Haha, that’s okay. I just can’t write ROs that make me too uncomfortable myself. 
Even supervillains can have some standards.
3 Likes
Personally, I cannot write ROs that do not make me uncomfortable in some way. Even the most wholesome love interest in my game has an intimate scene that I had to use spoilers to discuss in my thread, because it was so weird and messed up. That’s just my way.
6 Likes
Makes for prime entertainment material though, so, more, please and thank you
5 Likes
I…I kind of want examples now
Cuz like. ALL intimate scenes make me uncomfy, and I’m planning on writing them into my game, so like. ??? I should get used to this, I guess???
5 Likes
Hey, me not wanting to write ROs that make me uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and rainbows and hugging puppies shadow monsters. 
Just that I want to enjoy my writing, not be repulsed by it.
(Although there definitely is hugging shadow monsters.)
4 Likes
Once in a Lifetime - August 2024 Update!
Hey, everyone! I promised I’d be back with a proper post guiding my goals for the month on OiaL.
In July, I resumed development roughly on the 17th. These are the metrics:
- July 17th, 2024: 24,910 words including command lines. 6,912 words excluding command lines.
- August 3rd, 2024: 31,436 words including command lines. 7,726 words excluding command lines.
- Total difference: 6,526 words, of which 5,712 were code.
As you can see, I’ve been busy on the coding front. What’s even more mindblowing about this number is this number actively involves refactoring and deletions. I made a broad pass on July 24th, 25th, and 27th on optimizing existing code, removing roughly 4,000 words of code in the process.
Not too shabby.
In this time, the following changes were made.
- Introduction of (TRIGGER WARNING): Your mother’s death scene upon giving birth to you.
- Additions to the LifeBook (Stats Page) that provide details on you as the player.
- Birthday added to the Main UI.
- Stats at a Glance (Main UI) updated to display Energy, Health, Hunger, and Mood levels.
- Health and Mood were removed as attributes (did not make sense) but made optimization passes across the board to tie them in as primary attributes automatically beginning at 100.
Altered Transition Processing Master Subroutine with the following additions:
- Added Looks Calculations. Looks (Minor Statistic) are now influenced directly by the aging process. Upon reaching Age 59, hair color is set to ‘Gray’.
- Tweaked Energy Calculation sequence to balance energy gained per each month.
- Amended the above Energy Calculation sequence to determine energy gained per month based on Age.
- Hunger loss is now properly calculated, and shifts based upon Age.
- Introduced first pass at month-by-month Relationship Degradation, dependent on how close you are with the specified family/friends/relationship.
Further additions include:
- Introduced Multireplace in the scripting of family selection. This now allows for family selection to properly indicate if the chosen family member is deceased. This will later be introduced to all family, friends, and relationships.
- Coded the first interactions of childhood, branching into multiple menu instances. Instances are loaded for different choices based on Age.
- Crafted interaction interface/UI to provide details to the player in the first pass.
- Implemented the first sets of month-by-month events, covering the first 6 months of 2004 (game start).
- Refactored generation code to ease scalability/expansion, reduce any lag/delays or load time, and optimize image import speed.
- Began implementation of the Dynamic Events Sequencer. This will determine month-by-month dynamic events using a mixture of variables, multireplace, subroutine injections, and more.
- Cleaned up old UI code and streamlined under-the-hood code calculations.
- Refactored transition code to streamline processing.
All in all… a lot got done.
Goals for August 2023
Now that we’ve shown where we’re at, my goals for August are the following:
- Complete the first pass of infant/toddler interactions with Grandpa.
- Proceed to implement these interactions across currently generated family members (within reason as not all will make sense.
- Go to the drawing board and begin under-the-hood implementations for the Education System.
- Implement some minor changes to UI for readability.
- Introduce the first self-care activity to the game.
