Are you thinking of one detective and a cast of supporting characters, or more like a team of investigators? Either one sounds like it would be interesting.
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@Kaelyn: Thank you for the interest! Iām also hoping it will be a great experience for everyone.
@soprano: You will be playing as a private detective. The original vision I had for the playerās character was for them to be somewhat of a lone wolf, but Iām always open to feedback on how set in stone or ambiguous the characterisation should be.
@Joshua_Koch: Iām thinking of a team of investigators. There are a lot of character interactions that I want to implement and it might make for a richer experience for the player, but I also understand that some players just want to stick to being the lone ranger. There is nothing wrong with either route.
I might as well broach the topic of ROs. I am thinking of limiting it to three and seeing as this will be turned into a series of novels, I would like to keep things realistic and let the protagonistās relationship progress at a reasonable pace throughout the series. But at the same time I also want to dive in straight to the start of the plot and give the player a certain level of familiarity and depth to the relationships just to give everyone a taste of what theyāre getting into with a RO.
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That would be awesome
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i would love that, most detective stories have the mc being young and inexperienced and solving cases with a group, i would be nice for a change mc being a lone wolf experienced detective
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Iām sold.
Seriously, we need more murder mystery games. Iāll be waiting impatiently for your demo!
Ah yes, the big fish. I like the idea of this shadow thatās always just out of reach that keeps pulling the strings alongā¦ I donāt think itās inherently unrealistic, it would depend on how you wrote them, of course.
As long as the other antagonists are interesting and stand on their own, I say go for it.
5 Likes
Sorry thatās a little confusing can you explain it more?(like the genre and title.)
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Hi everyone! Iām currently working on the demo for my game and I was wondering if any of you were interested in seeing it at its completion.
Itās called Path of Fire.
Summary:
You were young when it happened. Too young to think that it was anything besides the festivities of Winterwane. However that all changed when the screaming started. You remember the cataclysmic fire spreading towards you; reaching out with its fiery grasp. You can still remember the warmth of it on your face. The way it seemingly caressed you, as a mother would her child. Its cruel intention hidden beneath its warm embrace.
You didnāt even notice when it licked your palm, until the icy cold air swept passed your still open hand as you were being taken away from the carnage towards your parents.
Your parents who were normally so strong were shaking in fear. Their eyes shining brightly below the moonlit sky. You still remember the desperation in which they took you in their arms. You remember their voices whispering into your ear.
You remember being yanked from their arms. You remember the screams unending in the wintery storm. You remember, as you were taken to safety, how odd it was to see so much red in a world so white.
You remember, every day, the moment when you lost everything.
You would never forget; for as long as you shall live you will aspire to take revenge on the ones that massacred your people.
Afterallā¦ when you poke the dragon expect to be burned.
Overall Premise:
The MC was a child when their people were killed by the Empire. They only survived because they were quickly rushed out of the village and into the safety of the mountains surrounding them.
You will take on the role of child MC who has to decide on who they want to become. Do they want to let their peoples deaths control them? Or do they want to try to find a common middle ground? The choice, of course, is yours to make! As the MC grows older and learns more about their heritage, their powers will coalesce into their true persona (the person you want them to become).
You can play as female, male or non-binary
I also want to note that this game will NOT be stat based. Iām more for the story aspect of this novel. Though stats will play a part in deciding key factors, it is not a key point.
If you have any more questions feel free to message me on my tumblr, here
22 Likes
Can you tell us more about the premise? Itās kept deceptively vague. I donāt have a good sense of what you would actually be doing in the game, in a practical sense.
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Of course I can. 
At the start of the story the MC is in their village celebrating the end of Winterwane (February). The festivities are going off without a hitch until the village is attacked. The MC, as a child around 8 or 9, is taken to their parents who are the village leaders. The parents knowing what is going to happen quickly give the MC to their guardian. Who immediately takes the MC into the surrounding mountains (which leads to a hidden trail that leads out of the mountain range towards a small town.)
The first few chapters (which is what the demo consists of) will be the MC growing up around humans and learning how to interact with them, as well as blending in with them. The last chapter of the demo will be what happens on the MCs 18th birthday. When their heritage awakens within them. (I may add one more chapter to the demo so the player can see what that truly entails.)
The rest of the story is about the MC and their adventures (and plans for the Empire), as well as the people they will meet. (I.E. the ROs.) It will also consist of the MC deciding what their true path in life is.
