Interest Check Thread

[Phenrex]

I mean, that is probably where turning it from a ‘novel’ into an IF would come from. I do think that there would be an breadth of distance between the populace and the MC, and that they might take a variety of perspectives on whether or not they accept their fate. I don’t think the populace needs to be locked into liking them though, perhaps there is a few different ways the MC can choose to present themself, and that changes perceptions, from admiration to something akin to expectancy to maybe even ire or jealousy over the their position when people don’t believe the MC has earned it.

At any rate, it’s just the initial concept, but I do quite fancy it. Part of me wonders if the MC had a life prior to being ‘chosen.’ I think if they were raised always knowing than it would be different from them being ‘discovered’ later on. I don’t want to babble on about possibilities though. I might mix this with an idea I posted earlier about a ‘body swap’ story. I imagine that could have some interesting interplay.

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Response to @Anna_B :
I mean, I think the MC would be presented with their own choice on how they feel about it. Do they end up embracing the inevitable, or do they decide that the ‘sacrifice’ expected of them is unfair? Or something. I’m tired as heck, but I don’t think it has to flatly have the MC decide it’s bad. Anyway this is probably not going the usual Chosen One ‘High Fantasy’ angle setting though, I’m merging this with a prior concept I had about superheroes, I think. A prophetic superhero, me thinks, for the MC.

[Anna_B]

It’s probably not something I would be interested.
When I think of destiny, I don’t think of it as the universe taking away your free will. I think of it as the inevitable. The story leading up to the sacrifice or the big battle is meant to prepare the hero for his destiny. Not just his skills, but his character. By the time he gets there, he genuinely wants to do what’s necessary

[Zaxwlyde]

I think it definitely would depend on the execution. It’s something that’s been done before, but it also can be a concept that could be tricky to pull off. Despite that, some of the greatest creations came from those based upon execution. If it motivates you, I’d say put your heart to it!

[Zaxwlyde]

Estheria: A Realm Divided Update 03/01/2023

Happy March, everyone!

I’m getting closer to the release of the Character Creator Demo for A Realm Divided. Following the poll last week, and some internal thinking/planning; I’ve arrived at a difficult decision.

I have chosen to gut the character backgrounds.

After extensive polling, discussions with others, and deliberations, I settled on the five individual races having their own starts. As a result of that, it would be extremely jarring if you picked a background that would be something such as an outcast to merely find yourself thrust into society nonetheless as part of that race’s opening story.

Instead, I’ve chosen to add certain attributes by default to the individual races as a bit of their own ‘background-backing’. While this cuts the character count down quite a bit from the original plan, I’ve also decided to revitalize the personality test with extensions. Code is mostly in place, it’s really just a bit of writing now.

My hope is to release the Character Creator Demo on March 12th, 2023. If possible, I’ll definitely release earlier, but I believe that deadline is most feasible. Upon release, I will immediately begin development on the first of the five race’s starts. To keep in tradition with my polling here, I’ve decided to involve the community to help decide which of the five is first to be implemented.

Thanks again for being fantastic as always, everyone!

POLL BELOW!

• The Aetherials - An elemental race that isn’t born of typical flesh and bone.
• The Dwarves - They might be short and stout, but a hardy glass of mead coupled with a hot forge sets them straight.
• The Elves - Sacred protectors of the aether, the Elven race follows steadfast tradition with a flair of magick.
• The Shadow Elves - At peace with both nature and shadow, they are those born of exile.
• The Humans - Adapt, overcome, conquer, expand. Humanity knows no bounds.

[Anna_B]

I ALWAYS choose elf. At least on my first go around. So I’m always interested in how they’ll be interpreted by in authors

[Leinco]

I feel like most people here are voting for what would be their favourite, and admittedly, so have I, the Aetrherials sound really cool.

But if you’re only releasing one race to begin with, i think that humans would be a choice that would offend barely anyone.

If I’m getting your meaning here correct, you’re including the full character creator, and the start for one race. Again, i think humans would be the best bet. If you’ll add them all anyway, then I think that humans would be a good choice to provide an initial introduction to the world you have created, since I recall you saying this is in a pre-existing world that you created. Many of the other races might be rather confusing for someone as an introduction rather than humans since, sadly, we are all actually humans.

But again, that’s just me thinking logically, I much would prefer the Aetherials.

[Zaxwlyde]

Hey, Leinco!

That’s a really solid point, and one I’ve considered. The primary reason why I’ve opted for the poll was that this would be a WiP Demo and development process.

