Interest Check Thread

Hosted Games Works In Progress
5333

Interest check! <3

Before I get into the game, I wanted to say one thing. (:

I will still pursue this idea whether people like it or not. The main point of me doing an interest check is to help me decide whether or not I’m going to use the cog software to make it an interactive novel or if I’m going to turn it into a regular book.

Now that that’s out of the way lol

Now introducing, Loving You For The Sumer/ 2 Months Of Love/ Romantic Summer/ Romance At Camp Star/ Camp Star (as you can see, I’m having trouble picking a name T~T lmao)

In this story, you are a 17-year-old spending the summer at Camp Star, a summer camp up in the hills of Massachusetts. Your parents paid for the 12-week pack, so you will be stuck moping in the middle of nowhere for 84 days. Or so you thought until you met the 5 most interesting (and attractive) people you have ever seen. Now instead of the boring summer, you thought you would have, you’re going to have an amazing one. Filled with friendship, chaos, fun, self-growth, and maybe even love. (only if you feel like it, sweetheart, this game won’t lose any value if you are aro)

You can choose your personality, look, style, gender, pronouns, and sexuality. I’m debating whether or not I want to add poly routes, so we’ll see about that. This game will also have no sexual content (the farthest you can get is a kiss). Both because the characters are teenagers and because I’m a teenager and will not be writing that shit. (the characters might make sexual jokes every once and a while because you know… they’re teenagers, but that’s it)

This game is going to be very long and friendship/romance heavy. You may be the Mc, and we may only see from our point of view, but these ros aren’t NPCs. They have their own worlds, and believe me when I say they don’t revolve around you. These characters have their own opinions, types, preferences, and personalities. Which means when you do certain things or act a certain way, you can get locked out of a romance with a ro. Also, these ros aren’t player sexual. Every ro has a sexuality. (for example, if you are a guy, you will get locked out of romancing lesbian ros) That is the reason why this game is so long. It needs to give you enough time to make real connections and experience the experiences you will have.

So that’s the game. If anyone is interested, I’ll make a tumble page for it, tell you about the ros and give you descriptions. But keep in mind that this game will be long, hopefully with pictures, so if you are interested and I decide to make it into a game instead of a book, it will take a long time, so keep that in mind.

That’s all, bye!

24 Likes
5334

I know Massachussets is where Arkham is, so time crazyness is not out of the realm of possibility, but, uh, 12 weeks is 3 months, not 2.

From those title options, I’d go with Camp Star. It’s short and non-generic, so it’s more liable to stick in the brain.

I mean, they are? NPC means “non-player character”, as in, a character who’s not run by a player.

I don’t do tumblr, but I’ll keep an eye out for a WIP thread, if you decide to make one.

1 Like
5335

If anyone is interested, I have a small demo established on Dashingdon that I’ve primarily been using to check all my links work the way they should (and having a friend read it, too). I’ve recently hit a bit of a roadblock. I’ve revamped the beginning and I’m determining if I want to change the first choice setup in the story or not (expand on it or leave it as it is so it can be woven into the story later).

If you’d like to read what’s currently available: [i]The Eden Project[/i]

If you’re interested in the thread I’ve made that will, eventually, be developed into a full demo thread, you can find that here, which also talks more about an issue I’m facing with a link to the private demo.

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5336

The premise sounds interesting and I especially like that when one door closes, another opens.

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5337

Honestly, we need more slice of life books in both cog and hg, definitely looking forward for this one.

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5338

Yep, I just realized that lol.

I was debating whether it would be 9 weeks or 12, so I fucked up the time a bit when I made it 12 last minute.

Thanks for the help. I’m indecisive as fuck, so I was just going to put the names in wheel decide and let god pick.

I know that lol

When I say “they aren’t NPCs,” I mean I want them to feel like real people. I want them to be as life-like as I can make them without having to do some kind of blood ritual to give them actual life (that would be cool as fuck, tho). That’s what I meant, and hopefully (fingers crossed), I will be able to deliver.

That’s cool, but since I’m new to the forum (this is the first forum I’ve ever joined) and I’m more comfortable with Tumblr, I’ll be posting more game-related shit on Tumblr, so you’ll probably be missing out, also to make a WIP thread I think I need to actually have a demo (correct me if I’m wrong like I said I’m new to the forum) and as I stated before, it’s going to take a while before I have a demo out (I literally thought of this idea yesterday while clothes shopping, please bare with me lol) so idk, but hey thanks for showing interest.

