Hi everyone! I finally decided to to try my hand at writing a CSG game. From The Shadows is a result of combining a few of my ideas, WIPs and an unfinished horror novel.
You died. You don’t know where, you don’t know how. And then, you came back. Changed. Some people might call you a medium, others - a freak. But none of them know how seeing ghosts changes your life.
After countless sightings of White Lady in a small town of Rowfolk, you are sent to investigate the ghost. But with every day and every uncovered secret, you find out that there is more to the story, than people want to tell you.
Play as a medium
Discover the secrets of the mysterious town of Rowfolk
Uncover the truth about your death
Hunt down a ghost
Romance one of three love interests
Warnings
death
blood
depictions of violence
mentions of suicide
self harm
depictions and mentions of mental illness
substance abuse
nightmares
strong language
sexual content
I’ve tried to tag everything that I thought might be triggering but if you have any concerns or would like me to provide extra warnings, please do not hesitate to send me an ask or dm me. I will do my best to tag any requested triggers.
Please, remember to take care of yourself, while reading the story.
Gameplay
Play as a female, male or non-binary
Romance three love interests (one of them is gender-customizable)
Customize your appearance
Choose your personality, traits and responses
Accept or reject the supernatural world
Solve a mystery of the White Lady
Explore different paths and discover a secret ending
Much more!
Please note that English is not my first language and if you find any grammar mistakes or awkward sounding sentences, do not hesitate to point them out!
Updates
07/24/20 - demo release (prologue and chapter 1)
I’ll gladly answer all your questions! Be sure to check out my TUMBLR for more content and updates!
I really enjoyed this as well. I think you do a good job expressing the sensations the protagonist has with their nightmares, how they perceive ghosts, and that sort of thing. I’m definitely looking forward to more!
I went ahead and wrote down a few spelling and grammar things I caught as I played through, if you want to see. (I didn’t think to collect snapshots, but I can run back through and snag them if you want me to).
Here they are!
Early on, And your heart stops beating, one two, one to, one - assuming they should both be two.
After refill question, No, thank you" has an ending quotation mark but no opening one.
Later on the same page, When a few more minutes passes - it should be pass.
As Leona is describing the case … “They tried,” he responds quickly, then thins her lips into a narrow line. - Leona is consistently referred to with female pronouns, so I’m assuming the he should be she.
Talking about the two guys joining you on the mission, Castillo and Kennedy are already in town, and they are one of the bests - mixes singular and plural words to describe two people. Maybe something like and they are two of the best?
After I asked C&K for their thoughts on the case, The White Lady doesn’t sound peculiarly. Peculiarly should probably be changed to peculiar.
Very interesting start!
A bit too short to give more detailed feedback though, so I’ll wait for a few updates before I do.
I have two small things to point out / ask for though!
On the first choice:
The options are:
“You can not give up. You must know.”
“I can’t. I’m too tired.”
The first option uses “you”, the second one uses “I”. It would be better to settle on one or the other. Personaly I prefer to have “I” in the choices. But then again, I prefer the whole story to be written in first person, so yeah, that’s irrelevant. Just do as you prefer.
About the warnings:
Could it be possible to add that the MC has amnesia in the warnings, since they apparently remember very little of their life before the things that happened to them? That is literally the only element in fiction that needs a warning for me, because of how stressful and unconfortable it is, and unfortunately it usually doesn’t.
So I played it again, properly this time, and my previous opinion stands; this is good! I really liked how descriptively you expressed the PC’s feelings and honestly, it almost started to give me chills before the demo ended.
Questions
What’s the full abbreviation of FASS?
We have siblings?
Also, some things I noticed (Note: This is entirely subjective to me);
The PC’s personality looks a bit fixed to me. Think you might want to take a look at it.
The hair choosing options were a bit hazy and a bit railroading, since I couldn’t exactly choose my preferred hairstyle
About Castillo and Kennedy, I think we’ve a fixed opinion about them, no? That’s the feel I got while playing, although I understand that it may change in future chapters. Just thought I should inform you about that.
Oooooh intriguing! I was just thinking today that I crave some good mystery horror and look what pops up Really digging Castillo and suuuper curious about what happened on that mission looking forward to learning more!
Hello! I can honestly say I’m excited about this WIP. We don’t get mystery/horror stories too often, and I’d love to see this one thrive. I love the title, and I’m especially excited about the White Lady. It’s quite a popular name when talking about ghost sightings (at least in Europe), and I can’t wait to see how this part of the story develops.
@Jayffel thank you so much! I honestly didn’t catch those mistakes and I really appreciate your help!
@Konoi thank you! You’re right, I’ll change the choices’ wording to be more consistent. And of course, I’ll add it to the warnings!
@moonfungus The Federal Association of Supernatural Supervision, it’s going to be explained in the next chapter! And no, the main character is an only child. And thank you for your suggestions! Although, I have no idea why you keep getting this error because I didn’t get it while play testing. But I’ll definitely look into it! The same with PC’s personality - I’ll definitely work on it and try to change some things and add different choices. The opinion is fixed but it will change in the future chapters for sure! It’s because of what happened between them, tho I will try to add more choices to personalize the gameplay more!
Thank you to everyone who played my WIP! It really means a lot to me.
Also, @Dariel, po pierwsze powiem cześć! I’m actually basing some parts of the White Lady’s story on some polish legends!
@hudush Cześć! That’s amazing. Truly. I’ll be on the lookout for updates. @Konoi Co tu się dzieje. Czemu nagle wszyscy mówią po polsku…?
As for the legends, there was, for example, this lady called Teofila Działyńska who was (is?) often connected to sightings in Kórnik. There’s a castle there.
Polska rodzina! Zawsze rozmawiam po polsku w domu.
But I usually don’t comment in languages other than English, even if it’s easier for me (I speak perfect Polish, French and Spanish - my English is not so perfect) since I want people to understand me, not only the person I’m talking to.
@Konoi Hoho, miło. Ale rozumiem, że lepiej pisać tu po angielsku. Zawsze osoby trzecie mogą przeczytać i zrozumieć.
Imho your English is quite perfect. I’ve read some of your posts under 5+ different WIPs, and I don’t think I’ve ever encountered any mistakes. Perhaps you’re just selling yourself short? Also, it’s amazing that you can speak all these languages.
Really digging Castillo and suuuper curious about what happened on that mission 
looking forward to learning more!