A path of revenge? Where the MC can think of nothing else but honoring their peoples legacy by killing the men who massacred them.
Or a path on the middle ground? Where the MC wants redemption but doesnāt want unnecessary blood shed in the process.
And, of course, there is the path where the MC learns to forgive (or at least tolerate) the Empire and learns how to live within its domain. Though how that worksā¦ I canāt really tell you that.
I hope that helpsā¦ if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
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Whatās stopping the main character from just marching up to the capital, roasting all the guards and noblemen, and burning the castle down with hellfire?
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I thought of that too when I first thought of this idea; and this is what my mind went to immediately. The MC had a traumatic event happen to them at a very young age. This caused psychological problems (that will be addressed in the book) that causes the MC to shy away from their heritageā¦ and even if they wanted to use their powers they have no training to do so. They were in training for only two years (powers start truly developing at 5 or 6 and they fully develop at 18), which isnāt enough time to fully grasp the entirety of their powers.
However, it will be different for each MC. For the ones who are revenge driven the main reason they canāt use their powers is because they have little to no experience. (As well as the psychological trauma.)
While more docile MCs will have the psychological trauma at the forefront of their minds. They canāt see passed it because they blame their powers/heritage for the loss of their family and people; meaning the ones that they love in the new village would be put in danger if they decided to start, tentatively, using their powers. Which is something that they would never do.
They are also in hiding, so their guardian will never allow them to fully use their powers. The MC will be trained on how to manage them and hide them from humans, but it wonāt be the type of training that the MC would have in the village.
(Also the MCs powers strengthen as they age. So as time passes on they become stronger, theyāre sort of building up their strength if that makes sense. Or for the revenge driven ones, biding their time.)
Again, I hope this helps. Iām sorry if I wasnāt the best at explaining my thought process. I hope I did an adequate job though. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
7 Likes
Sounds interestingā¦though is it purely based on Mc trying to destroy the empire or does it have bits of the MC interacting with other NPCs?
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No, itās not purely on the MCs need for revenge (although that is one of the big factors). The MC will also meet and interact with many people throughout their adventure. Iāve also planned 7 ROs, which I hope you all enjoy. One of which you meet in the demo (as he knows you the longest out of all of them).
I hope this helped and if you have any more questions feel free to ask me.
4 Likes
Okay, so this isnāt a fully-thought-out concept, but Iāve been tossing it back in forth in my mind for the past few months and I wanna see if itās worth exploring it.
A group of friends sneak into a summer camp during a humid summer night to drink, have fun, and reconnect. However, tensions among the group seek to tear them apart. Then, suddenly, a power-outage forces Cheryl, a raven-haired girl with varying attitudes, to fix the circuit breaker and continue the festivities. An electrical overload in the system suddenly creates chaos for her as she is electrocuted upon restarting the power. She watches as her memories are re-written, changing her enemies into friends and vice-versa. It isnāt until people begin to disappear from the memories of everyone that she realizes something dire is happening to her own mindā¦
The story is meant to focus on the fragility of memories and how easy it is to forget something - or someone - entirely. Thereās some pseudoscience of electrical signals in the brain being affected by foreign electrical currents, which affect electrical signals that carry memories. The most fun feature of this is that the player eventually become a āseparateā entity from Cheryl and will need to remember things for her, else she and her friends vanish completely.
My main questions are this:
- There is a set protagonist: Cheryl. Most people prefer customization for their MCs, but I feel like the purpose of the game is to show that the player isnāt the protagonist, so Iām wary to allow customization.
- Thereās a cast of about 9 people including Cheryl. Is this too many? I want the player to have multiple outcomes at the end depending on who survives, and I want to have a lot of group dynamics at play that break people apart, but that coding might get complicated, not to mention the issue of writing scenes with certain people missing during mid- to late-game.
- The game would feature a notebook system, where certain actions and facts learned about characters through dialogue choices will be recorded for later reference, which helps the player fix Cherylās memory. How detailed should this be? Too much detail might make it too easy, whereas too little would make the game almost impossible given that small details are what help Cheryl keep people alive.
So nowā¦ several polls. lol
- Keep the set protagonist, Cheryl.
- Allow for minimal customization (gender with preset names).
- Allow for full customization (gender and custom names).
