Donor: A Vampire Victim's Tale [GAME RELEASED!]

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hi there! I’m a published (can I still say published if my publisher went out of business and my books are no longer in print?) author / computer-programmer who thought it would be fun to convert my first novel to IF.

Premise:

Richard is a modern-day vampire who likes to eat in, so he always keeps a fresh victim trapped in his lair. All of his captives eventually die; YOU hope to be the first to escape.

Match wits with Richard, his vampire cohort, Paul, and their human servant, Charles, in a treacherous game where bleeding to death is the least of your problems. And learn what it means to have something terrible in common with your captors: You must kill in order to survive.

Features:

  • 14 Endings total (7 deaths, 7 “happy” endings), each with their own epilogue.
  • No permadeath. If you die, automatically go back to your last choice.
  • Play as a helpless victim or master manipulator.
  • Befriend or ultimately destroy your enemies.
  • Single cohesive storyline with multiple branches.
  • 11 chapters
  • Word count ~130k
  • Lots of mini-games!
  • 28 achievements

Average play-through length: 55k

Tone:

This game lies somewhere between light horror and dark comedy, and is intended to be more fun than frightening.

UPDATE: The game has been released, so I’ve removed all the links to the demo. Please check the final product out here: Donor.

Thanks!
–Elena

Fan Art!

Paul, by iingezo:
donor_2

NSFW Lenore + Paul, by Meira_Litch:
CLICK HERE

Lenore and Charles, by iingezo:

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Lenore, by Meira_Litch:

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Richard, by Meira_Litch

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Helpful diagram, by Meira_Litch
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Fan Fiction!

Behind The Old Maple Tree by Requiem Behind the Old Maple Tree - A Donor/Bait Fanfic - Google Docs

Diner, by DenaFan https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13926063/1/Diner

And another by the awesome DenaFan :heart_eyes:: Decider, a donor fanfic | FanFiction

Bad Chances, by FoxalypticWord’s friend, Romiress
Bad Chances - Romiress - Donor - Elena Hearty [Archive of Our Own]

Changelog

UPDATE 02.07.18 - Chapter 2 complete.

UPDATE 02.11.18 - Debugging, adding a save system, and generally tweaking a few things as a prepare to upload Chapter 3. Please don’t play the game on DashingDon until the next release.

UPDATE 02.12.18 - Chapter 3 complete

UPDATE 02.17.18 - Chapter 4 complete

UPDATE 03.11.18 - Chapter 5 complete

UPDATE 05.17.18 - Chapter 6 complete

UPDATE 05.19.18 - Added character configuration screen to “start from” links

UPDATE 05.27.18 - Chapter 7 complete

UPDATE 06.06.18 - Bug fix (removing my “Xanax penalty” experiment :disappointed:)

UPDATE 06.08.18 - QuckStart overhaul (using URL hash instead), and ACHIEVEMENTS :smiley:

UPDATE 07.14.18 - Chapter 7b complete

UPDATE 07.27.18 - Chapter 8 complete

UPDATE 08.04.18 - Minor updates to chapter 8 flow, swapping Intelligence for Logic, Epilogues now avail via the stats screen.

UPDATE 11.20.18 - Chapter 9 complete

UPDATE 01.27.19 - Chapter 10 complete

UPDATE 04.28.19 - Chapter 11 complete

PS: After several requests, I’ve uploaded my first novel to amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Donor-Elena-Hearty-ebook/dp/B07DZQKG24. It is not my intention to charge anyone money for it, so if you don’t have Kindle Unlimited (and you’re interested in reading), you should be able to directly download the book here: Donor Self Pub Final 2 EPUB.epub - Google Drive.

And here’s a link to the sequel, Bait: bait_ebook - Google Drive

Note: I don’t get a ton of feedback on the novel, so if you liked it (or hated it), please consider reviewing on Amazon or Goodreads - it really helps out!

372 Likes
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This is remarkably enjoyable, and the trapped-in-a-room concept is something that I haven’t seen in a CoG before. I look forward to more chapters.

