It sounds really interesting! I’m definitely going to check it out
1 Like
So glad you’re considering making the missions optional. It’s always disappointing to realize that you can’t stand the idea of playing one second more of a good/fun game because you hate the mission/combat aspects so intensely.
2 Likes
This is a viewpoint I haven’t considered, thanks for sharing this! What turns you away from a game’s mission/combat scenes?
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This sounds really good. 
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Systems that are too opaque, too random feeling, have checks that feel too high for what we’ve been able to build/accomplish in the rest of the game or are too burdensome/tedious. It’s why I don’t like the really heavily resource-management or roguelike games. If it starts feeling like a job or some sort of academic test, it doesn’t feel like what I’m here for, which is a story-game.
5 Likes
That makes a lot of sense! I hate stuff like that too. It always feels like they’re either combat for the sake of combat or not important to the story. While I can enjoy that in limited doses, I don’t think it has ever been an appeal of a game for me.
I want to ensure every encounter players have which may involve opposing conflict feels like the stakes are high but not unfair.
There’s no reason choice game skillchecks should be above the likely skill level of the player. I prefer to see out consequence of taking high risk actions not in completing the action itself, but in the aftermath of that choice.
As an example: There’s no reason a well-trained spy shouldn’t be able to hit their target, especially if there’s no one shooting back at them; hitting the target should be a given. So, having successfully made that shot, what do you do with the body now?
Most importantly, I think every conflict should further the story in some way. It should be a means to an end not the end itself.
5 Likes
Penumbra: Play as the Vigilante, one of the last remnants of those left in Old Solaris, the cracked and broken lower city left to waste in the aftermath of the Eclipse Incident where a rogue AI blew out all the electronics and left everything to darkness. Venture into the lights and progressive Neo Solaris, uncover secrets and join the rebellion.
(Cyberpunk)
Maverick: Take the role of the Maverick, a former police detective now private investigator who was let go after their last case, left questions to their mental stability. A recent string of bodies missing their grey matter has pulled Maverick back into the light, and into world of madness.
(Lovecraftian Horror/Police Procedural)
Mannequin: You are the most recent and successful conversion into a Mannequin, a human mind thrown into a synthetic body fused with an AI to keep it all together. A fractured psyche, and the unreality of not knowing if you are yourself. Deployed at the whims of your captors/creators will you break?
(Cyberpunk/Thriller)
- Penumbra
- Maverick
- Mannequin
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voters
6 Likes
I’ll play all three of them in a heart beat. The concepts are right up my alley.
3 Likes
How about creating a story with a blind protagonist as a mane character. I’ve like to see how will you control a life of someone who’s just living normaly, but loves quite a lot of text stories from choice of Games. Gotcha. Let’s just right this, but it will not mean it will lock in this gender Identity and sorry for the typos xdd. But let’s say That Alex is a blind man, He’s just doing his normal workarounds in his house. Most of the Times when he’s alone, He’s sitting down, Opening his phone, and listening as his screen reader reads the story from different choice of games stories. He even thinks of a hope that his life could be a part of one of those stories. And he never expected that one of them will actuallly Happen. As He find himself in a cave. gotted out is Yelena Vaselevskaya, One of the rival characters in Relics 2 the crusaders tomb. Now This is going to how the story will happen. I’m currently righting the starting plot for this. As I will Need support from anyone who’ll be interested. As I will need to get authorized from different books and authors so I won’t get flagged. Because I’ve Really loved there stories. But Yes. The first ever story Alex will dive in to, Is when the archeology doctor saved Her life. As Yelena will be his eyes along the whole journey even in the kingdom of daria, The place of Tally Ho, And The ancient egyptian. Will you Romance The oracle herself? Who sings the song “The Journey by Lea Salonga?” Again, I just placed the alex as character example. But As books I’ve mentioned, I will need permission from there respected owners thanks.
