You said in your opening you can master magic? May I ask how I learn this?
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KISS THE COOK!
I think this idea is gold for your story and setting. Very necessary, imo, for reasons I’ll summarize as “taste-beauty.” It’s contrast, you see, to an otherwise overwhelming feel of bleak darkness. But it’s somewhat ineffectual, making it all the more beautiful-futile. I’d just aim for the right meaningful nuance, so they don’t end up a clunky caricature. I think it works best if:
- the person is bad at communicating with words–their eloquence comes from this catered taste experience
- scarcity forces them to improvise and risk their life for ingredients
- it preserves culture for refugees in a world where culture is being destroyed
- it actually ends up being the unifying social glue for a resistance.
Two good examples come to mind if you really want to nail it. Maggie Gylenhal’s character in “Stranger than Fiction.” I think her character is executed just about as well as can be. So much so that, actually, I’m not going to name the other. The last thing I’ll say is that I think your story needs this. Well-crafted romance is a big draw for many in this medium and isn’t as strong in your work, presently, as the military action. One or the other tends to be neglected, maybe? All just my opinion.
PACE
Sorry if I put anxiety in your ear about this. I’ve worked a bit in screenplay myself, so I totally get it. Not so with the tap map, though. Film has the advantage of cast, crew, set design, soundtrack, costume . . . If a picture’s worth a thousand words, even the slowest motion pics move at 60 FPS. Helps trim exposition. You’re definitely right to be wary of the opposite. A thirteen-page shire opening is outdated in a world where Joe Abercrombie has barbarians cracking heads and jokes by the dozen inside of paragraphs. But he isn’t largely inventing things we’ve never seen before. Tropes condense word count, but you’re unprecedented. Fantasy is even harder than fiction, I think. In fiction, of course, there’s the double duty of every line to depict action and character. In addition to this, fantasy has to explain what things are. When only prose and the “power of your imagination” are on the easel, I think you have to slow but maintain interest in ways that doesn’t carry action forward into confusion. I don’t think you’re in danger of that. As ever, it’s about picking the right telling details. The thing that bespeaks others. Master scenecraft. Etcetera. In prose, I think the only real rule is not to be boring.
Sorry if I’m being a prolix slash pedantic asshole. I struggle with all these questions on the daily, so it’s nice to know someone else is suffering. Happy to calibrate feedback however it helps you best: salt, silence, specificity. Only love and good vibes coming from this direction, fellow fantacist. 
P.S. The second romantic chef is Monica from “Friends.”
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The gap between player expectations about this based on the description and the game itself is one of the things I’ve marked for improvement based on earlier feedback in the thread.
This is a world where magic is dangerous, arduous business at the best of times, and the queen has snuffed out most arcane knowledge… but you can become an accomplished spell-slinger by the end of the game as one of your long-term goals, if you make the right choices. I’m going to take some time to surface this goal more clearly, and allow some more early victories for players who are interested in this path like yourself!
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No problem at all and appreciate the feedback. I’m going to take some more time to bring out the romances earlier in the game. As you can see from my past credits, I’ve mainly professionally worked on games with heavy dating sim elements, so it’s something I’m happy to lean into, but as there are already a lot of balls in the air with this game it’s something I’ve taken a relatively light touch with up until now. But it’s important to continually remind myself that subtlety is usually the enemy when it comes to player expectations and the possibility space of a game!
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I am very interested!
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Just started but it’s looking very promising, I’m on an elven play through at the moment. I particularly like the stat screen page where you can see your inventory as well as your current objectives and the story so far always helps to keep you abreast of the current events
I think that should be stole?
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This is fun and make me curious, i think this is hidden jewel
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I usually play only hosted games but just judging from the description, I’m definitely getting this game when it comes out.
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Oh… please do not take offense at this but… you are missing out on SOOOO many amazing games if you ignore the CoG titles!!
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Thanks so much! Working hard on the back half and polishing these early chapters so hopefully it’ll be a little more of a jewel, and a little less hidden.
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Definitely some weird phrasing there that I’ll take a look at. This whole section will be getting a bit of an overhaul. Thanks!
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So many great Hosted Games that I love – would be eager to hear what your favorite is! I’m working hard to polish this based on everybody’s feedback and make the second half great so that I can hopefully be worthy of the comparison.
