College Tennis: Origin Story (WIP) - Updated 8 Jun '25 [968k words]

[Raptorofwar]

I love how I originally was going after Rayyan only and your amazing writing has now put me into a love quadrilateral.

[burninglights]

@JBento aww the beginnings of a lovely friendship. I am planning a tobin hangout sometime soon!

@Raptorofwar hahaha ooh wait, a quadrilateral? Who are the three ROs MC’s involved with and who’s the one who got friendzoned?

[idonotlikeusernames]

I hate US West Coast time, it is the 22nd here already.

[Fenrir1]

We have to wait another 3 hours.

[burninglights]

@Fenrir1 @idonotlikeusernames Ah! I’m getting through some final beta-tester feedback and tweaks. If I’m done a little earlier, I’ll post it earlier

Besides, the bugs/edits will never end!

[burninglights]

Public release of pt. 1 and 2 is available for everyone!

Chapter Three: Doubles Trouble is available for everyone on dashingdon!

Can’t wait to hear what you guys think As always, you can give me a shout / find me here on the forums, on Tumblr, or Ko-fi! Love y’all, and thank you so much for the support and lovely messages so far.

Here’s to some great doubles matches!

Update: +92k words (with code), ~18k words (without code)
Total CT:OS wordcount: ~346k words (with code), ~85k words (without code)

Part 1

@burninglights

• Attend your first photography club meeting and potentially… have a moment with G in the dark room [smooching may be involved!] (achievement up for grabs)
• Hang out with D and G at a café, and have a run-in with Felix! [it can be as tame as you want, or a little hostile.]
• Play an additional (mini) challenge match—against Deepal, Jacks, Max, or Akimi.
• Find out if you’re officially in the Top 6 (meaning you’ll play in the singles matches during the season)!
• Short Sam POV scene, after they move into college!

Part 2

@burninglights

• Play two doubles matches—
  • One with Tobin as your partner, against Rayyan and Jacks [Yes, you can beat Rayyan, at last!]
  • And another with Rayyan as your partner against Tobin and Jacks!
• Find out who your doubles partner for the season is!
  • Rayyan, Tobin, and Emerson are all possibilities, and they will all have their cliff-hanger-y reactions to the news.
  • No points for guessing who is… not happy . [This could involve a confrontation with Rayyan, or a quiet walk with Tobin.]

Extras

@burninglights

• Chapter banners are up! (Let me know what you think—whether you love it or hate it, as I’m still toying around with the design!)
• In-game cheats have finally been coded (Do let me know if you have trouble with either of these.)
• Skip matches (with a password once you’ve played the match once)
• Beast mode (where every choice you make will be automatically successful!)
• Earlier chapters have also been edited based on beta tester comments, and to streamline the content a little.
• E.g. extra challenge-match for this chapter has been shortened, and the mini weekend ‘dates’ with Tobin and Rayyan (to the library & on a run) have been shifted—but it’s simply a rearrangement of content so that it works better.

Future update plans

• A partial update (i.e. a little shorter than my usual full-length update) will probably be up roughly June or so, and will probably cover the rest of the “aftermath” of the doubles pairing announcements, plus confirmation of the coaches’ decision (if you choose to go to them to discuss/wrangle a different partner.
• The next full update will cover the first match of the season (in Cargill), where Sam and G and D could be in the audience! Not to mention, a whole weekend with your best friend. Sam may also meet/hang out with certain teammates/hallmates

Oh, forgot to add—beast mode ‘cheat’ is finally up and running (it allows all your choices during a tennis match to succeed). The password is:

unleashthekraken

[Reaper_General]

How do we input the cheat?

[burninglights]

There’ll be a choice at the beginning of each match, asking if you want to activate beast mode. That’s where a box will appear for you to input text, and you key in the password there!

