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

I think Pan is a woman or trans and they are just gender fluid

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I played this WIP when it was first posted, I was initially a bit overwhelmed with all the tennis/competition explanation during the training week (I played a tiny bit of tennis as a small kid but I’m more of a casually watch Wimbledon every few summers kind of person so I didn’t know terms like junk baller). But playing through the whole current demo I think the tennis matches are one of my favourite parts! They’re exciting to play through, although I have a feeling I haven’t optimised my MC the best…lol (I have 2 high stats), so she may start to struggle soon. Even though the MC has played several matches now, they don’t feel repetitive at all and I’m anticipating them every time (and pumped when my MC wins)! And I love the doubles matches too, getting to play both regular doubles and mixed.

Of course the characters are great, the hall friendships (the hallmates showing up to support MC’s first match with their scary sign :face_holding_back_tears:) & tennis team (the camaraderie, banter, nicknames, general jockiness…I was on a uni sports team, although more as a hobby, and it feels familiar to me but more cosy as it’s minus the more negative aspects like hazing, pressure to drink heavily, cliques, etc. romantic drama between the girls and boys teams was real tho lol). Romance wise I think I’m going to go for Sam, their friendship is so cute :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:, although of course it’s painful being on opposite ends of the country. Naturally my MC is being a bit messy…so they’re doing the open relationship, fwb with G, and kissing Felix. (Ngl I’m highkey obsessed with Felix :melting_face: lol, I loved the moment when they said they wanted to try out doubles with the MC & everyone was like :exclamation_question_mark:).

I’m also really curious about the MC’s mother and finding out more about her…the little hints MC mentions are poignant (like them spending quiet time together developing her photos). I wonder what she’s like now and how she feels about the MC. It’s interesting how completely absent she is in their life. Not even texts, phone calls or a yearly visit or anything like that, just a postcard on their birthday. Does she at least pay child support?? The situation is just unusual since you tend to see a lot more absent fathers. Idk if this is within the scope of the game, but I headcanon that my MC’s parental issues (divorced parents plus absent mother plus distant father) have probably given her some relationship/commitment/attachment issues (or at least that’s my excuse for giving her a messy freshman year lol).

Picrew of my MC (although I imagine her dye job looking more homemade!)


Link to the picrew if anyone wants to make their own

Feedback/ideas/suggestions (no pressure to include any of these though, the game is already huge!):
  • Like I mentioned before when I first played the game I found the info about tennis & the championships a bit overwhelming at the beginning of training week, it was a lot of info at once to digest and I think that’s the only point where I felt tempted to skip ahead (answering the Q in the first post). Maybe it’s possible to space some of it out?
  • Does Sam reply if you text them for the truth or dare at the first hall party? I thought they’d reply the next day but I didn’t see anything, not sure if I just missed it though, if it’s a bug, or if it’s intentional. I think their reaction would be fun to see though!
  • I was thinking about the Sam romance, my MC was brave and took the first step (kissing Sam) and wanted to make a go of things before she left but Sam turned her down/didn’t think long distance is a good idea. I know that we as the reader then get a couple of Sam POVs showing that they regret that because they’ve been into the MC for a long time, but the MC doesn’t know any of that. As far as they know from their end, Sam just wants to remain friends. So for my MC in that situation I can see her still being friendly of course, but more cautious about her feelings when Sam comes to visit (like it might be more internal/yearning). And she would be blind sided & confused by Sam’s confession, because in her mind Sam had already said no and just wanted to be friends. My MC also started something with G, but at least part of that was because she wasn’t with Sam.
  • It could be specified the first time MC sleeps with someone if they’ve slept with anyone before or not, since they’re at an age where it’s fairly common to not have any or much experience. They could even mention it to the RO.
  • My MC is doing the Sam open relationship + G fwb route. But if you tell Sam about sleeping with G, they ask if the MC has feelings for G and the options to say no were greyed out for me. I checked the code and it’s based on the G romance stat, but I think options that aren’t necessarily romantic in nature increase that stat (like casual flirting, kissing, sex, etc. could all happen on the fwb route without having romantic feelings involved).
  • An option to text Sam a selfie or group pic from Halloween night could be fun mainly because I want to see their reaction to the vampire slayer costume lol.
  • When G doesn’t want to share a bed with the MC after sex, there could be an option for the MC to outwardly pretend they’re fine with it but internally be a bit disappointed? I just think at that age it’s common to not be comfortable expressing negative feelings in a relationship, especially if it’s casual and you don’t want to come across as too attached
  • I’d love to see more phone calls with the MC’s dad! Building the relationship back up after he was distant during their childhood. Unless I’ve missed it I can’t remember there being any conversations with him after the first week? Would he call before or during the doubles championship? Or before the MC’s first game? He was there at the game at the beginning of the prologue, so it sounded like he went to MC’s matches.
Bugs/typos (screenshots)

These are from a new save starting from the beginning, although I played a few weeks ago so some might be fixed now:

Prologue


Sam is male in my game

Chapter 1


unless


This is just something I noticed in the code, but unless I’m misreading it, this choice is only available if you have charisma>19 anyway, so the text for anyone with charisma less than that won’t get seen.


