Choose What I Write Next

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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About Me

Hello community, unfortunately, I am assuming none of you have ever played any of my games, unless you were here 2 years ago and managed to wiggle your way into my Cercia beta test before I scrapped it and had the thread hidden. Sadly, I have yet to publish anything, but I aim to change that. World building and plot development have always been two of my favorite things to do, so much so that I suffer from the dilemma of wanting to move on to my next project before I’ve finished my current one. My goal though, is to finally get a game finished and released so that I can establish myself. So far I have managed to remain steadfast in writing my current project, which I have not announced yet. I try to keep my work on the dl because I put a lot of thought and effort into making them unique and, in the event I don’t finish writing it, I don’t wan’t the ideas out there for others to steal. My current project is at 17,000 words and is about 2/5 complete. With this project I am aiming for randomization and generation to improve replayability (hence my recent post about the *rand command). I hope none of you allow me to abandon this project until its finished. But while I work on this one I would also like to start thinking about the plot of my next story and I have come up with some ideas.

I have come up with 4 potential stories that I could write and I would like community feedback on them and help me decide which to develop further.

  1. Eidetic: PC is an a young mercenary assassin set in the future, probably around a realistic 2200 CE, and is someone gifted with a photographic memory known as an Eidetic. Player suddenly finds themself in over their head and must use wits to survive. (Maybe some interactive ways to use the stat screen to house memories or something.)

  2. Steampunk meets magic. The role of the PC could vary depending on the plot, but I think it would be really fun and interesting to see how a steampunk-esk city could blend with magic. Maybe the city uses technology to amplify magic and the player chooses either for or against it. Plot ideas are welcome.

  3. Lyserius Part I: This idea comes from my original Cercia. Set on the fantasy continent of Cercia, the PC is a mercenary who follows the “Chosen One” on his quest to defeat the god who created the world.

  4. Lyserius Part II: In the sequel the PC, different person from Part I, must defeat the antagonist who seeks to harness the power of (secret character you’re not allowed to know) to resurrect his deceased lover. (I’m thinking of a pretty rad plot twist.)

  • Eidetic
  • Steampunk & Magic
  • Lyserius Part I
  • Lyserius Part II

0 voters

The poll is anonymous because I know some people don’t like their names showing up, but I highly encourage feedback. Ideas are ALWAYS welcome, bad ideas can lead to good ideas. What do you like and dislike about these ideas? And feel free to message me to make sure I’m still writing.

This post does not give permission to use my ideas without consent.

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steampunk and magic, eh? I am writing something like that at the moment only it has spirits, yokais and demons in a futuristic china where the protagonist is sent to guard a noblemans daughter with a scattered memory.
I understand how hard it will be to write so I am rooting for you.

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I like the Eidetic idea a lot. Brings back memories of the It’s Killing Time CoG, which I loved, but only played once because I was worried I wouldn’t do nearly as well as I had by the end of my first playthrough.

Is there a League/Guild of assassins that the MC belongs to, or a company they work for for money, either as their main career or what they’re moonlighting as? I enjoy the concept of the MC doing this on the sly and struggling to keep this secret from their friends/family/coworkers, if they have any. Or, this could be their main gig, isolating themselves from making strong relationships because they kill people for a living and the less people know about that the better, or perhaps had close relationships before but lost them in a falling out or some other, much more tragic way because of their job.

Also how does the culture/technological advancement in this story’s time period affect the difficulty of leading a life as a mercenary assassin? For example, has privacy become all the more limited since the 21st century, with the increase in security cameras and the threat of hackers, the act of which has become easier due to increase in careers requiring some form of coding/programming ability? Or, alternatively, something apocalyptic happened in between now and then, making the business of getting rid of people much easier.

And do we get to control how our MC feels about their line of work (with a Ruthless/Empathetic stat perhaps)? Maybe this career path wasn’t a simple choice. Perhaps the MC was led down this road by circumstance and sometimes/often wishes they could go back.

I’m sorry if I’m peppering you with questions you probably don’t have the answers to. I know you said you have that main project going on and so these other ideas for stories are likely still in their infancy/early development stages. Or perhaps they’re even just concepts at this point! If so, at least I hopefully gave you some ideas.

