You totally need to go have a drink with The Onion’s writers (especially the ones who covered Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan ten years before it happened). It is a horrible time to be a satirist when reality is taking your jokes for an actual script.
My deep condolences.
UPDATE 9/12/22: Chapters 3 and 4 were added to the demo a few months and I’d love to get more feedback before heading to the conclusion of the story.
The game is progressing, slower than I’d like, but steadily. It’s officially mostly done at this point.
Gotta love it when a new sports project gets started. Good luck, I’m sure it’ll work out spectacularly.
I think the game description should make it clear that the MC is not directly starting out as a cheerleader. I felt a little disoriented when we met the cheerleaders but weren’t already part of the team.
Big ‘n’ dumb. Just how I like my men!
That one made me laugh.
If it was me, I would be wondering how many of the cheerleaders’ names are starting with “Bry-” considering that Bryan and Bryttanny are the first ones we meet.
There were times when I wished for less snarky, judgy options while meeting Bryan and Bryttanny. Since there’s a Sweet Talker stat, it almost felt as if the game wanted to push my MC into the “mean girl/boy/person” corner. Don’t get me wrong, I generally think the snarky options are super fun but I just wanted to play a nice, mild-mannered (albeit boring, to be fair) MC for a change.
Because I’m transmale. Sometimes she makes little gender jokes.
Feeling ambivalent about this one. I would prefer it if we could choose whether we want to be called a “cowboy”, “cowgirl” or a non-gendered equivalent. Even if the game tells me that it’s all okay because “She’s the only person you’d let get away with that”, I still find it hard to accept that my trans MC has to put up with this behavior from a good friend of all people.
There are probably several trans people who wouldn’t mind, and good for them, but it shouldn’t be assumed that everyone will be okay with this sort of jokey misgendering, particularly not real trans players with their individual experiences and triggers. (The same goes for the non-binary option.)
It’s especially weird when you later get the option #I apologize. I was insensitive for something Pepper took the wrong way even though it was said earlier that “she puts up with you making the occasional joke at her expense”. And, in this case, the MC didn’t even intentionally joke about her!
Very cool that Pepper has a prosthetic leg. Especially in a sports game.
She’s an inspiration.
Just want to say that “inspiration” or “inspiring” is often used in a derogatory, dehumanizing way when it comes to people with disabilities. I think it would sound better if the choice stated something like “Her ambition is an inspiration” or something, thereby focusing on Pepper’s individuality.
Edit: From an ESL standpoint, it’s a little strange how often the MC takes note of the way other characters are pronouncing stuff. If I have to be honest, I’m not always sure that I understand what it is supposed to tell me – either about the characters or my MC. Or maybe I simply lack contextual knowledge.
Can’t wait to meet the entire team, but for now, I’ve got other things to do.
Edit 2:
Weird stuff I noticed:
Chapter 1: It is a “Walk” a-thon, after on.
Chapter 3: Worshiping psuedo-celebrities.
Chapter 2 feedback:
#“And now I won’t have to fret over styling decisions like that.”
After Pepper says, “They even tell you how to wear your hair, and what color lipstick?” Seems a weird choice if you’re a guy (cis or trans) as the “like that” seems to imply that lipstick is included in the styling decisions worth fretting over.
Don’t get me wrong: I’d definitely appreciate that option for everyone playing a gender-nonconforming dude but first, there’d have to be an option to indicate gender-nonconformity.
Surprised you never delivered on the horse joke with “Britneigh”.
A list of the important characters and their descriptions could be useful.
When we met Robbie, it would be great if we got an option to state that we aren’t into men. We got something similar when it comes to Pepper attraction: #If I liked girls, I’d be enjoying this. I also feel like choosing such an option should automatically lock us out of any romance or flirty interaction with characters of the gender that our MCs isn’t attracted to.
These options feel pretty gendered if you’re playing as a guy:
#I have enough makeup to cover any wound!
#I did a little of everything. Then watched some skincare tutorials online.
It’s strange that, after two chapters, we didn’t even get one real opportunity to get the know the ROs (except for Pepper) or hang out with them separately. No problem if the general focus of this game isn’t romance but the game description made it sound more relevant to me.
Chapter 3 feedback:
I really like the Cheerlebrity stuff. That’s fun.
RE: Stats page. I wish the relationship stats were separated from the other ones. Generally, I feel the stats page looks a bit cluttered. Suggestion: Intuitively, it would make sense to me to put the relationship stats directly under “Woo! You have some friends on your squad now, Rookie!”
It would also be great to prioritize the ROs in the stat listing aka place them higher than characters without romance. Example: Bryttanny and Bryan are at the bottom and Olivia (for whom I couldn’t find a romance flag) sits higher up in the stat list. Or, alternatively, you could sort the relationship stats by alphabet or order of character appearance.
Definitely add some stat explanations because I have no idea what “Foolow Through!” or “Dumb Luck” means and how I would go about increasing both if I wanted to. I also don’t understand why some characters’ stats are bundled like “Marketing & Olivia” or “Fund Raising & Johhny” and others (Pepper, Bryttanny, Bryan) are not.
