Invoker (WIP) - Updated on 01/31/21

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Welcome to the forum page of my first attempt at creating a CoG, Invoker. This thread is mainly for discussion about Invoker, for reporting errors and bugs, and for some questions related to the game’s lore. If you have any kind of suggestions, feel free to leave it down below! However, I won’t guarantee that I’ll be able to do it or put it in the game.

Latest update: First half of Chapter Two. (01/31/21)

Changelog

30th of December, year 2020.

  • Demo uploaded.
  • Prologue, chapter one, and the first interlude.

31st of January, year 2021.

  • Minor edits for the prologue, chapter one, and the first interlude.
  • Uploaded the first half of the chapter two.
  • Gave the stats page a drastic change.
  • Added a (not-so) brief description of the personality stats.
  • Removed the character description (to be edited).
  • Added a brief description of stats (currently placeholder).
  • Added Perry and Maeve to the stats page.
  • Added achievements.
  • Added a save system.
  • Added a romance counter in the relationships tab for the ROs.

Hi, you can call me Phy! I discovered CoG just last year and decided to try and create my own. It’s my first time fiddling with codes, so it might not run smoothly as I want it to be. Don’t worry though, I’m doing my best to clean it!

Synopsis

The world is prosperous, filled with the magical essence of aether. Aether was once considered as a blessing from the heavens, but now it’s a curse, and every human you can meet hates aether and your kind as it goes against the belief of the Holy Church.

You are an Invoker, a being who has the ability to use aether, and your existence alone is considered a sin in the whole kingdom of Aurvandill. Trying to live a normal life is never easy, and for you, it’s just downright impossible.

Live your life as a member of a mercenary guild. Learn who ordered the destruction of your home, find out who’s disturbing the flow of aether, and do your best to survive. Save the kingdom of Aurvandill, or die trying.

Current Features

※ Play as a mercenary in the medieval and fantastical Kingdom of Aurvandill.

※ Customizable MC; only available to two genders.

※ Choose your own evoker, a weapon that can be fused with aether.

※ 4 ROs (two females, two males)

※ Gender-locked romances.

※ Meet the rulers of Aurvandill, and so as the Holy Church.

Characters

I will be adding more as they appear throughout the story.

  • Mica: Your older sister and the eldest, died together with the rest of your family ten years ago. She’s rowdy, a rule-breaker, and was always close towards humans. Her aether wasn’t that strong, barely managing on controlling her own. She excels at anything but aether, but she doesn’t mind it.

  • Gavin: Your older brother and the one always in the middle, dying as he attempted to save your family from harm ten years ago. He’s calm and collected, protective, and cordial. He’s book smart and had always excelled at manipulating aether.

  • Elfrid: Raised to be a mercenary, she’s one of the most trusted and most reliable members of The Sentinels, the mercenary guild you’re part of. Your friendship with her could be quite confusing, though. Emotional, grumpy, callous, but nevertheless knows how to care. She always takes risks, not thinking of the consequences that might follow.

  • Lucian: One of the few who managed to keep up with you for two years, also a member of The Sentinels. He’s a former noble, now a mercenary for the sake of surviving. Pleasant, kind, soft, but always a bit anxious. He’s like an open-book, but no one actually knows much about him.

  • Perry: A young kid who deeply admires your skills. No matter how you treat him, his eyes always glisten at the sight of you and at your small group of mercenaries. An orphan who works as a stable boy and part-time server in the tavern, Perry strives to be a great mercenary like you.

  • Maeve: The owner and the leader of the tavern/mercenary guild The Sentinels. She found you after the loss you suffered from the incident ten years ago, and now you’re residing at her home. She cares for you like a true mother and wants the best for you.

Confirmed ROs
  • Elfrid
  • Lucian

As you all can see, Invoker is still a work in progress. Any kind of feedback is appreciated so don’t hesitate to give one. Thank you in advance!

I’m much active on tumblr, so check it out to see Invoker related contents and the weekly progress of the game!

My Tumblr (with playable demo):
http://phyllistate.tumblr.com/

Here’s the demo:
Invoker

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-scratches head confused- um where’s the game link to play the game? :question:

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So uhm, I forgot to put it on here! My apologies. You can look for the demo link on my tumblr. For now, I’ll edit this and attach the link.

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What does it mean “Gender-locked romances”? :thinking:

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means that a RO will only be available if your MC is of a certain gender OR it could also mean that a RO has a locked in gender (you don’t get to choose if they are male , female or nb)
i use the same term for both instances but there may be an actual orher other to separate the two

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This is right. I did that because, for one, this is my first time in coding. And doing that will require a lot of variation and codes that I might mess up if I’m not too careful. The ROs have a set gender, in which 2 can be romanced by a male MC, and the other 2 for a female MC. This might change in the future though, or not.

This doesn’t mean that being attracted to the same gender will be totally out of the game, so no worries.

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image
I think the verb ‘blushes’ should be ‘blush’. I don’t think it’s the cheeks that blush though.

After commas, exclamation/interrogation marks in a dialogue the following sentence should start in lowercase.
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For example, the ‘Y’ in you should be in lowercase.

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Your gloves aren’t.

It’s quite interesting, and I already love all the characters you’ve introduced. I can’t wait to read more!

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If the phrase is a separate sentence, it’s actually correct to write it with capitalized Y.

