Welcome to Demon Bound, an interactive fiction by Iota. Thank you for being patient. Word Count
46,000
Outline
Beaver Bay is a small town, they all are this far up North. Nice and secluded, a little touristy but that doesn’t bother you none. Things have always been a little weird with you, we’re talking major deja vu, some creepy nightmares, but that’s not really the case, is it? Seems not. An attack on your life from a demon changes that. You’re introduced to three witches who claim to seek revenge on Belyle–the demon. Just your average day, learn a few spells, perform a magical ritual and boom! Spirit of protection, now you can rest easy while the others figure out how to deal with Belyle. Except your spirit is another demon. Great.
Demon Bound follows you–a dream walker. A breed of witch thought exterminated, but here you are. Find out why Belyle is after you, fall in love, learn magick, talk to your familiar, find out what happened to your father after his disappearance.
RO’s
Amicia Kester: A 24 year old eclectic witch. Amicia is gentle and kind, but fiercely protective.
Ansel Kester: A 24 year old psychic witch. Ansel is cold and reserved, he cares deeply but has a hard time expressing his feelings in a positive way.
Rowan Billings: A 26 year old ceremonial witch. Rowan is brash, rude, and doesn’t take anything too seriously, always having a comeback at the ready.
Saar: A 239 year old demon. Saar is a flirtatious troublemaker, and they are your responsibility now.
Secret RO 1: ???
**Note: Rowan and Saar can be male, female, or non binary
**Note 2: You will be able to enter a friendmance or rivalmance with every character except Amicia and the Secret RO, they are friendmance only.
Released Chapters
Prologue
Chapter I - The Hunted
Chatper II - The Hunter
What to expect
Horror themes
Gore (not too heavy)
Play as male, female, or non binary
Choose your fear
Choose your cat’s name and gender
Fairly linear story, most events will happen, it’s just a matter of how
Stat checks in dialogue only, not in choices
Heavy dialogue
Feedback guidelines
Grammar mistakes are great. I tend think too fast for my hands to type, but please post screenshots to help me out.
Continuity and coding errors. I’m sure it’s full of them! Examples: says “he” instead of “they”, says “place” instead of “places” (verbs that use the wrong gender before they are acted upon), empty spaces, no spaces between paragraphs, etc.
Pacing. This is a little deeper and will most likely not be refined until later chapters but feedback on it is still great! Mostly looking for “this romance is going too fast! I just met this man why is he trying to kiss me?” or “this is too slow for a horror story, give me more action!” or “I don’t know why ____ is important, perhaps delete it?” (please be mindful it is a work in progress, some things may change later but I am very open to critiques, it makes the story better!)
Notes
Demon Bound is on a semi-hiatus. This post will update and open when I have a new demo!
Almost as if on queue, Rowan sneezes, startling you both. Sasha meows at Rowan and she pulls {rtheir} feet up on the couch, as if to get away from her.
Premise seems pretty interesting, can’t wait to see more. Good luck!
This was executed really well and I’m really impressed at your writing. I suck at writing stories, and believe me I’ve tried, but I read and I can say that I will keep on eye on this and look forward to any future updates
Thank you everyone for the encouraging messages! I was super nervous to post the demo considering I haven’t written anything since like 2016 lol. I can tell y’all rn that Saar is gonna be my favorite to write, I can’t wait to introduce them in chapter 3
@Fiend Thank you for catching those! Will be fixed shortly
@yazata Good question! This option will mostly be flavor text that will show up later (for example, it you picked the ripped jeans option, you could skin your knee and possibly ask an RO for help cleaning it )
@Umbreonpanda Thanks for catching that! As of right now I didn’t use the *hide_reuse command just in case you were to miss some information. I realize this is probably confusing so I’ll change that in the next update. As for the “civil” thing, the stats page is on my to-do list. It was originally fearless vs meek but I decided to change it last minute (also need to input relationship stats lol)
Finally got around reading it, some pretty good stuff you’ve got here. Well written, fleshed out and interesting characters. I love the option to ask the name of the demon and its reaction. I’m curious though as to where the story’s gonna go, I didn’t see any endgame as of yet.
Thanks for reading! This is a question that literally plagues me daily lol. Typically, readers of interactive fiction want payoff, but the genre of horror does not do that often. There are three routes I will either implement, or I’ll just choose one, and they are:
Everything is gone
“At the end of this kind of horror story, everyone is dead, everything is destroyed, and there’s nothing left and no hope of anything ever rising from the ashes. Often this means good has won, and there’s no one left to fight but also nothing left to live for, though it can also mean that evil has won absolutely.” -Kate Krake
Good conquers evil... For now
“This is a classic. You’ve seen it before: the villain has been vanquished, dead and buried and then the hand shoots out of the grave, or the prophecy promises the curse will return, the monster has babies. The incarnations are limitless. This is a great way to go if you’re building a sequel or a series.” -Kate Krake
Hero wins the battle but loses something else
“The monsters have been quelled; the hero is victorious, everything on the surface is returning to normal. Except… something is wrong. Often this will come in the form of a post-trauma effect, like the hero is now a trembling mess of insanity. Or perhaps the hero has been forced to sacrifice something or someone.” -Kate Krake
There will not be a sequel so any of these options are viable to me as the writer. I do have a “good” ending planned as of right now (evil is defeated and you get a nice scene with your RO) but it’s subject to change
Really like the story and writing style so far!
I do kind of wish we could name drop Belial when talking about what happened to us if we learned his(?) name though, though i’m not sure how that would effect the pace of the story.