Apex Rising (WIP) (Chapter 1 completed 137k words)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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You were supposed to be a reserve.

Then the seat opened.

Apex Rising is a motorsport IF about a young driver entering Marlowe Racing’s M-24 programme and fighting to prove they belong in Apex 2. Whether you arrive as an outsider, a prodigy, or a legacy driver, the question is the same: can you survive the jump from promising prospect to professional race driver?

Race, train, navigate team politics, survive media obligations, build a life in the Apex Quarter, and decide who you want to become when everyone starts paying attention.

Summary

A last-minute opportunity changes everything when you’re unexpectedly promoted from reserve driver to a full-time race seat at Marlowe Racing. Thrust into the spotlight of Apex 2, you’ll spend your rookie season fighting to prove that you deserve to be there—not just to your team, but to rivals, fans, the media, and yourself.

Every race weekend brings new challenges: fierce competition on track, pressure from within the paddock, and relationships that can shape your future as much as your results. As your reputation grows, so do the expectations. Will you become a fan favourite, a ruthless competitor, a respected professional—or something else entirely?

Choose whether you arrive as:

The Outsider — You fought your way into motorsport without the advantages others take for granted. Every opportunity has been earned.

The Prodigy — You’ve spent years being told you’re the future. Now it’s time to prove everyone right.

The Legacy — Your surname already means something in racing. Whether that’s a blessing or a burden is up to you.

Features
  • Play as male, female, or nonbinary.
  • Customise your driver’s name, nationality, appearance, and personal details.
  • Choose from three distinct backgrounds with unique perspectives and relationships.
  • Develop your reputation through pace, racecraft, professionalism, confidence, and technical feedback.
  • Build friendships, rivalries, and romances both inside and outside the paddock.
  • Shape your public image through interviews, media appearances, and race performances.
  • Navigate team dynamics, engineering meetings, simulator sessions, and life as a professional driver.
  • Explore the Apex Quarter and meet the people who will become part of your new life.
RO’s

Rowan Hart | M or F | 21
Role: Best friend

The person who has known you the longest and remembers who you were before racing became your entire life. Rowan has been there through the setbacks, the victories, and every questionable decision in between. Familiar, dependable, and impossible to impress for very long, they’re one of the few people who treats you exactly the same after your promotion as they did before it.

Cassia Vale | F | 22
Role: Teammate

Your teammate at Marlowe Racing and the driver everyone expected to lead the programme. Cassia is talented, disciplined, and fiercely competitive, with little interest in making things easy for anyone. Every comparison between the two of you matters, and every result has the potential to shift the balance between cooperation and rivalry.

Luca Marchetti | M | 23
Role: Rival driver

One of Apex 2’s most respected young drivers and a constant threat on track. Luca is confident, intelligent, and rarely says anything without a reason. Whether he sees you as competition, entertainment, or something more complicated remains to be seen, but he has a habit of getting under people’s skin.

Kai | M | 21
Role: Neighbour

A fellow young driver living in the Apex Quarter. Friendly, energetic, and easy to talk to, Kai brings a sense of normality to a world that often feels anything but. Beneath the humour and easygoing attitude is someone dealing with the same pressures and uncertainties as everyone else trying to make a career in racing.

Mira/Milo/Morgan Kade | Selectable | 27
Role: Journalist

A journalist covering Apex 2 who quickly takes an interest in your story. Intelligent, persistent, and difficult to avoid, they have a talent for asking questions that matter. Building trust with someone whose job is uncovering information may prove more complicated than either of you expects.

Elian Cross | Selectable | 29
Role: Physio / Performance Coach

Calm, perceptive, and grounded, Elian works closely with drivers to keep them performing at their best. While others focus on results and headlines, Elian pays attention to the person underneath them. Their support can become invaluable, though opening up is often easier said than done.

Hi there this is my first IF, so I’d really appreciate any feedback, especially on bugs, pacing, if something clearly doesnt make sense or the writing itself. Enjoy!!

DEMO HERE

23 Likes
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Okay, okay, this has my interest for sure. I’ll give this a go in 2 hours when I’m free.

EDIT: I checked it out, liked it, and will be playing more when more comes out.

I can’t yet put pictures in my post, so I’ll give more concise feedback when my trust level increases.

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you have a good start here and your writing is solid, its pretty clear you what youre talking about… i understood none of the racing jargon

though i think you may want to look at your stats, i got a lot of fame seeking despite choosing no options that should give fame… and a couple the should have definitely given me grounded

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I liked the overall language, the premise of the story, it was fine to read as well. Would probably like specifics on what “setback” i experienced as a prodigy, was it an injury, a family situation for example (maybe suddenly forced to take care of our sister), i got into a fight and was blocked from sport temporarily e.t.c.

