Caught in a Reverie (Halloween Edition is finally up)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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1

The Story

The main protagonist is a high-school student who moved into the city from the countryside. During their stay, they become involved in investigating mysterious murders while harnessing the power of summoning Reverie. The main characters would have to juggle life between school and this other life that they have accidentally stumbled into. There would be many choices that would affect how your experiences would be like.

Will they use those powers for good or will they succumb to their demise?

The plot is inspired by the work of mystery novelists owing to its murder mystery premise and also various visual novel tittles and rpgs alike.

What would unfold in their adventures?

> Features

978Ă—1026 1.41 MB

  • Customization for your main character

    • Name
    • Gender
    • Appearance [with visual graphics; face, hair, gender, skin tone]
    • Basic stats [similar to a personality test]

  • Animated Graphics

  • Sound Effects

  • Engaging characters.

  • School Clubs choices

  • Part-time job choices

  • 8 Main Romance Options

  • Friendship and Romance Routes. [Don’t necessary have to romance the ROs :wink:]

  • 6 different Reveries to end up with

>ETC

Your MC dialogues and reaction changes according to the personality that you have chosen at the start of the game.

> Club/Part-time job system

The club and part-time job system helps with boosting your stats and also leveling up your bonds.
For example, if you join a the same club as your RO, you will get snippets and little fluffs between your MC and RO.
It also helps with adding up battle stats that will unlock different moves and strategy options in the future.

>Romance and Bonds

1337Ă—910 188 KB

>Things I am looking
-Due to my speed writing style, a lot grammar errors or spelling mistakes will surface >w< it would be a huge help if any of you spotted one can report to me~ a pm or a post will very much be appreciated.

-Any minor bugs of any kind.

-Would love to know what you thought about the characters and story. Anything you disliked or liked while playing. And your ideas of making it more enjoyable for you.

-Love the encouragements and pointers from each one of you >wwww< Thank youuuu!

-Current list of beta testers;
@FEMA
@Curious_Boy
@Guhik
@Mim
@potouto
@Nyahaha101

Demo

https://dashingdon.com/play/rose/caught-in-a-reverie-/mygame/
(Patched; full demo, Prologue and 8 full chapters.)

CiaR- Halloween Edition

https://dashingdon.com/play/rose/ciar---halloween-special/mygame/

[details=Update Log]13/09/2016 First release of Playtest
16/09/2016 Proper demo released.
16/09/2016Fixed with mentioned bug, typos and grammar mentioned in topic.

20/09/2016 Update, chapter 5 and 6.
21/09/2016 Patched, fixed female club routes.
24/09/2016 Patched, added new sections in some previous chapters, minor grammar touched up
24/09/2016 Patched, fixed bugs. Added save slots.

01/10/2016 Updated Build; log on post 285
02/10/2016 Fixed; buggy code.
19/10/2016 Updated; Clubs and Jobs all opened.[/details]

>Features to be implemented for demo
Polished and revised version.
Adding Achievements.
Implement skill set system.
Balance stats and review variables.
Adding 2 more chapters.
All clubs and jobs unlocked.

Author’s Note

CiaR is going to be a trilogy. Book 1 will have 12 -14 chapters in total, but you’ll only get to play the public demo that has 8 chapters.
Inspired by smt’s Persona series, fate stay night, Summon Night, etc.
Most of the romance will only start progressing in book 2, book 1 is mostly to build a friendship with your friends, but there will be heartwarming scenes for your MC and RO.

If you enjoyed the demo, please don’t be shy and leave a like >www<

[details=Progression]Progression

24/09/16 Full draft completed.
01/10/16 Debugged completed for chapter 7,8,9,10
21/10/16 Chapters all completed.
Currently

  • Adding more branches
  • Smoothing flow
  • Creating more game graphics.

Target
Begin Beta Testing on 1st Oct
Begin Beta Testing on 8th Oct
Begin Beta Testing on 15th Oct TwT my poor targets
Proof reading after beta has started[/details]

[details=FAQ]FAQ

Q: How long did it took to write CiaR?
A: Around 2 months. But I had a really long write out, graphs and tables for everything, and I basically write 5k to 7k per day. :blush:

Q: What’s CiaR’s word count?
A: So far, it’s 150k (Yes… 150k in 2 months is crazy)

Q: Can I be a beta tester?
A: I currently feel like I have a full team. I want really long reviews and a few of them had done such a great job!

Q: Add more customization for the MC!
A: I wish I could T^T I really do! But the possible combination even with just hair colour or eye colour alone would create a gigantic cluster of images in my game file TwT and it’s not really an ideal thing to do.

Q: How many ROs are there?
A: Well, the main ones are 8 but… there might be some other NPCs who you can initiate a relationship with :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Q: Will my choices lock in my RO path?
A: Nope, not at all. Not in this book anyway.

Q: Does changing Noah/Nao’s fate change the story?
A: Not much :slight_smile: or maybe alot!? xD I dunno.

Q: Where’s Mamoru?!
A: He’s busy working x’D

Q: How linear will the story be?
A: Hmmmm pretty linear. But! There are a lot of choices to how you want to react to the story and where you go. So there’s always a choice of a different perspective instead of forcing you to play through a linear story with just one straight line.

Q: Is the story finished yet? Are you publishing it?
A: Almost! Right now, I’m just finishing up all the NPCs interactions and complete my list of game graphics and I’ll be fully done! Yes, I would want to get this publish after beta testing and editing. [Wild grammar mistakes are my enemies.]

