Machinist (WIP) (Updated 7/5/18) (16.8K word count w/code)

Context:

In the Machinist, you play as a young inventor that is just starting off in the world of inventing. You live in a “New” Earth, where after a series of huge earthquakes led to the emergence of Mythical creatures. These creatures are called Nightmares, and what makes the Nightmare special, is that they are not only one creature of Myth, they are actually every creature of every Myth, Folklore, Bedtime story, Creepy Pasta that’s ever existed in Human history. The Nightmare and Humans of Earth don’t really get along, since the Nightmares initial emergence frightened and killed numerous people.

Story:

Your goal in life is to invent, but the bigger question is how will your inventions shape the world around you.

There are two types of inventions you will make in your life. Type one is the commerce stuff, meant to be sold to the general populas, tech companies, maybe even the military. Type two is the special stuff that are going to be the secrets that you will take to your grave.

Will you create a pair of glasses that let you see stat gains like in video games, a digital cataloger meant to record and study Nightmares, a living self-aware robot, clothes with automatic self adjustment or an invention that traps the souls of your enemies?

Will you travel to Retro-sisco (formerly San Francisco) a melting pot of magic, technology, and the strained relationship between the Nightmare and Humans, all in one piece? Will you explore the massive Nightmare filled forests of Redwood City? Will you find the sceret head quarters of the Unison?

Join a faction with Nightmare-hating Technoids, the Isolationist NIghtmare Republic, or the Defiant Unison., or not and burn them all down.

What the finished product should look like:

  • 6 Romances: 2 Heterosexual, 2 Bisexual, 2 Pansexual, (Can you find the Tsundere?)
  • Exploration of a new changing Earth
  • Ability to unite factions, join only one faction or destroy them all
  • Loads of machines and gizmos
  • Social impacts due to your inventions
  • Gender and pronoun choice
  • Multiple Events to build your workshop
  • Some real questions you’ve got to ask yourself
  • Dealing with teenage angst
  • Figuring out what you should with your life

Your inventing stats:

  • Combat (are you making battle drones, weapons?)
  • Innovation (are your inventions truly one of a kind, and worth paying extra for?)
  • Art (how appealing is your invention to the public? is there buy-in? how fast can you design your gadgets?)
  • Adaptibility (are your inventions multi-use? can you merge multiple unknown techs and magic togerther?)
  • Materials (can you build that invention with the supplies you have?)
  • Tech (how skilled are you at using tech?)
  • Magic (how skilled are you at using magic?)
  • Inspiration and Research (do you have the inspiration and research to unlock new inventions?)

If there’s some sort of invention you think that could be fun to be in the game please reply to this post with your idea.

All feedback welcome and appreciated.

Hopefully I can get a good amount of this done during my summer break before Senior year of Highschool kicks in.

Currently it’s about (?%, ? Chapters, 16.8K Words) done, and I plan on updating every 2 weeks.
To play the demo, go here: https://dashingdon.com/play/micobolt/machinist-wip/mygame/

Author notes

For this hosted game, I wanted to follow along the lines of Life of a wizard, Life of a mobster, and Unnatural, where events would be thrown at you and you choose which events you want to do within the event set before a bigger plot point comes along.
I just started a couple of days ago, and I’ve planned a good chunk of this out already, but I still need help with the implementation of stats, and how much I’m going to do increases and the values for stat checks. Don’t be afraid of asking for things like my startup file, or outlines.

Some inventions can be built off the bat if the skills and materials are met.
Some inventions need to be researched first before being able to be built.
Gender is a stat that will only affect possible romances, pronouns when they get implemented, and just a few lines of dialogue.

Change log

7/5/18: added more character details during customization. Added a lot more dialogue with cecil during roadtrip and some nightmare research stuff. (16.8K word count w/code)

6/12/18: Overhaul for intro and exploration scenes. Text is more dispersed and less blocky. Hopefully it’ll be less overwhelming to reading. Made Exploration exposition more, obvious to the reader. (10k word count w/code)

6/10/18: Draft of roadtrip dialog implemented. Trigger happy to release content. Added option to try and complete all 3 personality quizzes. If you choose to sleep in, you will only be able to complete 2 quizzes. (10k word count w/code)

6/9/18: Fixed some grammar mistakes. Added 2 more options for town exploration and some additional exposition as you explore. (8k word count w/ code)

6/8/18: Broke up some huge text chunks. Then uploaded next scene. Word count including code is now 6k. Stats still not implemented. Please send help for stat implementation.
(6k word count w/ code)

52 Likes

Looks fascinating so far!