It heavily looks at this point like the Shadow Elves will end up pulling ahead for the victory. That said, to create a balancing act, the second race implemented will indeed be the Humans.

To clear some things up, the character creator will include the following:

• Name Selection
• Gender Selection
• Pronouns Selection
• Race Selection
• Hairstyle Selection
• Hair Color Selection
• Eye Color Selection
• Body Feature Selection
• Skin Color Selection
• Scars and Scar Placement Selection
• Tattoos and Placement Selection
• Personality Test & Romance Type Selection
• Recap

All of these will come together in a manner designed to give players extensive choice over who they are. From there, I plan to launch an exhaustive/extensive development process. I’ve already finalized a professional logo for the title, and plan on working extensively with the community as I build things together. Parts of the process include:

• Utilize branching narrative to open up multiple pathways within conversations. This is achieved through a mix of Causality (a great drafting software typically used in screenwriting), and Articy: Draft (fantastic for planning!)
• Create content with a careful approach to diversity. Through the use of research and prior experience, I’ll work to ensure that each race thoroughly represents themselves. Speech mannerisms, behaviors, and personality archetypes are built individually without referencing others in the game. This ensures I avoid carbon-copy situations.
• Build upon a decade of worldbuilding and universe development to implement unique architecture and environments located in diverse areas throughout the realm.
• Draw upon lessons learned from other major authors, including those of interactive fiction to avoid key pitfalls while building upon a suitable feature set to implement an expansive world.
• Lastly, gameplay diversification. While achieved through a mix of different systems under the hood, I’ll be developing unique choices and gameplay elements for each background and race. This opens up the player to multiple variants of each situation.

My hope is to provide a detailed and powerful experience for all players. Thankfully, I’m coming to the table equipped with an arsenal that’s allowed me to carefully exhibit and scope/plan things out!

Thank you so much for your responses thus far!

[Leinco]

This may be presumptious of me, but I haven’t seen you there and think you should participate in the monthly writer’s support threads. They genuinely are one of the most supportive threads on the forum. Would love to see you participate in them.

March 2023's Writer's Support Thread

Welcome all to the support thread for March 2023! : Happy Birthday to March babies. Thank you, everyone who continues to participate in these threads – it helps others when you do participate, sometimes more than you think. If anyone has specific questions or concerns I may help with, please let me know. This month, I am highlighting a few developmental blogs of the past that feature Choice of Games design philosophy a…

[Zaxwlyde]

I appreciate it a ton! I just posted in there and plan on doing so once monthly. Thanks again!!

[Zaxwlyde]

Estheria: A Realm Divided Update 03/03/2023

Hey, everyone!

I have officially closed the poll for the first race to be implemented. Winning with 37% of the vote, the Shadow Elves are first up on the list!

To give a bit of a development update, some major headway has happened in the last few days. I have finished most of the customization options in terms of physical appearance. While some are mainly for cosmetic flair, others (such as height) will have direct impacts on references, and how some NPC’s may treat you.

I’m still working hard on the feature set, but I wanted to provide a sneak peek at the breadth of customization for something as simple as hair. That’ll be attached at the end of this post.

I’m still working on sculpting out key pieces of the main narrative. When I launch the WiP thread, it will come with the launch of both my Patreon and Community Discord. On the Discord, there will be the opportunity to sign up for Development Build Testing. On DashingDon, I will fork and run two separate builds of the game. The main build (set in the WiP thread) will feature primarily polished development content. Updates will include larger chunks of content at once, focused around a roadmap and key milestones.

Separately, the Development Build will be much more fluid in nature. Things may break, other aspects may not be caught as easily. Content will be missing as I push development on a bi-nightly/weekly basis depending on schedule. The goal is to allow those who wish to keep a closer pulse on development the opportunity to do so, and I’ll cherish any feedback provided at that time.

In addition, I plan on launching a CoDecks Public Roadmap. This will have its own link (ad-free of course), and will allow the community to take a peek at what’s being worked on in a streamlined and organized manner. Further, those on the Discord will be able to submit bug reports directly through the DIscord API decky plugin. These open threads and allow for image posting. I will separate channels for grammatical and direct bug reports - that way I can focus on prioritizing what needs to be fixed.

Lastly, I’ve decided ahead of the WiP release to showcase the official logo for A Realm Divided. Thank you all so much for your support these last few weeks, and I’m beyond excited to forge ahead with you!

~Zach

[cyrus777]

I would rather be the god…can it be a choice

[Zaxwlyde]

Hi! I’m not sure if it’s a mention to me directly.

That said, if it is there wouldn’t be any God that players may play as. There are set character races, and those have been finalized! I’m glad to answer any other questions.