0 voters
- Keep the cast of 9.
- Reduce the cast slightly, to 7 people.
- Reduce the cast significantly, to 5 people.
0 voters
- Notebook should contain detailed information.
- Notebook should contain adequate information.
- Notebook should contain minimal information.
0 voters
(I only voted to see the results, why I put them as āshow on voteā is beyond me lmfao)
8 Likes
Alright, I read through the description: YES, this would be a delight.
I donāt really mind if there are 9 or 5 casts, I think it would depend if you want to have 9. I mean, holy shitballs those are a lot of things to write. Anyway, follow your heart or something.
4 Likes
Honestly, Iād say that letting the player customise their MC, and then letting the story show that the two are distinct would be far more of an interesting twist than having a protagonist that the player knows from the word go isnāt supposed to be themself. 
I would certainly say that thereās no real reason to make gender customisable, but not names (unless the names are really significant). It would make more sense to keep other stuff (like basic personality) set, especially if the player doesnāt start playing until the electrical accident.
This could get kinda difficult, yeahā¦ 
I guess you could write most scenes on the assumption that thereās only one other person there (whoāll be the surviving character with the highest relationship stat), and have any others just add random comments here and thereā¦
I didnāt vote for this one, because Iād say it should be up to you to balance what you want to say with how difficult it would be to say it. (Although, now I canāt see what other people have votedā¦ EDIT: was too curious, and voted anyway; feel free to ignore my vote for this one.)
I definitely prefer ātoo easyā over āalmost impossibleāā¦
9 Likes
HA. I can still roleplay as myself 
That said, I think itād be better to allow players to choose their own names. I do like @ParrotWatcherās suggestion too!
Thereās something I want to clarify as Iām quite confused:
- Who is Cheryl? Was she still āCherylā before the electric overload?
- Who or what exactly are we, the players? Are we human or something else entirely? How are we related to Cheryl? How did we get to ālead lifeā as Cheryl if we arenāt Cheryl?
I almost had an identity crisis typing this
Sorry if Iām asking too many questions! Your idea sounds really interesting and I just wanna make sure I donāt misunderstand it 
4 Likes
No worries! It helps me flesh it out and explain it to an audience, so itās valuable feedback.
Narratively, she is the protagonist. She is the same person before and after the electric overload, but because foreign electrical currents were introduced to her nervous system, her memories are altered and eventually erased unless she can remember what they are, thereby recreating the original electric currents. (Like I said, psuedo-scienceā¦)
This is up to interpretation, and thereās really no right answer. My interpretation is this: the player is essentially an āentityā that, prior to Cheryl getting electrocuted, serves as her conscious, allowing her to make decisions. After getting shocked, Cheryl is aware of the conscious, and the conscious is aware of her, but they can only communication to each other as one being. Grammatically, this will appear as if she and the entity are talking about themselves when theyāre really talking about the other person. (āI am meā instead of āI am youā).
3 Likes
Hi everyone! Iām currently working on the demo for my game and I was wondering if any of you were interested in seeing it at its completion. (I also already posted this on the Interest Check thread, I just wanted to post this here so I can have it all in one place.)
Itās called Path of Fire.
Summary:
You were young when it happened. Too young to think that it was anything besides the festivities of Winterwane. However that all changed when the screaming started. You remember the cataclysmic fire spreading towards you; reaching out with its fiery grasp. You can still remember the warmth of it on your face. The way it seemingly caressed you, as a mother would her child. Its cruel intention hidden beneath its warm embrace.
You didnāt even notice when it licked your palm, until the icy cold air swept passed your still open hand as you were being taken away from the carnage towards your parents.
Your parents who were normally so strong were shaking in fear. Their eyes shining brightly below the moonlit sky. You still remember the desperation in which they took you in their arms. You remember their voices whispering into your ear.
You remember being yanked from their arms. You remember the screams unending in the wintery storm. You remember, as you were taken to safety, how odd it was to see so much red in a world so white.
You remember, every day, the moment when you lost everything.
You would never forget; for as long as you shall live you will aspire to take revenge on the ones that massacred your people.
Afterallā¦ when you poke the dragon expect to be burned.
Overall Summary
The MC was a child when their people were killed by the Empire. They only survived because they were quickly rushed out of the village and into the safety of the mountains surrounding them.
