Larkin (WIP)

Alright, I still haven’t gotten a chance to play it again, but I forgot to give my first thoughts on the game. Honestly, I really really enjoyed it. I loved the different ways the MC could react to and feel about Wyatt. The MC feels strong enough to be a competent vampire hunter, but strong enough to feel overpowered, which I find is very hard to do, so kudos for that.

I don’t have many suggestions for improvements or additions yet, though that could change once I get a chance to replay it. Overall though, this was fantastic and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Congrats on the progress!

I assume you’re using Choicescript IDE? If you are, you can:

  1. Open the Choicescript IDE app.
  2. Open your story in app.
  3. Right click on the title bar of your story (where you toggle visibility, save scenes, add a new scene, and run the project).
  4. Scroll down the drop down menu to Test Project .
  5. Select either Quicktest or Random test.

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Now when I finished the demo - I love it. The story is intriguing, the setting is unusual, the relationship with "father " can be very different, MC has a variety of reactions and I really like it. Good job

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I really liked the story so far. The beginning draws you in. The slower pace while getting to know the characters is fitting. I am interested in reading more. Good Work.

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Thanks again! I actually had no idea about the choicescript ide lol, I’ve been mostly using atom so this is a great help!

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Good luck! Using the Choicescript IDE is much easier I’ve found!

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I like what you’ve got going here. :ok_hand: Keep it up! I am also curious if you (MC) would have a choice to become a vampire or not at some point of the story. Kind of like fighting the shadows from the shadows. That would make an interesting twist, :laughing: An immortal vampire hunter. Just a thought :ok_hand:

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Not sure how that’s meant to work, given the tools for destroying them are often harmful just to the touch to them. On top of that, as a “fledgling” you wouldn’t really have much resistance to the influence of your “parent”… More likely than not, being turned would be a bad end, depending on how the final words of that could be interpreted. :thinking:

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Hey everyone! I’m having a bit of trouble with the editing function on the original post so I figure I’ll just edit this in once that problem’s resolved.

Thanks so much for all the feedback! I’ve worked over the past few weeks with things like randomtest and Choicescript IDE to resolve all the bugs :slight_smile: I’ve also been taught the difference between $!{variables} and ${variables} so there shouldn’t be any unnecessary capitalization of pronouns anymore. Plus I’ve worked through a lot of the spelling/grammar edits (most of them messy and embarassing mistakes :pensive: lol)

But as previously requested here’s a drop down with some of the ROs

ROs

Doctor Cyrus Sokolov [M]
Cyrus, or Doc Cy, as he’s often called by the townsfolk around Larkin, runs the local mortuary, is town doctor and operates as the local leader around Larkin, though, the office of Mayor has remained vacant for years. The apparent patriarch of the rather strange family that owns the local mine and most of the town–Cyrus has taken great efforts to make friends with the townsfolk.

On the outside, Cy is tall, tattooed, and frankly, a little scary looking. But despite his stature, Doctor Sokolov deep down is a gentle soul, who really only aims to help people, whichever way he knows how. Cyrus is also a man seemingly full of contradictions, local celebrity he may be, more than anything, the good doctor is lonely.

He’s somewhat suspicious of the new Preacher upon his first meeting with the PC, and it’s up to the player whether or not it’s heightened.

Dominic Sokolov [M]
Dominic is the youngest out of the Sokolov siblings, and by his behavior alone–it shows. He works as Assistant Mortician alongside his brother Cyrus, though he spends most of the time around Larkin stirring up trouble–for no other reason aside from curing his boredom.

Dominic is always down for some fun, and well, if that happens to be with the strange new Preacher everyone seems to be in a tizzy about well, won’t that make the papers.

Celina Sokolov [F]
Celina Sokolov is the reclusive third sibling of the Sokolov Family. Despite the misconceptions amongst the townsfolk, it’s her that’s the family’s oldest. She doesn’t leave the family’s home very often–it’s rumored around town that she’s been stricken with some sort of sun-related illness, others seem to have the opinion that Miss Sokolov thinks herself too good to be around the rest of Larkin’s townspeople–the truth however, is something much more complicated. Despite her reclusive nature, on the few occasions townsfolk have seen the Sokolov Matriarch, they’ve noted her delicate beauty–even despite all the layers she wears.

Jacob Nash [M]
Jacob Nash is Larkin’s only practicing attorney–not that he has many clients aside from the Sokolov’s. After passing the Bar exam, Nash headed out west in the hopes of making a real difference for the people there–only to spend most of his days helping settle land-disputes, or notarizing the occasional marriage certificate. Like Doctor Sokolov, Nash has a fondness for the people of Larkin, but he’s not so sure that the Sokolov family has the townsfolk’s best interest in mind.

Nash is dedicated to his work, inside the office and out, doing whatever he can to help the people of Larkin. Although his work keeps him busy, he’s secretly longing for something more–something that the new Preacher could help him find.

Rose Holloway [F]
On the outside Rose Holloway is as prickly as they come. She’s nice to look at, sure, but conversation with the Emerald’s bar-maid doesn’t come easily, unless you’re one of the Sokolov boys.

