I think there should be a large degree of “ew, what would I even do with that?” between species if you are a non-humanoid alien.
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My vote is for variety of form and interspecies romance. I wouldn’t mind a subset of alien species that stick to themselves, but I think I’d find it off-putting if the default reaction by everyone was “ew”.
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Oh, by no means should it be everyone, but I just can’t imagine we’d look all that attractive to the majority of squid, you know? Just like most of us don’t look at an octopus and go…hmmm 
…
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lololol you’re good, I was more trying to make my position on the original question clear than directly responding to you. I can definitely picture the possibility of some fun scenes involving surprise/uncertainty. But, also, there’s a whole world out there now of people with “adventurous” tastes. Imagining a world where we are born and live alongside other sapient species, I can’t imagine people becoming less adventurous 
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I think a variety of species would be fun, but for the MC and ROs I personally would only go for the humanoid options
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Seems Stratus Institute is the preferred pick (to my surprise), so be on the lookout for a demo soon. Thanks for the input!
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Out of curiosity, what constitutes a good demo in terms of length? One chapter? Part of one chapter? Three? 
Either way, I intend to fully commit to the following concept and will post the WiP once I have an adequate demo; I just thought I’d ask so long. The information below is necessarily unpolished.
Premise
The setting probably resembles early modern Western Europe, which is slightly different from the one that many high fantasy stories use (because cannons and early firearms). I might change it, but that’s honestly not super important.
Sometime in the past, an event called the Rapture introduced magic and monsters/spirits to the world. The latter are called daemons and vary greatly in power. By the time of the story, it’s not unheard of for daemons to be integrated into society, especially since humans have done their thing and certain hybrid species (like centaurs) now exist alongside humans and daemons.
There now exists a sovereign military order (cf. the Knights Templar and Teutonic) that, at the very least, takes care of daemons rampaging in the countryside. The standard member is called an “actor” and is trained in some kind of magic. Previously, a group of eight elite actors proved to be a formiddable unit, which has since inspired an established unit called an “octonary”.
The story I’m interested in telling has nothing to do with saving the world, dealing with racism, etc. A powerful octonary recently saw one of its members leave the order to pursue vengeance (not against the order) after a mission went awry. The MC is assigned as their replacement and finds the remaining group to be fractured. There will be more missions and stuff, sure, but the disgraced member and the other seven’s actions in response will be what drives the plot. The MC will ultimately influence whether the group heals or splinters, as well as what happens to the “antagonist”.
Characters
I shall follow Powell-Smith’s lead and let the player choose the gender of all (former) members of the octonary, including possibly randomising them. All of them will be ROs, and though monogamy is still the prevailing relationship orientation, the order doesn’t give a… fig? (I can’t remember the rules on swearing in the forum, oops!) Yeah, no, pretend some of the accusations levelled against the Templars were actually true, LOL.
So, you can pick as many ROs as you like, but good luck if you decide to pursue all of them — as I’ve said, this story is character-driven, and these are people with differing opinions. It’s possible but will be hard. Maybe even very.
Don’t expect names or detailed personalities yet, but here are the eight — all but one are bipedal — in (almost) no particular order:
- a somewhat classical chimera with at least two heads (leonine and bovine); muscular and definitely capable of ending you, but a lot more chilled and even soft-spoken than the monstrous appearance would stereotypically suggest
- a graceful fiend that passes as human; slender, elegant, intelligent, generally kind, and will wear whatever passes as an extravagant dress, but is surprisingly aggressive in combat by using offensive and debilitating magic
- a human psychic with an ethereal form; unassuming, bubbly, warm, compassionate, naive, and the most aggressive attacker of the group
- a mildly space-themed dragonoid; honestly kind of intense, with a strong sense of justice (not yet sure which, but not punitive) and loyalty, and possessing the might and magic to enforce it
- a Greek-athlete type of human; muscular, attractive, intelligent, poised, well-liked, deadly in combat, and feeling put-on-a-pedestal because of the burden of all of those
- a centaur; on the smaller side of body types, alert, somewhat bashful but still charming, and the group’s only dedicated supporter (i.e. “non-combatant”)
- a werewolf (swaps between human and bipedal lycanthrope); lean, serious, diplomatic, and the group’s dedicated mediator and healer
- a humanoid with some draconic features; muscular, impulsive, poetic, sometimes melodramatic, fiercely idealistic, and absolutely brutal in battle
Hopefully, this illustrates that the octonary can be quite a bit to handle. The order hopes the MC will help mellow their attitudes more while also providing balance in terms of combat abilities. The main skills from which you’ll be able to choose are, to use gamer terms: buffing, debuffing, healing, and shielding — agility will be another one because you’re intended to stay out of fights and let the others handle them (and you can call for help, which may have consequences depending on who needs to stop fighting to come help you out of trouble).
You’re no pushover, though, as everyone is an able combatant. The MC will assume the role of tactician and strategist, but maybe it turns out they’re not as good as everyone thought and they end up making spectacularly bad decisions. That would be on you, though. 
