Iris's Game Ideas: Which game are you interested in?

General
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Hello! I’ve wanted to make a COG game for awhile, and I’ve had a few ideas on what to make. I figured I’d get an idea of what you guys would like, since you’ll be my audience. I’m equally interested in all of them, so please discuss whatever you like. If you guys have any suggestions or whatever, let me know…

  1. Espionage– “Captured spy reveals conspiracy through a series of personal flashbacks.”

You’re a spy/assassin who works for an organization called Argos. Trained from a young age to do powerful people’s dirty work and get shit done, you spent twenty years in the game before being captured. Argos has just done something very bad, and your interviewer wants to know who, what, how and why before shit hits the fan. You tell your tale, and in the process, reveal the bigger picture.

This game will be sort of mission based. Each flash back depicts a mission that is important in revealing the conspiracy (2 so far), and there will be several ways to complete a mission (stats will be charm, combat, stealth). I have two romances planned out, with a third on the fence. You can choose their gender, and I want to make the sexualness (?) optional. Just a warning: all the loving will be extremely angsty (you are a murder slave, after all). Although I’ve coded a little bit for this, I think this game would be the most difficult and ambitious of the three.

  1. Godling – “Minor god falls from heaven and tries not to die on the mortal plane.”

You’re a minor god, and the favorite of your more powerful mother/father. When they fuck shit up, the head god punishes them by making you mortal. Despite the fact that you’ve never been tired, hungry, or in pain for your entire godly life, you’re somehow expected to adjust and survive. Oh, and your body is magical and dark wizards want to harvest your organs. Good luck!

Godling should be more character driven. You follow the over reaching plot, and the people you choose to befriend will change what’s available to you (how much, I haven’t decided yet). One of the themes is supposed to be how life is easier with help and friendship-- you know, the mushy stuff. You can choose what your parent is the god of, and from there choose your specialty (it might just be one or two. I don’t want to get too ambitious). There’s three LI’s so far, but they’re not customizable… yet. This game is a lot more cheerful than espionage, though, so the romances are a lot less… um… problematic.

  1. Princesses – “Although engaged to marry, a fairy tale princess checks out her options.”

Your mother, the Queen, has worked very hard to make sure you don’t end up like those other princesses-- no hundred years sleeps, no dragon guarded towers, and definitely no evil witches! Now that you’re of an age, she’s eager to marry you off to a good prince before something terrible befalls you. You’re sent to a border city to spend a month becoming friendly with your husband to be. A month is quite a long time, though, and you might accidentally (or not so accidentally depending on your princess) fall for someone else…

This is an otome game. There really is no other way of going about it. RO options include Prince Charming, the Goose Boy, a beautiful mermaid, an obnoxious frog, and an orphan boy named Cinder. The game takes place over a month, and I think halfway through you’re going to have to choose a person and stick to their path (which you can make choices in, of course). At the end of the month is a ball, which is meant to announce your engagement. Genders are locked, and you will always be a princess. Most of the LI’s are gender flipped characters for a reason-- I wanted the Princess to have a lot of agency (you basically take the place of the prince in the original stories, lol) This game would probably be the easiest to make.

This has been ridiculously wordy. I’m so sorry guys! :laughing:

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I tweaked the title to make it a bit less vague. Change it back if you want though.

I love fairy tales. I’ll throw two suggestions out there though, firstly, why gender lock the protagonist? Sure, Fairytale Princes generally have a different set of problems than Princesses, but is there a reason you can’t just flip it like Choice of Romance does and leave everything else the same?

Secondly, what about characters that are attracted to women? Do you plan to exclude them?

You speak of agency, does that mean she’ll also have the agency not to marry at all?

The Goose Girl again is an interesting story, I think it actually parallels the Frog Prince in some ways. Goose Girl and Frog Prince are both rather entitled I think.

By all rights it has a spoiled Princess ordering her servant about until the servant snaps. This servant must have been trusted to be the sole companion sent with her, so what did the Goose Girl do to push her to the breaking point? Even when she’s at the palace rather than working she sits there, combing her hair, using magic to torment the boy that’s meant to be working with her. And we’re meant to admire her because she keeps her oath, considering it more important even than the life of her beloved horse.

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The title is fine!

I gender locked the protag simply because I wanted a princess game. I suppose I could switch them and keep everything the same, but I’m still not sure. I feel liked it would change things, or it would make me want to change things. The theme of the story is basically like “Oh shit, you’re a girl. Terrible things always happen to princesses!” and that isn’t really the case with princes.

The mermaid is a girl! Also I’ve been thinking of turning Cinder into a Cinders, not sure. Might just add another character entirely. And yes, being single is definitely an option.

I’m not following the Goose Girl story to a T. Although I do know the original, and I like the dark rehashes of it (like the Prince Ludwig version, holy shit), I’m going to be painting this dude in a more sympathetic light. He was a dick before, but being a poor peasant has made him rethink some things, so to say. When you meet him, he’s a bit, um… I want to say fragile, but it doesn’t feel right. In shock? Haha, idk.

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The princess game sounds like the most interesting and fleshed out one, I’d go with that. I can see you making it rather comical too, which would be nice.

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I’ll have to disagree with you there, terrible things happen to Princes too.

Take Sleeping Beauty for instance, how many Princes died on the thorns before one finally reaches the castle? And in Rapunzel the Prince gets tricked by the witch, pushed from the tower, blinded and wanders lost, while Rapunzel at least has managed to create a life for herself. The Frog Prince is cursed to be a frog, and Beast is cursed (as well as his entire household). The Bear in Snow White, Rose Red, is yet again another cursed Prince.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses typically has 12 cursed Princes, plus all the men that came before and failed the test and so end up executed. There’s an awful lot of test-failing Princes out there, who end up dead. Princes frequently come in threes too with the first two failing only for the youngest one to succeed due to the kindness of his heart. (It’s a similar motif with Princesses, that it’s generally the youngest and not the eldest who is the kindest, sweetest and ends up with the Prince.)

