Heavens’ Revolution: A Lion Among the Cypress (WIP)

Choice of Games games CoG Works In Progress
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Hi all! Brand new to CoG, ChoiceScript, and the forum. I hope I’m doing this right! I’m two chapters into my game, so Jason suggested I post it to start getting some feedback. Going forward, I’m hoping to complete one to two chapters per month.

Heavens’ Revolution: A Lion Among the Cypress is a flintlock space fantasy inspired by eighteenth-century Iran. These initial chapters are mostly done, but I’m still making a few tweaks. I welcome any and all feedback. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read them!

Ghorboon-e shoma,
Peter

ETA: The game is now live! Thank you all for your support!

COG Link
Steam Link

Summary

You’re an astralchemist’s apprentice in Seyj, an ancient city on the brink of revolution. The work isn’t glamorous—refining oil for lantern fuel, manufacturing gunpowder for the city’s reserves—but it allows you to study under one of the finest minds of the age, Farhad Kimiyagar.

In a perfect world, you’d only have to worry about which branch of astralchemy—the science that governs both the material world and the heavens—to pursue mastery in. But Vatani Revolutionists have made your life a nightmare. When they aren’t pressuring you to join their cause, they’re raising hell in the streets during your mandatory shifts with the Chakkosh, the city’s citizen soldiers.

The Revolutionists claim they want to overthrow the satrap and take Seyj back from the She’ri, who invaded half a century ago. But as the child of a She’ri colonist and a Vatani bazaari, you don’t know where your loyalties are supposed to lie.

Will you join the Revolutionists, telling yourself their cause is just? Will you rise within the Chakkosh, chasing the promise of a better life? Or will you play both sides, hoping you don’t find yourself on the wrong end of a shamshir?

What will you sacrifice to save your city?

Feature List

  • Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual.

  • Master arcane astralchemy and craft powerful weapons, including a massive mech.

  • Defend your city as a Revolutionist or Royalist, or try to escape the conflict.

  • Join the Legion of the Black Lion to overthrow the satrap and install a new government.

  • Rise within the ranks of the Chakkosh and command an army to put down the Legion once and for all.

  • Feed information from one side to the other and profit off the political unrest.

  • Open your own astralchemical workshop, or secure a professorship at the University.

  • Find love or friendship with a citizen soldier (Babak), a blacksmith-turned-rebel (Sahar), or even a princess (Haleh)!

PREVIOUS UPDATES:

11/25/20

Happy Thanksgiving! They’re going up later than I’d hoped, but the next two chapters are live! Please (lovingly) tear them apart! Also worth noting is that I haven’t addressed a couple of the bigger pieces of feedback from the earlier chapters yet, but I’ve taken them into account with the new ones. Enjoy!

6/2/21

I had a VERY busy start to 2021, but I’m back, and I’m hoping people here are still interested in this story and this world!

I’ve added @CJW’s save feature for folks who don’t have time to play through this all in one go. I’ve also added a 9k-word sub-scene where you can choose to raid a speakeasy or accept a bribe from the proprietor to look the other way.

For those who haven’t played the chapters I posted back in November yet, here’s a little tease:

  • Dive deeper into astralchemy, learning more about the individual disciplines and sub-disciplines, and dip your toe into studying your own chosen discipline!

  • Witness a protest at the University over the imprisonment of a famous poet. When you’re sent there to put it down, how will you respond?

  • Get your first proper glimpse of the Legion of the Black Lion. Will you help them or infiltrate them?

  • Discover two new potential love interests, one of whom will allow you to entangle yourself in the political aspects of the conflict!

As always, your feedback is most welcome. I hope to have the next two chapters up soon. Enjoy!

P.S. I’ve changed the name of the Sarbazi to the Chakkosh.

12/29/21

I can’t believe it’s been more than six months since my last update! This year has continued to be incredibly busy, but I’m in the process of streamlining my life so I can properly prioritize this game.

I’ve posted two new chapters and one new sub-chapter, totaling ~29K new words. These include:

  • An opportunity to bribe the warden who holds your brother captive!

  • An opportunity to visit your cousin’s kebab shop (and ask your family for money)!

  • A meeting with the head of the bazaari guild!

  • A deadly attack on the Grand Bazaar!

  • An evening with the satrap’s daughter, where you can court favor with the heads of various organizations, including the satrap herself!

FYI, there’s still a LOT of feedback from previous chapters that I haven’t addressed yet. In the interest of continuing to make headway on new chapters, I’ll be working my way through all of your notes after I hit my word count each day.

Sal-e no mobarak (Happy New Year) and enjoy!

4/2/23

Time makes fools of us all.

At long last, I’ve posted two new chapters (and a sub-chapter)!

I wanted to finish/post these a year ago, but life, as usual, got in the way. On top of that, the last chapter ballooned into a massive, sprawling choice that took me way longer to write than it should have.

Hopefully, now that I’m through that section, it will be smooth sailing the rest of the way. (Famous last words!) My plan is to finish the last few chapters by the end of May.

The new material comes in at just over 53K words, so with any luck, this will keep you all tided over until the game is complete!

Cool things you can do in these chapters:

  • Discover a secret that I won’t reveal here!