Also! Appeal to anyone who’s playing the update to let me know if you can get through to the new update alright—apparently some folks on Tumblr are having trouble, and I can’t really figure out what the problem is. Cheers! <3

[Fenrir1]

I think you should change the title front. It still says Updated 16/10/22

[burninglights]

Oh yeah! I’d been looking forward to finally changing the title for so long! Thanks for the reminder

[idonotlikeusernames]

Got a bug this should say Sam:

You tell Max Sam about how you’ve gotten a place on the team, and he seems genuinely happy for you. “I knew you would.” he beams at you. “Plus, this means that I really will be able to come watch you play.”

I mean Max already knows everything, although if Deepal hadn’t beaten us with the gimmick my mc might have proposed to Max for the doubles.

Also:

“you wear a sweatshirt with his last name on it”

I thought it was a varsity team jacket like this:

leather sleeves and all. They’re kind of nice actually. Speaking of jackets if mc definitely made the singles ranking the university is probably gonna give us a brand, shiny new one for the team, eh?

Lastly why is Emerson present at the all freshmen dinner?

" Both Max and Blake look at you without responding for a while, and you realize how much you miss Sam. Your expression must’ve shown on your face, because Emerson says, “I know what you mean. I mean, I’ve never felt that way, cause I swapped partners halfway through high school, but—” Blake shrugs. “Sounds like you shared something real special.”

@burninglights

Sam may also meet/hang out with certain teammates/hallmates

Ooh, Sam and Max meeting would probably be hilarious.

[Nevantyr]

I gotta say, I didn’t think I was gonna enjoy this cause I usually don’t like sports games, but this has a je ne sais quoi that gives at an awesome mood and I still haven’t finished with all the chapters, definitely on board to see where it goes

[JBento]

Alright, time to murder all my saves and do a brand new playthrough of the public build. Let’s see how it pans out.

Summary

The stat tags in this choice are new and very welcome, but they’re also wrong in the Junkballer: It raises Agiliy, Tactics, Finesse, and Endurance, while lowering Strength and Serve.

Damn it, I keep playing against type as a tall chunky junkballer. It’s murder on my stat optimisation. Maybe it lets me catch opponents by surprise, though? Did you take that into consideration? Might be more work that it’s worth, though.

Goddamn you, Allie, why would you keep reminding me this movie exists?

I think you don’t say what an “ace” is anywhere (I googled it).

Typo.

Emerson’s match now correctly recognises a 2-set match win, yay.

Does not increase G romance (the one in the next screen does, though, so maybe it’s intended?): EDIT: I’ve gotten through meeting Rojas at Gene’s room, and every other heart option increases G romance stat, so it seems like this one not doing it was unintended.

Oh hey, has this scene been extended? I don’t remember G offering their jacket.

There’s either a paragraph missing before this one, or that first “her” needs to be “your mother”, because that “her” isn’t connected to anyone right now.

Yay, Addie’s back!

(btw, both Addie and the female twin introductions have their pronouns as “she/hers”, but it should be “she/her”, as the guys have “he/him” - female!G’s introduction has her pronouns correct)

Rogue code:

Double pronoun. The correct one in this instance would be “she”.

Gods, Addie’s the best!

Wrong pronoun: my G’s a she.

Yay, we can wonder about what the devil’s eggs are without being forced to hand them over, thanks.

This one is written differently than the other two, which are “pass-fail”.

Typo:

Sam visit code shenanigans:
First, I’m not sure if it’s on purpose, but this puts ITA at 5 weeks, and California at 8, but scheduling ITA bars California, so it SEEMS like the dates are switched?

Second, if you pick Sam visiting you, but then say “Wait, what are my other options?”, you can’t go back to that option (this happens regardless of whether it’s picked first or after checking out another option). The two other options let you go back to them.

So, I’m reasonably sure I picked readings at every opportunity, and that makes me not sure as to why I can’t pick that first option (or why I only scored 81 on the test):

Dinner break! Gotta keep that Condition meter up!

EDIT: burp Back to the court!

More stoffs

Typo:

Welp, got partnered with Rayyan. I’m sure his personality and mine will gel perfectly. Explosive gel. That’s what I get for winning both doubles, I guess.