21 Likes
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Wow. I like it but at the same time it’s creeping me out. You’re definitely doing something unique here.

17 Likes
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If you take one pill and then another, the vampire says that you already took two pills, instead of just one pill.

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Kinda reminds me of a visual novel called Nachtigal though this game has a more dark tone

6 Likes
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Oh, I’m keeping track of the total pills for the conversation, but I can see where that might be confusing to the reader. I’ll revise. Thanks!

5 Likes
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Eye-catching enough to grab one’s attention and interesting enough to have them stay.
It’s not very common among WIPs though I suppose that’s the difference between an experienced writer and a hobbyist.

7 Likes
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I’m going to stay around. Really enjoyed chapter 1, looking forward for updates :+1:

4 Likes
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Looking interesting so far!

2 Likes
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Looks like it is well written, but not my kind of thing. I am sure it should do well here though, with one exception, people around here seem to have a hatred for gender-locked stories. I understand why this needs to be gender-locked, but be prepared for the backlash.

4 Likes
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Actually, one of the things I was interested in hearing from folks was whether the story would benefit from gender choice. This isn’t a romance - I want to be totally clear there - so it is possible.

To provide some insight as to why I chose not to do this, however…

  1. A non-female main character in this story would throw off the dynamic imho because she’s supposed to be physically outclassed by her captors.
  2. As someone coming from a novel writing background, I’d find it extraordinarily difficult to shape well-developed non-primary characters with variable gender types. I have enormous respect for the CoG authors who are able to pull this off. I’m just not that good. :stuck_out_tongue:

Totally get that this isn’t your type of thing, but I do appreciate the feedback nonetheless. Thanks for taking the time to read it anyway!

8 Likes
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People of both sexes do come in all shapes and sizes; I do think it could work with either male or female protagonists. One of the selling points for many IF fans is that you are able to customize your MC (main character) and this does connect to many.

CoG has been working hard to be as inclusive as they can in their official catalog but it is not a requirement to have gender choice in Hosted Games.

Personally, I enjoy customizing my characters - especially if I have multiple play sessions.

Also, as an author, your ability to use the code to attach flavor text and specific prose to custom variables can create an attachment not seen in normal novel writing.

Finally, welcome to the community here. I’ll think you’ll find it to be both helpful and supportive as you convert your story into an IF game.

26 Likes
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Thank you for not making this a romance, by the way. That’d be fifty different flavors of horrifying.

12 Likes
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These are great points. I’ll play around with gender choice (although probably not until I’ve completed the first draft). Really appreciate the input!

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Lol, you have my word :wink:

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A horror based choice-script game will never not get my attention, but I’m surprised by how much I like what you have so far. There’s certainly something very charming about it to me and I look forward to enjoying the rest of it. I do not personally mind this game being gender-locked like the others have mentioned, since I never play as a male anyway. Still, I can see this being a potential problem for other players.

Usually, I prefer being able to create my character from scratch in choice-script games that assume nothing about the player character until choices are chosen. There is something about the protagonist of Donor so far that actually makes me really glad that I don’t have that option (if that makes any sense). I’m not sure how much the protagonist varies among playthroughs (I’ve only played through it once), but I enjoyed what I ended up with through my choices. I’m glad that the protagonist’s personality seems to be subject to choice (Mine seemed to end up pretty immoral through my choices.)

As far as the other characters go, Paul is definitely my favorite so far. Also, I’m a little disappointed that this game won’t feature at least a little romance but I’ll deal with that :wink:

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@Tomie Who would the MC romance? Richard, who kidnapped her? Paul, who was complicit? Charles, who’s trying to kill her?

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Sure, why not? Who said this person needs to be rational in any way? :wink: I like the idea anyway.

The only problem I can see with it is this not working with the author’s vision, so the player never gets a chance to do so. That’s perfectly fine too.

12 Likes
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Heh, believe me, you guys do NOT want me writing a romance

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I can only guess that it would be enjoyable from what I’ve seen of your writing so far.

5 Likes