I need YOU..... to pick one

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hello everyone. Not a catchy title I know but bear with me. As stated on my page, I created an account in order to gather information and experience, as well as exchange with members of the community in order to eventually, publish a game of my own. Now I have a LOT of ideas of all kinds ; like everyone here I suppose, but for efficiency sake I already wrote down the ones I enjoy the most under the form of short novels. They’re already more or less fleshed out, with the general story and potential endings. Overall I picked a selection of 4 titles I will work on in the future, but I still have some trouble picking one and actually starting.
Now, I posted this topic because I need you to help me start ; I would like to expose my favourite ideas here and hear from you my fellow CoG users which would be more popular with the community and why. How do you like those ideas, which one do you prefer, why and would it be interesting for others to play. I ask these questions because since I have a lot going on currently I can’t focus on all and if I am going to put time and effort in such a project I’d like it to be the right one, interesting for the community. And of course if anyone has friendly advice to give me for my first work I’ll be glad to take it.

  1. My favourite story takes place mostly during the Klondike Gold-rush (1896-1899) where you get to play as musher facing the harsh conditions of the Great North (temperatures, diseases, nature and wildlife, rivalries, … ) . The musher seeks the riches and adventure up in the Yukon, you’ll get to interact with the world and people around you and I plan of having the dogs play a huge part in the story. Gender locked, only male.

  2. The second story would be about a rugby player who must work his way all the way to the national squad in order to compete in the world cup, and eventually win it. The story would take place in Australia but all characters, cities, teams and so on will be fictional (think of GTA). I will include clubs and a championship who’ll take on a big chunk of the story on the way to the WC, the personal live of your sportsman completing it. The game will be highly based on your stats. No gender lock on this one apparently since it’s based in a fictional world and come on, women’s rugby is cool.

  3. the third one is more of a personal and ambitious project. Since it is medieval and fantasy based games I enjoy the most, I thought writing such a game myself. But unlike most games of the sorts I want to focus on the story telling aspect and the elements I enjoy the most (romance and family, interactions with others, everyday life, random problems, upgrading your domain, …) rather then the typical martial and strategy oriented game. I plan on doing a relatively lore rich world. Stats won’t play a big role therefore and it shouldn’t be a very hard game but a pleasant one.
    EDDIT : Now keep in mind that I’m still unfamiliar with the engine and it was pointed out that it might be tricky to do this one for me as of yet.

  4. the fourth one takes place during prehistoric times and will focus on survival and spirituality, with a quest for the character. Mysteries, adventure and exploration. Might include a romance as well.

So here they are, thank you for your attention. Keep in mind that even if the stories and ideas on how it’ll work are already pretty clear, each description is not permanent, things might change with time.

PS : perhaps I should include a link to a straw pole ?

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I like option 3 the most but I’m a big fan of that type of story.

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The third option would be the most popular one but since (I think) you are new to CScript I’d suggest, you start small and learn the ropes with a decent little project and out of the three remaining IMO the first one is most intriguing…

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Thank you, that is very helpful !

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I love the third one. I like the second one as well cause I’m a sports guy.

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I can’t disagree more with @Legion13 at here :raised_hand:t4:
You probably wanted to get the hang of how coding in CScript first before writing any actual story.

Play with stats, play with… its checks, explore both big choices and cosmetic choices, etc.
Especially if you’re going for a quite stats heavy story like the number 2 (unless you can write it reaalllyyy simple, which is apparently not my expertise) :sweat_smile:

For the story itself, since I’m a sucker for fantasy stories, I’ll go for number 3 :"

But any story, as long as it has some flashy fantasy thingy, I can enjoy it (yeah. It sounds odd, but I have a hard time to get easily invested in a “real” theme stories) :man_cartwheeling:t4:

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The third one sounds interesting, but I’m a sucker for history, and there are already a lot of medieval games here, so my vote is going to the first one.

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Number 2 seems a bit iffy in the sense that this kind of sports story has been done before a lot in movies. Maybe if you’d clarify how yours would be different that’d help.

