copy and pasting back when I used it and I wouldn’t be able to do without that option today.)

I just hope this sort of thing is simple to do with ChoiceScript because it’s something I plan to make heavy use of.

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VNs have been around for awhile, but I haven’t had very many good experiences with them. (Speaking in particular of the English ones that try to just copy the style…there are so many Japanese ones and I’ve only played a few so not nearly enough to speak to their quality.)

Cinders was decent, probably my favorite of the English ones I’ve played, but the problem with VNs is that choices tend to be so limited. The more you have the more art you need, and again, they don’t tend to be available for free because artists are expensive.

I have a friend making one now except it’s about a lesbian wizard special agent enforcing contracts as well as being some kind of criticism of capitalism…and because EVNs tend to have such a niche audience and nothing about it panders to the folks who just want cute waifus or whatever all her market research has convinced her it will do terribly and so she’s just resigned to losing all her money now lol.

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@Moxie
The VNs offer by Eternal Studios are currently free and i already finish 2 of them…and i love both of them, i believe the Studio is a Spanish company and the original story was Spanish , they slowly translate them to English and Russian for now… the amount of text actually quite limited as compare to CoG, each page only consists of few lines, however the appeal was that it was in a style of direct interaction (first person perspective) and the story mold well with the background music which they done it so nice to sooth the feeling of the story…

the one i like the most is “Connected Hearts” , however i admit it required a lots of patience to read through it page by page, and like you said…not many available choice, you need to make the "correct " choice in order to reach the end, which you only have 2 possible endings…

one more thing is that you need to really put your full involvement of mind and imagination into it, (meaning you treat the characters with you utmost care) in order to cherish it, hence it certainly isn’t everybody cup of tea…

and i admit, the ChoiceScript actually is a better way of getting your story told, in a more convenient and economic manner to reach out to your audience, i can’t imagine the amount of time and resources if you want to convert a good story in a VN manner , especially when many readers expect to read it for free…it is certainly not fair to put in such amount of works when the author doesn’t get any return at all…

and another thing, i also notice that most VN are applying the Japanese Cartoonish style of graphic where they depict most characters in a “cartoonish” manner which i believe not suitable to some of the western stories …

For example, if your background is the Victorian or Arthurian Era, i can’t imagine the characters being depict into a cartoonish manner , this is my personal taste and opinion of course…

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For anyone seeking a fresh approach to IF, this may appeal to you:

‘To Be or Not To Be’ Steam Store Link

It’s an interactive comedic re-interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It includes optional narration for the whole book, and a huge number of routes and options in the game - highly recommend it.

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There’s some awesome (and also some terrible) free VNs on Steam and itch.io. You’ll have more of a selection if you aren’t exclusively looking for female-oriented romance (my preferred genre).

Mostly I am here to be shameless and say that I will happily volunteer to be PM’d regarding 18+ interactive fiction sites.

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Then try House in Fata Morgana. Which is the first visual novel I ever finished and spoiled me in the say way Sandman Watchmen spoil me to Graphic novel. The bar is bloody high now. If both reversed a lot of stereotypical visual novel tropes that inherits from the medium. Especially have plays off the blank slate protagonist also the game I highly recommend going into blind don’t even watch the trailer don’t go to the site the least you know about it the better. It’s only flaw considering the stories are multi-generational is that none of the dialogue is appropriate to the time. And that’s just because you know Japanese have no clue how people spoken spain during 18th century. Are the American dialogue during the reconstruction. And it’s other major flaw is the first story is the most predictable it’s great once he gets going but it’s the most predictable. All of the stories have this Gothic feel to them and a real good classical sense. Plus arts gorgeous and is very removed from the anime art style.

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It’s not free though, it is pay to play.
It personally didn’t appeal to me, but as everything it’s likely to be highly variable depending on your taste in if literature, as it does have a very positive rating and may be worth checking out if you’re a shakespeare fan.

Free game recommendation: Seedship is fun for a few playthroughs. Basically looking for a suitable planet to colonize Seedship (Looks like it’s come out on google play as well). It’s obviously randomised but if you can deal with that it’s worth a look.

(Reins also has a lot of randomisation similar in a way to seedship but more complicated, where you draw cards and try and complete missions with the choices you make. It is pay to play though https://www.devolverdigital.com/games/view/reigns )

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Ah woops, totally missed the ‘free’ bit, my bad. You’re absolutely right, it is kinda subjective! For me I laughed a lot playing through it, and enjoyed it so much I took the time to 100%. But the humour and style will certainly not appeal to all as it’s not a mainstream-style production.

Mate Seedship is top! Didn’t expect the mechanics to flow so nice, that was great! Thanks for the share!

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I read the paper version of To Be Or Not To Be and laughed a lot too. :slight_smile:

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