Curiously, Fallen Hero with it’s very defined Sidestep is one of the most popular works in the catalog. I think it’s quite interesting where the “line” is, in terms of how much is determined about a character. I personally am not a fan at all of any “should have been a novel” complaints, it always seems very petty and devaluing of an author’s work.
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I don’t think I fully understand. The point of Hosted Games is that it publishes what people submit and doesn’t have editorial oversight. The particular game that’s being talked about was promoted clearly as having a set PC. I’m not sure what you’re referring to when you talk about a silent majority? If “strawberry” is “set protagonists” I don’t think anyone is arguing that there’s a silent majority of HG players who love fully defined protagonists? (I’m probably partially struggling with the ice cream metaphor 
) I just mentioned it because it’s a variation in taste across different parts of the broader IF audience, not saying that any one way is better across the board.
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If you look at most of the RPG series which get lauded for their storytelling, you’ll find that there’s a loooooot of preset protagonists there. The Witcher series with Geralt. Disco Elysium has Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau. PS:T has the Nameless One. All the modern Final Fantasy games. And so on.
And hell, if you look at the HGs here that get a lot of compliments on their storytelling, the top of the pile is probably the Fallen Hero series with Sidestep and I, the Forgotten One with the Marshal, and both of them are very much preset characters. Sure, you can choose some elements of their history, but most of the specifics are set in stone.
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Interesting that a game that lets you choose your name, gender, appearance, sexuality, and superhero/villain identity does well with the demographic that always complains when you can’t choose these things. How ironic and hypocritical of those people.
Also, and this is said in the most constructive way possible, the cover art is ugly. The only thing I know about Falrika is that it’s cover is quite unappealing, and that alone has turned me away. Yeah it’s not “fair”, but it is true. Covers are underrated imo.
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I think I’ve been arguing the point more strongly than is useful.
I tried to move out of the terminology that is at issue in order to demonstrate my perspective with an abstract neutral concept. It shouldn’t matter what vanilla, chocolate, mint, or strawberry represent, but mint is heart’s choice, which has its own label, and vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry are the different flavors of interactive fiction that are all mushed together under one label. It’s all ice cream, we can agree on that, but it feels weird to be repeatedly told that the differences are imagined, entitled, artificial constructs we don’t have the right to have an opinion about, which is generally what I hear.
Pretty sure he’s dog whistling 
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Your ice cream metaphor makes sense only if you expect every game under the same label to be equally palatable to you, which I don’t think anyone reasonably expects. Hosted Games, like every ice cream parlor I know, sells a variety of flavors, and if you like chocolate and vanilla but not strawberry, then buy chocolate and vanilla but don’t buy strawberry. No one’s forcing you to buy Neapolitan in order to get chocolate and vanilla, just because strawberry ice cream is sold under the same roof.
And Heart’s Choice isn’t all one flavor, either. Sure, it’s all romance, but there are gay and lesbian games, games for straight women, genderlocked games. So should it be split up into four or five different labels to meet all those different tastes?
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I think the titles within Heart’s Choice could be served by better labeling actually, but maybe I’m just a pedant.
Okay. This is a not-very-spicy romance game! Who is it for though? Am I going to like it if I only enjoy games from a trans perspective? What are the options for gender and sexuality involved? I guess that’s not an important thing, just don’t buy it if you don’t like… it… No no no, there’s a demo right? Try that, then you’ll know if you like it first.
Oh, shoot. Guess it sucks to suck. Broaden your horizons. Get comfortable with the unknown.
Oh, but that’s a free option, the paid options are probably better described.
Oh, not really.
That’s not how the demos are supposed to look, that’s an error. There are actual demos and descriptions when things are working correctly. Try refreshing or clearing your browser cache/cookies for the website, and if that doesn’t work, write in to support@choiceofgames.com and we can help you out in more detail.
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That’s great! I’m having issues in the Edge browser, but switching to chrome I’m now seeing it’s displaying fine.
This is much better!
I’d love to be able to see this kind of information in the store at a glance, especially with a catalog as big as Hosted Games. It’d be great to have a filterable list that lets me tick off a few of the very basics. Sure, an obsessive like me -will- click through each option individually to see if it fits my interests, but are there people who won’t put in that level of effort, who are being turned away? Fences are not insurmountable, but they do tend to keep less determined people out.
Maybe I’m wrong though. Maybe none of this matters.
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Those filtering/search options actually do exist in the mobile apps, and Heart’s Choice added tags for gender options in the most recent update. I’m not sure if that’s something we might be able to add to the website as well in the future, but if playing in the apps is an option for you, it sounds like they have a lot of what you’re looking for.
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I’m not really part of the mobile demographic, but as a PC player, I’d love to have that functionality ported over to my experience!
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It is my sincere belief that VN and Otome audiences are ripe (even overripe) for a good CSG that meets their feature-needs.
Wayhaven and Fallen Hero are but the tip of a very underserved market.
There will be another seismic shift in HG writing when the savvy author that is out there breaks their silence and presents a well made and executed version of VN/Otome in the CS language.
And then new expectations and norms will be set and a whole new subset of fandom will be trying to assert their orthodoxy on the rest of us.
There are several different audiences that the CSG niche have yet to fully realize.
I can’t wait until they join the family.
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I’m not even at all opposed to this, I just want them sortable! Standardized branding, tags, filters, whatever. Itch does that very poorly to the point that the tags don’t matter.
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Would you laugh at me if I told you I was trying that out now?
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Naw …
From testing your IF contest entry, I believe you have the ability to make such a game.
You aren’t alone in your focus, and I suspect there will be several good games that attempt to break into these audiences sooner than later.
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I’ve some off days, so I’m trying to put this together by the end of the week. Something with the VN vibe but with the choices and stats we expect in choicescript games.
I don’t know whether this can work out commercially, so it might just be comp fodder…
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Part of the issue as talked about above by @NMCannon, @leiatalon and @HarrisPS is the need to get the word about your game to the right eyes.
Most VN readers still do not know the existence of CSG, nor are there cross-over channels established yet
Otome types of games have the additional barrier of being focused on the female audience, but I feel that can be easily circumvented within this community with a really well executed game.
Today’s writers have a lot more shoe-leather to burn than the writers of yester-year.
Heck, it is taking me years just get my foundation built for my Patchwerks project, and it is just my first phase of “doing things right”.
For anyone contemplating this, you really need to circle the posts that NMCannon, Lea and Hannah made above.
ymmv.
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