Ooh, me please! I know mine needs a lot of work still, even just grammatically. I had a friend point out some things he found but I’d definitely appreciate more feedback on the project.
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I’m doing a combination of gender-selectable (some of whom I decided should be ROs because I couldn’t decide which gender I wanted them to be), gender-selectable-with-restrictions (I have this one who can’t be NB), and gender-fixed (NB).
(I also think it’s unfair to call customizable MC + gender-selectable ROs as being able to customize everything. since most likely the world and plot themselves are still not customizable. and I’d call those a lot larger part of “everything”. Player’s not technically even customizing the ROs names usually, since those are set by the author, even if they change with the gender. But I’ve also just been on a folklore binge, so if you disagree with my usage of words, feel free. I promise to not cast a spell on you.)
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As a reader, I don’t mind either way. As long as there’s a decent ratio of male to female ROs, I don’t think there’s any problem with gender set ROs.
The only ROs I think should be selectable are the “ex-boyfriend” “royal betrothal” type of ROs. A. Because it might be weird to have this kind of relationship or possible relationship with someone you have no chance of liking. B. Because a lot of people like this dynamic, and it would be a shame to miss out.
As a writer, I’m not exactly following the grain of what I said 
. As a straight girl, my idea are all with a girl lead and guy ROs. Not because these games inherently need to be that, but because that’s what I play and read. I always envision them as eventually reaching some level of spice, so that also keeps them where they are, because I’m not too comfortable writing about the different combinations. Eventually I’m going to branch out, but I want to make at least one game first, so I can practice actually writing and coding before I introduce something new to my writing. So my first game or two won’t be super popular, but hopefully I can make them really good for whoever does want them.
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I think the only REAL risk of turning players off your game that you run into with non-selectable ROs is if:
a) romance is a decent chunk of content in the game; AND
b) a specific-gender pool of ROs doesn’t have at least one that appeals to a non-negligible amount of players.
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It is done!! I posted my promo video to my dev blog on Tumblr! I have the video linked to my Vimeo since I didnt really want to put it on my TikTok or Instagram 
as I said I like to keep my writing and editing separate. But yes everything i did I did myself. I taught myself video editing about jeez almost 4 years ago I think? But anyway I will post it to my CoG page and the appropriate threads!!
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I get that, I’ve been struggling for so long with where to put the code of my project from my Master’s thesis, because I want to keep my hobby usernames and my professional usernames separate so I can’t very well put it in my GitHub
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Glad it worked out for you! Congrats!! Though it’s not that I don’t want my cast to gender-flip, it’s more that I’ve already established them for what they are and it wouldn’t fit for this particular story. I might experiment with a gender-selectable character in a smaller side project someday.
You’re right though, sorry for my wording there, I didn’t mean to overgeneralize. I’ve just been reading a lot of threads here about customization that I feel like people want everything to be customized As for the name, I mainly meant the Pokemon game where you can name your rival. I don’t think I’ve read any work that the MC customized the name of a romanceable.
No worries, I’m not very good at following my own advice either lol
Yeah, that’s valid. I mainly read/write MM Romance, so when it comes to IF, I’ve played as a gay male, and I’m happy to control the love life of the protagonist for once lol So having any of my male cast be female would feel too odd to me, when I’ve always envisioned them as male. Good luck with your writing though!
Hmm, romance a big and essential part of the narrative. I do think my cast are diverse and interesting enough that would hopefully appeal to the players; I have established 3 Males, 3 Females and 2 NBs romanceable. And since I’ve removed the 43-50 age group, everyone is pretty much open to the MC to romance…
… I’m just going to hope for the best lol Hopefully my cast would appeal to someone.
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You’re not the only one. I’ve actually mentioned about that in the previous monthly thread; There are readers who would individually pick the eye color of every single RO if they were allowed to. I’ve even seen Twine IFs that cater to that obsession preferance by including hyperlinks that change a character’s features when clicked. It made me feel grateful for how limited ChoiceScript is, because if it was possible for CoG writers to do, it would certainly become part of the company’s “house style” within a year or two.
That said, have gender-locked ROs if you wish. Writing what you want may cause to you lose a few readers, but writing what you don’t want will likely prevent you from finishing the project at all. I find the former preferable to the latter.
Well, I have a new demo that needs feedback. I feel a little stupid asking you for feedback, since I already had you work as an unpaid cover artist, but the game is there if you want a 20k word read.
