respectfully, wtf this is hilarious 
. My favourite is chief Bak Pak (makes me think of chickens) and now I really wanna know more about this side project. (I have zero intention of trying to pronounce the queensearcher)
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I am willing to put in the time and somewhat balance the romantic moments, my plan is to have each RO function somewhat uniquely from their interactions to how their romance progresses. And for the second half, my story is a semi romance, semi detective story.
Yeah thats the plan, the entire story is a tragedy due to how certain events play out, and how things snowballed so quickly. But I can do a little more advertising of that gimmick.
Yeah, I read a couple games with a lot of Ros, and most of the time I am disappointed with the lack of content that some ROs get. Sometimes there is a favoured RO and some that are clearly left behind, I am not going to be innocent of the favoured RO but I don’t plan to leave anyone high and dry.
it’s a dark detective story? so it should be fine right.
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Yeah that’s how I’m handling my prologue too. In the project that has a prologue, that is. I don’t count my two-page skippables or flash-forwards prologues, they’re the part that happens before the opening theme (I’ve labelled them intros in my organizationals, but that’s not a label that’s visible to the player).
Just beware the scope creep. You’ll most likely end up with at least double the work than you estimate it to be.
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I am very aware of scope creep, it’s been eating at my soul since day 1. And I just realized I put myself in a genjutsu. I have 6 ROs currently and I want to add two. I don’t know how I got to 10, but 8 Ros is still alot.
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Author of the “War of Havan” WIP here. I’m curious, for those of you out there who have written stories involving a side character who has the possibility to die (but is not hardlocked into that), what is the best way to handle the following chapters and story text that is altered based on whether or not they died?
Just in case my wording is confusing, here is an example:
In chapter 2 of the book, character A is able to die based on choices made by the player. In chapter 3 onward, there will be scenes that are different based on whether or not character A is alive.
Currently, I am under the assumption that using if/else for the different variations, using variables I have already created for a character’s life status (alive vs dead), is the best option, but I wonder if that is not the most efficient way to go about it?
I suppose an alternative would be writing entirely different chapters based on whether or not said character is alive, but I fear that would just lead to unnecessary bloat, especially if a lot of the text would remain the same regardless, outside of some specific scenes relating to that character and whether they died or not.
I am open to any suggestions/feedback and would really appreciate it as well since this is my first IF and I’m still learning as I go.
(SPOILER) Actual scenario example from my book that I am trying to get this assistance for.
In chapter 5 of my book, based on choices the player can make with some skill checks and planning, alongside the combat role they have chosen (this is a light-fantasy WW1 setting), different side characters can die.
I am trying to figure out how to best handle the chapters that follow based on whether these important side characters are dead or not. The side characters who have the possibility to die are major story influencers, who have frequent screentime and are part of the player’s core group of people to interact with and such, and so their death would actually have some pretty major impact on both the player, and the larger group at hand. Two of the side characters in particular are twins, and based on choices either one of them could possibly die.
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Yes, a dark detective story sounds exciting.
I think if you want 10 ROs it may be a good idea to make some of them main and some secondary. That way, there would still be a romantic relationship with them, but you wouldn’t need to write as much, and readers wouldn’t be disappointed if there is less content.
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i haven’t done this yet, but i’m about to have to do it for this current chapter i’m writing. i’m leaning towards the basic if/elseif/else variations like you said; it’s not far into the story, and the maybe-dead characters aren’t big players, so i’m planning to have those variations only come into play in brief (but hopefully impactful) moments. i’ll probably use a little multireplace where it’s possible, too (for single sentences like “it’s so sad that @{characteradead Character A|Character B} died,” or whatever).
BUT i don’t think writing a whole different chapter would be efficient unless it’s something like, an entire RO or essential NPC dying—and even then, i think it would be better to just have subroutines containing big scenes that are extremely different for the character being alive or dead, and then just routing to those using if/elseif/else.
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I don’t know if I’d call them main/secondary, but the way I did a large romanceable cast in Creme de la Creme was by varying the characters’ role in the story. One has much less screentime but is important to the plot, one has different types of screentime because of being a worker at the school, and three are based in a different location. The rest, who have the most screentime in everyday scenes are the PC’s five classmates, of whom four are romanceable and one befriendable.
