College Tennis: Origin Story (WIP) - Updated 11 Apr '25 [898k words]

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Something I noticed in the challenge match against Jacks is that when you’re up 4-2 in the second set and lose that game, the score becomes 2-5 instead of 4-3. If you were up 4-3, the score becomes 5-2. But I can’t find a situation where you can go up 4-3 in the first place. I think it would work out if you replaced the 4-3 with 4-2.

Also, near the end, it says “Unknown makes up an excuse to walk you part of the way back to your dorm, mostly in companionable silence”, when it’s supposed to be either Tobin or Rayyan. I think you forgot to set that variable in the talk after losing to Jacks.

Also, in the ending scene, if you finished number 6 it still says you dreamed about playing in the no.5 spot, even though for the rest you dream about playing in your own spot. It’s not a coding issue, you just wrote 5 instead of 6.

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Haha. MC is a college student with a potential crush on their best friend they havent seen all term, and meanwhile, they may have been developing feelings for people they see almost every day. MC could end up choosing to do some things they regret (or not? :eyes:) over midterm break.

Disclaimer

I haven’t planned this out yet, so take this with a giant pinch of salt as I tend to make big changes as I edit, depending on what eventually feels better.

@Cloudy thank you! This is very actionable and super helpful, will go in and fix this :slight_smile:

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:loudspeaker: **PLANNED UPDATE #6:.

First weekend, doubles matches & team line-up for the season announced!**
~67k words (including code)

Hey everyone! :heart_eyes:

Once again, thanks for sticking with this game, sorry this update took so long, I realised just how much content there is—probably should’ve cut the update into two and released the first bit earlier, but oh well, this means y’all get a really meaty update this time!

Summary of update

  • Attend your first photography club meeting and potentially… have a moment with G in the dark room [smooching may be involved! :kissing_closed_eyes:] (achievement up for grabs)
  • Hang out with D and G at a café, and have a run-in with Felix! :coffee: (it can be as tame as you want, or a little hostile :fire:)
  • Play two doubles matches—with Tobin, then Rayyan as your partner! :tennis: Bonus perks: you get to beat Rayyan (while paired with Tobin) and beat Tobin (while paired with Rayyan)! (achievements up for grabs)
  • Play an additional mini- challenge match—against Deepal, Jacks, Max, or Akimi, depending on whether you beat Jacks/Emerson/Max. (achievements up for grabs)

And finally…you’ll find out:

  • If you’re officially in the Top 6 (meaning you’ll play in the singles matches during the season)!
  • Who your doubles partner is (if you made the Top 6, that is.)
    • Rayyan, Tobin, and Jacks are all possibilities, and they will all have their cliff-hanger-y reactions to the news. No points for guessing who is… not happy.

Extras :sparkles:

  • In-game cheats have finally been coded:
    • Skip matches with a password (you will need to play the match at least once more to get the password though. Mostly also because I made some edits/changes to the matches, and don’t want your variables to be messed up!)
    • Beast mode (where every choice you make will be automatically successful—will be for ko-fi supporters only, but made available for everyone upon the game’s release)
  • Earlier chapters have been edited based on beta tester comments, and to streamline the content a little.
    • E.g. the mini weekend ‘dates’ with Tobin and Rayyan (to the library & on a run) have been shifted to this update—but it’s simply a rearrangement of content so that it works better.

Release dates

Early release (to Beta-testers and Ko-fi supporters): 8 Apr
Public release: ~22 Apr
(estimated—could be earlier/later depending on how much I have to re-work/edit based on beta-tester comments!)

All this to say, I can’t wait to release the new chapter/update and hear what you guys think! This update will bring the total word count up to ~367k words (with code).

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Yikes, Jacks’ clinical playstyle aka the “feels like playing in a masoleum vibe” is not a particularly good fit with my mc who prefers to trash talk and have a more energetic crowd going on.
Rayyan and Tobin are interesting, Tobin is probably best but in that case coach would be pairing two all-courters in my mc’s case, same with Jacks too.

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Hehe.

You’ll get a chance to try and swap partners, but depending on your reasoning and how much Coach likes you, you might succeed or you could just end up annoying her slightly.

This might be in the subsequent update though, I kinda wanted to leave it on a cliffhanger :sweat_smile: but if I manage to get enough of the branches out in the next couple of weeks, I might play nice.

