Interstellar Hunters - Sci-Fi Bounty Hunter RPG (WIP) [Minor Update, Oct 20/2026 | 137k words]

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Here’s The Deal:

Solitude. The largest trading hub on this side of the Galaxy. This wasn’t supposed to be your next vacation spot, but unfortunately an incident threw your future plans out the airlock. Someone infiltrated your ship and stole it under your eye. You need to find out who was responsible so you can bring the Supplicant back.

You are a bounty hunter nicknamed Legionary 101. You are stranded on a sprawling space station, trying to survive with whatever resources you have. Astramyer, a megacorporation calls the shots and is currently fighting a criminal organization called the Varith Syndicate.

As you continue to earn credits and make a name for yourself, the ever-growing conflict will one day change the entire star system.

Take your freedom back.

Interstellar Hunters Demo Link | Tumblr Link

WIP Status: Currently in progress. Current demo includes 137k words with coding.

About The Game

Hi, my name is Crimskull, and I’m here to introduce a thrilling Space Opera WIP set in the far future where humans and aliens co-exist. The game is set within the Milky Way Galaxy in the Year 5000. Thousands of years ago, multiple conflicts and environmental challenges forced humanity to migrate outside the Solar System. Earth managed to invent their own FTL engine that could allow them to travel across space.

Interstellar Hunters is a character-driven Sci-Fi game focused on a long hunt for your ship, the Supplicant. While staying on Solitude, you will encounter a wide range of races forced to live together under a dystopian colony. Meet and recruit talented crew members who will help you along the hunt. Perhaps get to know them on a deeper level and form a special relationship?

Decide which playstyle you want to build for your character. Are they a diplomatic bounty hunter who prefers to solve problems with their voice? Are you a ruthless hunter who takes no chances on letting your enemies get away? Or maybe you prefer to expand your reputation and earn fame and glory. Whoever you are, you will carve your own destiny.

Game Features
  • Play as one of the most dangerous bounty hunters in the Galaxy. Choose your gear and skills to tackle situations in multiple ways.
  • Play as male or female. Play as straight, gay, bi, or pan.
  • Romance with three intelligent synthetics, a hard-boiled private detective, a sleazy weapons smuggler, or a prestigious noblewoman.
  • Recruit and gather a crew of misfits to help you along your journey. Careful, they won’t always get along.
  • Explore Solitude and learn about the rise and fall of the space station’s history up close. Try to save it, or let it burn.
  • Not everyone on the station has the same goals. Make friends or enemies with the stationers of Solitude. Do you trust them to have your back?
  • Take on eight deadly bounties who are armed to the teeth. Bring them dead or alive.
  • Side with the Astramyer Corporation and keep Solitude safe, or help out the Varith Syndicate and rebel against the system.
  • Hunt down the assassin who tried to kill you and find the Supplicant, your prized ship.
Romance and ROs

This IF contains four Romance Options(technically six, will elaborate below) and two flings. They will be a part of the main cast and be heavily involved within the main story. They have preferences, likes, and dislikes. Flirt around with them and buy them gifts.

If you choose to pick certain personality types, many characters in the game will react to your character, which will also open additional dialogue options. All ROs and Flings will be playersexual, which means you can romance them regardless of your gender and orientation.

  • The C Girls(Circe, Charlotte, Cassidy): Connected together through an advanced cortex network, these three identical-looking androids joined your crew three years ago. Circe acts as the Head of Security, stern and collected. Charlotte is the main doctor on board the Supplicant, approaching life with a soft voice. Meanwhile, Cassidy is the ship’s mechanic and operates the heavy machinery. Should you ask them out, be prepared for all of them to join.

  • Garrett McCaffrey: McCaffrey’s a jaded Private Investigator who is tasked with helping you find your stolen ship. He’s brooding, likes to smoke a lot, and hardly a joyful man. However, he seems interested in knowing who exactly tried to kill you.

  • Leon Garland: Forced to live and breathe the same oxygen with many stationers, Leon is willing to take the most desperate jobs for some money. A shady smuggler who knows how to sneak in contraband under Astramyer’s eye. He may or may not be affiliated with the Varith Syndicate.