Q: What motivated you to finish a story?
A: Set a goal for yourself, and see it to the end! I actually saved up so that I could pursuit this dream of writing >w< So now right, I am doing nothing but contributing to this. So, I’m doing this “full time”, and living off with my savings C:

Q: How old are you? Who are you? Is Rose your real name?
A: I’m surprised someone actually asked me this. x’D I’m 22. If you really wanna know, I have a public instagram where I let the world stalk me. @yunaro_e. Nope. But my middle name is Roe. So… Rose is like a penname?
Unmask me at your own risk :smirk_cat:[/details]

371 Likes
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I like the story and can’t wait to see how will it turn out. good luck :smile:

1 Like
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i agree, the story looks promising indeed… Good Luck!! @Ros_e :grin:

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@Kelvin1800 @Curious_Boy

Thanks for the encouragement >www< it means alot!

2 Likes
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Sounds interesting. Will the stats include skill stats, or just personality ones?

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@justme skills would be mostly be determined by your character’s personality and choices you make as you progress~

Here’s the initial draft for the female character creation >www<
3 type of personality base
-Calm
-Determined
-Soft

Things you are able to choose
-Skin tone
-hairstyle

1648Ă—1055 208 KB

19 Likes
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This sounds pretty cool. :grinning:
Looking forward to the demo.

8

I like the sound of this, I shall be spying on this game clearly…

9

Ooo, so kinda like the Persona series then? Sounds like fun. Good luck! :heart:

3 Likes
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I cant wait too play this and i wish u luck :grinning::+1:

11

What do you think k in your opinions would be the part that you always look forward in a cog or hosted game? C:

Story line, pacing, the multiple choices?

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The most important thing to me is playing myself, I guess that falls under “multiple choices” and means I don’t like when the author puts too many thoughts or feelings in my character. After that the plot and NPCs are what matters the most.

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how bout all three ?? :grin:
the part i always looking forward is a well written story (so it’ll be including plot, story line, pacing, multiple choices and its consequences, and many more) but if i’m allowed to be more honest… the thing i always looking forward from COG and HG is…
nervous glance
wispering
“it’s romance option” :blush: lol

4 Likes
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I mean, romance options in COG are treated more like a eature than an option to chane your game as a whole. Most of the WIPs that are gettin major attention or Hosted games on this website that get attention use that. Examples would be Tin Star an Choice of Robots, although Robots was treate more like a way to lead you to a certain play style.

All these are quite important, but to me personally its the story. Like, why did we move? Or the ability to find out more information, lets say, about the murders on your own. Info that isn’t super important to the actual case, but details. Although some of that would fall under the multiple choices.
Also, It would be incredible if your gender or how you looked affected how people reacted to you. I’m not saying that like racismif you’re black but like the NPCs would have different dialogue?

What about giving the MC a mood for each day, like:

Timid
Outgoing
Playful
Focused
Inspired

all these moods would give you different dialogue and/or options

Sorry if I am overwhelming you with ideas! I honestly have been craving for a mystery/Slice-of-life type of WIP for a while now so yeah I’m excited.

2 Likes
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what you said is right, but in my opinion… that is what make COG and HG different from another CYOA games… this romance feature make the games feels more completed and more satisfied to me. of course some other CYOA games beside COG and HG had romance feature as well, but they didn’t manage it as good as COG and HG (in my opinion that is).
Choice of Robots is a masterpiece <3 its the first COG games i played and it is also something that bring me to this IF world XD.

2 Likes
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It looks interesting. But I agree with @Curious_Boy, in that I’d like to know a bit more about these “Romance options”. :blush:

2 Likes
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Thanks guys for the speedy replies >www<

It’s great to be able to hear from others point of views ~

The demo is coming on pretty well >wwww< It’s fairly possible that I can release it in a few days. But before that, would love to have some of you guys to go through a playtest. Would any of you be interested?

@Curious_Boy @ParrotWatcher
Romance will play a big part of the story but at the same time it’s not necessary to initiate. One of the most important thing for me was to create a believable bond of the MC and the characters. So the choices you make will determined how they react to MC.

Instead of choosing them as your partner, you’ll have to slowly build up a relationship. C:

@FEMA
Yes! Dialogues are heavily affected by your personalities and choices here. Characters would response differently to different personalities and comments about your cosmetic choices too. Example, if you pick the pale complexion, your MC would compare their skin to someone else who also has a pale complexion. yada yada yada xDD

Personalities would affect alot of choices availability as well~

The Prologue is mostly a chapter for you to build up your initial MC. C:

@Guhik
So a linear character would not be something that’s enjoyable for you? What if you’re able to determined your own personality and actions for your MC? Would you still limited to the way you get to develop your character? or having a choice of a silent protagonist as a choice would be good?

5 Likes
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well… sometimes the romance option feels sour as there is no believable bond between them. so i agree with you there… most important thing from the story is a believable bond between MC and the other Character (and how much we can relate with MC)

and it’s mean there is more interaction with RO/RI… YAY !! :triumph: it is something that most people forgot to add with their story (instead of interaction, sometimes the story just like :

  1. choose you Romance Interest.
  2. congrats!! he/she is your lover now.
  3. let’s move on with the story and ignore your lover from now on /or something like that)
    now you make me can’t wait to playing this one :grin:

i would love to playtest it :heart_eyes:

1 Like
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I would really like to a play test the demo. :slight_smile:

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Sounds interesting. Question: what is a reverie? Question 2: can I play test? Question 3: will there only be one reverie or multiple? If only one, will there be a bond of sorts?