Oh, hey, Rayyan continues to be a jackass about everything, shocker.

Thanks, Tobin, you best people and I’d have preferred if the coaches would have partenered me with you, but Rayyan needs to learn to grow the fuck up and be a professional. We play the hand we’re dealt.

Speaking of which, during the last scene with Rayyan I’d like to have an option to ask them why they’re so opposed to doubles-ing with the MC, even if I don’t get an answer because you’re saving it for plot/character development reasons or something.

Aaaand that’s the end (speaking of which, the ending screen of the public build still says it’s the beta and kofi early release).

Also, huge bug: no Addie romance choices.

[Popi]

-be me
-like Rayyan as RO
-do everything you can to get close to her
-use cheatcodes to be partnered with her
-deny using said cheatcodes
-be actually partnered with Rayyan by Coach Sy
-be happy
-be sad because Rayyan is so upset about the pairing
-be happy again because Rayyan’s walls are coming down

-be mad because the last scene was so charged and Rayyan should have kissed the MC, alas she did stay true to herself since she put tennis first, so can’t be too mad.

I love the tennis aspect of the game! I really think it is the best sports game out here!

A couple things I enjoy less:
-I feel a bit “pushed” towards Genevieve
Like I have to go above and beyond to try and romance Rayyan (ok I’m guilty of liking her too much, I’ll admit it) or also Tobin, whereas G is kinda always there, with the other ROs you actually have to make an “active” choice of being around them.

-I dislike that Hua and Shan are treated as a 2-for-1 deal, (it hits me close to home)

Keep up the good work, it’s one of my favourite wips of all times and I look forward to the next update!

[JBento]

@Popi

-like Rayyan

God no.

@Popi

-I feel a bit “pushed” towards Genevieve
Like I have to go above and beyond to try and romance Rayyan (ok I’m guilty of liking her too much, I’ll admit it) or also Tobin, whereas G is kinda always there, with the other ROs you actually have to make an “active” choice of being around them.

Wait, really? I feel like I have FAR more romance options with Rayyan/Tobin than with G, which makes sense, because you mandatorily spend half the game with them.

[JBento]

Wait, almost forgot, end of update stats:

Summary

Relationships:
Team: 46%
Tobin F: 45%
Tobin R: 3%
Rayyan F: 37%
Rayyan R: 3%
Max: 19%
Coaches: 36%
Sam F: 41%
Sam R: 3%
Father: 30%
G F: 24%
G R: 43%
Diego: 32%
Mike: 26%
Thalia: 18%
Hallmates: 34%
Sackler: 24%
Felix F: 14%
Felix A: 0%

[Popi]

What’s so wrong with Rayyan @JBento ?

@JBento

Wait, really? I feel like I have FAR more romance options with Rayyan/Tobin than with G, which makes sense, because you mandatorily spend half the game with them.

Just how I feel🤷‍♀️ maybe that’s just me

[JBento]

@Popi

What’s so wrong with Rayyan @JBento ?

waves in the direction of the entire final sequence of the currently available WIP

(if the coaches pick you to be their doubles partner, I mean)

@Popi

Just how I feel🤷‍♀️ maybe that’s just me

Yeah, I’m going off feels on this, as well.

The real problem with the romance choices is that none of the are with Addie.

[Popi]

Rayyan is intense but I get her, tennis is what matters the most to her and she feels like anything else is some sort of distraction, including the MC and romantic feelings.

Maybe she was a bit harsh about the partners thing, she is pushing the MC away, but she is mostly pushing her own feelings aside for what she believes is her ultimate goal.

It’s so heartbreaking, for Rayyan and the MC both.

[JBento]

@Popi

Maybe she was a bit harsh about the partners thing, she is pushing the MC away, but she is mostly pushing her own feelings aside for what she believes is her ultimate goal.

They do this even if you’re not romancing them, though - I have 3% Rayyan romance (because a couple of choices that do not actually involve Rayyan - or anyone specific, for that matter - raise all romance stats), and they treat you the same way.