  • Emelia Thornwood: The Thornwood Family are vaelarn, a species who pride themselves as pioneers of science and the arts. Born with brilliant minds and insatiable charisma. At least that’s what Emelia claims. She’s a Star Cartographer who might have a few theories on where your ship went off.

  • Flings? Coming Soon.

About Updates

I will not promise content release dates, but I will try to update on my progress writing the story whenever I can. I will be posting updates during the middle of the month within the CoG forum and on Tumblr. I may answer my dms if I have the time.

Changelog

10/20/26: Minor Update, Lore & Personality Trait Flavor Text Additions. ~137k words including code.
9/10/26: Initial Demo is now public ~125k words including code. Contains Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

Looking for Feedback:
For feedback, I’m looking for playtesters who are willing to play through the game and note down any typos, story impressions, game-breaking errors, and gameplay balancing. Does the game feel unclear presenting choices, is it too easy, or filled with poor grammar and misspelling? Then feel free to make a comment.

For story feedback, what are your early impressions about the characters? Do they feel cohesive? Does the plot come across as confusing? What do you wish you could see more of in the next chapters?

Thank you for checking out my game! I can’t wait to hear what you think.

AI Disclosure:

No — This project does not contain the output of Generative AI
Yes — This project contains the output of Generative AI

51 Likes
September 2026 Writer Support Thread
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After meeting the PI I did not pay the 12k but rather asked a question regarding if He thought i was making up the theft. I suspect the 12k were meant to be payed and it was sidestepped.

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The mind-linked girls are a pretty interesting concept for an RO.
I might wait until save states are added to play though, makes checking multiple options/paths quicker.

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i really liked what i read and im looking forward to more, just one thing tho can you add the save feature please?

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I second this. Please add a save because sometimes the website doesn’t load gets stuck having to repeat from the beginning again

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Hello everybody. I appreciate the feedback so far and I’ve checked on the ability to save the demo at any point in the story. I’ve also turned on the ability to go back to previous pages for playtesting purposes. I’m a bit new to fiddling around with the settings on CoGDemos, so bear with me as I continue to get things in order. I’ll be setting up the Tumblr page for the rest of the week as well.

Yes, this was one of those things where I should have given a choice to either pay McCaffrey the 12k or refuse instead of just a *fake_choice. For the next update, I will take this feedback on the To-Do list.

Yep, I wanted to include an RO where three android women share the same model, but have different personalities. They have their disagreements and different goals, but their priority is the safety of each other.

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Oh gosh, I thought Sarne was the word Same. :sweat_smile:

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Hello everybody, this will be the first progress update for Interstellar Hunters. I have been very grateful for many people playing the game and providing feedback for the past week. I never expected to hit over 2572 views on CoGDemos within a few days. So thanks for the support!

With that out of the way, I now have a Tumblr blog called Crimsonark that will provide news and extra info about any Interactive Fiction games I work on. You can visit there and ask me questions about the characters and ROs. It’s a bit barebones at the moment, but there will be some posts that will provide more detail about the main characters including their Physical Description, Background, Likes, and Dislikes soon enough. So stay tuned for that.

Moving on to actual progress: In Chapter 2, I’ve revised the payment deal with McCaffrey’s service when you first meet him in his office. It will lead to a main choice that allows you to pay for his service, pay for half, or refuse. Doing any of these will increase or decrease his relationship and set new variables that will be remember throughout the game.

As of now, I have begun working on Chapter 3 and will be setting up new content for the hub system you’ve encountered on the previous chapter. You’d be able to take gig work to earn credits and continue to talk to more characters within Northlum, getting to know their stories. Players have most likely interacted with the personality system in the story so far and will notice it affects the flavor text based on what Legionary 101 has said to others. I will be going further as to include additional dialogue options based on the personality variables you’ve picked on Chapter 1.

For one example, an Idealist protagonist will unlock more dialogue that talk about finding the positive in things and hoping for a deep change. While more Pragmatic characters will be able to speak about practical arguments or more focused on getting results.

I would like to talk more about what’s to come, but I’d like to work on Chapter 3 a lot more this week. I will leave you a snippet of the bounty agent who will be giving you bounty hunter work, a candred named Bix:

Sneak Peek of Chapter 3

The back area of the building contained a row of holding cells for bounties who were brought in. A variety of races from all quadrants of the known galaxy. Security was tight fortunately, keeping watch at all times in case one of the prisoners try to plan a move. You turned over to one of the handler offices and stepped inside, noticing the handler was a candred, his hide black and brown and snout long.