Good luck!

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These are all good things to consider! I think I would more lean towards an isolated character and that is what has pushed them towards their current line of work. I haven’t played Killing Time, but if I continue with the story it seems like I will definitely have to. Technology will definitely play a big role and since the PC is an Eidetic they’ll be a pretty smart cookie. Morality is always tricky, trying to decide how to implement it. Will it change dialogue options, the ending, or just simple responses? It can get to the point where you’re basically writing two different stories. So obviously player opinion will be taken into consideration, but to what extend I’m not sure.

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Oh and Steampunk & Magic makes a surprise comeback, tying Eidetic for the lead! Followed by Lyserius Part I and leaving Part II in the dust!

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Gotcha. If you get stuck implementing options that affect the MC’s morality, I’d go to @malinryden for advice. Their WIP, Fallen Hero, is currently my favorite on the forum right now. Unless you’ve already played it before, you play a former superhero, now using your telekinetic powers for evil. One of my favorite things about the game is the way you can choose why you’ve “gone to the dark side,” so to speak, what your evil plans are and your reasons behind them. But that’s got its own thread so I should just let you try it out for yourself, if you haven’t.

Another thing that makes me think of is, would we, as players, have the choice of deciding our view of the quality of life (humanity), considering we take lives for a living? For example, if I was an assassin, the only life I would aim to take was the one I’d already planned on. AKA: I’d kill as little as possible. In a situation where a room or building is guarded, I’d simply knock the guards out. If one person was attacking someone else and I had the opportunity to save them, I’d attempt to incapacitate their attacker. (Of course, this has backfired on me in other games before, but not always.) Although, that probably all ties into morality anyway. Maybe personality and moral alignment could have its own set of stats? Examples: Compassion/Indifference, Humility/Arrogance, Restraint/Impulse, Forethought/Spontaneity. (Though the last 2 sound kind of the same, I had a different ideas behind both of them.)

You could make an opposed pair for Idealism/Cynicism as well, but I’ve seen it often enough and I think it alienates those who subscribe to realism. What I think would work better is giving Idealism, Cynicism, and Realism each their own stat bar, to show which belief you identify with the most. I don’t know what that kind’s called, the one that isn’t an opposed pair. (Like the kind of stat bar you’d see in your Relationship stats.)

What I would do is make two sets of stats on the main stats screen, below your name, and maybe gender and appearance if you want. The first set of stats would be about your personality and morality, 3 or 4 opposed pairs, then Idealism, Cynicism and Realism below them.

Then, under personality stats I would put combat/methodology stats, how you usually go about killing people. The Restraint/Impulse stat would definitely tie into that, so maybe that would go better under combat stats as Calculated/Impulsive or something like that. But when I think of combat/methodology stats, I think: “Does this MC prefer a simple sniper method from somewhere far away, or taking out their target up-close-and-personal?”; “What fighting style/weapons are they trained in, and to what extent?”; “What weapon do they use, if any at all?”; “Do they clean up/dispose of the body, or leave it for someone to find?”; “Do they wait til the target is alone, or couldn’t care less how many witnesses there are as long as no one knows who did it?”; “If there are witnesses, what do you do with them, if anything at all?”

Tl;dr: What’s their MO?

Sorry, this was all made up as I went along. Started with a simple idea and it kinda got away from me. I didn’t intend to rip the steering wheel from your grip if you had an entirely different path in mind for this story.

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I agree with @freelance that the MC needs a reason to kill people. I can’t connect to an evil chaotic MC that abuses their power for fun and I usually identify more with the victims. But, if the MC only kills bad people and not innocents, I’d be more ok with that. I’m not sure how a photographic memory and assassins go together.

For Lyserius 1, you’d have to make the MC want to destroy the God. The MC isn’t the chosen one and is therefore probabily too weak to defeat the god who had enough power to create the world.

For part 2, why are we against necromancy? The antagonist doesn’t seem to bad. He’s not trying to raise an undead army or anything; he just wants love.

Overall, the concepts are good, but they need more fleshing out.

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Choose? Do em all I say.

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You’re right matt I should release all 5 at the same time lol

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