(I fucking knew I’d mess something up lmao. I’m just going to refrain from using bold text from now on lol)

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5339

As promised: My WIP

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5340

For your first game, keep the scope low. Your game should have three endings: 1 good, 1 bad, and 1 secret. Maybe an extra good and bad ending if you’re ahead of schedule. You can add a lot of variation to those endings, but I wouldn’t plan 50 of them!

You’ll have to make a tough decision: which is more compelling, the mystery, or the answer? If you have a really compelling answer, then focus on that instead. I can’t count how many movies I’ve seen that present a really complex idea at the heart of their mystery and then immediately end because we spent an hour and a half with the main character stumbling around blindly. Get to the good stuff right away!

Oh, and something I just thought of: If you have a tonne of endings, you’re encouraging the player to replay the game to try and get new endings. Can you think of a problem that might arise as a result of this in a story with a mystery?

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5341

Thank you for your input @will

Maybe I will reduce it number, but I want to make different endings depending on stat (personal) variables, if variables and ROs relations stats. Also, I will have each chapter have five endings, which will affect the main endings.
This is approximate, maybe they are decreasing. I don’t know what my system will be yet when I start coding, since I just started writing.

It is more of a search for answers than a mystery. But it spoils the prologue a bit, but disappointed in the system, the mc seeks an answer to the question of why things happened this way.

This story is not with a mystery, but if it were, there would be different ways to get to it. The problem would probably be the variables.

I apologize for the mistakes and the slightly confusing text that I wrote on the way to work.

5342

This isn’t really an intrest check per say, but I didn’t want to start a new thread about this and this seemed like the best place for it.

I find it helps to have 2 different projects to bounce between when writing. I have posted one of my WIPs on this forum, but now I’m wondering if it’s acceptable to post my other one aswell. I don’t want people to think I have abandoned my main WIP for the new one since many people seem to like it.

Sorry if this is a common question :no_mouth:

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5343

Many If author’s post both of their works on here. Maybe because their experiencing writers block on their story and writing for their second idea could help or the idea just popped up and they want to explore that. I don’t think anyone gonna say you abandoned your first idea just because you started another one unless your clearly state that it’s cancelled / discontinued that’s just my opinion though .

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5344

Hi there all, and Happy holidays! Long-time CoG player and lurker, I had this idea for a different form of narrative but the desire to possibly write and publish my own choice game is strong so here I am! It’s a possibly over done subject but I can’t exactly remember if I’ve read anything recently that is exactly like this. I have many references for inspiration and here is my simple little blurb.

The Old Boys Club
Your mother’s just dropped a bombshell on you! After three years of debauchery, sleepless nights, pretending to study in the twenty-four hour university library; your mother has demanded you mature and work with her to take over her chain of luxury hotels.

Will you be able to prove yourself to her and your family, finish your dissertation and keep up with your friends. And most importantly will you be able to make into the coveted Old Boys Gentleman’s Club that operates off of your father’s golf club, where you’ve been dying to party with your best friends.

Pick how you want to spend your last year in university with your friends, or alone, study or drop out. Navigate the politics of friendships and make your mark on the exclusive Old Boy’s Gentleman’s Club. You’re rich - do whatever you want! But beware all your choices have consequences.

Play as as man, woman, or non-binary. Make your mark on the business world. Continue a romance or stay single. Write up your dissertation or don’t. Hangout with your friends, or don’t. Join the Old Boys Club and make your mark on it or be a wallflower.

I’ve written only a bit, but I want to write up something that allows you to be able to customise your MC and your choices should have an impact on the story beyond altering stats.

The sorts of books that I read that have certainly inspired this sort of narrative are perhaps obvious once the game is read and I don’t mind since they’re some of my favourite books of all time.

Does it sound like a good idea?

  • Yes!
  • No, don’t bother!

0 voters

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5345

It is totally acceptable, I for example am working on two. And if you want to make it clear, just tell those who like the story of the other wip that you intend to work on both and that you have not abandoned your first wip, this is something I have done recently by the way.