*if (stat_personality_xenoist_purist = 1)
It’s always a pleasant surprise to see different people on Solitude. You’ve encountered a few candred in your lifetime, but certainly not one who’s working as a guild handler. Maybe he could help out finding bounties.
*if (stat_personality_xenoist_purist = 2)
Raised in a different environment, you never worked with candred a lot before, but you’re always willing to try new things.
*if (stat_personality_xenoist_purist = 3)
The Justinian Guild hired anybody who could handle themselves so you weren’t surprised to see a candred working as a handler for the guild.
*if (stat_personality_xenoist_purist = 4)
The candred caught you by surprise, seeing how it’s not often you see one on a daily basis. But seeing how he’s a handler it’s better not to piss him off.
*if (stat_personality_xenoist_purist = 5)
You raised an eyebrow at the alien, wondering what were they doing in a guild office. Well, whatever. It’s better to get this over with before you start pissing it off.

The handler gestured to the leather chair facing his desk, ears perked up in intrigue. “Gordy told me you were coming in. Have a seat over there. And I hope you don’t mind the smoke. I need it to dull my nose for a bit. You understand right?”

You sat down and leaned against the seat, noticing his nameplate on the desk that was labeled Bix F. Wolfgang. He stuffed an e-cig in his mouth and puffed, looking at his terminal to confirm your identity. “${personal_name}. Member of the Justinian Guild for five years, ex-soldier for the Intersolar Legionnaire. Last known nickname was Legionary 101.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” you told him plainly. Bix slowly nodded and clasped his hands. He leaned closer and gave a whiff off of you, eyes squinting.

“Welcome. What can I do for ya, ${personal_name}?” Bix asked politely, slouching against his leather chair.

“I’m looking for work that’s based around Solitude that’ll last me for a few months. Enough to keep me floating for a good while. When me and my crew were about to rent a hotel for the night, our ship was hijacked. And the hijacker nearly killed me for it,” you told Bix.

He grimaced and shook his head out of pity. “Sheesh. Tough break out there. Whole station’s going through a hectic time with these riots and all. I take it the Shields aren’t keeping your case warm?”

I’ll see you later and provide a progress update by the end of the month. See you then!

Quick Question: Would you like to see a Codex page on the main species you will see throughout the game? A page that can explain what each race looks like and how they live?

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Yes, please!

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Interstellar Hunters WIP Progress Update: 9/30/2026

We have reached the end of September as I type this down and feel grateful that these first two chapters are now in public. As always, I thank you for playing my WIP.

I’ve asked people if they would like to see a Stats page regarding the major species of the Milky Way and I think that’s a good idea. It can be a bit confusing for newcomers to the universe about what kind of races exist in the year 5000, so I plan on adding entries for each species that appears in the story. You can expect to read descriptions and behavior of each race within the Stats Menu. These will be available for the next release update.

After the release of the demo I’ve been working on finishing the “skeleton” stage of Chapter 3. This stage usually involves laying the scene and the choices you’d make within the scene. Think of it like an outline that tells what’s going to happen during the game. All the major scenes are already set and ready to be added with *commands and prose.

Back in Chapter 2, you’ve already got a taste of the hub element the game will include. Within this chapter, there will be a main mission called The Cartographer, two side jobs, and an infamous bounty you can take. Completing side jobs may earn you credits and affect Solitude. Completing bounties earn you Reputation and credits as well.

The reason why I wanted to include side jobs for this game is because I feel like they have an opportunity to flesh out the worldbuilding as well as enhance the themes of the story I’m telling. As a side note, completing the main mission first will always advance to the next chapter. So whenever the Chapter 3 release comes out and you want to experience everything it has to offer, be sure to complete the side jobs/bounties first before taking the main story mission.

There’s a lot of things to come, and I don’t wish to spoil any surprises during the story at the moment. So no sneak peeks unfortunately. However, I will say as of today chapter3.txt contains 69143 words. I can expect that number to change between adding, revising, and editing. I’ll see you next time. Stella Cognita.