This is a bit pedantic, but it’s technically the MC’s 2nd day/training at this point.


The text is repeated here


millennial (I also was not expecting the cast to be millennials!! I guess that means this is taking place in the 2000s or early 2010s?)


Unsurprisingly


millennial


juicier


I think this is meant to be increasing Rayyan’s romantic stat


raucous

Chapter 2


I’d’ve


I wasn’t sure if this was a typo or just D pronouncing it in a silly way lol.


intends


Space needed here


I think this choice is meant to increase the cocky stat


I think there might be a sentence missing here, or they’re out of order. Also this directly follows on from a choice where either the MC or G tastes the spicy food.


For the “Tobin sweet” text, MC references this weird look but it wasn’t mentioned before in this scene. I think there might be a mix up because in the dialogue for the flirty text Emerson says out loud that Tobin has a weird look on their face, but they say something different for the sweet text.


guarantee


hers


Tactics

Chapter 3


breakfast


This scene starts with Sam ending their call/video call with the MC, and in the scene before it said that they introduced Robin to the MC, so to Robin they wouldn’t just be someone Sam has mentioned, they’d know who MC is.

Chapter 4


Wouldn’t


guarantee


This might be intentional, but if you have the coach discussion about the doubles pairing then when you get to class G doesn’t use MC’s nickname like they do here for the other version of the scene.

  1. my MC is female & uses she/her, 2) off, 3) sympathetically


hers or her own. Also I know Sam is obviously just joking around, but I feel like the joke about Sam “knocking sense” into Rayyan and physically fighting them comes off differently when they’re different genders, especially when Sam is a guy and Rayyan is a woman.

Chapter 5



I think this is after returning from the party, but it first mentions that D is in the room & falling asleep in their bed, then on the next screen it acts like they’ve left the room.


Italics coding is visible


little

  1. extra space, 2+3) my MC and Sam slept in the bed on the first night (Friday) but not the 2nd night (Saturday) because she brought up the idea of an open relationship. But here the last part makes it sound like they didn’t share a bed at all.

  1. I’d’ve, 2) I don’t think this part accurately explains what happened if the MC brings up the idea of the open relationship on Saturday night, because in that case feelings are confessed and discussed, it just wasn’t decided until the train station since Sam said they wanted to think about it. And in my MC’s case they also kissed in the pub/bar.


Should be MC’s name here

Chapter 6


the class


I’m not sure about this one, if Tobin is always meant to say this or only when MC is their doubles partner? Rayyan is my MC’s doubles partner here.


I think these words are a bit jumbled or something is missing here


marked

  1. nearby, 2) missing word: a?


establish


Repeated dialogue

  1. word missing/jumbled, I think it should be something like “If I go pro, small town life wouldn’t exactly be possible, would it?”, 2) had


Should be Felix here - my MC is doing mixed doubles at the championship, but Rayyan is her normal doubles partner



I’m not sure if it was intended, but if the MC wins their match then the game skips the weekend and the opportunity to boost their stats. You only get this weekend if you lose the game. Even though a MC that loses the game might need more of a boost tennis-wise, a MC who wins might still need a boost in terms of academics, rest, friendships, charisma, etc., and the weekend would still happen for them anyway.

  1. I noticed this was the only option that didn’t affect relationship stats, maybe it could increase the hallmates & G’s friendship? 2) opportunity


Missing words: want to


Duplicate text


Duplicate text


Missing word: off?


Repeated text

  1. that had, 2) throat
Chapter 7


Rayyan shouldn’t be here for me, because my MC is doing mixed doubles with Felix (but Rayyan is her normal doubles partner).


scoffing? Although I think that’s more British English, so maybe scarfing?


Not sure which word this is meant to be: tramp, tread, trudge, trek, traipse? (There are surprisingly a lot of words beginning with T that can be used to describe walking down stairs…:thinking:)

  1. they (unless Felix’s pronouns are meant to be they/he, he/they or they/she, she/they? I wasn’t sure because it’s not listed on the stats screen. But if it’s meant to be variable then in my game they play on the men’s team.), 2) possess


Just wanted to show that Felix’s section in the stats screen doesn’t include pronouns, I wasn’t sure if it was intentional because they’re the only student that doesn’t have it.