  • Meet with the satrap and betray your contacts in the Legion, or pledge to provide her weapons!

  • Help the commander of the Chakkosh uncover corruption!

  • Earn a promotion to a higher military rank!

  • Petition the Minister of Justice to release your brother!

  • Craft weapons for the Legion, or even begin repairing a div (mech)!

  • Begin your career as an academic or a bazaari in earnest!

  • And so much more!

These chapters also contain the first possible ending for the game (it isn’t a good one!).

As before, there’s some older feedback I still haven’t addressed, but I welcome any and all comments. I hope you enjoy playing the new material as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Ghorboon-e shoma (your sacrifice),
Peter

1/17//24

By request, I’ve added a feature list (including ROs). Check it out!

2/22/24

Chapter 10 is now up, clocking in at 22K words! Many thanks to Jason and Aletheia for providing valuable feedback. I’m revising Chapter 11 as we speak, and I hope to be able to post it soon.

As with other chapters, these are taking me far longer to finish than I’d hoped. But I appreciate all of you for sticking with me. I’m touched by all of the love and support for this game.

Things you can do in this chapter:

  • Give a speech at a Legion protest!

  • Heckle said protest!

  • Lead a raid on the Legion’s headquarters!

  • Try to sabotage said raid!

  • And more!

This chapter also contains more potential (bad) endings. Try not to get arrested or killed!

As always, I welcome any and all feedback. There’s still quite a bit I need to go back and address, but for now I’m pushing forward so I can get Chapter 11 out to you all.

Ghorboon-e shoma (your sacrifice),
Peter

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Oof. That’s embarrassing. Fixed, thank you!

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03_theqaleh line 142: Invalid expression at char 17, expected no more tokens, found: NAMED_OPERATOR [or]

got this

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Thanks! I believe I’ve resolved this.

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All right, I believe I’ve fixed this one as well. Thank you!!!

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It did not feel like there was much freedom in trying to stay out of it all is it really possible to not join any side.

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I appreciate the feedback! In the first chapter there’s an option to go inside rather than interact with the demonstrators, so was this more of a feeling in the second chapter? Were there specific moments where you wish you’d had a different option?

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Not really a single part i was just hoping for more parts of trying to avoid being dragged into everybody’s squabbles and i would love a option to be more pissed off at your brother for dragging you into his mess. But other than that i do like the story i can’t wait to be a weapons smith i hope you can invent some crazy weapons.

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Noted, thank you! I’ll keep that in mind going forward.

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Also wondering will you be able to invent things in the game.

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While it won’t be a huge part of the game, you will be able to create things with astralchemy.

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This was interesting! The setting is really intriguing, and I enjoyed the descriptions and imagery of the city. I liked most of the characters so far, including the minor ones like the guard with how he wants sweets for his tea, and the dynamics of how Farhad and his family interacted with one another. So far, though, all my favorite characters are in the Sarbazi – Babak, Peyk, and Nasrin. The astralchemy sounds like it’ll be fun as well, and I’m glad the summary said there will be a path to focus on that.

One thing I noticed, though, was although the story starts with the MC listing the five astralchemical disciplines, the player isn’t told what these disciplines actually are until after they choose one – which means there’s no way for them to know which one interests them the most. Perhaps you could add a small description of each when the MC is naming them?

Regarding the glossary – although I appreciated having the list, sometimes it felt like the only way to understand a word would be to leave the story and look through the glossary. To give an example, Farhad is noted for wearing a shalvar in the first chapter, but it’s only when we reach the description of the Sarbazi outfit in the second chapter that the player gets a clearer picture that it’s a type of pants. For azizam, meanwhile, I didn’t notice any suggestion of whether it’s a term of endearment or a term of address except in the glossary. This is in comparison to when the MC is given the ajil with a description of the ingredients on the same page. Perhaps just adding a bit more detail when a word first appears (like that the shalvar ends at the ankles or something) would help the player to get a general sense of its meaning and its place in the setting.

I also agree that there felt a lack of options when it came to the Revolutionists or the Loyalists, specifically the choices where the MC considers if they should report and then if they should trust. Since there was the previous choice where the MC can agree with the Vatani’s ideas but not like their methods, it seemed odd there were no similar options in these cases – like wondering if they could get an apprenticeship elsewhere so they’re not involved, or trusting Farhad but not the Legion, etc.

Looking forward to chapter three! :relaxed:

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me seeing fahad and mahasti
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Looks fascinating so far.

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I’m so glad you found it interesting! These are some really great notes. Thank you so much!

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hey, I was very interested in the game. I had fun, although I felt the same problem with the types of astralchemy. But I found the problem, that maybe it’s just me since nobody said anything, but I can’t get past the dinner part. Infinite loading. I’ve restarted the game three times and no luck. It’s a shame because I really want to play.

Other than that, I loved your writing, the characters (except for MC’s brother) and the setting. I’m excited to read more.

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Really bothered at seeing Pride as an ability rather than personality trait. Pride has both benefits and drawbacks, so seeing it represented mechanically as a skill just feels wrong.

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Hmm. That’s an odd one. Can you tell me where it stopped working?

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