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Thanks, let me know if the personality tests are worth it for building lore. They were a pain to build.

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That was anawesome way to introduce lore and character creation at the same time and I am excited to see where you go with this story

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Game about inventions? This sounds really promising and has alot of potential. Good luck though.

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Love the concept.

Just gonna talk about the first page:

Huge block of text.
I recommend breaking it up into at least three paragraphs, preferably more. It’ll help it read a lot better.

Also, make sure that your grammar and style is consistent with each of your choices. One of them is a dialogue prompt, but the others are all imperatives. And one of those has a period on the end of it, while the others are all left without punctuation.

Oh, also, you don’t close the last block of dialogue from mum. You’ve got a starting quote on …

"Is this really

… but no ending quote. So technically mom is reading all of your choices out loud for you.

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Thanks for the feedback. I fixed it and it should read better now. The next scene for the next day is out so you’ll actually be doing things in this update.

2 Likes

I like how this good hope you keep on going

what is that ?

no lesbi ? aw

nightmare…like…a specie called that ? teehee…cose the title…I though robots-humans :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit:

Oki…

So tried the demo , must say…you got me hooked with that beginning . And I want MOAR!

the only tiny thing…is when after you choose name and gender , you get to choose more stuff right ? Hopefully , you gonna make small descriptions for them ? unless it’s really just a fun quiz ? :stuck_out_tongue:

When I mention Mc-sexual until they’re not I mean that it’s a character that you will always be able to initially romance in the beginning no matter what. But they ultimately realize that they can’t like you in a romantic way and at points you might find them forcing them to do things because they like you as a person but don’t want to disappoint you. Sorta of like how this is fairly specific but how a bi-curious guy night date a gay guy, but end up realizing that he isn’t bisexual, but just straight.

Yup Nightmare like a different Species. I couldn’t help but make things more fantasy out of habit. So if it has to forever change the course of a fiction earth so be it. If you like robot humans sounds like you might like the Technoids

Don’t worry, there’s gonna be one lesbian romance at least, I’m not sure if she would be a purely lesbian romance yet.

As for the personality quiz stuff, yes, I should probably do that, and add small details like hair color, eye color, skin tone, etc plus your pronouns. They’re more minor though that you might not see a lot of though, aside from your stat screen.

Although the personality quiz is just a seg way into things like your name. gender and pronoun plus some extra lore (the “are you a nightmare” quiz is my favorite so far.), That’s why you have the sleep option so you can skip a lot of the sorta forced exposition, and go straight into your character’s name, gender, and all that good stuff.

huh…nope . I’m fine with whatever you throw at meh . I was just curious . I like mix matching , robot…magic…feary…whatever , I eat all this stuff for breakfast and ask for second !

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So i can create weapons i like the sound of that.

Thanks. Let me know if there’s cool futuristic weapon that you might want to see. Right I’m thinking about some absurd ones like robot teddy bear body guards.

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How about clone soldiers like the replica soldiers from FEAR

4 Likes

Yeah, I think I can definitely that in as a government conspiracy sort of obstacle.

2 Likes

Plus you could make Power armor or even laser weapons there are so many crazy things you could make.

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Can the MC romance nightmares?

Also it would be cool to make weapons like better futuristic bows, swords, staffs, etc and exo suits too.

something like this I guess:

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Yes, some of the romances are going to be NIghtmares. But the real quesiton is what kind? Nightmares are like the notorious shapeshifters of this world.

an entity…dark crystal shaped , with dark flame pouring out of their body . resonating voice …

ummm…that’s all I’ve got XD Sorry!

That’s a fair point in mind. The only information you’re really given are a few lines in the introduction about black sluges coming from the cracks in the Earth and mythical creatures. Catergorization is tricky for Nightmares if they can pose as mythical creatures. I think the best way get an opinion of a Nightmare is if you met one. Hmm. I guess mentioning that they have 3 forms is all I should really say for now. But I’ll work on adding more lore.

1 Like