There you go! I can answer surface-level questions, but I’m basically just posting here already as somewhat of a tradition. If I get even a single response, cool. 
PS: This is not based on any D&D stuff or specific tropes like the Magnificent Seven. Just putting that out there.
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Far as intial demo length goes i dont think there is some overarching standard that makes a good demo when it comes to length. Ive seen very very short starts to multiple chapters in for demos. My advise is to have enough at start that it hooks in we the readers to what your story is and you intend it to be. If you got at least that you should be okay. 
by the way its a interesting premise you have so i would be interested in seeing what you have in the future no matter the demos size.
‘Enough to give the reader a good sense of what the game/story is about’
Which is a vague description. I’d say it really depends on what kind of opening you’ve got.
Does the player start in the middle of a fight scene/final match of a tennis tournament/thrilling unraveling of a court case with most if not all characters who play a role of importance in the game/story present and are they described vividly enough that the reader gets a good feel of their individual personalities and role in the story? Then you might only need a single chapter.
Does the game/story start with upwards of 20 pages of character customization after which the main character spends an entire chapter looking out into the rain while reflecting on all the evils in the world? Then you really need to have that third chapter too if you hope to catch your readers’ attention. Many won’t look at a WiP thread a second time if all they remember of the game is a disappointing opening chapter, no matter how good the follow-up chapters might be.
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Bad Character Idea: A meta character that is a reincarnation of various characters from other books that has vague memories of them.
Basically, the idea revolves around basing the character on some defining traits that other memorable CoG and HG characters had (Obviously, I feel you would need the original authors’ permissions before using their characters as reference). I shall call them Carni for short.
Carni would feel “something familiar” about you. When you perform an action that others may find shocking, Carni will find that pretty on par with what they expected of you.
Carni may sometimes go off on a tangent, like how they remember a similar situation that doesn’t fit right, like remembering meeting a dragon if it takes place in a sci-fi book, or remembering things from the future in a historic fiction book.
If you start trying to romance Carni, they may ask you strange hypothetical questions, like, “If you met a four-armed, super strong alien, would you date them?” (This particular hypothetical would be a reference to Krag or Flok from Life of a Space Force Captain, depending on Carni’s gender and/or player’s gender preferences). Or maybe something like, “Would you date someone who tried to kill you?” Or even asking questions the player would only know by having romanced the actual character in their book (or trial and error by restarting the book).
Answering the questions correctly would net you relationship points, while answering incorrectly would decrease them slightly, with Carni saying something like, “Darn, that hit me hard for some reason.” Getting a perfect score with their questions, however, will give you a quote that goes something like, “I feel like, no matter what happens, no matter who or where we are, we’ll always find each other.”
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So, there’s already a Sherlock Holmes game (Here) that’s really good so far. But I’ve been thinking about creating my own, but from the perspective of Watson when she first meets Holmes. It would feature romance, episodic mysteries, everyday life at Baker Street, and an overarching mystery. Would you guys be interested in that? Or is one Holmes story enough?
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I would love an “inside Watson’s head” story. Particularly if it gives me the option to find Holmes insufferable.
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Holmes can definitely be as insufferable as he is brilliant! The player would definitely be able to have a variety of opinions about him
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I’m in if you decide to do it.
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So, I’m continuing to think about and work through what I want this game to be. I’m listening to the 70 hour complete collection Audiobook of the stories, and I only have 50 hours left .
But on to the topic of my post. My original plan was to set the game in the original setting (because theres a certain charm that comes with the Victorian setting, and it’s a pretty iconic part of the character and story) but there are 2 reasons why I’m considering making it modern. I want to know what you guys think:
My first and smaller reason is that setting it in modern day would give both Holmes games room to breathe. It would help differentiate the two and let them live on their own
The second reason is I want to explore the effects of war on Watson and the addiction that Holmes has. Now, these aspects haven’t changed in the past century and a half. But the way we view, talk about, and respond to these things have. I think it would be easier, and potentially more entertaining, to explore these aspects in the modern day. We won’t have the Victorian ideals to adhere to, Holmes doing drugs would be more concerning overall, he and Watson have the potential of getting help, etc.
What do you guys think? Any thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?
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I think you should watch a few of the modern-set series and decide if you really (and when you really) want to transplant it to before making a decision that big.
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Yeah, I’ve watched the BBC show. It’s really good, and I think a modern (or modernish) setting works well. It’s just tough to decide “yes, I’ll do this with my story”
There’ve been a few others. Lucy Liu did one, where she played Watson (and I think Watson was intended to be the main character) a few years ago. Then there are also a few modern day set Sherlock series from other countries (assuming you’re not in the US or UK) most notably Miss Sherlock from Japan and Queen of Mysteries from Korea. I know there was at least one more Korean one, but I never heard much about it other than that there was some cross dressing? They should all be available on streaming.
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Hi @KP_Everly, congratulations on the progress on your WIP! I’ve moved your post here as there is not yet a demo link - please feel free to let me know when you post a WIP thread with a demo and I can always move it there (or you can repost) 
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