Hi everybody! Insert Dr Nick voice
Long-time lurker and player, finally getting around to making a WIP and of course it has to be romance because none of the games currently on the market satisfy what I want from the genre so of course, the easiest answer is to arduously write and code my own. I started a good while back although progress has been slow due to uni kicking my ass - about 70k words as of now.
Introducing - Cardinal Romance: Red-flag Dating Simulator!
Warnings: some explicit sex scenes, moderate violence and probably a lot of angst depending on my mood. And of course a butt load of romance.
This will be a HIGHLY romance-oriented game where you are a human who finds themselves in the demon realm as the chosen neutral party to pick the next Sovereign of Hell out of six eligible (?) demonic royal siblings who are each based on one of the seven sins (excluding lust for lore reasons) - YES, I know. Royalty + supernatural + red flags? I will take your money without further ado. The main “plot” will be admittedly quite threadbare as the game will be focused on developing a romance with one of the prospective ROs in a hopefully dynamic and organic way, but you will be able to influence who becomes sovereign and what kind of ruler they become if it’s your chosen RO.
My goal when creating this game was to make a romance where customisation is king and really does affect gameplay beyond the occasional random flavour text. Therefore, some mechanics I’ve created:
Personality sets
Perhaps a controversial choice but instead of developing your personality through a series of choices, you get one major choice in the beginning out of six distinct personalities and this dictates your entire game experience. This is because when so much of the game will be focused on your dynamic with your RO and how the relationship between you develops, I think personality is too big of a factor to have it be relegated to a few simple choices of how you react in a scene. Different personality sets will have completely different narration and experiences. They’ll also have three of the six ROs available to them each, both to make it more manageable and because they have more natural chemistry with those three.
Customisation
Another major set of mechanics I’ll be utilising. Everything from gender (excluding non-binary to cut myself some slack), sexuality (including asexuality and polyamory although no poly routes are planned), height, body type, general appearance and then the usual skin, hair, eye colour. Everything but skin, hair and eye colour will have significant effects on gameplay. Some scenes will only be available if you’re an average height gay woman, some if you’re a short unattractive asexual man etc., and then a buttload of flavour text and effects on the narration. I want people to actually have a reason to reread scenes they’ve already seen before if only to see how the details change because they’re chubby or tall or whatever.
The ROs
Lucy
The eldest but certainly not the most mature. Bombastic, vain and shallow to a fault with a friend in every corner. Has a penchant for parties, luxury and pea-cocking. For someone so dramatic, it sure is hard to read how they feel about you. Lucy was the favourite golden child and expected heir growing up until a certain point where they suddenly became rebellious and went “out of control”.
Momo
Second eldest and probably most mature. Calm, collected and with an eye for making beneficial deals. Beneficial for them, that is. Whether they smile at you or treat you like you don’t exist depends on what you can offer them. Just don’t accidentally sell them your soul. Momo is the second favourite for the throne, but they have little interest in power, and just want to focus on material gain.
Sath
The oldest middle child. Anger issues personified. Truly a demon’s demon, death and destruction included. The most skilled at fighting as well as the one who gets into the most fights. Protective and loyal to a fault once you impress them. Flags redder than their skin, but they do have a six pack. Unlike their elder siblings, no one really expects Sath to become the ruler.
Levi
The true overlooked middle child. Even their description is the shortest! A tsundere through and through with an acidic tongue. Easy to fluster, and easy to make jealous. They’re used to being sixth choice, but despite the prickly exterior, they’re soft as gum drops inside. If those gum drops were made of acid.
Beel
The second youngest. Despite the baby face, they’re not the actual baby. Cheerful, loves food and has ten stomachs for dessert. The friendliest sibling by far, but the most naive and inexperienced with romance. Also the physically strongest of the siblings. Insatiably curious about humans and - by extension - you. Beel has a hunger for life, literally and figuratively.