Even Cinderella, the Prince in that is being forced to marry, choosing a bride at a ball and the one he falls for, so completely, is shrouded in a fairy glamour. When the spell’s lifted he can’t even remember what she looks like and he’s forced to use her shoe as a way of finding her.

If you want to be just Princesses though that’s fine. I’d say just consider making it switchable, but change absolutely nothing but pronouns.

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Princesses or godling

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I think Espionage and Princesses sounds really interesting.

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Definitely Espionage, it just sounds cooler.

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I agree go with espionage which it sounds like u already started

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These all sound so good! It’s really hard to pick a favourite, as I’m interested in all of them!

I especially like “Princesses”, as I’m a sucker for romance and dating… I also love fairytales, especially ones that mess around with our expectations. Personally, I’d prefer that we had the option to switch - maybe highlight how princes are ALSO given a pretty bad deal in fairytales, perhaps detailing how your mother doesn’t want you falling in love with a princess that’s gonna cause “problems” before you can be married off. @FairyGodfeather probably had some of the best ideas about this.

Godling also sound very interesting - I like character-driven stories, and the chaos that would come from a now-mortal godling trying to survive sounds like something I’d like to play through. What era would this game be set in, or is it even in our world?

Espionage is interesting to me mainly due to the use of flashbacks, ability to complete missions using different stats and overall angst. A troubled spy getting interviewed and revealing a conspiracy sounds fascinating, but I think this game’s success would depend on the tone. It is going to be serious, black comedy or very “woe-is-me” angst?

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@FairyGodfeather You are wearing me down! :wink: But lol, you make a good point. Princes is definitely an option now. Maybe I’d make everyone’s gender pickable…? Yeah, that sounds good so far.

@SpookieLivcat Godling won’t take place irl. You’re dropped off on the island kingdom of Masia. The first person to help you out works for a very rich and powerful Senator, and they get you a job in his palace/mansion (can it still be a palace if he isn’t a king?). Plot happens, hijinks ensue.

Its funny you mentioned this, because the black comedy/angst thing is something I’m not sure about. On one hand, I want to give the player the choice to be angsty/scared/dead-eyed, but on the other hand I don’t want things to get dark-dark. The problem is, it is really dark a lot of the time. The little bit I have so far is pretty straightforward and angsty.

The choices are pretty mixed so far, lol. I don’t know whether to be glad all the ideas are well received, or sigh because I’m still not sure. :confused:

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Prince(ss) if you go with some of @FairyGodfeather’s suggestions godling otherwise.
With godling though, is there any reason why we cannot be made mortal to be taught a lesson because of our own actions (or alternatively just being framed) instead of being blamed for something our parent(s) may or may not have done?

I for one would love the option to be a delightfully cruel and whimsical minor god(ess) who has to resolve the mess they made as a god while being punished as a mortal.

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I really dig the princess one, especially because it seems to be about all the ridiculous fairy tale stuff that goes on as much as it is about the eventual romance. Plus I’ve been looking for a game with a mermaid.

Then again, with words like “murder slave” being thrown around, the Espionage one sounds fun, too! Plus, I always support really ambitious projects and this sounds like one.

AND I think the god one is a good idea, it’s just not the one I would start with? Idk it’s your life! Make your choices!

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I like all three concepts and I hope you’ll make them all. Start with the one that is more advanced by now.

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I vote Godling.
Espionage as a 2nd.

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I vote Espionage with a side of Shakin not Stirred Martinni

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@idonotlikeusernames The first draft of the idea was like that, but I scrapped it because I didn’t know how to frame the PC. However, in this version you can still be complicit with your god parent’s behavior. If you weren’t for it, they’re getting rid of you just because you were favored. However, if you were in on it, they’re getting rid of you because you’re the only one they can touch.

So don’t worry, you can be an asshole god who chokes on their own mistakes :blush:

@SpaceLesbian I love mermaids! Or, err, mermen (Or both, as I’m thinking of doing now!). If you don’t mind me asking, why wouldn’t you start with Godling?

@WulfyK They’re all sort of in the same range of development, tbh. Maybe the princess one is a bit further, but that’s only because its simple.

Princes(ses) seems to be tied with Espionage at this point :cherry_blossom:

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Then I’ll break the tie and vote for Princesses. I hope you’ll make Espionage after finishing it.

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I vote godling sounds really kool.

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It’s actually one of the things I love about fairytales.

Name a fairytale Princess, quite likely you can do that, it’s easy, Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Beauty.

Name a fairytale Prince. How about one that wasn’t given a name by Disney. Incidentally if you said the Beast was called Prince Adam, you’re wrong, since he was only ever The Beast.

I find fairy tales fascinating, they’re filled with clever girls, and strong women. Admittedly those strong women are demonised, they’re Evil Queens and Wicked Stepmothers, Ugly Stepsisters, they’re cruel fairies and maids who’re tired of their lives of servitude and aspire for more. It’s oh so easy to start playing with those themes and sympathising with them.

The men have a tendency towards both namelessness and genericness. Oh they’re good fathers, who despite how good they are still end up marry women who cruelly abuse their daughters, or who brag their daughter can spin straw into gold, or steal from their hosts garden and then give their favourite daughters away to pay what should be their own debt. They’re handsome princes, but Prince Charming tends to blend into blandness, at least the Princesses are varied. .

But fairytales mean different things to different people and you should certainly concentrate on the themes that interest you.

I think you should go for the easiest game first, the one that you’ll find it simplest to complete. Completing a game is the best and most important thing that you can do.

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