My Collection of Unfinished Demos

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hello everyone,

Since I have been taking a small break from working on Dawn of Heroes, I thought I’d scramble together a collection of unfinished game demos from stories I’ve started. When I say unfinished, I don’t just mean that the games aren’t finished, but the demos aren’t really ready to share. Missing stats, fake choices, grayed out options, not edited, etc. For some, there is so little gameplay, there isn’t much of a point in sharing, but I am anyway, since these stories are just sitting around doing nothing.

The King’s Island
First up is a High Fantasy story. It follows a character seeking revenge for a murdered parent. Their desire for vengeance brings them to a prison island, where they believe the murderer is.

The stat system is inspired by Legend of the Five Rings (5e) and the Star Trek TTRPG. Checks are based on a combination of an element and a skill. The elements do more than judge affinity, they are an acknowledgment of how effective the character is at a specific approach. The five elements are based on a modified version of Wuxing teaching, (but I switched Wood out for Air). I feel like it has a natural gameplay balance and have been wanting to experiment with it for awhile.

I wrote this last year during NaNoWriMo, but got sick part way into the month and never picked it back up. You’ll notice that there are a lot of false/unfinished choices since I was focused on wordcount. As I said, this demo isn’t actually ready to be a real demo IMO.

Demo Link: The King’s Island

Wells of Destiny
Next up is Science Fantasy Space Opera/Western. It follows a sword/gun for hire, who looks to run from their past, but it has finally caught up to them.

This also uses the same stat system as The King’s Island, but with slight modifications. I wrote this one before The King’s Island, but didn’t get as far. This is very short and the plot never actually gets a chance to get started. In fact you don’t even finish setting up the stats.

The MC starts overpowered, but not invincible.

Demo Link: Wells of Destiny

Survivor: Road to Power Fantasy
This one has more of a working title. It is a modern-day fantasy story very inspired by Solo Leveling and Second Chance Swordsman. It takes place in a world much like ours, but other worldly gateways open up and it is up to Gatewalkers to fend off the monsters and stop duneon/gate breaks. The story follows siblings looking to become Gatewalkers for personal reasons.

This is the most recent one I wrote. But it’s going on this list as I get ready to got back to working on Dawn of Heroes. While the game has stats, they don’t matter until the MC gets a class, which they do not get before the demo ends, so I haven’t programmed them into a stats screen. There is one primary character built by the reader in this, but their twin is an important character.

For this story, it is meant to be a Zero to Overlord story, where the main character becomes very over powered before reaching the end. Originally it was named Power Fantasy, but that’s now the name of a popular book series, so I’ll need a new name.

Demo: Road to Power Fantasy

Cruise Line: Infection
The last one was meant to be part of the Halloween Jams, but I stopped writing it after about thirty minutes. The story I had in mind clashed with the requirements for the jam, so it’s like only two pages long. This one is probably not worth reading because of it only being two pages without choices.

It is meant to follow a character as they attempt to survive a zombie outbreak on a cruise ship.

Demo: Cruise Line: Infection

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First time I see a thread that’s a collection of demos

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A few years ago, I had the idea to write four or five demos to judge interest in a second project to work on in between working on Dawn of Heroes. The thought was that instead of giving elevator pitches, just give demos. That’s not really what this is, but I guess it could turn into that. I was kind of tired of these stories never seeing the light of day, and would rather show them in these incomplete demos than never share them. But since I’m not actively working on any of them, I didn’t think it would be appropriate to make individual threads to highlight them.

I used to share a lot of my ideas with @Eiwynn, but now the only person I share story ideas with is a person who isn’t a fan of IFs. @Eiwynn was a big fan of the plot, the main antagonist, and the development of The King’s Island. She was looking forward to playing a naga (snake person). Though she feared I might be doing too much, juggling feats, different species, different backgrounds, various equipment, and she’s probably right.

If people want to see me expand more on the stories, I guess let me know? I also have other stories that I could write and make demoes for, like my professional wrestling one, two different mecha ones, and a couple of others rattling around in my head.

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Well since you’re asking: Walls of Destiny is tickling my fancy.

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Played all of them…and tbh all of them have potential to be something special…survivor and King’s island look specially cool.
Cruise line premise sounds good too

A question! Have you ever considered writing a Wuxia/cultivation IF? I feel like your style would be really interesting on it.