So with that setup, one time I wrote ten hangout scenes that could be friendly or romantic (for the in-world Valentine’s Day, all available characters plus one polyamorous pair), and one time twelve hangout scenes (in the final chapter, hanging out with all available friendly/romantic characters, one polyamorous pair, and one scene with the PC’s parents). But mostly I was branching on a smaller scale… thank goodness. I don’t really know what I was thinking with so many romances, haha.
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Fair enough, and huge respect for being able to manage and figure out all those branching paths. I’m also going quite ambitious with my story and am really just trying to understand the most efficient way to go about it without wordcount bloat or unnecessary stuff.
I definitely feel ya on the last part though, I’ve got sooo many different paths in mind that I want to explore 
. Personally I felt that the way you handled in in Creme de la Creme was very good. I enjoyed all the variations and options provided, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t inspired by that aspect of your writing. I definitely admire the ability to create such a diverse web of storylines and plotpoints, so I appreciate your take on the subject.
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I’ve been working on something similar where I have two characters who, depending on MC’s actions, might just be AWOL for a good chunk (or all) of the remaining story.
Spoilers
I’m only just starting to code this so idk if this is going to be efficient longterm, but I’ve been using *if statements of course but also I created substitute characters that can serve a similar function to the missing ones in a lot of respects but are no longer romanceable/befriendable and don’t have special scenes or anything.
So if, for example, the handmaiden character (Mirabel) is now missing, then another handmaiden (Colleen) will introduce herself as being sent in Mirabel’s place. Now I have someone who can share a lot of Mirabel’s lines, which makes coding variations with *if statements is a lot more manageable.
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My future is looking bright then.
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@Zerkeous ahh thank you so much! I should say, being ambitious isn’t a bad thing. Every project I do, I look back afterwards and go “er, what was I thinking there?” for one reason or another. The important thing is enjoying it and feeling that it’s right for the game!
About optional character deaths: I’ve not had dead characters since Blood Money, but in that I made sure to have characters to slot in to replace a dead or missing one. There’s a police officer who can be killed off early, who is a major character if the PC keeps them alive; I made a new character to do things like be an investigating officer at the scene of a crime so I didn’t have to have a whole different plotline if they didn’t exist anymore. In Blood Money three of the love interests can die, but it tends to be the PC who’s responsible for it though not always. I think where it’s not, the PC has had to fail a few choices and had the chance to try to repair the situation.
I’m in the middle of coding a complex final-boss type fight in which romanceable characters can die. Once I’m on the other side of it I’ll see whether the “being ambitious” thing feels worth it 
At the moment, it’s… a lot.
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So far the only characters that can die in my WIP are two of the antagonists, if the main character kills them. If they survive, they may show up later…
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I haven’t done that and I’d imagine the best way depends on what you’re trying to achieve, but World War II Armored Recon (and Burden of Command, but that one’s not a choicescript game) is what I’m using as a case study for NPCs-that-may-die. It’s really complex in that regard.
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Same here. The whole concept seems quite complex to me as there are just so many variables to consider. I’m very committed to my story and invested in finishing it though, so I’ll figure it out one way or the other.
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I honestly have this urge to make a BoC-style MC recycling at some point…
…okay poor choice of words, now I accidentally triggered my own trauma.
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Hmmm I see I see, I think I recall what you’re talking about with Blood Money. I will definitely do some testing and explore similar options to possibly integrate into mine. I’ll just have to see how things go haha. One of the core themes of mine is that choices can and often do have some pretty hefty consequences, being a WW1 era IF and all that, so I’m not personally sure just yet how a fill-in character could work in that space.
I will certainly test it out though.
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I also plan to kill off two of my ROs, but the way I plan to do it. Is to simply write a separate chapter file Using the “they lived” version as the base and write around their absence.
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Not a bad call at all. I considered that but my chapters are often so long and there are so many paths and also text that would be the same, so unfortunately I think that would just bloat mine up
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well, I don’t plan to write the entire chapter, just the parts with them in it. By abusing the goto_chapter function. I can have the game jump between the files, to get the ideal path.
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