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Interstellar Hunters WIP Progress Update: 10/14/2026

Time for another progress update on October. For the beginning of the month I’ve went over to Chapter 1 and added an option to select your personality traits under the Customization section. Similar to the test Doctor Irvin gives you in the 2nd half of Chapter 1, this would ask you what kind of personality traits you prefer. This option will be called Personality which is located between Romantic Orientation & Openness and Face.

You may find flavor text that will vary based on the traits you’ve chosen, which will appear on certain occasions during the first opening mission.

Circe led you down the hallway in a steady march, relaying information on her wristwatch to the crew. "I've been dealing with our captive over the past five hours, and I believe I've reached a turning point. It hasn't been easy considering his... nature. But I think it's best for you to see for yourself," Circe explained the situation down at the brig.

*if (stat_personality_sociable_reserved = 1)
You blew a raspberry. "Normally I wouldn't say no to a long chat, but being stuck with him? I'll take my chances with somebody else. Must be torture."

"Not exactly. Sure he's a bit of a chatterbox, but eventually he'll slip up," Circe replied.

*elseif (stat_personality_sociable_reserved = 2)
Your eyes relaxed out of relief, growing a tiny smile. "Good to hear. I guess I'll have to see for myself then."

*elseif (stat_personality_sociable_reserved = 3)
You gave a nod to Circe. "That's what I intend to do. We've captured him to see if he knows more about his pal, Dargan."

*elseif (stat_personality_sociable_reserved = 4)
"Let's hope so," you told her. A short comment to set your expectations for meeting Scree.

*elseif (stat_personality_sociable_reserved = 5)
There wasn't much to add yourself, so you believed her word if anything. Circe knew you were hardly much for excessive comments.

*else
"He did try to run away when we found him on Solitude. Thankfully, he didn't run very far."

In a previous progress update, I’ve mentioned adding lore pages about the races you’ll be encountering during the game. And I’m happy to say that you’ll be able to read about each major species of the Galaxy for the next update. To provide a little sneak peek, I’ll introduce you to two races: the Jorgur and the Vaelarn.

Jorgur

The Jorgur are considered an off-branch of humanity due to generations of genetic engineering and dwelling in a planet with different properties from Earth. They are a proud people, responsible for forming the Jorvikan Empire after the Terrans were no more. Their resistance to harsh cold climates has allowed them to thrive in extreme environments.

The baseline Jorgur is nearly identical to their Earth counterpart, but the main differences are their taller and broad stature due to the lower gravity and colder environments in their homeworld, Jorgunn. They usually have lighter hair and pale skin. Jorgur have a large amount of body hair on their upper bodies and forearms.

Because they digest rich and dense foods, their teeth and jawbones are stronger than the average human, capable of withstanding greater pressure. Their bodies can also withstand the transmission of deadly diseases native to their planet.

The people of Jorgunn are forced to fend off the bigger wildlife outside their homes, encouraging bonds between their communities in order to survive. Because Jorgunn is generally isolated away from other civilizations, the Jorgur are rarely tolerant of other species besides humanoid races.

The Jorgur are a relatively new species which formed on the planet Jorgunn by human settlers. By 4012, the settlers colonized the cold planet and decided to adapt to its environment. Since then they’ve expanded beyond their original home and established the Jorvikan Empire led by a Royal Family descended from Earth.

Vaelarn

The vaelarn are a humanoid race who have made their way into the galactic society with their sophisticated reasoning skills. They are largely pragmatic and committed to understanding intergalactic politics that could affect their livelihoods. In vaelarn society, status and image weighs more than position. If you display weakness at a first glance then the vaelarn will remember and consider it as an insult.

Each vaelarn has a lifespan extended up to five hundred years on average, giving them plenty of time to hone their skills and cultivate new experiences. Their skin is considered soft and symmetrical, with lean slender muscles, making them nimble. Their natural eye colors range from amber to pitch dark, changing depending on their stages in life. They possess little to no body hair due to the warm temperatures of Ventaris.

They possess two elongated hearts which pump blood and regeneration faster than a human. Their digestive systems retain energy from dense foods and absorb plant fiber more than protein. Vaelarn also have a tendency to sleep for more than twelve hours, staying away from light during the slumber.

