That’s definitely my game for sure 
I’m struggling to understand why people tolerate this for visual novels but not interactive fiction, since it’s just a different way of telling a story. But it’s nice to see there’s actually a place for this genre.
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Could just be different audiences, not the same people who have those different opinions. I’m not a fan of a truly set protagonist in anything, VN or IF (or traditional video games even).
IF traditionally as a market has always had a forward leaning into inclusivity.
In this community, for example: Time and again, you read testimonials about how the standard CSG has opened people’s eyes and showed them a new experience that they do not find in other markets (such as VN)
Many feel that if you open the door to exclusivity, a flood of such games will overwhelm a place that is like an oasis for them.
This hasn’t borne out in reality, but often reality does not matter when it comes to issues of this nature.
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When a text-based game lets you have a protagonist with any appearance you want, you just have to declare them as a variable and type out Hair color: “red”
When a visual novel lets you have a protagonist with any appearance you want, you have to make art for that.
When a video game lets you have a protagonist with any appearance you want, you have to model, rig, and texture that.
People who prefer customization are more understanding of the limitations when the workload is more apparent.
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Oh my goodness, thank you for the kind shout out and mentioning visual novels! I was kicking myself earlier for forgetting to mention that market in my ealier post. Amare, josei, and otome reviewers are great to work with.
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I was reminded of Bogyman today. It’s really excellent IF and while Twine is more likely to follow this sort of style, it does it particularly well. Thing is, there are some occasional pointed choices in there that change the tasks you do, see different text and ultimately change the outcome, there are a lot of essentially “next” buttons in it, but you don’t really see them. They’re just part of the game rather than something that sticks out. It’s very possible to write something that does not have much (or anything) in the way of character customisation and is fairly linear but is still an excellent game. Apart from the great writing, there’s the atmospheric music and text/background (I know harder/not possible to implement in published CS ), but the other thing it does is it does to great effect is not use next buttons, but instead makes them an action. Even places where you could just read through a few paragraphs, instead they use the equivalent of the CS choice-> return until all the choices have been used to give the illusion of interactivity by the order in which you choose them. Although this could have worked as a VN, I actually think it’s been styled better as text only because you end up using your imagination to “see” what is being described (which it arguably more terrifying than actually seeing it in an image.)
Falrika could have actually fallen into a similar category if it took a few pages out of this game’s book so to speak. Having some small branch->return for 2 different tasks instead of only one, some choice lists to achieve them (instead of reading 3 paragraphs, you choose a, b, c buttons and are presented with those paragraphs), throwing in a few fake choices to ask how the reader is feeling about what is going on, using text instead the standard “next” buttons, and tracking a couple of variables IMO would probably be the way to build a the more “personalised novel” that you tend to see more in VNs but with that little bit of extra interactivity to make it acceptable without the images, rather than the very long, choices on most pages, branch and returns seen most commonly in CSGs at the moment. (I don’t want to be too hard on Falrika here, it’s the author’s first CSG and they were trying something different which I think is not necessarily a bad thing to see how it goes, and it’s got people talking about how VN style CSGs could actually work so.)
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I’m not saying this to stand on some pedestal or anything (I do not have the self-confidence to do that for this reasoning) but bringing it up as an example in the broader topic here. This past Halloween Jam, I made a small game with a protagonist who had a set name, set gender, set personality, set sexuality, set everything. In fact, you didn’t even play as the protagonist. You were a voice in their head and, most of the time, had to go to the stats screen to see any of your character’s actual dialogue which was contained to the ‘Next Page’ buttons anyway. This game had about a total of three choice commands throughout the entire 20k word game, as well.
It still won.
The problem isn’t that set protagonists aren’t popular with the community here, imo. If I’m able to take two of the most complained about things on this forum (set protagonists and ‘lack of choices’) and turn around a Jam winning game with them, anyone can do it. In my mind, it’s not about splitting things into more and more narrow categories. It’s about doing something so well that it defies those people’s expectations and becomes something they enjoy playing anyway.