Rose Holloway moved out west with her husband, but after he passed away upon their arrival, she has remained Larkin’s youngest widow. Days running the Emerald have left her bored, stagnant. And, while she doesn’t offer the new Preacher the warmest welcome to Larkin, she could prove a strong ally in the coming days.

Ace [Gender Choice]
Ace is the dominant figure in the Preacher’s California days, the first real contact they managed to make on their own–someone outside of Wyatt’s sphere.

Ace grew up a member of the guild, raised by hunters and mercenaries in a life that almost mirrored the PC. Maybe that’s why the two seemed to be so drawn to each other during the PC’s days in San Francisco, whether that was as enemies, friends, or lovers.

Hollis [Gender Choice]
Hollis is a bit of an enigmatic figure in Larkin. As an emissary for the Children of Cain, they’ve been one of the few of the group’s members to make the long trek from their encampment up to town more than once. Tall, brooding and often silent, most of the townsfolk are afraid to approach Hollis when they make the monthly ride up to town for supplies, usually with a different group of Cain members each time.

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That’s most likely due to your user trust level. You could ask one of the @mods to help with converting your post so that you can continue to edit it as needed.

Other than that, there's a few small things you could do to increase your trust such as:

Reading other threads; putting hearts on posts you like, or agree with in those threads; and participating in some of the discussions you find interesting, or informative.

You won’t need to be super active outside of your own WIP’s thread if you don’t want to be afterwards, but being a member of the community is the basic gist of how it’s done. :slightly_smiling_face:

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This may/may not be a spoiler, so feel free to ignore if it is, but I just looked at the ROs and I was wondering if any of the ROs are supernatural (vamps or otherwise)?

If any of them are, my money would be on it being Celina Sokolov, since she has a “sun related illness” and wears a lot of layers in public. Seems like it could be because she has the whole “I’m a vampire and sunlight kills/hurts/weakens me” thing going on.
That’s just my guess though, I could be completely off base.

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Wooh, I finally played this, and I love it!
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to finish the current WIP as I’m not planning to go for any of the two completed paths, but even without that, it was still a very decent chunk of great content!
I like the wild west + vampires theme, and I’m quite curious to know more, both about the setting and the characters.

My only complaints are that in a couple of instances, I feel like stats should have moved but didn’t (mostly in case of more pacifist / calm / gentle answers - for example, sometimes one option makes the MC more agressive while the other makes the stats stay as they are, with no option that makes MC more peaceful), but more than anything, I feel like two choices would really benefit from an additional answer.

Both take place during the fight with Wyatt:
First one:

At some point, Wyatt asks the MC: “is it really so hard to believe that I give a shit about what happens to you after I’m gone?”
And the three possible answers are:

  • “Yeah, Wyatt, it is.” Since when have you ever been more to him then some half-assed, shitty means of atonement.
  • “No,” you say, your voice quiet. You don’t doubt that Wyatt cares for you, in his own strange way, but you still don’t trust this situation.
  • “I-I don’t know.” It’s the truth, sad as it is.

I feel like this choice would strongly benefit from a fourth option, that would say something like “I did believe it… up until today.” - basically, something to express the fact he did indeed have MC’s trust, and lost it entirely with what he did. It’s exactly what I felt while playing, and it’s also the exact moment I started hating Wyatt (not saying it in a bad way eh - it’s always good when a character makes the player feel so strongly). I feel like MC, who was basically raised by him, should feel that way even more than me as a player.

On a side note, still about that choice:
The second option gives a +2% frienship with Wyatt, and the third gives a +5%. Shouldn’t it be the other way around, since in the second one MC actually believes him? :thinking:

Second one:

At the next choice, when Wyatt asks: “(…) but are you honestly telling me that you’d agree to something like this without it?”
Wouldn’t it be possible to say “yes” with certainty? I feel like a character who doesn’t like the life they had (which is the case with my MC), should be able to answer that, instead of a “maybe” at best. My MC hates the whole con-man thing, and is leaning towards a peaceful and reserved behavior, so by all means it would make sense for him to actually wish for a more normal and honest life. Not to mention, at some earlier point, MC can ask Wyatt if he means it this time, when he talks about settling down. Having asked that, it makes even more sense to answer “yes” here.

That being said, one other thing bothered me a bit, but that’s nitpicking, really!
“Wyatt had always been short, so short in fact that you’d been taller than him since you were sixteen.”
That made me sad, because I love having short or very short MCs, and it seems it won’t be possible, then. :cry:

Some assorted errors:
After selecting eye and skin color:
  • “You blink a few times and sigh. There’s no helping the weariness present in you Gray eyes.”
  • “You swipe away at some of the oil that’s started to collect on your Fair skin, the desert heat already starting to take its effect.”

For some reason the color gets capitalized.
It’s likely that the hair color has the same issue, but on the page that follows the choice, the first sentence starts with the color itself, so I can’t tell.