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Oh, thank you for pointing out the grammatical errors! English isn’t my native language, so there’s bound to be a lot of mistakes. I’ll edit it once I get the time!

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The phrase is not a separate sentence in this example, and @gomisegye is entirely correct.

When writing dialogue, capitalizing the first letter of a word after the dialogue ends indicates the end of that spoken sentence and the start of another in the narrative.

All dialogue tags (e.g., “she said,” “he inquired,” and “they growled”) involve not capitalizing the first word of the sentence if it is after the dialogue, or if it is before the dialogue but not the first word of the sentence.

It is possible to write dialogue in such a way that it is separate from the preceding or succeeding sentence, but these instances do not include dialogue tags.

Consider the sentence in question if it were a statement instead.

One would write:

“I have no idea who that was,” you tell your companions, and they just give you a shrug.

One would not write:

“I have no idea who that was,” You tell your companions, and they just give you a shrug.

This is easier to see with commas, which replace periods when dialogue tags are used. If one is confused, they can temporarily replace a question mark or exclamation mark with a comma to better get a feel for how it should look.

On the other hand, what you are pointing out is an example of implicit dialogue, without tags.

One would write:

“I have no idea what you mean.” You stand abruptly and stretch your arms.

One would not write:

“I have no idea what you mean.” you stand abruptly and stretch your arms.

I hope that clarifies the relevant rules!

@phyllistate

Please see above, in case it might help elaborate on punctuation in dialogue.

I absolutely love your demo so far, and eagerly await more!

I sincerely apologize for the lack of meaningful feedback; time constraints usually preclude me from contributing to the extent I would like, as I would love to type a helpful essay for every amazing WIP which I am fortunate enough to read. I will try to add something substantial if time allows!

Keep up the excellent work! :sparkling_heart:

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Screenshot_20210205-045816
Screenshot_20210205-0458161080×2160 268 KB

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Thank you for your detailed explanation! I’m guessing that this is basic knowledge, I’m a bit embarrassed not to know this in advance. And no apologies needed, this feedback of yours is very much informative on its own (at least for me). Thanks for the love! :heartpulse:

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Thanks for letting me know about this! Sadly, I don’t currently have the time to edit it. Sorry, but you may have to wait for a little while for it to be fixed. :pray:

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I think I’ll need to see a bit more before I can really give much substantive feedback, but I do think this holds promise so far. Particularly interested to delve more into the topic of aether and how the MC’s status as an Invoker affects their interactions with non-Sentinels.

With that said:

To be honest, this does sort of concern me. I’m not against gender- or sexuality-locking ROs in and of itself, but with only four ROs (whom I assume are evenly split with regards to sexuality in addition to gender), you’ve essentially created a system in which any non-bi player has exactly one available choice—if you don’t like the one RO your orientation happens to align with, you just don’t get to romance anyone.

I’m not sure how significant romance is meant to be in this game (if it’s only a small part, this might not be a huge deal), but if it’s a major focus, I think this is worth seriously considering. The way it is, a lot of players won’t even really have a choice, other than to just not engage with romance at all if they don’t find the relevant RO compelling.

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You have a point there. I want to say that there’s a lot reason why I implemented that. I’ll be listing those reasons here, I hope you don’t mind.

  • First is the thing with codes. This is my first time coding so I’m not very much confident about it. I decided against doing that for the meantime.

  • Second, as of now, I have no idea how to write a relationship between the same-sex. I’m afraid that I may offend some people, or come out as too forceful when narrating those kind of relationships.

  • Third is the fact that this is still a work in progress. I have plans. But as much as possible, I want to keep it a secret for now to avoid further expectations that I might not able to meet.

I’m betting that there are still reasons that I’m forgetting, but I hope what I listed above is enough for some enlightenment.

But to assure you, choosing not to romance anybody will not have a heavy impact towards your playthrough. You wouldn’t lose a huge amount of content, and instead will have the chance to improve a platonic relationship with the characters.

Thank you for the interest, though! I truly appreciate it!. :heartpulse:

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Hi! I already fixed this error. I already checked it and the choice works now! :relaxed:

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Works for me loved the demo and will be looking forward to your progress with the game. I rather you do what you do with confidence exspecially in a first game than not.

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Thank you for the support! :revolving_hearts:

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@phyllistate Speaking as someone who has genderlocked romances in my game, I just thought I’d give you the heads up and say that coding non-genderlocked romances (i.e., romances open to everyone) is actually easier than coding genderlocked romances. If you’re doing it anything like the way I’m doing it, you essentially have to check the player-character’s gender every time you write a romance scene, and oftentimes, you also have to write different scenarios based on it, too.

When you do it without the genderlock, it’s actually simpler to code romances, because you don’t have to check for those types of variables each time. :slight_smile: I just thought I’d let you know! I’m not insisting that you do it any particular way, as it’s your game and you should write it the way you want to. As @CorvusWitchcraft said, I’d consider seriously considering it, as romance availability does impact player interest—but don’t force or pressure yourself purely for popularity’s sake!

Last thing: you can reply to multiple comments in one post by highlighting the text you want to respond to. :smiley: Good luck with your game!

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Excellent advice.

See how easy it is? :arrow_down:

"Oh hi, it's you.  I didn't hear you come in," says $partner_name with that lovely smile of $partner_his_hers.

Something about the depth of color in $partner_poss_pronoun eyes leaves you breathless every time.

"Yes, it is I, my love, my sweet $partner_name," you reply.
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