@FairyGodfeather Is this horror? I thought it was a social drama driven by a murder mystery.
@Shoelip Well it depends on what Sunbean wants it to be.
Some people would say the mere act of being stuck in a camp for weeks with so many children, and a murderer on the loose and did we mention screaming children thinking you’re the murderer’s child, well that could be horror. My own experience of camp was definitely horrifying, hence sticking it into the horror genre for me. 
I read a lot of teen horror books when I was a teen. The whole teenagers going to a camp, a murderer being on the loose and them having to investigate it, while getting killed off, one by one, that was horror. Of course if you don’t have a mad axe-man running about offing people then you’re right, it’s more in the mystery genre. But there can be cross-over.
Or even if it’s not horror, there’s no reason not to play with horror tropes and have an episode in which everyone is convinced that there is a ghost/monster/vampire/murderer stalking/attacking them only to find a Scooby-Doo style ending. (Scooby Doo having both horror and mystery elements after all, but you’re be more likely to call it mystery).
Since there’s a lot of teen horror tropes out there, there’s no reason they can’t be stolen for the main character’s appearance. Giving an archetype, with an appearance attached to that can be fun. The cheerleader/jock, the nerdy valedictorian, the class clown who’s always joking, the rebel who fights against authority. Each of the archetypes starts conjuring up stuff to do with appearances and people have stereotypical assumptions as to what they look like. It’s a convenient shorthand that also means that the appearances actually mean something and can have a knock on effect.
Ha I could have just skimmed up and read Sunbean’s first post. “The game is a combination of murder mystery, adventure, horror, and some other things.” So YES! it is horror.
Hm. Guess so. When I first saw this I thought it might be something like a typical Friday the 13th plot, but it seems a bit less slaughtery…
There’s a little bit od horror in it, but not in a slaughtery “people dying everywhere” way. It’d be a but dumb if the culprit kept killing people, since the camp is really small. But some people will will die…
It’s hard to explain it without spoiling the story. 
I like the idea of just making a few typical personalities and appearances for the characters, by the way. It takes care of two problems I’m facing right now, and it should be fun to change up possible choices you can make.
I did want to include race, also.
No… Don’t be a stereotype appearance person… Let the MC pick there own looks. Who cares how much work it is, it will only make your game better.
"Who cares how much work it is, it will only make your game better. "
Will it? Would not say that in general.
See, I disagree with you Talon. I think choosing appearance, unless it serves some sort of specific purpose is rather pointless in a purely text based game. Often it’s a case of choose hair colour, then choose eye colour, they won’t have which colours I want and the only differences are superficial. The code will remember what I typed and a character may compliment me on my aubergine hair and puce eyes since that’s what I typed in. There may be a bit of cleverer code in which the code knows that I’ll get a gift of emeralds to match my green eyes, or sapphires to match blue eyes.
But that just makes me aware that the code is remembering these things. It’s not that complicated to code up the questions and set variables based on them. It is work for the player though to pick these random attributes which may or may not have any sort of importance at all.
Now, if it was a dating agency game, or a speed-dating game, with a cast of 20 different possibility matches, and each was looking for a different set of variables, and which you picked from a list would result in who you’d get matched with, then what you picked for your appearance would matter. If you have red hair, emerald eyes and are dressed casually then the rich businesswoman who’s only interested in blue-eyed blonds in suits isn’t going to give you the time of day, although she might lower her standards on the blue eyes if it turns out that you have the same interest in underwater basketweaving that she does. However in most text-based games picking appearance is irrelevant. In games where you actually see your avatar it’s a different story, customising then is fun. Choices for just for the sake of it which have no impact on the actual gameplay or plot aren’t so great.
I absolutely agree with Fairy, If its a very very very small mechanic then it might as well not be in there if all it does is slightly change one sentence and thats it for the rest of the story, plus I think sometimes when they give you choices it takes away from what you might of pictured your character looked like(since there is only so many choices, and imagination is unlimited), I think in most cases it should be left out and imagination should be your customization tool of choice, instead of people being dependent of the Author to lay out some options for your appearance.
I kinda feel like thats the CoG version of your mom telling you what to wear.
I also think it limits the player’s imagination too much. I wouldn’t bother with it if I didn’t have a few ideas that implement it. I don’t know yet.
well depends I use the clothes customization like in paper RPGs the reaction of NPc is different in function what pc wears even you could enter in some places if you don’t wear a proper clothes if you don’t go to do something similar is a waste of code in my opinion include that clothes appear customization
Another update!
I’m making some progress coding the prologue, but am having a bit of trouble.
If anyone would like to assist me in coding, I would appreciate it. ^^
Also, I’ve gotten my new tablet and I’m making the art for everyone now. It’s anime-style, since I suck at making things realistic, so I hope no one minds.
I know I said the update would be up around now, but looking at how slowly the coding progress is going, I unfortunately will have to delay it another week. Luckily Spring Break is next week, so I have time.
I’m also looking for people to asisst me in writing scenes. So yeah.
As promised, here’s the first beta. ^^
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/142945015/cabinone/web/mygame/index.html
Mostly just intro, it’s not awfully interesting.
Be sure to read the end notes, and leave any suggestions. :3
Please excuse my rather… straightforward writing style. I’m working on it.
Your heart pattering uncomfortably, you wipe a trickle of sweat from your left temple and lean back into the creaky wooden chair supporting you, and roll you(your) shoulders back uncomfortably.
That’s the only thing I seen wrong with it, besides that very amazing set up. I like what you have done and I wanna see more. I thought it was kinda genius how you introduced everyone so you get an idea of who they are and their personalities.
I noticed that the starter names are “Leroy” and “Jenkins.” 
Anyways, this is some pretty big intro you managed to think up. @-)
I started playing but I really shouldn’t. I need to finish my contest entry, so I will play at midnight. Good job on getting something written though.
Thanks for pointing out that mistake!
Thanks to all of you. Writing everything took forever. Coding was surprisingly easy. xD I did most of it in a few hours, and did minimal testing, so I’m not sure how many coding errors there are.
I liked them picture at the end. It was a nice touch!
Oh, thanks. xP
I think I figured out a solution to the customization thing. Seeing as opinions on the topic are divided, I just decided that the player can skip over the option entirely if they so please. So if you want to see special dialogue you can do so. Or if you think the options limit your scope of imagination, you have the option to skip it.
I found a way to incorporate it pretty well, so that’ll be included in the next update, which will hopefully be out sooner than this one. xD