Honestly I really really love this game you’re doing an amazing job man thank you very much I really appreciate everything you’re doing.
I have a question will there be a scene where we can finally beat Issac and steal his position man I always wanted to be a bully of bullies
Uhh, can i settle all this with fist?
Just how psychotic/ sociopathic is the MC if I may ask? Like are they Dexter Morgan/ Joe Goldberg level especially at a highschool age? Imagine what they would be like when they are out of school now?
Another month, another update. This was a weird one: it started strong in August, then a bunch of stuff forced an early-September break from writing. Still, confident in the last promise. Chapter 4 will be done in October. At this point, it’s inevitable.
Yes, people, words have been written. Here’s what’s new:
All that’s left is to finish the break option, write everything for the secret “dance with your date” option, and write the follow-up to the dance for all the ways it can end. Then the chapter is done. After that, it’s one more pass. Not a “rewrite”, just a polish… and we’ll be ready to make this baby public… baby!
Forgot to answer questions with this update, so here’s a rectification.
Since this is mainly a “mastermind” sim where the player plans every step with mystery elements, additional POVs don’t really make sense until late in the story, or when one of the major targets (most likely Olivia or Dylan) figures out who the MC really is. Side stories with alternate POVs are on the table once the game is further along.
Yep, revenge first and then finding common ground is possible. The narrative is flexible outside of the big tentpole events (like Homecoming), where some things are locked.
If the relationship clearly turns hostile, public bullying becomes an option.
…maybe?
It’s not Dexter/Joe-level because no one’s getting killed, but the vibe can get close. Think obsessive, manipulative energy without the murder. Killing doesn’t fit this story. Yet.
Just let us absolutely embarrass Michael in a fair 1-on-1 fight and I’ll be happy. Also, what Olivia says to Dylan update was… insightful.
Yet?ohhh that alone makes me so so much more excited for the next updates
I’ve kept my promise. It was… inevitable. Chapter 4 is done! Woohoo 
! I’ll be honest: I haven’t read it straight through even once yet, which is kinda insane, so over the next few weeks I’ll be polishing it with Patreon folks and then releasing the best version of Chapter 4 to everyone at the same time. After that, I’ll gather feedback from all readers to make Chapter 4 the best version of itself.
Then, finally, after a very long time, it’s on to Chapter 5. Who knows, the next big event that will waste many months of my life will likely be a Halloween party. I did consider taking a short break after Chapter 4, but revising, polishing, and finishing scenes should be way less stressful than this last push.
I’m not going to list every tweak and addition (it’s a lot) but Chapter 4 now sits at a whopping 186,898 words. It’s a monster that could be a game on its own if I weren’t an ambitious fuck.
Once the chapter is out for everyone to see, I hope you’ll finally see the true vision of the game and tell me if this is something worth taking to the end or if I should start looking into another profession for myself haha.
Most realistic public release date for Chapter 4: November 30.
Thanks for the support, I can’t wait for you to dig into the real meat and potatoes of this story and actually start seeing what the characters are all about!
So we can kill later in the story, right?? Oh this will be interesting…….
will you bring the character art over here from the tumblr?
Aura Farming everytime I love this soo much
Yep, you heard that right. Wait, I forgot the start.
Another month, another update.
Chapter 4 is done and it’s out for everyone to read (there are actually 2 scenes I haven’t written yet, but I’ll finish them while also working through all the advice I’ll hopefully get from everyone now). You can use the same COG Demos link from the top to get there, but I’ll link it here again. I hope you guys like it, and I would love to hear some feedback.
Quick word count recap:
Chapter 1 - 12k
Chapter 2 - 22k
Chapter 3 - 16k
Chapter 4 - 182k
Total word count - 232k
To tell you the truth, the last few months have been really boring when it came to writing HSR, since I didn’t get to interact with basically anyone and every update was a chore. I hope this will finally get people talking again, even if it’s negative, just so I can get some goddamn feedback so I can improve and get my motivation to push even further haha.
I’ll change how I do everything so this doesn’t happen again. No public demo updates from now on until a full chapter is done. With the private Patreon demos, I’ll only update them when I actually have relevant content to add that makes the update worth it. Kinda like adding “episodes” to the IF. Eh, whatever, I’ll figure it out as I go. Right now I just want everyone to tell me what they think of the character arcs and the revenge plots and the romance and all the things I’ve added.
As I mentioned in the demo twice, please send me your stats when you finish the game. I’ll need them to make sure the checks are balanced and fair.
Yep, that’s that from me. Cheers, thanks for the support, I’ll probably disappear for a little while to chill out, and hopefully I’ll find something to improve/fix when I get back, haha.
is cecily impossible to ask as our date? she always refuse no matter what
I would add more, but I am busy with finals right now, so I’ll be very brief. I really enjoyed the update, and I did not notice any bugs in my playthrough. Additionally, the revenge plots that I did: Cecily, Issac, Olivia ice cream, and the grandiose plan + photobooth, were fun to read. I also did the Angela romance, which was very sweet. One of my two pieces of criticism is that there doesn’t seem to be any downside to always spending money when you get the option. My bigger piece of criticism is that it isn’t clear to me when playing how many plans I can prep before homecoming and that during homecoming I kept thinking that I was running out of time to do things. So if possible, I think it would be good to make how many weeks you have until homecoming more obvious when plotting and change some of the phrasing during homecoming for how much time you have until crowning homecoming royalty. Besides those two things, I thought the story itself was well written. I have always enjoyed the tone you use throughout the story, and I am glad you kept it. I also enjoy the characters and how to interact with the player and other characters even if it comes off as a bit silly in some parts.