I assume you’re well acquaintanced with Wuxia/cultivation since you know Solo Leveling and other manhwas maybe?..

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Good to know. I remember you commenting on it in other threads. Maybe I’ll get back to writing out more of the opening moments some time.

Background, lore, and plot elements of Wells of Destiny

As a bit of background and lore. A galaxy-spending empire successfully took over Earth centuries ago. This empire took over the planet and started mining it for all of its resources, including the population. Instead of killing everything, this empire assimilates those it conquers, turning them into workforce, soldiers, and citizens.

The MC was born and raised to be an elite soldier within the Galactic Empire, taken from their family before they could remember. They were a prodigy in the academy. They were taught to harness the five elements and were provided weapons that allowed them to manifest those elements. The MC and several others staged a breakout of the academy. They have been on the run from them ever since.

Several years later, as an adult, the story takes place. They are a sword/gun for hire on a planet that is divided into two deserts, a hot one and a frozen one. They hear that the empire has come to the planet and look to get off planet side, but the ports are all shut down. To make money in hopes of buying their way through port security, they pick up a contract to guard someone.

Things escalate as the MC finds out that the empire is specifically looking for a fugitive.

The story is meant to bounce between the present day and the time in the academy. Choices from the past that come back to haunt/help the present. And choices made in the present that decide events to live through in the past.

Now a central story element is the concept of the Wells of Destiny. This is a concept I have hidden in a few stories I’ve written and I hope I can explain it well. Destiny in this setting acts like a gravitational well around celestial bodies. Some people’s destinies have so much pull that others orbit around them. This is meant to explain some of the contrivances within fictional stories. For example, a major antagonist from the hero’s past leads the team on the planet, but in a galaxy this large, what are the chances of that? The answer, very large when the two are caught in each other’s “gravitational wells” of destiny. And while there are others who have powerful destinies, they are smaller and are trapped in the wells of others.

Thank you! It’s good to know where interest lies.

I have considered a Wuxia IF, yes. I have also considered several cultivation IFs. I have not come up with a combination of the two. I guess the Power Fantasy would be the closest to that, but I’m not sure I’d call it Wuxia. The MC gains a power that no one else in the setting has (the eyes), which allows them to power up faster than most everyone else. There are cultivation elements to that story.

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I read the Power Fantasy and it defo had the solo leveling feel and really enjoyed it.
Also Well of destiny has potential, liked our little A.I Sidekicks aswell, they remind me of my own siblings​:rofl::rofl:

Both have good potential would like to see where this goes when you have the time.:+1:t5:

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You should put this in hobby projects if your not going to release them

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I hope you pick them back up especially kings island and power fantasy caught my eye.

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That’s a good point. The first three were all started with the intent to release them on Hosted Games; they are just on a development hold, potentially indefinitely. I’m not sure if that’s enough to move it to a hobby project? When I’m ready to drop my fanfic on Fate/Stay Night and Nasuverse stuff, I’ll remember to put it under hobby project.

Thank you! I’m a big fan of the story and setting. Later parts of Power Fantasy would reflect it with specific powers being obtained. I was afraid I was doing too much info dumping, trying to build the world quickly.

Yeah, they were some of my favorite parts to write in that snippet. They help with a lot of lore dropping and explaining things to the reader that the MC may already know. They’re inspired by R2D2 and C3PO, but with different personalities and uses in the story.

I’ll keep that in mind. I enjoy both of the stories, Power Fantasy is a bit fresher in my mind, but The King’s Island is a bit more thought out. I noticed you picked the two fantasy settings, is that why you were liking them? Or perhaps it’s because those two are longer, so you get to see more of the world and characters.

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I actually love all of these genres. But yea the fantasy is longer and I’ve been wanting to read a Code Geass or gundam inspired science fantasy. Last one i can remember is mecha ace

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I do have a Gundam inspired story following two MCs on opposite sides of a war. The choices of one would affect the other. But everyone I pitched it to weren’t mecha or war story fans, so I haven’t started it.

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I love mecha grew up on gundam and stumbled upon code geass like 2019. I found the whole space war + big robot suits with genetically modified sodlers thing cool. Been waiting on something like that for a minute. Idk about following 2 mc’s would be kinda tedious to follow 2 different states and choices plus what if the meet on battle field. Maybe give the choice for mc to start off on either side.