Number 3 sounds dreamy but as has been suggested might be hard to pull off. And hard to find a good balance. The games and WiPs I’ve seen this try have so far come out pretty thin on the story end of these domain building bits.

Number 4 sounds cool and fresh.

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My thoughts:

I can see this as being interesting, but very niche, and probably hard to pull off. From your description, I can’t really see any story beyond “survive”, and even if there is, it sounds like the survival aspect would still be pretty overwhelming. I don’t really see myself playing this game much.

As an aside, I would recommend not gender-locking it. A Google search will show you that, yes, women were present in the Klondike Gold Rush, but even if they hadn’t been, I would still suggest adding it in as a possibility.

The problem with a tournament game is that it means you have to win every step of the way. So, either the game will be easy to lose (and not fun) or you’ll always win, and thus your choices won’t matter as much. If the story mainly followed the sportsman’s personal life, with the tournaments as a secondary thing, it might be better, but I still wouldn’t recommend it.

I would say that this is possibly the most interesting of the three. While I don’t dislike fighting in fantasy games, I note that a lot of them are very stat-heavy (which is usually pretty bad for enjoyment), so a story that’s more relationships-based (and easy) sounds fun. I would say that I don’t think this would be too difficult to do, even as your first project, especially given its low dependence on stats.

Like number 1, this sounds interesting, mainly due to it being an unusual setting, but (also like 1), I worry that it might come down to survival being more important than plot.

So the verdict is: 3: looks the best; 1+4: interesting setting, but I’m not sure what you’d do with it; 2: probably best to avoid without some rethinking.

That said, the choice is yours, and you should go for whichever story you find the most interesting (even if it’s the rugby one :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: ). Good luck with the game. :smile:

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I would go for third one.

Maybe make a poll to ask people’s favourite. It works best.

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I would say the second option seems to be the most interesting. But the third option is also interesting but there is alot of WIPs and CoG/HG games like that so you probably got something unique that sets it apart from the rest of it.

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Thank you for the great feedback lad. Well for the first story there is of course more planned to it than the simple survival factor, there is a background story and a final purpose to it as well (I just didn’t want to tell more of it, I’m a bit paranoid :stuck_out_tongue: ) but more than anything I wanted to highlight the relationship between master ans dog pack in this game based on my personal experience with dogs and my love for Jack London. The closeness between man and pack through hardship and exploration would be at the center of it. As for the women, yes I’m very aware of it but it struck as more… how can I say fitting perhaps to put a genderlock on it but hey, you’ve made a fair point. What I liked about it was that the story struck me as atypical, unusual compared to most games here and to me it had like real potential in trying to bring on something new. Besides, who doesn’t like doggies ? :wink:

For the third one, I see it being the most liked here and frankly I’m surprised. I thought that another medieval fantasy would be uninteresting to the folks here especially since I want to put focus on relatively neglected aspects in these games. As I said, I already have a good lore rich world on which to focus on but I was afraid that people would think of it as dull or uninteresting, too linear. And unlike the other stories I have already written down this one doesn’t really have an ending, I first envisioned it as some sort of chronicle. But granted I have a lot of time to sort things out. But what confuses me is that according to some it might be the hardest to make and others say it might be easy… got an opinion on that ? :slight_smile:

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That was my thought too.

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I love stories of XIX’s. Facing harsh conditions makes me think of The Oregon Trail :smirk: well, I like the idea, but not sure if I’d play it. Although I like survival games (I’m a Lost in Blue devotee), I think in a choose your own adventure game style it would be too hard for me. Saving the game all the time (assuming you’d put the option) for caution… Besides that, I usually don’t play gender-locked games.
But if this is your favourite… I think you should do things you like, so.

