Here’s a general tip to those who put up original world-building, especially a huge one: never put your world-building in your text. By this – I mean – people read your story for story, eventhough you write for the worldbuilding. If you really want to put up your creation somewhere, shameless plug, World Anvil is one of the best spot to do it.
Though in serious note, while you worldbuild, most compelling series only spare like 1% of their content about worldbuilding. If exposition gets in your narrative, the pacing could be dragged down a lot.
@Szaal I totally agree! One way I’ve seen it handled that I liked was the story gave the reader the option to read about the world as a sort of “before” bit or the option to skip all that and just jump right in. For mine, there’s a massive program that acts as basically a global non-profit library/archive of information. So in the stats I plan to make a separate page/section that allows for people to read a boiled down, bullet point primer on the most important world lore.
This would allow me to have the story go on as if everything about the world was already known (other than easy-to-integrate, 1-sentence comments the narration can make) and not get bogged down in lecturing about the world to the reader, but also give them the opportunity to read up on more of the world building under the pretense of googling the information/searching the library for info in-universe.
I wouldn’t go that far as to say never put your worldbuilding into your text. Yes, unnecessary and uninteresting and what-have-you exposition is bad, but equally bad is to give no worldbuilding at all; especially if your world does have a lot of it. In that case, readers may not understand what’s going on, unless you explain some of the ground rules of your world. The key is how and what you should provide of your worldbuilding (giving worldbuilding in-story != walls-of-text of exposition). Or that’s how I understand it.
I was reading an old request for character species Ideas someone revived and was struck by sudden inspiration. The topic has been locked and I’ve expanded beyond the scope of the original question anyway. me
This is gonna be a bit out there but bear with me. My idea was for you to play as a
…
Collosal Sentient Space Warship. Your ancient, your deadly, your the size of a small moon.
It’s not all good tho. Millennia of fighting off uppity space empires has left less than half your systems functional. the automated shipyard your long vanished creators left to look after you is now just more scrap for the massive ship graveyard that makes up the systems new astroid belt.
As if you didn’t have enough problems, now the primitive society growing on one of the smaller planets has achieved interplanetary space travel, and is actually trying to establish communications.
I like this idea! I’m naming the MC Nemesis. If you don’t mind me asking what gave you the idea of playing has a Flying Mind? (If anyone gets the reference iou a cookie!)
You just blew my mind. I mean, I liked that post anyway but I didn’t connect the dots that we’d be a Culture warship! You just exponentially increased my hype
I picked up stellaris(regrettably the underdeveloped console version) about a month and a half ago.
During my first serious playthrough, I faced many challenges, most of which I overcame thru a bit of luck and the boon of abundant resources.
But my inability to build a colossal ship of intergalactic dominance to lord over my federation members and enemies was a major bummer. I settled for having a space fleet twice the size of the rest of the galaxy’s collective forces, but it still stung.
Suffice to say, lingering frustration has always fueled my creativity.
While I’m here I might as well expand on a few of my ideas.
One of the story facets I was going to suggest as a replayability factor was local impact. It would represent changes the species has undergone as a result of your presence in the system and alter dialogue flavor. It would largely determine societal aspects of the civilization as well.
I have 3 categories so far. Religious, Ideology, and Planetary. I’d suggest setting it up so you can choose 2, one major impact, one minor impact, with the remaining one being insignificant.
Major Religious grant’s the "reverence"trait, and should represent generations of passed down beliefs about the MC and life in general. It should also comes with the negative trait “a faith divided”, signifying that the faith that largely defines the species culture has split into largely opposing factions.
Minor Religious is the same cause and effect, but to a lesser effect do to those who share these religious views being a minority of the population.
I’m out of time so I’ll expand on my ideas for the others later.
I’ve been super busy attending events for my actual novel so I have been a little MIA, I’m looking into what you sent now.I’m juggling promoting my 1st book of my series, working on the second book, and working on my tag a long choose your fate as well. Glad you got the laptop to work, there is nothing worse than having all your work possibly lost due to a laptop dying, I’ve been there a few times myself. Glad I joined this community, a lot of good people here.
Longtime CoG fan here. I’ve been flirting with the idea of writing for a while, and I think I’m finally ready to take the dive.
I see that there have been ideas for a game that involves the MC as a player on an American football team. To my knowledge, nothing of the sort has come to fruition yet, so I’ll use this thread to gauge interest and throw out some ideas I have for the concept:
Touchdown!: Freshman Year (Tentative title, of course.)