You will take on the role of child MC who has to decide on who they want to become. Do they want to let their peoples deaths control them? Or do they want to try to find a common middle ground? The choice, of course, is yours to make! As the MC grows older dand learns more about their heritage, their powers will coalesce into their true persona (the person you want them to become).
You can play as female, male or non-binary
I also want to note that this game will NOT be stat based. Iām more for the story aspect of this novel. Though stats will play a part in deciding key factors, it is not a key point.
Romance Options
There will be a total of 7 ROs (though I may add a few more), if you would like to know more about each one feel free to contact me (besides, of course, the information given below).
Loreena- The Knight Captain of the Imperial Army. She is a very loyal and duty bound woman; never once straying from her path. Until she meets the MC of course. She is tall at 6ā0", with shoulder length black hair and impassive hazel eyes. Loreena is not one that most would want to trifle with. (Unless your MC is a jokester that is.)
Robin/Robyn- R is my take on Robin Hood with a little twist. R is a very mischievous yet loyal person. Who takes loyalty very seriously amongst their men. Especially since their men know Rās secret. A secret that R may very well tell the MC if they trust you enough.
Robin is tall at 6ā6" with broad shoulders and a chiseled jaw. His golden brown hair is of medium length and kept in a pony tail to stay out of his eyes. His golden brown eyes sparkle with mirth but a darker entity resides behind his easy smile.
Robyn is fairly tall at 5ā10" with a more lithe build to her. Her golden brown hair falls to her shoulder blades and is kept in a loose braid. Her golden brown eyes are quick to show their emotions but whether or not theyāre truly what she feels? Well thatās for you to find out.
Edmund- Edmund is Rās second in command and the one that keeps everything in order. He is a very guarded individual, only letting the ones he cares for passed his iron walls. Unlike R, Edmund is not one to trust someone right off the bat. He believes that you earn respect/trust, and whether or not you achieve it? Well letās hope you do.
Edmund is 6ā2" with broad shoulders and a bulky build. His brown hair is kept short and his dark green eyes are well guarded. His mouth is always pressed into a line; as if he believes that if he smiles it would be the end of the world. (Which to be fair it might be.) He is very close with R and his gang but to outsidersā¦ you would have better luck with a grizzly bear, but once he trusts you. Itās hard to get rid of him (not that you would want to).
EsmĆ©- EsmĆ© is the leader of the Merchants Guild. She is a very crafty and charming individual. Though that doesnāt make her any less forthcoming than the next person. EsmĆ© is a woman who, while she can be very polite and passive, is also very blunt. Most of the time she doesnāt see social cues unless itās something that she is familiar with. Which ends up making for interesting conversations in the long run.
She is 5ā7" with long, wavy brown hair and warm caramel colored eyes. She is a very open and honest person but she does (like all the ROs) have her dark side. Her full lips are usually pulled up into a smile, that will soon have everyone (yes even you Edmund) smiling.
Ayleth- Ayleth is the village mage. She is a very snarky and sarcastic person. Who uses her words to deflect peopleās attention. (Mages arenāt the most popular people in small villages.) Though once you get passed her steely exterior, youāll find a heart of gold waiting to be cherished.
Ayleth is 5ā5" with long red hair with sparkling brown eyes. She is always smiling or laughing in front of people, but once the attention is off of her you can see her smile fall just slightly.
Caspian- He is the Imperial Spymaster. He was tasked to locate and identify the MC to bring them back to the capital for execution. Of course, not everything went to plan. Caspian is a very vain and arrogant individual, as well as being very secretive. However, as with most secrets, you canāt take them at face value.
He is 6ā4" with medium length silvery white hair with pale blue eyes. His mouth is usually pulled up into his signature smirk and his eyes are icy without emotion. Though at some moments you can see a glimmer of something there that wasnāt there before.
Cedric- Cedric is the youngest out of all the ROs. Though he has also known the MC the longest, which is something he likes to brag about. He is the son of the village chief and is a hopeful knight. Cedric is a very bashful person but in certain situations his bashfulness can be replaced by bravado. (Something that some players might love to see.)
Cedric is 6ā3" with blonde hair and sparkling green eyes. He is muscular, but not as bulky as Edmund is. His tan skin is an easy way to see if he is embarrassed or not; i.e. his blush.
If you have any more questions feel free to message me on my tumblr, here
29 Likes
Looks like a good game!
3 Likes