The majority of vaelarn consider first impressions to be a high indicator of someone’s character. They are rarely tempted to change their old ways unless it warrants a very strong consequence. Because of this, seniority is a large pillar of life among the vaelarn people. To be respected and followed, one must attain high wisdom and reach many achievements. In order to settle disputes, vaelarn engage in meditative debates which can last for days.

The modern vaelarn have existed for over ten thousand years. Most of their realm were ruled by leaders who believe their blood was divine and sacred, these leaders were known as the Conciliators. A Conciliator needed to be just and swift in their power. For thousands of years this system grew corrupt and unsustainable based from the growing gap between the wealth of the poor and the rich. Many nations within Ventaris saw a reason to fight due to cultural and resources factors.

The Conciliators declared war against each other and sparked long brutal wars which sunk Ventaris into a devastated land, costing millions of lives. New nations rose from the war and were forced to make a new system after the failures of divine rule. The vaelarn have decided to get rid of the Conciliators and form a legislative body that allows for everybody to enact policies. The call to demilitarize each nation grew wider overtime, to ensure the past wars wouldn’t send the vaelarn into extinction.

Since then, the Imperial Republik have set pragmatic diplomacy as policy first rather than aggressive first contact with other races.

To close this progress update off, I will be releasing a small update that will include these things for October 20th. Keep in mind that saves may be broken once it launches. Work on Chapter 3 is still being worked on as I continue to write down the prose and the dialogue. But this small update should give you a better idea on what kind of societies and races exists in the Stella Cognita universe.

I’ll see you again, soon. Take care!

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Minor Update - Lore & Personality Additions for Chapter 1: 10/20/26

I’ve released a small update that allows you to set Personality Traits in the start of Chapter 1 for Character Customization. It’s more or less the same as the one you can take after you wake up in Dr. Irvin’s clinic. Personality flavor text is now added in the first half of Chapter 1. You should notice Legionary 101 react differently based on multiple playthroughs during the opening segment of the game.

I’ve also added a lore option called Species of the Milky Way under the Stats Menu which contains 10 species within the setting. I’ve also added more entries in The Major Civilizations of the Milky Way such as the Seliss Alliance, the Vor Regime, the Great Horde of Rodax, and Crell Prime.

This update now makes the total word count to 137k including code. Let me know if there’s any bugs when playing the update. Update is now available on CogDemos.

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Ok, just finished one playthrough. Some thoughts.

Choose which skills you wish to upgrade. You have 6 points remaining.

#Fighting.
#Strength.
#Engineering.
#Agility.
#Persuasion.
#Insight.
#Finish upgrading and continue the story.

It would be helpful if we can see our current stat levels here without having to return to the stat screen. Otherwise, I like the game’s presentation, as it lets you know quickly what stats are being tested for each choice.

I actually liked the first mission, with plenty of excitement, action and shooting before dealing with the leader of the bad guys and later hanging around with the crew while grabbing the bounty. The large number of options to fight as well as being able to choose mission loadouts was also pretty good.

That said, it later transitions to a mystery solving mission, while I felt was slower paced and less interesting to me. How will further missions in next updates be like? Will the final game conclude with this mission, or are there other battles to fight after it?

The game is told in past tense. Not wrong, but was a bit awkward for me to read.

Good luck

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Funny enough, I had the same thought by the time I posted the update. I was wondering if anybody else felt the same way, and that makes sense. I’ll keep this change in mind for next update. Thank you for saying that :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

There’s going to be multiple missions that involve action shootouts and working with your crew to deal with dangerous enemies for the game. I want a variety of things for people to do like Main Story missions, Side Jobs that involve siding with corporatists or working with crime groups. The mission with McCaffrey is basically to establish the main mystery of the entire game that will be important later during the story.

I don’t want to reveal too much for Chapter 3, but expect things to go back to the usual “Pick Your Loadout, Solve This Problem Your Way” structure similar to the opening mission. I want people to feel like they’re actually dealing with obstacles blocking Legionary 101’s goals in a proactive fashion. If Legionary 101 is more or less the leader in the crew, the narrative should reflect that.

If Chapter 1 Part 2 and Chapter 2 is about processing what you lost during the hijacking, Chapter 3 is about getting back on your feet and advancing towards your goal. Tension and then reflection. Rinse and repeat. This will be a thing people will notice as more chapters get released.

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