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5346

Have an idea that I’ve had for awhile and finally wanted to write it down on paper (well not on “paper” but you get me!). Here’s a very vague, bad and quick summary:

A story about a human who investigates scams, only to come across a “company that performs professional scares” but the workers are actual supernatural creatures.

Right now I only have the outline of the storyline planned and the characters. I was thinking that the main character wouldn’t have a LOT of customisation but would be very important for the story. Obviously, gender, sexuality, name, etc, will be customised as well. I have planned 5 ROs and 1 Poly route, as well as at least 3-4 different endings.

I know this sort of low fantasy idea is usually overplayed, but I still wanted to do it. It’s going to be 18+ and comedy/thriller. Is it interesting?

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5347

That depends on what’s actually going to happen in the story (and how good the prose is. I can forgive an uninteresting story if the prose is just so good).

(I’m always down for thriller though, so points for that already.)

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5348

Was thinking of something like: A wealthy family is using this company’s services to harvest fear from humans. Unbeknownst to the company. The main character, who is an investigator of sorts, will join the company for whatever reason the player chooses, and find this out. Ultimately, this family are the real villains, especially when humans with no fear start to cause chaos around the [insert city here] (World-building is not my strong suit :no_mouth:)

Regarding prose… Meh. I am not an amazing writer. I try to make my ideas come across clear on text, and I tend to avoid flowery language and too many details. However, I do think my strongest skill in writing is characters and dialogue. Hopefully that will come across well in the end result (English is not my first language but a language I love!).

I do love a good thriller :grin:

5349

First interest check for 2023 :slight_smile: My primary concerns are that this could be too intense for the Hosted Games label and whether my writing will entertain.

Trigger warning: horror

Hunt For The Dread Messiah

You’re a criminal psychology expert, but the FBI declined to hire you. Instead, fellow experts on the interview panel discerned the truth: you’re obsessed, sometimes even unstable – not a good fit despite decades of study and success as a homicide detective. You insisted they didn’t understand: it’s more appropriate to say you’re inspired and driven. Who wouldn’t be after surviving an encounter with a child killer before reaching the age of ten?

You moved on with your life, returning to your desk at NYPD and the Ph.D. program at NYU that you joined out of pure interest. There wasn’t a single detective in New York City who could match your efficiency when solving murders.

Then the dead began to rise. They began to feast. The infection spread, and society fell. Thankfully, the dead do not remain animate for long. Cells within an organism do not have infinite energy. Adenosine triphosphate within mitochondria must be replenished, or the organism can’t go. Clearly, ingestion is no longer sufficient.

You were scavenging, barely a week into the apocalypse, when you stumbled upon the most horrific crime scene you’ve ever seen. Three corpses featuring pre-mortem mutilation were arranged and posed as a work of art. The killer also scrawled patterns and messages upon the walls in blood: “judgment has come,” “art is transcendence,” and “I am the Dread Messiah.”

In that moment, you regained your will to live. You will stop the killer or die trying. This is your story. This is the hunt for the Dread Messiah.

Are you interested in playing this IF?

  • Yes
  • No (as a horror fan)
  • No (not a horror fan)

0 voters

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5350

You really had me with the detective/serial killer angle, but then it got into the horror/apocalypse stuff, and now I’m not sure. I think it depends on how much you lean into the murder investigation and how much you lean into the horror stuff. If you make a demo, I’ll check it out to see. I love mysteries and crime dramas, it’s just the supernatural horror stuff I’m weary of

I think you should be ok. It’ll be unique, but that’s not a problem for hosted

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5351

I think that it feels a bit strange to me, the mixing of these two genres. Detective stories are really interesting, I’d love to see where this goes, but I’m also unsure how I feel about post-apocalyptic horror detective as a genre combo myself. I would still definitely check it out though!

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5352

@Anna_B @Phenrex thank you both for the thoughtful replies! I’ll be sure to add “A Post-Apocalyptic Serial Murder Investigation” or something close as a subtitle so that the cross-genre positioning is clear from the very beginning. I aim to increase verisimilitude by throwing society out the window. Current investigative techniques rely on society, so with that out of the picture, more knowledgeable readers won’t find themselves saying “this isn’t how criminal investigation works!”

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