Belphie
The actual baby. Too lazy to walk so they fly around on a floating pillow 24/7 which they can do because they’re a prodigy at magic. Socially awkward and lacks tact but also doesn’t really care about this deficit. The real challenge is making sure they don’t fall asleep talking to you; you better come up with something interesting to say in under ten seconds. Why are they so tired all the time?
All gender-selectable and available to every gender, although they do have their own unique sexualities and preferences. I know a lot of people dislike gender-selectable, but I’ll try hard to make each version of them feel unique and I’m planning unique scenes for gender and sexuality variants.
Each personality set has their own prologue set in the human realm featuring a unique prologue NPC who is like a mini RO you can get a date with by the end of the prologue. I designed them for me to test mechanics and get used to coding since I had 0 experience beforehand, as well as to give people a meaty bit of gameplay for the demo.
6 personality sets means 6 prologues, each one around 20-30k words long. So far, I have two completed and the rest started. You don’t meet the official ROs until chapter 1, and there will also be a major revelation about your character at the end of chapter 1 too.
This isn’t a normal interest check since I’m planning to write the game no matter what (although I suspect this will take many years) but I wanted to know when people think the best time to release the demo and create a WIP thread would be? Since you don’t get to build a personality set organically and have to choose one, I wanted to have all of them available for the demo, also because I suspect my updates will be very sporadic afterwards due to the throes of life, but perhaps it would be better to get major feedback before I have a significant number of them done?
Based on this information, when should I release a demo?
- After you’ve finished three prologues.
- After you’ve finished all six prologues.
- After you’ve finished all six prologues and Ch 1.
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voters
Any way, thanks in advance for reading this post until the end and/or voting!
11 Likes
First, I want to say that this sounds very interesting! I usually stay away from demon stories, but this one seems interesting enough to sway me. Now, I have two specific notes:
I completely understand why you would want to lower the scope of what you need to do, but I honestly don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t like when my personality completely cuts me off from an RO, and I don’t think that’s a super uncommon opinion, but maybe I’m wrong. It feels unfair, like I’m being railroaded into playing a certain way.
This isn’t a bad move, I would just be careful to make sure not to limit someone’s choices more than someone else’s. Especially if you go for the 3 ROs per personality, I would try to find a way for everyone to have 2 out of the 3 options.
3 Likes
I would really love to be able to make all the ROs available to each personality set, but it’s really just too much work and I’d preferably like to get this done within the next decade or so 
. I’m hoping that everyone will be able to find at least one personality set they’re happy to play out of the six, and one out of the three ROs available for that set that they like. Since they’re all gender-selectable and romance-able regardless of gender, at least there won’t be any barriers in that regard.
Oh, absolutely. Every RO is available to every gender and sexuality (it’s a pet peeve of mine being unable to romance a character because of sexuality even though it’s great representation), there’ll just be differences depending on whether you’re romancing them as a man or a woman and whether they’re a man or a woman. For example, one RO will be bisexual with a strong preference for women and the other bisexual with a strong preference for men, so obviously it’ll be quite different romancing each one as their preferred gender or not. Very much possible, though.
Then, when it comes to physical preferences, I’m going to add in scenes for both matching their preference and not.
For example, one of my prologue NPCs is very shallow and prefers attractive people but if you make an unattractive PC and successfully raise their relationship enough you can have an honest talk to them about their prejudiced behaviour ending up with them apologising and you can still get a date with them if you forgive them. Similarly, another prologue NPC is hypersexual and so telling them you’re asexual makes it harder to romance them, but if you raise your relationship high enough they approach you and ask you to explain asexuality to them and you can get a date with them.
2 Likes
Hey, just wondering if anyone will be interested in a shadowrun-esque story? It will lean more towards the hard sci-fi aspect, so probably no magic and non-human races.
My (rough) idea is that you play as a Netrunner ( a la Case from Neuromancer) who used to be part of a legendary merc team. Unfortunately, during a supposed milk run, one of your former teammates betrayed everyone to the Corps, causing many of your friends die (or get sentenced to life-long imprisonment). You managed to escape at the price of your jack-in socket. The damage fried your nerves and severely impeded your ability to roam the 'net.
