Thanks Hannah,
I seem to have messed up the initial link thread and made it too long and open to discussion. It was a mistake. I will try setting the game as updated today. I got all excited and started writing everyone and getting ahead of myself I guess. It is so hard to get this right the first time…but I guess that is the process. Thankyou for responding. Hannah, do you have any tips on how to navigate gender in these Interactive Novels? I went with humor, neutrality, and some choice, but decided not to ask players “what they like?” Its not the question that is hard…its that I would have to interpret what they say they like into writing. I also find this question jarring in the beginning of the game, in my opinion of course. When I play an RPG video game for example, the characters respond to what you say to them or your actions…you don’t set the game a certain way. I suppose that would be the ultimate in what I would want to accomplish. It would be very time consuming. Anyhow, I avoided PC romance for this very reason on my first IO. There is a bohemian character that would flirt with a door that i made ha ha. but that is it. I found it so much easier to just have them tell this NPC what they like, or don’t like, so that I am not presuming anything. This lead me to create a PG rating system that I could even extend to a choice selected by people/parents in the beginning of the game. Anyhow I digress. I am not sure that people understand how much time a shmuck like me has to put into a game to be non-offensive or open to all. It is a very hard line to walk. And I am a straight, white, male, so I am a complete moron…but a moron who is very open to suggestions so long as I can use them. In short, I want my Interactive Novel to reach the widest audience possible, including young adults. I have no high horse; I don’t even have a horse. I just want to be successful and make good ,quality, stories. Sorry for the long message