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Damn, I need to beat Rayyan on 1vs1, they’re totally going to find an excuse if I beat them during a double match! Actually, I’m sure they’ll find an excuse either way…

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Play an additional mini- challenge match—against Deepal, Jacks, Max, or Akimi, depending on whether you beat Jacks/Emerson/Max. (achievements up for grabs)

While I always appreciate the branching, I’m not looking forward to the point where you will have to write 128 different tennis matches for one update :upside_down_face:

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HAHHA!! You know all of Rayyan’s tricks… :joy:

Called out for sure :sweat_smile: Well, I too am looking to avoid that! The mini challenge match in this update is really mini. And once the season starts, I’m making MC play… roughly similar opponents regardless of rank, with some slight differences.

The only problem I foresee in the future is giving different options for doubles partners, and recognising that an MC who beat Jacks vs. an MC who lost to Max technically should have very different outcomes.

I’ve thought about this extensively (and also had some folks give comments on what would work—with the general conclusion that there’ll be 2 branches—no spoilers right now though!) So that CT:OS doesn’t become a goddamn bushy forest instead of a tree.

Thanks for lookin’ out for me though! :heart_eyes:

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BEATING RAYYAN ??? LETS GOOO !!!

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I like this game. the tennis mechanics are surprisingly detailed and I look forward to being the very best in tennis (like no one ever was, even), Im also interested in seeing how Im going to manage this “elite athlete” thing while also taking pre-med and going into the photography club. should be nice.

weakest part of the story for me are the characters. not that in the writing is bad, if anything youve nailed the feel of the type of people youd find in universities. I just dont care much for said people-they all have the samey quirky college student vibe that feels surface level. even the french chick Im romancing is unfathomably boring and Im only with her because the shy flirting options are peak content (the guy whos good at everything shitting himself when trying to talk to a girl is very funny). they all give that vibe of “the one guy you see a lot for a semester or two and then vanishes off the face of the earth afterwards.”

the only person I care about is sam (and rayyan to an extent), the rest dont do much.

tl:dr great game, fun tennis, I hate uni students so much its unreal.

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Being partnered with Jacks would be interesting for my MC. Their playstyles are really similar, which I’m not sure is a boon or a detriment; both my MC and Jacks like the quiet, clever, drawn-out matches, so they’d know better how the other is thinking, but it might exacerbate weaknesses.

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Update for everyone regarding the update: I’ll be splitting the update into two parts, and making pt. 1 of the early release available on 8 Apr, 10pm eastern standard time. Pt. 2 will be released 15 Apr, 10pm eastern standard time. I decided to stagger the releases to give me some buffer / berth to edit.

For the public release, pt. 1 will be made available ~22 Apr, and pt. 2 on 29 Apr. (TBC)

Haha!! Yup, not to mention you get to turn right back around and beat Tobin the next day :smirk:

Lol, I can definitely relate to your comment. College atudents are a different breed, and college is a… rare and special petri dish of weirdness that definitely leans towards horror more than light comedy for some people and I can respect that :sweat_smile: guess I’m filling that apparent “niche” of horror-IF then!

Just kidding, but yeah, the premise (and earlier chapters) were developed and written three or more years ago, when I was still only a year or two out of college, so- that chapter of my life was relatively fresh.

College life and students being a special brand of torture aside, I hope this game still provides you with aspects that you can get behind, like sports and slice of life :slight_smile:

Yeah, I’m really excited to have different MCs react to their possible doubles partners, and because there’s a lot of branches, I hope there’s enough open endedness to cater to each path while still maintaining specificity!

I think it’s up to readers to decide if they like their partner to be more similar to them in terms of play style, or more opposite/complementary! You’ll probably even get a chance to comment on it (though I’m still in the midst of coding this).

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I’m confused, is the update coming out on the 22nd or tomorrow?

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Patreon update comes out on 8th and the public release for the update comes out on the 22nd (For part one at least)

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Oh, thank you for clarifying.

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Early release pt. 1 update is available for supporters! :tennis: :tennis:

Ko-fi link

Early release of Pt. 2 will be out on 15 Apr!
Public release of Pt. 1 will be out 22 Apr!

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Sam when? :disappointed_relieved:

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Updates/additions to the update based on feedback so far

  • More content added for the Felix encounter
  • Sam’s perspective bonus scene added to the Sunday evening before starting doubles match training. @Knoez this is specially for you! :wink:
  • Some gender/pronoun bug fixes (where I’ve caught them). If you spot more of them, or if I missed yours, a comment/DM would be greatly appreciated!)
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Thanks Knoez, though I need to wait a bit longer to read it. :persevere:

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@Knoez You’re a hero.

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