Thanks!

[Phenrex]

Good luck friend! Having done it myself the effort to write out race backgrounds can be… a lot! I am excited to see your demo though, in time.

Also, goodness you’ve added a lot of hair styles. I could never, it feels like it would take what is left of my sanity away with it to have to write out descriptions for them all.

[Zaxwlyde]

Estheria: A Realm Divided Update 03/04/2023

Hey everyone! Back again so soon, haha.

Plenty of work has happened last night, including expansions to the tattoo choices. My internal development build to a few friends is about to see a major update push that finishes the core character customization (physically). The final push is to develop the personality test and Recap sections! The Stats Page will not be live at the initial launch of the Character Creator Demo, but will hopefully launch shortly after.

Speaking of the Stats Page… I had another poll for the community! This time around, I’m poring over different planned designs for how the Stats Page might look. As a result, I wanted to get the community’s opinion over four separate ‘focus types’ so to speak.

Thanks again and as always…

POLL BELOW!

• I’d like a simplified Stats Page. This would include the most barebones of stats, presented in a listing manner.
• I’d like a slightly more extensive version. While all stats would be included on the front-end, things would be a bit cleaner and more organized.
• For me, having stats split into sections based on type is critical. Further UI polish including additional inventory items, breakdown of character customization choices, and such would be ideal.
• Go all out. Fully customized and modernized within the constraints of ChoiceScript. Organization at peak, areas placed into sections with sub-pages for glossaries, terms, dynamic character descriptions that evolve based on additional choices uncovered during the game.

[Phenrex]

I would recommend not overly concerning yourself with the stats screen at first. Future proofing is good, but I’d focus on writing and organizing variables before focusing on what you want your stat page to look like. [I ended up completely rewriting mine shortly after releasing my demo, after I already rewrote it before hand because I realized the original was not very useful.]

I think it would be easy for you to overly stress yourself about things like that, which won’t factor much into reader enjoyment. Particularly when you are so early in the process I think it might be more harmful than helpful. [I’ve never really cared much about stat pages myself though, I just wish there was a ‘Key decisions’ section in games to remind me what I selected lmao.]

[Zaxwlyde]

Hey, Phenrex!

I’m definitely pursuing a measured approach to however I choose to implement the Stats Screen. With each step, I’ve evaluated what future components may go into it. These have primarily been declared in an organized manner consistent with tracked variables.

It’ll be implemented in phases, ideally. While I’ll push a major Stats update out near the beginning, it will then be mostly updated as the process goes along as a parallel development piece, rather than a major focus if that helps clear things up at all!

[Clara_Wolfenstein]

While all 3 concepts sound really cool. I voted for the 3rd one although I wouldn’t mind playing all three of these

[Zaxwlyde]

Estheria: A Realm Divided Update 03/05/2023

Hey, everyone! This’ll probably be one of my last updates before the release of the Character Creator Demo.

Given the last poll, I’ll roll with a more extensive version of the stats page, but not spend an egregious amount of time on it. It’ll be clean, organized, and focused. I may still work to place the glossaries in at an earlier point. It’s certainly something I’d like to do as development rolls along, but it depends on time for implementation.

I’ve moved into development of the personality test. As I’ve done so, I’ve worked to implement traits, and begin the calculation systems. That said, I wanted to roll with one last poll pre demo release regarding thoughts on the test itself.

In current form, the test is extensive. It contains a total of forty questions, and will have a skip function at a later date. The answers of these questions create a score that will produce personality traits (both positive or negative).

That said, I’m considering cutting this amount in half, as my concern would be that many might find the amount of questions to be far too much. I’m going to roll the dice here and see thoughts via poll, so as usual…

POLL BELOW!

• I think it should remain as forty questions!
• Twenty questions sounds better to me.

[Snowflower]

Forty questions is definitely too many, especially since the personality quiz aspect is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg of the game you are describing. Heck, I’d even say twenty is too many–ten or even five would be better to determine a baseline personality (I imagine it can shift over the course of the game).

[Zaxwlyde]

Hey, Snowflower!

I appreciate the feedback. Unfortunately, it’s too far past the poll timeline so I was unable to actually add that as a third option because it was a fair mention. I’ve definitely scaled certain elements back in the last two weeks as I’ve solidified development plans.

My goal is to achieve a balancing act between extensive depth versus scope-creep to the level of inachievability.

I will definitely socket your advice in mind as a vote towards ten questions (I personally am against going for five, as I think it’d be too limiting.) And it’s something I’ll look at seriously considering!

Thank you again.