I don’t like rugby but I’d probably play it, since it’s not everyday we see a text game about sports. The problem is here something that @ParrotWatcher said already, the fact that we’d have to win it all the time (I did say how much I hate to restart or even keep saving the game, didn’t I?). I guess that answers my wonders of why I never saw a sport text game…

This is definitely my favourite. The thing I most like in these games is the interaction we have with the NPCs. You said in an answer that you thought we’d be tired of medieval games. I never get tired of medieval games, I love them. What makes me tired is the plot that most of them have. All that war, strategy, policies, diplomacy… not my cup of tea. This game would be perfect for me. But if you think you’re not ready to deal with the engine, do not feel forced to do so.

Not interested in this one to be honest. Just ain’t, don’t know exactly what to point. “Exploration” makes me think of dungeon exploration I guess, a thing I’m not really a fan. I’d need more information to visualize it better.

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NUmber 444444444444…

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I’m most interested in three, but the experienced members of the community are suggesting it would be difficult for someone lacking experience with choicescript to attempt.

My advice would be to write up one of the scenes your expecting to be more difficult to code, and make an attempt at it. From there you can decide how to proceed.

In the event you decide to do one of the supposedly less difficult options, my alternative vote would be number four.

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  1. This one’s probably my favorite, too, partly for being so specific to a setting. I am originally from Alaska, and a woman, and I don’t have a huge problem with it being genderlocked. Sure, there are adventurous Alaskan women doing things like mining/fishing/hunting/mushing (I know many!), but men are still a majority, even today. I’d probably play a female mc if you offered it, but not see it as unrealistic if you didn’t (though something else you might consider are racial options – not just an option to be native but a specific tribe could be really good!) If you think the tone of your story works with a male protagonist only, you are the author, and these are ultimately your decision. But yeah, expect some complaints. I think, given the Jack London inspiration, there’s a lot of interesting story possibilities here.
  2. Not really interested, but I’m not really interested in sports in general.
Summary

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  1. Could be really good. Could get lost in all the other fantasy WIP’s. I’m not disinterested, but you haven’t really sparked my interest, either.
  2. Second favorite. Exploring a prehistoric world sounds cool, and setting a ‘quest’ kind of story in such a low-tech world could be really interesting.
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  1. Sounds like it could be interesting, but not really for me.
  2. Ditto
  3. Sounds like it could be cool, but like it’s already been said, might be difficult for a first project.
  4. This one is probably my favorite. Not many prehistoric games on the site that I know of, and having an adventure in that time period could be cool.

(Would give more detailed responses, but I’m currently using my phone. I hope this was a good enough response.)

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I would ask you to get a grip on some aspects of choicescript and then toy with it for some time. Try to make the third project (only as a challenge) and see how can it be done.

And I think in some hours / days you would get the idea that will you be able to do the third project. And so any other project too as by that time you would have a grasp of choicescript.

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@Nael Thanks for your time and writing the response. As stated higher, for the first story I really want to focus between the relationship between master and dog pack, the animals will have to play a big role in it. I don’t think you’ll get to control them directly but still. Now like for story 4 there’s more to the story than simple exploring, surviving and questing but I didn’t think exposing the whole plot would be essential to the story, just bear in mind that there’s of course an actual story to it as well. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

@Alexandra Aaah an alaskan gal’ , what an honor it is ! I used to have a correspondant and friend up there, lots of good memories. You know France is perhaps the country with the biggest “sled dog culture” in Europe, even more than Scandinavia if you ask me. And two of the biggest camps are not very far from my living place : in the Vercors and the Alpes. It’s something I’ve been fascinating about since I was a cub and I’ve dreamt of writing a novel about it ever since I finished White-Fang , that’s a tough book to read at 12 ! So whatever project I pick, I’ll come back to this one when done and when I’ve toyed with the engine enough haha. :smile: about the gender lock, I understand the the concerns but being an author is about making choices and that’s a choice I made. Not out of any dark motive, simply because all those stories I read and heard about were about men and I felt like following the… flow and fashion, and it seemed less “unusual” to me since I wanna write a real world novel and a female gold digging musher up in the Yukon in the 19th century is not a common thing as you said.

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