**Stats at the end of CH4**
Dylan: 43
Olivia: 58
Michael: 55
Cecily: 48
Connor: 56
Isaac: 53
Vivian: 41
Haley: 59
Angela: 89
Marcus: 68
Burt: 23
Wren: 55
Prez: 51
Lydia: 54
Benjamin: 37
Claire: 66
Popularity: 11
Reputation: 46
Homecoming Campaign Popularity: 0
Homecoming Date: Angela
Kissed Date: Yes
Creep Presence: 8
Angela Ally: 1
Angela Knows: 2
Angela C: 1
Marcus Ally: 1
Marcus Knows: 1
Marcus H: 10
Burt Ally: 1
H Ally: 0
Z Ally: 0
M Ally: 2
You need
*if (((Cecily >= 74) and (hd_cecily_support = 1)) or ((Cecily >= 70) and (hd_cecily_support = 2)))
very high relationship with her and support from at least some of her friends (seek their opinions before you do a public declaration)
Also, can’t be too popular or seen as chasing popularity
*if (((Popularity >= 16) or (homecoming_popularity >= 1)) or (hd_public = 1))
these are deal breakers.
A better option may be to ask privately and pretend you’re doing it so you can be her “fake date” to keep others from bothering her. This one needs
*if ((Cecily >= 60) or ((Cecily >= 55) and (mentor = 1)))
as long as MC hasn’t asked out anyone else.
Hmm looks like a minor error in Ch.2 (i’m replaying from the start before diving into Ch.4 so it’ll take a bit) Anyway:
*create name "AvgJoe"
*create old_name "AvgJoe"
//...
#I'm not changing my first name.
No. Let them hear your old name and see a completely different person. The confusion would be part of the payback. It is, after all, the ${name_rank}th most common first name in Canada…
The issue here is that if the player chooses to keep their original name, the old_name variable is untouched and so sometimes the game refers to MC as “AvgJoe” when this variable is used in the script. It also causes to pass/trigger checks name != old_name because it’s technically true.
The easy fix would be to *set old_name name if the player opts to keep their first name unchanged, just like the other options for that choice do it.
My MC’s Shit List:
#1 Isaac Freeman (Menace)
#2 Michael Knox (Almost Murderer)
#3 Cecily Knight (Deceiver)
#4 Vivian Porter (Snake)
#5 Dylan Evans (Turncoat)
#6 Connor Cobb (Fake)
#7 Haley Freeman (Torturer’s Nail)
#8 Olivia Hartley (Complicit)
Yeah, that’s something I’m still working on. Money vs other methods usually has hidden repercussions like relationship changes behind the scenes, different ways the events can go down, and I want to, at some point, make money a more interesting mechanic. But right now it’s very bare-bones.
Oh, this is a great point. I’ll fix it likely today haha. Without playing through the demo myself too much I miss potential quality of life upgrades like this.
EDIT: Here’s what I came up with for the homecoming exploration phase. at homecoming_time 6 you get the crowning.
*if ((homecoming_time >= 2) and (homecoming_time < 4))
There's still a lot of time until they crown the homecoming royalty. What else do you want to do?
*if homecoming_time = 4
There's people flurrying about, getting the stage ready. You're likely reaching the end of your free roaming period.
*if homecoming_time = 5
The stage is set and people are gathering. This is likely your last chance to do something before the crowning.
And this for the planning bit:
*if (school_weeks < 4)
You have ${4-school_weeks}
*if (school_weeks != 3)
weeks
*if (school_weeks = 3)
week
left until homecoming. Which means you've got time to prep ${5-school_weeks} plans…
As @fsix mentioned, the public proposal is relatively impossible unless you plan ahead and know what most of the choices do. Go for the private fake date option. If you’re on the swim team and have acted submissive with her during most interactions it should be very doable. A hint she’ll say yes is that you managed to trigger her relationship event (the one about Connor).
Thanks for catching that, fixed! Will update to the demo when I make some of the other changes as well
Great update overall, feels like a Persona game if it was all about school life and not about fighting monsters.
There should be some reactivity or some unique dialouge if you fake confess to Cecily and she humiliates you and then you ask her out to be your date for homecoming. Shes gotta say something about that as well as the school because they witnessed you getting rejected.
On homecoming, setting up Dylan’s prank should automatically grey out his photo booth option because it plays twice with the same event.
Stats at the end of CH4
Dylan: 51
Olivia: 73
Michael: 57
Cecily: 72
Connor: 74
Isaac: 53
Vivian: 43
Haley: 57
Angela: 68
Marcus: 67
Burt: 46
Wren: 51
Prez: 48
Lydia: 56
Benjamin: 41
Claire: 80
Popularity: 18
Reputation: 69
Homecoming Campaign Popularity: 4
Homecoming Date: Cecily
Kissed Date: No
Creep Presence: 10
Angela Ally: 1
Angela Knows: 2
Angela C: -1
Marcus Ally: 1
Marcus Knows: 1
Marcus H: 10
Burt Ally: 1
H Ally: 0
Z Ally: 0
M Ally: 1
I think I fixed it. You meant that you saw the prank event twice when selecting the photobooth option right after the prank, right?