The magical one appeals the most to me.
I have to agree that the magic one seems more interesting
Long time lurker here, but I recently made an account because an idea struck me. Wanted to check if anyone is interested in it 
Tale of the Spare(tentative name)
As the second child of the royal family, your father didnât value you that much, especially when your older brother turned out to be a promising heir. It seemed, for a while, you were destined to a typical spareâs life- married off to someone you had never met, traded off like a bargaining chip.
But everything changed when the Conqueror invaded. Your father was slain in battle, and you, the spare, were taken to the Conquerorâs capital as a hostage. The new king planned to wed you to one of his cousins in the name of securing an alliance. But you knew better: he planned to have your brother killed off so he could plant one of his own on your familyâs throne.
In your old ancestral castle, a secret letter was drafted. Your brother plotted for independence, and he wished to ask for your help. Perhaps you could aid him by undermining the Conqueror from within, but what after? He might view you as a pawn like your father did- and throw you away. Perhaps you could expose him to the Conqueror instead, and return home as your ancestral landâs rightful ruler. But with one of his cousins at your side, you wondered if your rule would be long. Perhaps there was a secret third way, one that saw you crowned and your enemies humbled. If only you could find itâŚ
Confirmed ROs (Well, not exactly ROs, because there is an element of manipulation involved):
- The Cousin (Their gender will be opposite to yours)
They are the Conquerorâs cousin and your betrothed. Although you have lived in the capital for a while, you seldom interacted with them, other than for a few dances and garden walks. The impression you had of them was courteous and reserved, and they didnât seem vile or power-hungry as the Conquerorâs other relatives. But you also knew better than to trust one who shared his blood.
- The Bodyguard (gender selectable)
Although they were called a âguardâ, it was but a euphemism for âjailorâ. The Conqueror had the knight following you around to ensure you would never escape, and, for a while, their presence had irked you to no end. But recently, you wondered if their loyalty could be swayed, if you managed to play your cards rightâŚ
- The Envoy(gender-selectable)
You werenât the only victim of the Conquerorâs lust for world domination. The neighbouring empire, one that was well past its prime, was wary of the Conquerorâs rampage and sent an agent here to gather information under the guise of an envoy. The envoy in question seemed to be an excellent player of the courtâs game, and they could be a valuable ally to have should a war break out. Perhaps you could persuade the envoy of the threat the Conqueror posed, and together, with your brotherâs army, you could take the Conqueror down.
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That sounds really interesting. I hope you decide to write it, Iâd certainly love to play it.
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Iâve been toying with some ideas lately.
Suppose there was a game where you played as an alien on vacation at a luxury space station.
Would it be more appealing for the aliens to be mainly humanoid, or to take on a variety of forms?
On top of that, if romance was a factor, should the alien races be attracted to one another, or should they mainly stick to their own species?
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I think there should be a large degree of âew, what would I even do with that?â between species if you are a non-humanoid alien.
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My vote is for variety of form and interspecies romance. I wouldnât mind a subset of alien species that stick to themselves, but I think Iâd find it off-putting if the default reaction by everyone was âewâ.
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Oh, by no means should it be everyone, but I just canât imagine weâd look all that attractive to the majority of squid, you know? Just like most of us donât look at an octopus and goâŚhmmm 
âŚ
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lololol youâre 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, thereâs a whole world out there now of people with âadventurousâ tastes. Imagining a world where we are born and live alongside other sapient species, I canât 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 Iâd 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 thatâs 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, itâs 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 âactorâ 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 âoctonaryâ.
The story Iâm 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 sevenâs 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 âantagonistâ.
Characters
I shall follow Powell-Smithâs 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 doesnât give a⌠fig? (I canât 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 â as Iâve said, this story is character-driven, and these are people with differing opinions. Itâs possible but will be hard. Maybe even very.
Donât expect names or detailed personalities yet, but here are the eight â all but one are bipedal â 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 groupâs only dedicated supporter (i.e. ânon-combatantâ)
- a werewolf (swaps between human and bipedal lycanthrope); lean, serious, diplomatic, and the groupâs 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 youâll be able to choose are, to use gamer terms: buffing, debuffing, healing, and shielding â agility will be another one because youâre 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).
Youâre no pushover, though, as everyone is an able combatant. The MC will assume the role of tactician and strategist, but maybe it turns out theyâre 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 Iâm 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.
âEnough to give the reader a good sense of what the game/story is aboutâ
Which is a vague description. Iâd say it really depends on what kind of opening youâve 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 readersâ attention. Many wonât 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 authorsâ permissions before using their characters as reference). I shall call them Carni for short.
Carni would feel âsomething familiarâ 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 doesnât 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, âIf you met a four-armed, super strong alien, would you date them?â (This particular hypothetical would be a reference to Krag or Flok from Life of a Space Force Captain, depending on Carniâs gender and/or playerâs gender preferences). Or maybe something like, âWould you date someone who tried to kill you?â 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, âDarn, that hit me hard for some reason.â Getting a perfect score with their questions, however, will give you a quote that goes something like, âI feel like, no matter what happens, no matter who or where we are, weâll always find each other.â
So, thereâs already a Sherlock Holmes game (Here) thatâs really good so far. But Iâve 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 âinside Watsonâs headâ 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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