Case and point; Baldur’s Gate 3 being a CRPG and still one of the best selling games in steam history.
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The fact that you weren’t actually playing as the set protagonist likely helped (as did it being a jam entry and not a full-bore release that cost money, plus the unique hook of what it was). That set-name protags are unpopular with this community isn’t even debatable. It’s poison in a way few other things can be for a story. If I had to choose between writing another science-fiction but having it with namable characters or writing in a more popular genre like fantasy but offering only unnamable characters, it’s set phasers to stun all the way.
Rule #1: You do not interfere with the self-insert.
Rule #2: YOU DO NOT INTERFERE WITH THE SELF-INSERT.
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Sidenote, but is that actually a phrase? 
Sounds something awfully boring.
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It means “at full speed” or “at maximum capacity.” It refers to the capacity of a cylinder.
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It is originally a gunsmith phrase, I believe.
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Well, I learnt something new tonight! Thanks.
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This made me wonder…
I know you can’t publish a CG-scripted game for profit, but can you put one on itch for free?
Demos are typically uploaded on dashingdon (which reminds me I need to get in touch with Don about moodyink), but is there any reason they can’t be compiled and put out on itch?
Multiple VNs and otomes put demos out on itch but require you to either purchase the game elsewhere or to get it on Patreon (usually when the game is of the smut variety!). I don’t see how it would be any different to put a compiled demo out on itch as a teaser to get them to buy the full game from the app or Steam in the future.
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Short answer is: Yes.
Long answer is within the details of the HG contract and can be viewed on their offer page.
Yes, but I do not think the publish a Steam “coming soon” page, directing everyone to a kick-starter campaign, a paetron link and an ichio upload marketing tactics will work to get the VN audience to cross-over to CSGs.
I feel there will need more old-fashioned collaboration types of efforts such as those NM Cannon mention above with the blogs.
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Don’t get me started on the ones with kickstarters that take your money and disappear. Or the Patreons where you get fuck all for $10 a month.
I just meant that it couldn’t hurt to put the demos out on itch as well, if it’s allowed. Itch constantly suggests new demos for me to try based on my preferences, and if you tagged the demo with “otome”, it couldn’t hurt!
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Oh, I know… 
I believe you and I are on the same page on many of the recent hijinx that have evolved from early access and such abuses.
CoG is encouraging people to use Ichio for demo purposes lately as an alternative. From what @Jacic and others say, I am not sure Ichio is as viable as we wish it to be though.
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It is allowed! (as long as it’s up for free, or a contract has been signed with HG about payment) I’ve put Honor Bound on there because a compiled file includes the ability to close a tab and keep progress, which dashingdon doesn’t (I’ve fallen foul of that far too many times…). I tagged it with “interactive fiction” and various other things and it got a lot of views/plays. The major difference is that it’s harder, though still possible, to look directly at the code.
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I think it’s a discoverability thing. I think there’s an audience for that, but that audience doesn’t know they can find it here.
Larian had an entrenched fanbase from their previous work (they have made 4 of the top 20 best selling CRPG’s in Steam History), they made a game using the most popular TTRPG system in history, made a new entry in one of the most celebrated cult-classic franchises in PC gaming, and then executed it really, really well. The only surprise is that its success is seemingly so surprising.
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As a general rule you can have stuff on itch as long as it is free/don’t ask for donations.
But, I didn’t think it was ok have a demo up for an already published game as you’re not allowed to have anything published by HG available anywhere else? (Would love to know if I’m wrong on that.)
The current system is not entirely broken, so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
What is needed, is some way to better publicize the numerous WIPs here on this very forum. The monthly list on the writer support thread is probably the minimum.
The next thing is, get them to finish their works, for all to see. Otherwise we will have a mountain of unfinished stuff that could have been displayed.
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