Quite a bit scheduled, but given the rate of progress, I’d say OiaL is on track for some major development this month. I’m excited to be working on it again, and can’t wait for you all to experience…
6 Likes
Sure enough. Not a single one of my ROs has literally killed the player character yet, so there’s clearly work to be done.
Examples of uncomfortable scenes from IFs generally? Or just the stuff I wrote?
4 Likes
I mean - you don’t have to write what you don’t want to. It’s not a requirement, even in a romance-heavy game, and if you want to skim over some things, that’s totally fine. If you’re keen to write it and aren’t sure how you want to do so, that’s different.
13 Likes
I’m plugging away at my next chapter of Villain Juice this month. My wife and I are moving to a new apartment so that’s nice, though it’s an extra consideration on my time.
Realised I’ve been fending off a video game hyperfixation which is usually the death of my productivity D:
Happily, I broke through a bit of the wall I was experiencing on the chapter and the words are flowing better again… albeit I’m once again sitting here thinking “dammit why do these keep running long”
My wife has written me guidelines to basically stop me from going too deep down any more side branches 
- she knows me too well.
10 Likes
Took me a moment to realize you probably didn’t say you broke a wall in your apartment… good luck with the move!
2 Likes
It was a joke. I didn’t want you feel uncomfortable. So sorry for it. You have all the right to write ro abd no ro like you want.
Only be sure to let clear how your ro will be. Because it can be a clear picture and make player try or not your ro. Now I know that your romances are not for me so I will focus my playtime other ways.
3 Likes
You didn’t make me uncomfortable, don’t worry about it. 
3 Likes
Nah, someone crashing through a wall screaming OH YEAH was last chapter. 
(thank you!)
4 Likes
But … but … I’ll miss you. 
happy dance
happier dance if Artanian is an RO and there’s a bookstore date involving hot chocolate
Also, all y’alls’n who haven’t read Hamlet yet need to go read it immediately. 
6 Likes
Sidenote, I’m still trying to figure out how not to make the MC the red flag RO. I mean, how to have that option. Can you tell I’m terrible at writing romances? I’m terrible at writing romances.
Too bad I can’t remember the details of that parody we read in my literature class, it was really funny. “But is yes yes, and no no? What if yes is no and no is yes?” That Hamlet couldn’t decide anything.
2 Likes
I have a great love of Hamlet parodies, having (sort of) written one myself. Tom Stoppard is the acknowledged master of the genre, of course.
There are at least two interactive versions of Hamlet, too: To Be or Not to Be by Ryan North, and Hamlet: The Text Adventure by Robin Johnson.
4 Likes
What I would do is have the player choose a name starting with that letter. At the start of the game you can give 5 feminine and 5 masculine options, as well as the option of writing in their own (with a strong suggestion of using the same letter). Then you can ask if the MC goes by a new name, and let them pick one without restrictions. That way you can still go with it without taking away that bit of customization.
Edit: Sorry, I didn’t actually answer the question 
! I think a simple, “yeah, I changed my name” is enough. I haven’t changed my name, so I don’t know how awkward or uncomfortable it can. During the name selection, I would maybe warn the player that the birth name is important. That way they aren’t surprised when it comes up. Similar to a content warning. It also helps that with the first letter, many players won’t be using their own name, so they can distance themselves a bit
4 Likes
He is not in any of my other stories but there IS a master librarian who is also not an RO. Making a bite-sized game with Artanian in it sounds like a fun project that wouldn’t take too long…
Thank you! Good luck to you as well! 
This. On both the writing and reading front. If it’s not for you, that’s okay. If you’re curious, that’s okay too. I think the key is respecting your own boundaries and sticking to what feels right. And because we’re people, and always changing, boundaries might expand or contract to fit what you’re feeling in any given time. That’s my experience, anyway. 
8 Likes
Hmm, that makes sense.
I’m pretty sure I can actually enforce that, just need to write a bit of code for it (which I’d have to do anyway, so it’s not even extra work).
4 Likes
Card Catalogs and Caresses when?
5 Likes