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And even if you would finish, it’d probably be of lower quality. “I don’t want to be doing this” is absolutely one of the things that bleed through to your prose.
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One thing to remember is that this actually might not be true.
If you have gender-selectable ROs, that means you can potentially have one RO for each broad personality type you want to allow any player to romance. If you have fixed gender ROs, then you’re going to run into problems where the RO’s personality and approach might be a perfect fit for a player, but their gender might be incompatible - doubly so if those ROs also have fixed orientations, which is how you get “playersexual” ROs.
Which means while having gender-selectable ROs might require extra work for each RO, it also means you have to write fewer ROs in total to cover your bases.
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That’s true! I vaguely remember someone liking a character of mine but because they were the “wrong” gender, they couldn’t romance them, which is why I made these selectable. You make a good point!
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I’ve finally settled on what I need to do, and I’ve got 8 days to do it. I’ve got the week off work, so this should be manageable, and I will be able to start Chapter Three in April as planned.
Going through revising the Noble Origin, I feel better about having William/Juliana and Shay (formerly called Morgan, who is now a completely separate character) being the same “character”, aka The Confidant. However, they can now be either a close friend, an acquaintance or your betrothed.
Now, there is an issue with the original outfit choice as now, instead of the four dates planned,d I am focusing on a hunting expedition which no longer suits the outfit, so I’m thinking of changing the outfit (well-fitted suit, ill-fitted suit and a well-fitted dress) into a “hunting outfit” I’ve already got choices of it being well-fitted and ill-fitted. Still, I need to look for a suitable third option, as my initial thought was an embroidered one, but I don’t think that would be a good option.
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Well-worn? Doesn’t really say anything about the cut, but does show that hunting is a thing that specific Robin does frequently.
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Wait, why no ill-fitted dress?
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The idea behind the ill-fitted suit was a way I thought of allowing the player to choose something to that didn’t quite fit (although it is described as being designed that way) for non -binary Robin’s to hide their body if they didn’t feel comfortable in the suit/dress. I did consider having an ill-fitted dress but I decided to just have the 3 options.
Now it will just be a hunting outfit with three variations (well-fitted, ill-fitted and Well-worn) I may change ill-fitted to something else as I’m not 100% convinced it suits what I was thinking when I chose it.
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My initial reaction is “a sci-fi boy band?” ! It’s pretty cool looking
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What about something like… shapeless? Though that sounds sort’ve negative, too. Ambiguously-cut? Or maybe padded? Then it could be up to read reader to decide how it’s padded? 
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You made a very compelling reason for me to actually consider making one or all of my cast gender-selectable hehe If Felix and Nate are fixed to be females, I wouldn’t love them as much I do now. It would also mean I have to romance Adam and Mason, and I wouldn’t enjoy their moments in Wayhaven just as much. It would feel like I’ve been locked out from a good romance. So I could see where gender-selectable is much preferable.
Having them gender-selectable would eliminate one of my concerns about none of the cast would be strictly straight.
I can see the the advantages of the romanceables being gender-selectable for my story when I think about it:
- Eliminates that none of the cast being strictly straight.
- Everyone in the cast will be available no matter the gender of the MC.
- Potential identity-crisis arc for some of my characters (like Alex in Stardew Valley if you romance him as a male)
- The MC will be able to romance their preferred personality rather than their preferred gender.
- It would be more work, but it would also be fun to create these mini-arc the cast will go through based on their gender.
I’m actually kinda liking the idea of gender-selectable cast now lol
Though I still have concerns I have to overthink about lol. The cast are already established characters and set in a specific gender, so my concern is that making them gender-selectable could make them feel either an afterthought or a compromise their characterization. If changed too little, it would be obvious that the character has a set gender and making them selectable seems like an afterthought. If I changed too much, they would become a completely separate and different character and comprising their identity.
I’m not sure how to avoid any of that, so if anyone have any advice how to do gender-selectable effectively, I would really appreciate it.
For now, I’m going to replay Wayhaven, but this time having Unit Bravo be female and see how they change based on their gender. It would be weird to imagine Felix in a female skin, but it’s for science lol I’ll edit this for my thoughts later.
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What a good tactic for the creative overflow that stems from physical limitations. And rather sweet, lol.
I’ve actually been doing something similar. When I got stuck on my main project, I dashed down some words for a Palia fanfic, since that’s the game that I’ve been deep into, the last 2-3 weeks. It’s nice to juggle around some creative ideas in a low commitment way, and it reminds me that I can write purely for fun, too.
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