New Hosted Game! "Moonrise" by Natalie Cannon

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

You’ve been bitten into a brand new supernatural underground. Congratulations! It’s terrifying and heartwarming all at once. In a game made by a queer woman and for queer women and femme nonbinary folk, this supernatural celebration of queer femininity takes you into the darkness and lets you own it. Use your compassion and sense of responsibility to make connections and fall in love. Or use your newfound fangs and claws to rip, shred, and tear through your problems. Is this the start of a satisfying, shape-shifting life full of romance, or the blood-soaked birth of a new deity of the forest? You decide!

It’s 50% off until October 24th!

Moonrise is a 49,000-word urban fantasy interactive novel by Natalie Cannon, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

  • Play as a trans woman, cis woman, or nonbinary person; lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, or asexual.
  • Date your nonbinary best friend, the ruthless Rogue leader, or the lycanthropic goddess amongst werewolves.
  • Build up your Empathy, Bloodthirst, Snark, Responsibility, Uncanny Valley, and Defense to survive lethal encounters and protect those you hold dear.
  • Pledge allegiance to the tradition of the Masquerade or the desperate, volatile Rogues.
  • Expose the supernatural underground to the blistering light or keep their secrets in the deep dark.
  • Embrace the feral monster within or hold fast to your humanity.
Natalie Cannon developed this game using ChoiceScript, a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice interactive novels like these. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. Write your own game and Hosted Games will publish it for you, giving you a share of the revenue your game produces.
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It’s a good game. I just think it got ruined by forcing gender roles on you. A pitty.

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Feel free to try one of our Hosted Games that forces male gender roles on you instead :upside_down_face:?

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Literally not what I said. Do you dislike trans men or something?
I’ve read almist every single realease from Hosted and Choice of Game the past years and this one was the least inclusive.

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No, I don’t dislike trans men, I read what you said, and I’m not the author of the game. Hosted Games can be genderlocked. I was pointing out that some are genderlocked male. Choice of Games are never, ever genderlocked.

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I took Mary_Duffy’s statement more as comment on the vast majority of fantasy/adventure books (like I grew up on)/games still often force you to play from a Male perspective. Yes, you’re right this game is more exclusive than usual HG & CoG games, but to be fair it’s advertised that way – “made by a queer woman and for queer women and femme nonbinary folk”. It’s actually kinda a rare niche thing to create. I selected to play this game of all the new CoG games today merely for the uniqueness of the idea in fact.

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It was ok i guess .i.mean it was short and I dunno i didn’t see myself as my character, and I didn’t die so yay for me i guess . I love choice of games, but I guess this one wasn’t for me?

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True, the developer is really transparent about that. Doesn’t make it less wrong-feeling though…
I mean, there is nothing objectively wrong about feeling comfortable with gender roles if you do, but if you don’t, it is fair to say that it ruins an experience for you.
I think Mary_Duffy was, at minimum, rude for presuming that the person would like male(or, more accurately, “masculine”, because “male” is not a gender)gender-lock when SamuraiBurgerDog didn’t even mention specific gender roles, just gender roles themselves.
And i would find it very confusing if someone actually disliked some gender roles but not all… I mean, in purpose and functionality, they are all the same. The only changes are a few variables here and there. Oh, but what do i know? Maybe it’s just me, but i am a person that abhors these XD

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I did not intend to be rude, and apologize if offense was taken. Given that Moonrise allows you to play as female or non-binary, the assumption that the poster would have preferred a game where they can play as male seemed like the complaint at hand. I was merely pointing out, in what I hoped was a humorous fashion that there are many genderlocked male games. I think that was a reasonable assumption based on their comment about a genderlocked female/nb game.

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It’s interesting you should say this as that’s why I never (with a single exception) play male-locked games. I can’t even play Pokémon Red and Blue because there simply isn’t an option to play as a girl or even femme-presenting. As a result, a vast majority of games out in the market simply feel wrong to me, as they would for many female and genderqueer players. As a result, many creators who are alienated by the video game market’s focusing on cis-het-masc protagonists will make their own game for their own people and spaces.

Believe me, I understand the feeling of alienation and not belonging when you play a game that doesn’t cater to your gender. It’s upsetting and disorienting, and you are very much allowed to feel that way with this game. But I hope you also understand why female and femme-presenting players need a game and space of their own to feel comfortable when absolutely none of the major video game publishers are.

It’s rather like getting a mini-fridge for yourself to keep your favorite drinks in because your roommate has filled up the regular fridge with beer, and then they start asking if they can keep some beer in your fridge too.
“No, dude. You already have a huge fridge for yourself, just let me have this for me.”

