Finished catching up on my word counts yesterday to discover that I’d written 23K words in June, by far my most prolific this year. Granted, a couple thousand of those were Grimshire-related and had nothing to do with my own writing WIPs, but I’ll take it. I’m pretty proud of my Grimshire review, too.
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Personally, I disagree. You need to give the reader an idea of what the actual game is going to be like. Maybe the prologue is interesting, but that doesn’t help the core audience understand what they’re getting into.
I’ve read plenty of prologues that were not as good as the game. And I’ve read prologues that are better than the game. And I’ve read prologues that are just completely different from the game. So I don’t think prologues, even if they’re long enough, are a good idea to start out with.
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My taglines are getting weirder and weirder.
Philip Marlowe as Harry DuBois in Scandipunk Disco Elysium
…of course, “Scandipunk” is a word I made up myself because there wasn’t one for what I need a word for, and for a Disco Elysium -inspired game this one has very little in common with Disco Elysium, at least as far as being Disco-like goes…
Wouldn’t that depend on whether or not the prologue is in the same vein as the rest of the story? Or is it being titled a prologue reason enough to assume it’s not descriptive of the rest of the game?
Oh, that looks cute (even if it’s nothing like the impression I got from the name). Now I need to decide if it looks interesting enough that I want to buy it.
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honestly i think having four sections (Prologue, Interlude, Chapter 0, and another Interlude) before actually getting to a “Chapter 1” (which to me, as a reader, signals okay the story is starting in earnest now) might read a little excessive. so there’s that. but game-wise, and regardless of forum engagement, whatever structure is purposeful and serves the story will work fine. in the end, i always think it’s better to do what your gut says as a writer—just be aware that on paper, that at least looks like a lot of pre-plot content.
this is a really great review! dang. now i need to check this game out. i love farming sims, a more ominous one sounds really cool!
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I have been working on The Mermaid’s Mystery, a project which I had been planning for a while after a suggestion from another author to write a mermaid game. 
Progress is a little slow, since work is crazy busy again, but I’ll see how much I can get done for Introcomp this year, where I’m aiming to enter a 30-40k introductory portion of the game.
Although I’m still wrestling with whether to make this thing borderline SFW or to pull all the stops.
Just finish it. As a general rule of thumb, more content is better in choicescript town. The first post is critical for building interest in your WIP, and more content means more stuff for folks to chew on.
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Dark farming sims are having a moment. I’m also looking forward to Grave Seasons and Mandrake, later this year.
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Written out like that it also seems really confusing. I’m now trying to figure out what’s the difference between prologue and chapter 0 (especially since the latter is what I tend to name my prologue files so that they sort-by-name in the correct order).
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I have a question if anyone can really answer, so I am a kinda whimiscal person and I like to explore certain themes with my characters. So I add and remove them based on how I am feeling that day, apparently part of that was being heavily depressed but vent aside.
I am currently stuck at a cross roads, I cut a lot of ROs because I added them for the sake of added them and the spectacle. Which brought me down to a round but still massive 8 ROs, and I am thinking about making two side characters ROs. The only catch there is that they can and will die if the player character isn’t careful.
So really two questions. Is ten Ros worth it if it tells a story and helps the player connect to each group, and is ROs dying acceptable?
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If you personally have the bandwidth to manage the scope of ten ROs, it can be worth it. But if you feel that the scope is burning you out, my strongest recommendation is to cut.
It is easy to plan for a lot of content at the start, but it is just as easy to get burnt out once you have to start writing all that content. Being able to keep the scope manageable is necessary to make progress on your work.
Normally, I would say yes, if it helps you tell the story.
That said, a lot of folks here consume romance for escapism and wish fulfilment. 
Killing off a RO they like… might not be something they like.
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I mean you can save them, if you play your cards right.
I have the bandwith for it, since even if they aren’t ROs they are going to be side characters that have their own content. The only extra stuff I am including is the romance path stuff, which may tip the scales a bit.
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Then it’s probably fine. Personally, I feel that it’s really only a problem when there’s no player agency, though even then some exceptions can be made depending on the story and how aware the reader is that it’s going to happen.
For example, an RO with a health condition that may be fatal. As long as the reader is made aware that the RO is sick then they’ll go into the romance with an understanding that this may end tragically, and they may not be able to do anything about it. It’ll be sad but… that’s what they signed up for.
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they are all suddenly murdered, unjustly and needlessly. (in verse), Their deaths jumpstart the plot and show certain things. And if you save them, the events still act as a wake up call of if you weren’t stronger.
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The difference between a prologue and a chapter one is enough that a prologue probably isn’t a good starting point for a demo. The prologue is going to take place in a different time, a different pov, or something similar. Otherwise it would just be called chapter 1. Either way, I feel like this difference from the main story is significant
If you can give all of them the same amount of romantic moments, care, and time to be with them. And if you think that amount is significant enough to do the romance properly. Then yes, you can do 10 ROs.
But doing all of that is hard! Especially if the game isn’t a slice of life or romance. So you may need to make some tough choices.
If you advertise the game as a “tragedy” or “grimdark” or “life and death decision making) then you will find an audience that will love this concept.
But frankly, there are going to be a lot of people who don’t want that. Especially if you didn’t tell them about it, and especially if they can’t change it in future play throughs.
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I think it depends. Investigating other works could be a good starting point. If you played games with 10 ROs and enjoyed it then this is a good start.
Personally, I think 10 ROs is too much because I enjoy when I can spend enough time with each romanceable character and when there are different stages of a relationship. But even if the romances are shorter you have to write unique scenes for each character. 10 “having a crush” scenes, 10 “kissing” scenes. It is a lot of work.
In a cozy slice of life game? I would be baffled and angry. In a political intrigue game? It can make it even better.
I re-read my message and thought it could sound discouraging, but that wasn’t my intention. Many great stories were written by taking the harder path, and many of them paved the way for authors who wanted to do the same but were hesitant.
It can be very hard to get a story to be the way you want it to be. I wish you the strength to write, and I hope it comes together exactly as you envision it.
Edit: Send it before seeing @Anna_B edit, couldn’t agree with her more.
I think that could be addressed by adding save point before the death. Though, if there is something you have to do at the start of the game to prevent it, then it could be discouraging for readers. I think in the end it depends on how hard you want your game to be.
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In theory, but not everyone is going to label things the same way.
I would be baffled by anyone dying in a cozy slice-of-life, not just ROs. I mean, there are ways a character dying would feel natural, but I’m not sure how cozy it would be after that… your mileage may vary of course.
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I think there could be a “behind the scenes” death, for example, an older relative of one of the characters dying, and you can comfort them about it. I don’t think it would make the game less cozy.
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Today I got to lean a little bit harder on the “horror” needle of “horror/comedy”. And make multiple references to worms. Don’t worry, it all makes sense in context. Probably.
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Choice of the Vampire has ROs that are doomed to die, and as far as I know you cannot save them. Of course, they’re mortal, so you should expect them to die at some point, but it happens a lot sooner than you might think.
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That’s not what my prologue is that I made available by itself. It takes place in the same setting as the rest of the story, with the same pov. It handles character creation as well as introducing you to the story and the setting, so I guess someone could consider it Chapter 1.
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