The transition from Yes. Let’s do it! But-- Won’t I need a uniform?" you ask. to You are awakened abruptly by a knock on your apartment door. is really abrupt.
General:
Thanks for the update, author 
Update 2/15/23 Today’s Satire Is Tomorrow’s News!:
First, there are four chapters from the game available in the demo, and I’d love to get feedback.
Secondly, I’ve completed a few more chapters, and the game is around 75% done now. I keep having to make little edits because stuff I write as satire ends up coming true! The game is set in a humorously dystopian version of New York, but the real New York has been steadily mutating to match my game (I correctly predicted the Mayoral candidates of the last election, and the Governor’s race too).
Remember: This game is not inspired by real events… It foresaw them!
Oh I love the story so much, it’s funny and sweet 
especially with the spirit thing. I really adore Pepper she’s such an amazing friend <3 I laughed so hard about the inner voice xD it has a British accent in my read x’D
for your info: the saves are broken, sadly.
POMGRESS!!! OMG!!! 
Can’t breath!!
This game is HILARIOUSLY GOOD! It’s definitely more like those types of games that are fun/chill but can definitely be very replay-able. I cannot wait for more!
Not my cup of tea BUT, I’ve been checking out IF’s of all types that I normally wouldn’t. So why not try this one!? Plus, We can play as a male and that was all I needed to see lol. Let’s see what this is giving.
This might have been brought up and I just skipped past it but, The saves don’t work. An error pops up.
I love this so much. Extra love cause im a trans cheerleader:*)
Update 2/26/23 Real world stuff that didn’t make it into the game?
Much of the game is inspired by my real experiences in cheerleading, but there are a lot of experiences that I’ve left out because they’re my subjective experiences (One possible path through the game). The character that YOU create might be very different from real life me.
I’m debating doing some longer posts here about the real life stuff that I left out of the game. If you’d like to read something like that, let me know.
As someone new to cheerleading, and being older than my teammates, and my team’s only transgender person, and being a shy nerd trying to infiltrate The Cool Kids clique, I felt like the experience was a mixture of Mean Girls, Younger, and The Nutty Professor.
Update 3/8/23
A little more of the game is done, along with some edits to the last chapter. At the moment I’m thinking about romantic subplots. I DON’T want this game to turn into a “Cheerleader Dating Sim” so I’m wondering how important romance is to players. Let me know your thoughts.
Also, I’m still considering writing posts about the real-life cheerleading team I was on. Essentially all the cheer drama that doesn’t make it into the game. If you’d like to read something like that, sound off here.
Well, I’ve certainly never been silent on the forums about romance being firmly “meh” for me in these games. I’ll engage with it, but only if it’s well done, and hooking up is not a primary concern of mine, so if the game tries to force me to engage with a romantic subplot, that’s not great. Worse if I have no option to shut it down and move on with my day. Worse still if it’s not even a romance-centric game and it tries to do that - like, get back in your lane, you’re not a romance story, I’m here to swashbuckle/do detective stuff/do professional wrasslin’ (choose one), how about we focus back on that?
Also, the options aren’t strictly limited to piracy, detectives and pro wrestling, but you get the idea.
Also, if you go that route, take care to make sure that the player is well aware of the path they’ve put themselves on. Ones of the worst things you can do is suddenly spring romance on them out of the clear blue when they’ve gone the whole game not even thinking about it. I remember having to put Sixth Grade Detective down when, not thinking that romance would even be in the cards (we’re in sixth grade!), fresh out of solving a bike theft case, all of a sudden my buddy starts stumbling around, trying to ask me out to the school dance.
After I had just outed them as the bike thief.
Okay, then.
Anyhow, that’s my two cents, so I’ll quit yapping now.
To me, good romance can add scores, but the most important thing is good storyline.
Please fix the save slots. I need them. 
The saves are fixed. Let me know if they give you any more trouble. I’d love to hear what you think of the game.
@TheRoyalHeir Hey thanks!! I already played up to the part before the update. I really enjoyed it. Cant wait for the full game someday. Keep it up. Your writing style is also very nice! 
If you’re still wondering about romance, romance of any sort is something that really sells on COG or HG. It doesn’t have to be the main focus however when most people look at games, it’s one of things that draw people or gets them excited.
Personally, I look for and play more games that have some sort of romance. Of course, I have never write game and it’s your creation you need to feel proud of.
I really love this, it’s been a great read so far. I really like the humor especially of the dumb luck options. I’m looking forward to more.
As for romance, for me personally romance is part of why I read interactive fiction in the first place. It doesn’t need to be the main focus, or even a huge focus, but it’s always nice to have a bit of romance in an IF book.
Also as a side note, I think if you decide to not do any romance at all then it’d be wise to not tease romances. Like just from the top of my head I remember we got choices if MC would be interested in Pepper, Bryan (?) and Bryttany (or however her name was spelled). Or at least make it abundantly clear in the description that there will not be any romance or some players might end up being disappointed when it turns out that those choices don’t actually lead to any romance.
(also I actually started to like the idea of Bryttany as an RO🙈)