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Hiya @Bobcat, thanks so much for your suggestions and for the compilation of bugs / typos :slight_smile: Really appreciate it. Will work through them and possibly follow-up with some replies/changes to the code/writing in the upcoming update.

Oh oh! Forgot to click on the picrew expand tab haha. Your MC looks so stylish! :slight_smile:

And as for MC’s mother… I definitely hope to have a scene in the future chapters of the IF where the MC can choose to interact with her. It won’t be a major part of the story, but I imagine it could be an interesting bit of backstory/characterization for the MC :slight_smile:

Haha absolutely — I wanted to write about the aspects of found family / ride-or-die college shenanigans in CT:OS and hopefully de-emphasize the hazing and pressure to drink etc. while still allowing MCs to make messy decisions if they want to :stuck_out_tongue:

@izzily - have fixed some of these errors/typos, and also the moments in the earlier chapters making reference to Tobin’s queer experiences.

As for Pan, they’re intended to be whatever gender that would make sense in order for MCs to get to play Sam in a match — so I’ve got a chunk of code that’s meant to keep that consistent, but it might’ve gotten wonky at some bits. Hopefully I’ve fixed it in the code that’s going to be pushed out in this upcoming update, but if you still find Pan’s gender flip-flopping, do let me know!

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Hi guys!!

Quick update on ch 7 pt. 2

Managed to get some really detailed feedback and bug reports, shout out to @fsix and @bobcat hehe. Going through them today — will need one day to fix em all, so the release will go out 25 May, 9am EST instead.

Sorry for the delay, but hope that it means a few less bugs :slight_smile:

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The early-release is out!

Summary: This covers the quarter-final match against Sam, the post-match interview, and the conversation with Sam after :slight_smile:

Word count: About 72k words in (messy) code, but likely about 20-25k words playthrough since there’s quite a few varying branches in this (different partners, Felix hookup etc.)

Here’s the ko-fi post and the patreon post.

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Just wanted to know what’s the time period that it usually takes for the general public to get the update after it has been released for patreon supporters?
And thank you for the regular updates of course!

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Hi! :slight_smile:

I’ve started to do:

  • early release (unpolished) - week 1
  • early release (polished) - week 2
  • general release - week 3

Might be subject to change, but otherwise this schedule has been working!

26 Likes

Public release of the Chapter 7 pt. 2 update has gone live!

Play it here!

Game skip feature:

  • You can also skip right to the new content, i.e. Sam QF match OR to the beginning of Chapter 7.
  • I’ve also added passwords to skip the doubles matches leading up to the tournament now.

Hope you guys like the update <3 As always, send me a message/ask or email at allieebobo@gmail.com if you wanna chat, gush, or report a bug!

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Nice, can’t wait to try it!

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so it’s not worth replying the June 2025 update if I partnered Tobin? because I sadly didn’t realise I could export saves at the time…

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I can’t seem to get to the Malik and Sanderson game. I get to it and press proceed but then it immediately goes back to the day before instead of continuing

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Question on Tobin route… should I be able to kiss him after the match? I couldn’t. I was on his route, already committed to him and could tell about it at the interview but couldn’t do the kiss like on the rayyan route, which was perfection.

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Guys can i be a bully in this game

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Had to giggle when skipping and it says the stats page might get funky. So, disappointed it didn’t say “Yes. Bring on the funk”

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I’m also having this problem. Seems like Malik/Sanderson game is stuck in a loop somehow.

Continuing to enjoy the game! Pleasantly amazed that I’m scraping by in my classes; my MC has a ‘Cs get degrees’ attitude that I could never personally imagine. Of course, she’s bringing all that perfectionistic fire to the tennis court instead.

A few typos - I noticed this earlier I think after the fall photography hangout with Genevieve, but again at the tournament, where I am slipping my hand into someone instead of into their hand. I don’t think I’m quite ready to finger someone in the crowded lobby of a Holiday Inn, no matter how powerful our chemistry.

The other is here, where, in the middle of playing doubles at the tournament with Rayyan, I am inexplicably playing doubles with Felix.

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I get to the U Miami quarter finals doubles match and it loops me back to the previous match up. Changing my choices don’t seem to stop the loop.

Are you playing against Sam (same gender for Sam and MC) with Rayyan/Tobin

Or against Sam (Sam and MC are different genders) with Felix?

Or not against Sam? (MC and Sam are the opposite genders) with Tobin/Rayyan

If you are playing against Sam, I’m not sure what the issue is.

If you aren’t playing against Sam, that part of the QF match is not released yet

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Maybe that’s why it’s looping. I am not playing against Sam, while my character os .ale and Sam is female. It was just odd aa it didn’t say end of the current demo it looped you back to the last match.

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What are the traits that you would say go together the most?