College Tennis: Origin Story (WIP) - Updated 14 Feb 2026 [1.08m words]

[Sujan_Dhakal]

This is I think the halfway point, correct? Or close to it?

[burninglights]

Yup! I’d say almost exactly halfway for what I‘ve got planned!

[Aeternitas]

Two million words is… a lot! One might say you have Rayyan’s level of ambition.

[burninglights]

Hahaha I know. But also - as rayyan would say, “mountains are climbed one step at a time, slams won one point at a time”.

So… it’s alright. I’ve just been treating it like a episodic branching story, going one part of a chapter ~70k words each time and that’s been working out so far!

[burninglights]

Chapter 7’s final part (approx. 75k new words) Public Release is live!

Happy Valentine’s everyone <3

Play the updated demo here!

This means that the doubles championship arc is complete (and the massive ~almost 150k word chapter is fully out!)

The update is very tennis-centric, though you do get an intimate moment at night (before the semis) if that’s what you crave. Otherwise, go hoist that doubles trophy!

If you spot any bugs, do let me know - if you don’t want your saves to possibly be broken when I inevitably fix bugs, play it maybe 1-2 days later D: (sorry, I do always try to beta-test beforehand but it’s a lot of branching these days!)

Features:

1. Have dinner either with Sam or your teammates

2. Heart-to-heart conversation with your roommate (or find a way to invite someone else back to your room)

3. Play the semi-finals match…

4. Clinch the championship title if you get past your opponents in the final… and survive a harrowing incident involving a heckler from the stands(!!)

5. Potentially make plans with your doubles partner for next year…

Notes

• I think the variables in startup changed (I’m sorry!!), so unfortunately it means saves I think are broken, but please do take your time with it! I added a function to skip, though I’m not 100% sure it works perfectly.

• If you played it in early release, you might want to take your time to replay the new content as well (you can try the skip function!) You might also want to recheck the match passwords in Ko-fi/Patreon.

[Hi_Hello]

Helllll yesssss. Such a great valentine’s day update! I hope you continue to write more exciting chapters, it’s very rare for a sports Hg to be this good. I wish you well!

[ChairmanMeow]

Unfortunately, I’m finding the latest update to be pretty bugged.

1: I just finished the winning the match against Sam and Pan in Mixed Doubles, there is a discussion about getting ready for our next match, but then in the very next scene we’re in the showers, “trying our best to process the loss”. The next few scenes also act as if Felix and I are apparently out of the tournament, and how we’ll have to watch on from the side-lines (I’m actually a bit confused about what round we’re supposed to have just played too, because at the end after we win it says we’re through to the semi-final, but the reporter after the previous match with the heckler said we were going to meet Sam and Pan in the semi-final).

For some reason also, the game seems to then think that I was playing in the Men’s Doubles, because it talks about how the Women’s and Mixed Doubles tournaments are over, and Deepal and Tobin are paired together playing in the final (even though Tobin is meant to be my regular partner in Men’s Doubles).

Ultimately, my tournament ends after the match against Sam and Pan, despite the fact that Felix and I won said match.

2: The scene with the heckler is confusing. Firstly, it incorrectly warns about there being racism, despite none actually being present in this particular scene (my partner was Felix, and my MC is a white man) - the warning should have mentioned about transphobia/homophobia instead (with what was shouted to Felix).

With the way the actual scene way plays out, initially it seems to be coded correctly (with us being able to comfort Felix and/or get angry on Felix’s behalf), but then some of the later text/scenes (and the options presented to us) treat it as if we had something pretty offensive or inflammatory said to us as well (with Felix trying to comfort us), when all that the heckler called me was a “freshman loser” (with my MC being a straight, white, cis-gender man).

There also just generally seems to be missing text here and there in certain quotes (presumably where names are meant to be).

EDIT:

3: After winning the match against Sam and Pan (and after we’ve done our post-match interview and caught up with Sam), there’s now a later scene where we can choose to forgive Felix for something, except I have no idea what they’re supposed to be apologising about or why we are/were angry.

[burninglights]

@Hi_Hello Thank you! Really loved having you play the game and leave comments all this time, you’re a gem!

@ChairmanMeow Thanks so much for the reports!! Appreciate them so much. I actually had the chapter beta-tested by a couple people before, but based on feedback regarding the pacing and desire for the stakes to rise significantly (instead of having the ‘easiest’ match be the final), I sort of rearranged things massively hence leading to some continuity errors + not being able to test certain things. So I’m counting on you guys to help me test and sort out the kinks!

The saves are also probably broken, (PSA to everyone) so starting from 7-1 or even earlier would probably be safest, especially if you’re saying you noticed words missing (probably means the variables weren’t set properly) - which I think also could be the reason why you had some of the bugs you mentioned that I couldn’t fix/verify.

I’ll list out the bugs that I’ve fixed!

1: This is fixed, and I think with it, you shouldn’t even be seeing the scene where you’re watching Tobin & Deepal, so I think that part should not be an issue as well. In your play through, you do have Deepal paired with Tobin in the national doubles tournament, right?

2: Yup, fixed the TW, and some of the later text/scenes, but it would be useful if you could let me know the moments if you still see them so I can fix those too!

3: Hmm this one stumps me - the code looks correct, unless your variable for Felix revealing that you hooked up with Sam mid-match is somehow coded wrongly (in this case it sounds like it should be false, but you’re getting the text for if it’s true).

[idonotlikeusernames]

Misgendering here for me, since my mc and Rayyan are the men’s doubles team:

Instead of trying to finish the point yourself, you see Rayyan moving up toward the net. You hit a shot that’s fast but bounces high, dipping quickly to pull Martinez wide without giving her much time to recover.

[Bottik_Bimba]

How is it that when I’m with Rayyan, I’m sure that I don’t need anyone but her (and not just romantically, but also from a tennis-doubles/sports professional perspective), but when I’m with Sam, I’d rather cut off both my hands than cause her grief. I already had to make a big sacrifice to break off the flirtation with Geneviéve, because honestly, I already felt like a slut from messing with 3 girls at once. I hope I can fit two: that doesn’t make me a slut, just a little big-appetite.