In Nash's office:

“It was nice meeting the two of you,” McDevitt says then, stepping forward to shake both you and Wyatt’s hands. “I look forward to seeing more of you both.”

“The feeling’s mutual.” Wyatt says then, and with that McDevitt leaves the law office with a wave.

“It was nice meeting the two of you, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other.” McDevitt says, before offering a brief wave and departing.

It seems two different reactions for McDevitt got mixed together, one in the first segment there, and one in the third. That causes him to act two different ways, not to mention some repetition.

My stat screen looks like that:


A lor of the “categories” are merged together as you can see. Not to mention, at the beginning of the game my character had some basic knowledge of medicine, which seems to have disappeared, probably when I selected the artistic skill. But from what the code says, that is the “tertiary skill”, which makes me think medicine would be the secondary and thus have stayed? :thinking:
And well, if not, then it shouldn’t appear there at the beginning.

I think that’s it! I really can’t wait for more now! So intriguing!

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This. So much this. It’s the only thing that bothered me, like if my MC is short in my head, just how short is Wyatt? I always imagine my mc as under 5 foot 3. If I’m taller, what is he? 4 foot 9?

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hey thanks for the explanation with this!! Like I said, super new with the COG community in general so this is really appreciated!! :slight_smile:

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Hey everyone! Thanks for all your feedback, and while I’m currently working on a bigger content update that’ll pick up where we left off towards the end of chapter three, here’s a small coding update for the original demo, with major changes to the stats page and small droplets of new content speckled here and there. You can play the updated demo here.

For a full change log for all the different tweaks you can check below the cut.

change log

changelog

throughout whole demo

Added an increase to character stats.
Added increase in relationship stats.
Fixed formatting and spacing.
Edited spelling/grammar mistakes.

start screen

Added option to include content warnings at the beginning of each chapter.

chapter one

Chapter one content warnings added.
Removed repetitive “calming you heartbeat” comment while hiding in the cathedral.
Updated exposition paragraph about the Guild and it’s lore.
Removed comment about the MC “being taller than Wyatt since they were sixteen.”
Edited comment about possible  rib after roof-top confrontation.
Fixed label for MC’s who were injured during the game’s intro while entering church, removing a continuity error.

chapter two

Added chapter two content warnings.
Made “Just Reminiscing” option a playable dialogue route.
First opportunity to decide Ace/Player Relationship--enabling playable scenes in chapter three--playable in next content update. (More opportunities will present themselves later via interludes.)
Introduced option to decide MC’s height.
Removed comment about Dominic floating around the saloons--changed to town.
Removed repetitive sentences in Rose’s description.
Added options to smile or stick tongue out at Hollis when you first encounter them in Marten’s cross.
Added paperwork label to different McDevitt good-byes, removing a continuity error.

chapter three

included chapter three content warnings
Fixed label enabling transition for those who selected “hustler” or “thief” primary_skill(s), allowing them to access the emotional check-in choice.
Added new content for MC’s with the “elder” family background and selected the “scholar” option for tertiary_skill.
Fixed continuity error regarding Dominic’s comment towards the MC and their rings, player now describes suspicions of him regardless of chapter two “moreinfo” variable.
Added option to talk about Nash with Cyrus as he walks you to the law office.
Fixed continuity error regarding player’s suspicions about Dominic Sokolov during the Wyatt evening route.
Removed comment about three bars in Larkin, replacing it with the single saloon The Emerald.
Edited Cyrus’ Friendship Stat to be ‘Friendship: 25 // Rivalry: 75’ to be more reflective of the in-game relationship with Doctor Sokolov

stats screen

Removed “this is the main stats page”
Changed menu labels from “view characters stats page” and “view relationship status” to “View your character’s stats.” and “View characters and relationships.”
Split player personality traits into two categories. “Personality” and “Beliefs and Morals”
Added small explanations for Preachers who were previously devoted, skeptic, or remain neutral to the actions of and beliefs pushed by The Abrams Family Cult.
Added new personality trait Light-hearted // Serious
Added new personality trait Arrogant // Humble
Added an extra label so the default tertiary_skill isn’t Medic, until the choice is made by the player in chapter three.
Changed the way character appearance displays, instead of sentence structured description, physical character traits are now displayed through a list format (ex: Hair: Blonde, Skintone: Olive, Eyes: Brown)
Changed “Prepper” tertiary_skil to “Expert Hunter”
Added small character bios to the relationship page.
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Is it bad that the only thing keeping me from playing this proper is my worry I’ll unintentionally copy stuff?

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I think you’re safe to play it! Your stories are quite different! Like, really!

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Can I just say that I’m as reader, quite happy that there are two mystery westerns out there and that I love it both?

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Hello! Im currently playing the demo and its nice so far, just wanna point out that when i like pick a skill (when u choose the items) i picked pistol, knife and ammo but in my stats screen it says my other skill is medic. (Id assume it’d be the opposite lol) Also I chose to play as nonbinary and I remember that others said “they’s” instead of “they’re”.

Anyways, the game seems very promising so far and i look forward to seeing more from this project! Good luck!