College Tennis: Origin Story (WIP) - Updated 21 Dec '23 [468k words]

@Jule Haha same! Wish there were more sports IFs :slight_smile: Canā€™t wait for your thoughts after you play!

@choiceofkylen Ahh, yeah I wondered if peopleā€™d just think: ā€œWell. Why should I play a game about real life?ā€ But, well, I wanted to write it, so. I just crossed my fingers that thereā€™d be people whoā€™d read it :slight_smile: So glad you liked the characters!!

@Psionics321 Great question! Iā€™ve been toying with when and how to execute the romance/(sexual?)-lock for a while now, and this is what I have so far: the game will be split into roughly four parts/phases (both for the romance and for the action - but Iā€™ll just touch on the romance here):

  1. Introduction of ROs (just getting to know them, basically. No adverse effects if ya flirt w them all, as you can already tell)
  2. Development of ~feelings~ (MC will be able to express feelings for >1 RO, but this will garner some sort of response from the other ROs)
  3. Deepening of feelings (this is where the lock happens - and if youā€™d expressed feelings for other ROs previously, there might be some responses from them here).
  4. Established relationship (continues on from the romance-lock).

@Psionics321 and @rowsdowermobile hahaha - glad to see that Iā€™m causing yā€™all some grief in choosing between ROs. Might make phase 2 and 3 fun to write, on my end :wink:

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Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

Liked the way training & matchā€™s were handled. They were long and descriptive enough to be immersive. It was cool being able to win and do well while keeping the story realistic and believable. None of that sports anime super power stuff. I hope you continue to make most/all things winnable with the right choices/stats.

I think their should be more competitive shit talking & banter between the guys. The bench & locker rooms were too chill. xD

Both of the female love interests are great so far. Gen = Trouble. Forget her name bf = Light hearted fun. Any chance of a 3rd one being added? Itā€™d be cool to have a really competitive sports romance option. Maybe something like the romance dynamic between characters in the Baby Steps anime? Similar interests & goals. Able to motivate, train with & help improve each otherā€¦ with faster romance progression. Anime speed romance ainā€™t it. :sleeping:

Other request might be a bit silly. Can you add a taller character option? I wanted to play as a 6ā€™11 tennis Giannis. I only watch/play tennis casually, so I donā€™t know how realistic thatā€™d be. :sweat_smile:

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How do you plan to incorporate the best friend at home as an RO? they seem rather uninvolved.

Iā€™m excited for the future of this WIP

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I imagine they eventually get accepted into the same college as us, and eventually move there too

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@Jule so glad to hear that the difficulty level made the win feel challenging and gratifying. Really great suggestion on having more shit talk and banter in the locker room, Iā€™ll insert more scenes of that nature in the future :slight_smile:

As for the a rival option, thereā€™s Rayyan, but no plans to add in an opposite-sex RO of the same sort, because theyā€™ll have fewer opportunities to actually be competitive since theyā€™re not on the same team. As for a 6ā€™11 MCā€¦ Iā€™ll say thatā€™d fall under the option to be ā€œvery tallā€ for now, haha.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read and leave your comments, they were a lot of fun to read and think about :slight_smile:

@Psionics321 Theyā€™ll come watch games, and you can hang out a little bit with them when they do (and vice versa). Plus, since they play for a different school, they may potentially morph into a little bit of a rivalā€¦ :wink: I also have a generous heaping of holiday/back-at-home scenes planned.

@Sneeky - Haha, very optimistic of you. :wink:

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They wish! Sammy is probably better at a lot of things than my mcā€¦I donā€™t see tennis as one of them however. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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BTW will this game have 18+ Scene ??

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yeeees pleeease

One thing that piqued my curiosity was the Mcā€™s mother, we know why she left i guess, will we get to meet her in this story?

Absolutely adored every character(especially SamšŸ¤¤ would really love to see more scenes with him), and the fact that iā€™m not into tennis, but i found myself super invested in the matches?? will be looking forward to the next update!