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I disagree with it being reasonable assumption, but i am a cautious person, i really dislike assuming things. I don’t know if you offended SamuraiBurgerDog, though i see you probably misinterpreted their sentence, so that’s why you couldn’t be taken as humorous.
But, seeing as you recognize that, i am happy that it wasn’t an bad intentioned question. Mixed signals may happens sometimes, after all. ^^’

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Personally I am not a fan of gender-locked games, mainly because such games have no real reason for being that way. ‘Moonrise’ on the other hand was written like this for a specific target audience in mind, so obviously certain gender roles and locks are necessary. So I 100% agree with you on this.

Frankly, this was a fairly interesting game with a relatively unique perspective. Well written and entertaining too. Kind of wish there were more games like this.

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Could you explain what you took from their comment that they felt the game that they can only play as female/nb was ruined because it was genderlocked?

No worries, i really do. ‘u’
That’s exactly why i was responding this, actually. I think SamuraiBurgerDog sentence was about gender roles in general(at least that is what their words say if we don’t presume anything), so i felt it needed to be clarified that it was not because of this specific case, it is because of all of them.
As i said, it is okay if people feel comfortable with gender roles themselves, as long as they have the self-awareness that it is just that: a role. Some people will like it, others will not, etc, etc.
Though i personally strive to understand more why people prefer to fit in these kinds of roles at all. As i said, i don’t see why someone would like one gender role but not the other, i mean, in a broader basis. That is my reasoning for why assuming that wouldn’t make sense.
But maybe here it isn’t the place for this kind of discussion. I really like delving in such topics.

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Oh, sorry, but i can’t speak for someone that it’s not me… XD
I simply took SamuraiBurgerDog’s words at face value, you see.

If you do that, i am pretty sure you can agree that they dislike gender roles as a concept. That may not even be the case, but that is exactly what the phrase implies, word for word.
Of course, i could give a lot of reasons why i have that same conclusion, but that would be my reasons. And this topic is not made for that, so i feel bad for making us go this off-topic… ^^’

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It’s got werewolves and lesbians? As well as werewolves that are lesbians? Say no more!`

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Torn between being mindful of not saying anything needlessly rude and having honest opinions that aren’t necessarily always going to be positive…it’s best that I acknowledge it’s length as being relatively short in comparison to other titles(Though whether or not it is, or we are just spoiled on things that have been worked on for ages, is up for debate.) For personal taste, I’m not crazy about ANY genderlocking. I feel it detracts from the experience we are meant to have. Now, do these things make a game bad? Not quite.

On the multitude of pluses, there’s the obvious. Werewolves are always cool, and we are seeing a more frequent trend of female based MC’s(Though it’s entirely possible people may start to see it as exposure. Not necessarily.) And while my personal thoughts of genderlocks are made clear, there’s no reason to deride something just because of that. Especially since, there is a group of readers who have no issue with it, and it doesn’t make what enjoyment they take from something wrong.

So, what the issue I find most apparent, and as usual, it’s fully possible that I’m way off base, actually goes back to the length of the game, which ties into my only real piece of criticism. The romance options which is meant to be the main lure are just sort of…there. I know the player character in story has reason to know these people or care, but in such a relatively short time, there’s not much reason for me to feel that interested in them as more than options A-C. They could have the potential for interesting stories, but there isn’t enough time for things to take off at a pace that feels natural to me.

Yet, the impression of the writing I had was that there was very real potential for something, if the author ever wishes to tackle on bigger and better projects in the future.

Whether or not, I personally enjoy genderlocking, I will still defend the right for authors to make a game the way they want.

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I didn’t mean to spark a debate by saying what I did. I couln’t help but feel that this game was against men (trans or otherwise). It was just strange for at game to choose to be less inclusive when almost all other games here are as inclusive as they are.
Maybe it’s just me. I like the story a lot otherwise.

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It was made for queer women. That doesn’t mean it’s anti-man. I say this as a queer, trans man.

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I like the overall atmosphere of the game. I don’t know if the author intended it or if it’s a coincidence, but it makes me remember the Vampire: the Masquerade games which I’m a huge fan of— it’s great! The dark, grimy setting of the story and the great writing works really well here.

It’s a bit too short, unfortunately. I would’ve wanted to dig deeper into the lore and get to know the other characters more because of the things happening around the MC. It got me hooked up on the opposing factions. That aside, I had a good time playing this.

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