Language and market

I had 2 kind of related questions as I begin work on a Choicescript project which I hope to become a hosted game:

  1. What is the etiquette around language, are games 18+ by default or would I need to consider this? Ie. I am making a medieval/GoT-esque game, and someone calls the character out for “p*ssing their trousers”. Also just out of curiosity how does it apply in terms of violence/sex ratings as I’m 100% sure there will be graphic violence , if not sex, featured.

EDIT: I suppose I can just used soiled

  1. How do people feel about stats? When I played Broadsides, I didn’t care about the stats page but then looking at other games it looks like people enjoy using them for various effects. Does the general market feature stats and stat building, or do purely literary ones exist too?
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This should cover most of the things in your first question.

@Synapse

Well stats allow for different outcomes even in the same answer to a question, creating replay-ability. EVERYONE loves replay-ability. For example:

“How are you doing?”

  • Stab him in the face

  • Make him fall asleep with my magic powers

If you choose stab him in the face but your strength is low or sword fighting is low maybe he puts you in a full-nelson and you pass out and wake up in a dungeon and have to escape. While doing so you meet a possible RO or a long lost family member who teaches you a secret to allow a choice later in the story.
Compared to having high strength or sword fighting where you murder him then his friends come and see what you did. Now you have another choice.

  • Stabby Stabby

  • Smooth-talk your way out of it

Maybe here if you kill them with stabby stabby (you already must have high fighting stats from last check) you find a map but if you talk to them they forget about their dead friend and ask you to continue in his place, thus you gain allies to use later. (But must have high charisma)

Basically my point is you can use stats to make your story even more branching if you want, adding replay-ability, which people love. (sorry you probably didn’t need the example but I had way too much fun writing it :sweat_smile:)


The stats page is just so players can view their stats. In my opinion it is less important than the actual stats.

There was actually a similar discussion about your first question not long ago, that myself and a couple other published authors had input on that you may find helpful, as well. Good luck!

https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/profanity-allowed-in-games/

Edit to add: In “So, You’re Possessed!,” I would say the stats are purely literary, if you’re looking for an example? We didn’t have any battle stats that came into play. They have to do with your personality and connections to other characters that impact the story, choices, and overall tone.