Work your way onto the team, into a starting job, and eventually toward a college national championship with the Boulder Bulldogs! As rookie quarterback, you’re tasked with navigating the social scene of college life and staying in peak physical shape on the gridiron, all while maintaining the minimum GPA. Along the way, you’ll meet friends, make rivals, and try to find a date for Spring Formal. Think you’re up for it? Lace up your cleats and give it your best shot!
Naturally, there will be an optional “tutorial” of sorts to introduce newcomers to the basic rules of the sport. With that, I’ll try to strike a balance in the gameplay of simplifying concepts while not dumbing it down to the point that the sport is unrecognizable.
I’ve been very impressed by the inclusiveness displayed by a lot of the games on here. As such, the MC will be able to identify as whatever sexuality and gender they wish. Romance options will be diverse as well. I’ve also liked the added customization options I’ve seen in some games, such as hair, eye and skin color. It’s a nice touch and might not carry many narrative implications, but I like it for the sake of immersion.
Yes, you’ll only be able to play as the quarterback position, but it’s widely seen as the most important, and in my opinion, the most fun position to play. It’s also great for building a narrative around.
I saw an older post that considered including an element of the MC using performance-enhancing drugs . I generally want to stay away from that, but I’m not averse to using it as a plot device.
The MC will have a good amount of background options as well. For example, your character may be a “legacy” player whose father is known as a legendary athlete at your school. Maybe you’re at school on an athletic scholarship, maybe it’s an academic scholarship.
The game will be divided into semesters, which each involving social events (parties and formals), academic events (quizzes and exams), and of course, athletic events, including practices, film room sessions, and actual games.
Multiple “free time” events allow you to bond with teammates, pursue romantic relationships, study and work for extra credit, and even get extra reps on the field! But remember, you still need to sleep at night, and lack of sleep can seriously hurt your performance in the classroom, and on the field.
You’ve probably noticed that the title says “Freshman Year,” hinting at a potential follow-up. While looking ahead may seem a bit ambitious at the outset, it would be awesome to make the game so that you could pick up where you left off in a sequel. If you won the championship, how will you defend it next year? If you’re dating a senior, what will happen to the relationship once they graduate? Will you mentor the incoming freshman quarterback, or sabotage him to secure your status as QB1?
Okay, that’s more than enough from me now. Let me know what you think!
I absolutely adore this idea! Football is the only sport that I actually understand and to play a HG like this would be so much fun! Reminds me a more sports focused Psy High, which I also enjoyed playing. Looks like there’s a lot for non-sports fans to like to get them hooked into the game if the football aspect is throwing them off too.
Can’t wait to see this hopefully come into fruition!
Not much of a fan of the sport to be honest but I’m not against a good story. I’d totally check out the demo if you were to ever make one.
Plus, I love highschool drama.
As someone who has been a fan of CoG and HG games for several years now I have been thinking of making something of my own. I am not the most creative person, nor good at writing any other way that academically but this is and idea I have had for a while.
You are an advanced AI placed inside a robot body. You were created during a period of great scientific advancement and achievement, but something happened. Instead of being activated by your creator, you lay dormant for centuries. You have been accidentally brought back to ‘life’ but the world you find yourself in is not the one you left. Centuries have passed and most technology has disappeared, having been outlawed by the Church of Preservation. Society has become something reminiscent of ages past. The people are scared of the trouble you will bring upon them, while the Church is obsessed with capturing you. The only way forward is to find out what happened all those years ago, and the only people who know want to deactivate you… permanently.
This is a pretty bare description but I am not sure what I am supposed to mention here, although if there are any questions I can always answer. Anyway, is this something that might be interesting to read/play?
HELL. YES. I loved I, Cyborg and obsessively replay it whenever I get a chance. Like @Emofang337 said above, I’d like to know how far in the future this game is too. Would it be 20 minutes into the future, or REAAAALLY far into the future like The Martian Job?
That sounds like an amazing idea, playing as an AI is something I really like but get no chance to do, especially in CYOA games.
Now, for questions about the game. Can we upgrade our body or mind? Also, is one of the end goals to usher in a new scientific age? Or take over the world or just try to live a normal life?
As you can see, I’m very interested, it’s definitely an awesome concept.