To change your identity, you blew a huge portion of you earning, leaving only few credits behind. After a while, even those credits were gone. You had to earn your keep, so you posted on the 'net to look for a team. Only one group responded, saying that they were looking for a Netrunner, and invited you to an interview. It seemed a good chance as any to start a new life, but would your old life let go of you?
Some other details:
Your new teammates
- The Vanguard (gender selectable)
The Vanguard is a failed prototype of genetically enhanced super soldiers. After the Corp responsible for their creation goes bankrupt, the Vanguard was disposed like biohazard waste to the lower slum. Fortunately for them, a scavenger discovered them and granted them shelter. Now they are part of your team and a fearsome asset in close-quarter combat.
- The Medic (gender selectable)
The Medic used to be a student of the most prestigious medical school. To afford the tuition fee, they loaned a considerable amount of money from one of the Corps. When they graduate, they are expected to work for that Corp for their whole life. The Medic did not mind at first, until the treatment of their experimental subjects became too cruel for them to bear. They left one day, and now there is a bounty on their head.
- The Sniper (gender selectable)
The Sniper is practically half-machine. You do not know how one can have so many augments on them. Like you, they are a new addition, but they are also scarily competent. Quiet and reserved, they guard their past jealously, but the attitude only intrigues you.
Other characters
- The Mole (gender selectable, debating whether to add them as a romance option)
They are the one who betrayed your team. Now, as the chief security officer of the largest Corp in the solar system, they dedicate considerable effort in finding you, the only one who escaped. So far, Lady Lucky is on your side- but will she stay forever?
Game Mechanic
I want to adopt shadowrun’s mechanic, but I fear that it is too complicated for my coding skills. So I’ll modify it by a lot, but I do like the skill trees and the dice system. Perhaps I will think of something!
This project will be more like a hobby project, for I have another one ongoing now. I don’t know when I’ll start it, but if you are interested, let me know! (Or if you have questions, feel free to ask)
17 Likes
I love me some Shadowrun and all things cyberpunk. Can you use actual Shadowrun rules without permission? Or do you mean general ideas/mechanics? I don’t know–just asking.
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I don’t think I can use it, and honestly I don’t think I can code it with choicescript. All I can do is to trim it down with the main gist intact. Or maybe invent something in the same vein but vastly easier to use. I don’t really know for now, but maybe I’ll think of something later!
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Shadowrun didn’t invent Cyberpunk or urban fantasy or tech and magic together. I was just curious if you planned to incorporate the rules. Your idea is solid. I think people would really enjoy exploring that type of world.
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Hey, everyone!
This is a separate post from my main topic as this is to check interest on a game I am developing on the side.
I am currently working on a title, known as Once in a Lifetime.
Below, I will provide a snippet on what the title entails!
Once in a Lifetime is an upcoming Life Simulator developed in ChoiceScript. Choose from three eras, beginning as a newborn at the ripe age of zero. Year by Year, you’ll work towards experiencing life events, such as:
- Aging Up!
- Beginning School whilst experiencing a multifaceted educational system complete with Pre-School, Elementary-School, Middle-School, High-School, Undergrad, Graduate, and other Specialized Education Types!
- Search for Jobs and engage in a dynamic set of careers, whilst experiencing dynamically generated events tailored to the individual career path you’ve chosen!
- Forge powerful relationships, complete with full-scale simulation/management features, children, dynamically generated events, and more!
- Experience the trials and tribulations of a life lived. Disease may strike, dynamically generated events may place you in the crossfire of danger, and choices have consequences… some might say fatal ones.
- Continue playing through your heirs in dynamically generated familial bloodlines. (This feature is pending on my internal roadmap and not confirmed due to ChoiceScript limitations.)