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I honestly hope more people try this W.I.P, this game reminding me of evertree inn and i love that feeling
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When you descend from the mountain and stride back into Mett, the children shout your name. “Katari! Katari!” You hoist the dragon’s severed head up high and the children cheer!
This is the moment I realized just how good this game scratches that fantasy itch. It is, so far, a classic tale, but tells it with great pacing and satisfying choices. You have a true knack and gift for writing this genre, and I sincerely hope you see success with this project. It already contains plenty of heart and interesting lore. I played your Tavern Crawl game and that was just an appetizer of what you’re capable of. CoSS is your main dish, and, thus far, I am wholly satisfied with it. My best compliments to the chef!
I only have one question at the moment: when exactly will magic start to be an option for those interested in it, and can a warrior build dabble in it?
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Thank you very much! I’m working hard to try to make the whole book worthy of your kind words.
In my current pass, I’m incorporating dabbling in magic from the prologue. Each culture in the realm has its own long tradition of magic that has mostly died out, with a few treasured spells still known by the learned elite and only some cheap parlor tricks known by everyone else. At the beginning, if you choose to dabble, you can have a few of those parlor tricks up your sleeve (and they’ll be different for each culture in ways that indicate something about what that culture prizes most). From there, becoming skilled in magic becomes one of your quests. Your build will not have a big direct impact on your ability to use magic. If you made choices that helped you gain more arcane knowledge, that can be expressed in Might-y ways, so a player doesn’t have to invest in any one specific stat to ensure they’re not a crummy spellcaster. The caveat is that sometimes gaining arcane knowledge will be at odds with other goals, such as keeping your party safe or advancing the war effort.
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This could not have been a more promising response. Mainly, I’m impressed with how creatively you’re approaching it with different cultures having different spells. That is something I don’t think I’ve ever heard, and it is damn cool regardless. I cannot wait to see the Elven spells and it will be fun to go back and check out all the others and how they differ, too. Right off the bat, you’re doing something big that could potentially be considered a feature in and of itself if they all vary enough.
And many players will appreciate that freeform approach to how builds can learn/wield magic. Often in this genre, too often I might go so far, arcane knowledge is shown and written as a way for those less inclined to be as powerful or moreso compared to notable non-magic characters. The fallacy in that is how restrictive it is on the concept itself, and that only the most “intelligent” or pre-gifted can have that power. Games like Dark Souls or more comparatively the upcoming Elden Ring have the right approach in mind, in my opinion.
In which warriors can and do wield magic, it’s simply not going to be as much as a true dedicated student of the arts. Of course, those can and should still exist, and are actually my favorite types of characters to see and play (wizards/sorcerers). But in your world specifically, I feel better fitted as a capable fighter who wants to do both, even if not as much. And so I’m simply happy to hear we will not be punished or too harshly restricted on that.
I guess you could say I have a sort of Bruce Lee philosophy on fantasy characters - I enjoy being or interacting with those that are not specialists, that don’t restrict their own knowledge or ability based on preconceived notions or commonly-accepted myths - the most because those will always be the truly most intelligent. Combat-wise, that is.
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Wait, you worked on Originals?! That was hands-down one of the best IF apps, such a shame it had to shut down. What books did you work on?
Sorry, just had to ask. I haven’t even played the demo yet!
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Thanks! Originals was a team effort and I was happy to get to be part of it. I was a senior team member and acting lead for a lot of the Originals beta period, so after a while much of my work was general product direction, taking in player feedback, helping design new features (like allowing you to pick the genders of your love interests separately from each other and see both versions before you chose – which sadly only got in right before the end!), story pitches, and giving notes on all the episodes, rather than working on any one individual series. Early on, I did write the initial outlines for Safe Word and Courtship as well as working with our fantastic writers on passes of the scripts for the first seasons of both. I’ve moved on from Glu now, but Originals especially was an amazing professional experience that I’m sad didn’t get to continue. I appreciate your enthusiasm and I’m working hard on this book to get it to a place where it will hopefully live up to some of the great work that was done on Originals.
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I cant believe i found this game again! The comment right before me and your answer led me right back to it. (Thank god for the notifaction). I hope you are doing well and the game is making good progress with the time 
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