That said, i know nothing about racing or cars, and as an outsider to this whole thing i felt extremely lost and reading the walls of text during the actual race meant nothing to me, same with the choices, i just picked whatever sounded more reasonable (i think). I might not be the target audience for this and it’s fair enough, it is what it is, but i am curious about this and would like an opportunity to read it comfortably without having to research entire racing world for this and how this works.

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It’s interesting but I unfortunately know very little about racing. I didn’t know what any of the choices were testing/raising and it felt like a few might have been doing the opposite of what they seemed? I can’t view the code, but I’d love to if it’s enabled later.
Maybe a brief description of racing styles/terms somewhere in the stats menu? And an option to enable a mode to add what is being used/raised in parenthesis on the choices?

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Well as the someone who does know the jargon, I’m enjoying it a good bit. Having a lot of fun picking options true to my actual habits.
Have a couple questions, one kinda pointless and silly another bit less silly but doesn’t super matter and may get answered later since I’m still in that opening race, but since I’ve not finished figure ought to wait just in case I get an answer. Have kinda burned myself before jumping the gun asking something because I didn’t want to forget to ask, just to get answers a page later

Bleh I’m gonna ask because I’m not finishing before going to bed, might as well in case they aren’t answered

silly early questions

In the suit up, no HANS device? Was just a tiny thing I noticed not mentioned. And the less silly pointless question, what type of car are we racing? It’s implicitly open wheel with the comment on the front wing, but technically not specified (at least not yet) and was curious

Oh and minor problem I noticed was, selected they/them and the stats screen says male. Again may be an early comment and maybe there’s a separate gender selection (distinct from pronouns) later so it’s just filled in with a default like it does in a couple other spots, but want to mention in case not and so I don’t forget

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Hi, I’m about halfway through the game right now - just picked my character and background. The theme is really interesting. So far, the text narration is smooth and the commander and my friend character are well-defined. There might just be a few small issues though.

First of all, I didn’t understand the beginning part - there were too many technical terms, and I’m not a professional or a racing enthusiast or anything like that. Maybe you could consider adding some explanatory content? I really have no idea what the different options at the start of the story are and what they do.

Secondly, because I didn’t understand the text, I couldn’t appreciate how exciting and intense the beginning of the competition was, nor could I feel the joy and excitement of the final victory. All I could grasp was that the protagonist made it into the top three, and that’s where my understanding stopped. I was like an outsider, unable to continue reading the story.

Overall, I’m really interested in the theme of the work, but the scientific aspect overshadowed the literary part, making it hard for me as an outsider to get into it. Maybe you could consider adding a beginner’s guide or try rewriting some of the content that won’t affect the work’s professionalism?Just some personal thoughts,just for reference- if you don’t like it, please ignore it and don’t take it to heart.

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Yeah true, thanks for pointing that out. Fame-seeking definitely shouldn’t be going up unless you’re actively chasing attention or hype, so I’ll rebalance those stats and make the grounded options clearer.

Yeah that’s fair. I’ll look to make the setback an actual thing you pick with a bit more depth not just vague backstory.

Good spot actually, I forgot to mention the HANS device, so I’ll add that into the suit-up bit. And yeah, the car is meant to be an open-wheel single-seater, so I’ll make that clearer earlier instead of just relying on the front wing mention.

I’m also going to make the racing side easier to follow for people coming in fresh. I still want the game to sound like motorsport, but guys getting lost everytime the story is read isnt it. I’ll add a proper terms section and some optional help around the more technical choices.

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Hello, does anyone know what is moody.diy? What is the difference between the cogdemos? It’s the second time in a week I’ve been stumbling upon it. As someone who was kind of forced to create a cig account after dashington went down, I’m not sure how trustworthy this one is. I don’t want to create an account, but at the same time worried about what will happen to my saves.

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I think moody dot diy is a test server? At least, that’s all I could find through the forum. Either way, I’d encourage the writer to have their demo also on cogdemos as there’s some people who visit the site and don’t frequent the forums, so those people may stumble across it. It’s the writer’s choice ofc

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Gender selection appears broken. Regardless of what is chosen, the MC is tagged as male.

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@Specs as previous posters have said gender is set to male in both stats and boticed it when I just came up to the pre announcement in game.

Apart from that havebt encountered any noticeable errors and im enjoying the story so keep it up. :grinning_face:

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I have something I’ve been wondering about, do they (MC) always end up in the third place in the beginning? Is it canon or can you get the higher ranking as well?

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Is this based on F1?