- And much more!
I am currently working on a WiP for Once in a Lifetime. Development is ongoing and Update Zero will compose my WiP launch thread, known as Beginnings.
Once in a Lifetime will be developed, and is already in early playable stages. This project is developed to give my writing brain a ‘break’ as I continue developing my other major project (Estheria). To anyone concerned, Update 1 is still in development for Estheria. Once in a Lifetime is much more code heavy, and is much more a ‘game’ than a direct narrative experience.
I am beyond excited to formally roll out the journey of development on OiaL.
4.54 Billion Years.
54479940295 Months.
1657100000000 Days.
It all comes down to this.
Your Chance. Your Story.
Your…
Does this project appeal to you?
- Yes, it greatly appeals to me!
- Yes, it appeals to me.
- Not really.
- Not a chance.
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voters
Take care, ya’ll.
~Zach
13 Likes
Well, I love life sims, slice of life, etc. I think choice script is well fitted for it, though it will probably require more coding than a typical game (that’s a lot of life stages that need there own variables, especially if you want things in different stages to interact).
One thing I’m curious about is the 3 eras. What will the eras be, and how will they differ from each other? And are you sure that won’t be too much work? I can tell from both of your WIP’s that you’re ambitious. And your ideas are cool, just be careful not to commit to too much
6 Likes
Hey, Anna!
Great points, to target them:
- Targetting the point on too much work first! It’s completely valid. I am ambitious. The reason I am making OiaL is that I just… I am realizing that between working on my novels (I’m an author beyond CoG and have an Estheria novel series with Book 1/2 coming out soon!), I am just so narratively burned out on high level narrative pieces right now. Between that and life, it has been impacting my ability to crank out Update 1 in nearly as timely of a manner.
To further that point, the actual underlying code capabilities and unique features of Update 1 are all completed at this point. It’s the narrative I’m missing for Estheria.
OiaL will take so much burden off of me. I need to keep my mind in design/development mode for awhile. OiaL has so many cool narrative events but I’m able to split them in chunks, do historical research, etc. It gives my brain a chance to recharge on a level I need.
You’ve been there since A Realm Divided’s beginning, and you saw how fast I initially cranked 0.0-0.4 out with the Compendium massive lore overhaul out.
I had done so much with the combat update that I had to throw out (and had spent so much work on narrative) that I was just… not in a great state workwise
Funnily, so much of the Base of Operations (Update 1.5) is actually done in terms of features, it’s the narrative missing. It’s just… high level. I plan on talking about that soon on the full forum thread.
To kind of dial back here. This is going to let me recharge in such a wild and wacky way. I get to focus on hammering out gameplay concepts, ideas, testing so much more gameplay rather than just head down nonstop writing without break, rhyme, nor rhythm.
I’m actually excited, and that’s really big for me lately. I haven’t felt that creatively in a bit, and so my goal here is to leverage between the two. When I need to write high-level narrative? Estheria. When I need to work on features and take a break from writing as much? OiaL.
I hope that helps answer it.
To answer your other question:
- I am currently targeting the 1800s, 1920s, and 2000s. This will let me implement news snippets and cool dynamic events from these eras and include them.
Whilst this is really far-reaching down the road, if OiaL does well on release, I can look at actually dialing back further and going with medieval times, or even including fantasy gameplay/timelines/histories such as bringing Estheria directly into it.
This also gives me a change of setting. I write so much fantasy that writing more ‘modern’ and ‘real-fiction’ will recharge my batteries.
I hope I did an okay job answering these!
2 Likes
Hi everyone!
I’m getting around to making a game and I want to check if you’d be interested. I love reality shows so in the game you will be a contestant in a tv show kinda like big brother, where you would have to live with people you don’t know and face challenges and evictions to win the cash price. Of course it’ll have romance as well cause is my favorite genre.
What do you think? Will someone play it or I’m loosing my time?
Thanks!!
9 Likes