Also Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s been already pointed out but I found some bugs:

Itā€™s when the Coach and mc were doing drills and made us try to get a hard to get shot ā€œI read that in her body position and saw it comingā€ and immediately in the next page it says ā€œYou consider this:ā€ and the choices

Iā€™d say thereā€™s missing text? where it shows the part where you get the ball and the Coach asks how you did it

Next scene is during the day of the challenge matches and the MC and Max were messing around ā€œRayyan, a couple of paces away. tosses a mild glare at the two of you, looking very much like heā€™d rather spend these five or so minutes in silence, but {team_he} doesnā€™t press it.ā€

and after the challenge match with Emerson, the Coach tells us the ranking and the numbers were wonky (ā€œ1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 10ā€).

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Pretty sure thatā€™s how the rankings are supposed to be on a team. My wrestling coach used a similar 1,1,3,3,5,5 etc system. Since tennis is also a solo sport they use it to encourage players to practice and compete with their ā€œequal.ā€ Actual sport wide rankings are different. Iā€™m sure the coaches have a good idea what the real rankings will be, but theyā€™ll never tip their hands.

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An interesting system; i wasnā€™t aware, that might just be it :kissing:

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@Khezu Welcome to the forum, and thanks for the comment :slight_smile: So glad you enjoyed hanging out with Sam! Youā€™ll have to wait a leeeetle bit more for a real Sam-reappearance, but Iā€™ve tried my best to insert nuggets of Sam interactions here and there.

Thanks for the bug / error reports! Iā€™ve corrected the first two you picked out, thank you! Itā€™ll be live in the next update :slight_smile:

As for the rankings, @SeventhJackelā€™s explanation is great, and is cool to hear that it was practiced by a different coach in real life too! In the CT:OS system, the rankings are set up this way currently because only 1 challenge match has been played this season. Next week, when the 2nd challenge match is played (e.g. between players who have not yet played each other, some of the ā€œtiesā€ will be sorted out, for instance between Tobin and Deepal - Tobin has lost to Rayyan, but Deepal has not yet lost to Tobin, hence both are ranked joint no. 3 based on last seasonā€™s rankings, as of the 1st week.)

That said, the rankings are subject to lots of changes and reshuffling throughout the season, which is where seventhjackelā€™s comment on ā€œencouraging players to practice and competeā€ with players who are close to their standard also comes in! Thanks both for the comments :slight_smile:

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I noticed at the party if you choose to send a text to Sam during truth or dare and you select one of the options about having feelings for them, thereā€™s a piece of text that says something about how you remember them kissing you (and what it would be like to kiss them again) even if you never kissed them?

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Honestly think thereā€™s a demand of slice-of-life cogs especially since most games right now lean more towards supernatural/sci-fi/fantasy stories.

So, games like this one is like breathing fresh air, really :relaxed:

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Some typos:

Summary




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@ChairmanMeow Thanks! Sounds like funky coding. Iā€™ll definitely have a look at that.

@choiceofkylen Yeah, true! Speaking of, Iā€™ve seen more SoL intro posts for new games/IFs pop up on Tumblr recently - exciting! :slight_smile:

@Cain_Abel Wow, many thanks for the detailed list, will have 'em fixed in the next update.

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Agreed and to be honest Iā€™m so hype with this game, good job author :slight_smile:

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@Knoez Thank you!! So glad youā€™re enjoying the game :3

[Cross-posted to tumblr]

"Get to know ya" poll

Iā€™d love to get to know you guys a little better, so Iā€™m thinking of doing a poll every time I update. Thought this would be a fun way to get a sense of (a) what you guys are like, and (b) what you guys are enjoying/choosing/looking forward to!

Hereā€™s the link to the first edition :slight_smile:

This is mostly for fun, but some of the questions will also probably help me make CT:OS even better :slight_smile: The poll also has questions on how my tumblr should be run and possible beta-testing in the future.

I might even release some interesting results (sorry, Iā€™m a sociologist, I love stats/data) after every poll!

Cheers! Canā€™t wait to geek out to your responses!! Of course, no pressure at all to answer any of the questions, please stay anonymous if you want :slight_smile:

P.S. If youā€™ve played Merry Crisis as well, Iā€™ll be doing something similar for that in July, so stay tuned!

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Happy to fill out a poll and just be a supporter in the crowd.

I will say though, The little nugget about whatā€™s planned for Orientation has me extremely excited - Itā€™s my jam. :heart_eyes:

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