Night Creatures (Interest Check)

Hey, all!

So in my free time, i’ve begun to outline various ideas for a game.
This is my most solid one? (As in, substantial. Not necessarily “best”, if it’s even any good at all…) so I thought i’d post an interest check here to see if it would be worth working on.

The title is subject to change, as are all the details on this page. And, as a warning, progress on this game would likely be very slow as I need to both brush up on coding AND write during off-time from my full time job. But, without further ado, here it is!

‘And there shall begin an age of darkness upon all the earth…
Lest the Daywalker rise and deliver us from these, the night terrors…’

Rough Summary:
You would be playing as the aforementioned Daywalker in a roughly Victorian/Van Helsing-esque setting (although you aren’t aware of your status as Daywalker yet). You would be able to choose your gender and appearance, as well as some background details, and the plot would mostly deal with the discovery of your background and status as Daywalker, as well as choosing your alignment and navigating a setting rife with familiar dark fantasy creatures such as vampires, werewolves, witches…and perhaps a Frankenstein’s creature (or two?).

Tone:
This would be more Gothic Romance than Horror- ‘Romance’ in the sense that it’s got a darker tone, so, of course, romancing a character would not be mandatory to play this project. This would also likely be aimed at a somewhat older audience- not necessarily in content, but the way it reads I guess?

Romances:
As I am a sucker for high-cheese romances (and I really do mean high cheese), yes. There are, roughly 4 romances planned. I may consider adding another one, depending on whether or not this project even goes anywhere.
Right now, there is one female, one male, and two others whose gender you could decide. (And yes, they include vampires, etc etc :relaxed:)

Here’s a brief description and a few lines of dialogue from each! Not all of them are named yet.

Summary

Catarina Harding
Appearance: late 20’s or early 30’s, warm, reddish hair worn in a neat chin-length hair cut, delicate lips and a small nose, wide cat-like brown eyes, pointed chin, appears graceful, composed, poised and just a touch mischievous

“Anyway, while they were entangled in their little fight, it was I that attended you. Not quite as brave or foolhardy a thing to do perhaps…Except now, of course, everyone knows what it is i’m capable of…Witchcraft. Or ‘the devil’s work’ to some, but…I always preferred to think of it as simply…an even-ing of the odds.”

Unnamed Bounty Hunter
Appearance: brown hair, serious brown eyes, a moustache and beard with slight graying, solemn, man of few words, burdened

“If I knew what you would become, I never would have left you…This is my responsibility- and now, my redemption. Let me pay the price.”

The Count/Countess
Appearance: stony cold face, pale skin, gold eyes, raven hair, well-formed jawline and strong cheekbones, serious, quiet, detached, occasional lapses into a more passionate nature

"When I first laid eyes on you, I knew I could not let such rarity die. I needed you- to be my one true companion…To be the missing half that makes me whole, and stay with me. Forever…”

Unnamed Prisoner:
Appearance: messy black hair tied back and dark brown eyes, thin, malnourished, cheerful wide eyes and tanned skin, youthful but an age that’s hard to place

“It can’t be all that bad, eh? Not while we’re together anyway. ‘Cause before you came along, see, it was just long, dark stretches of nothing. Couldn’t even tell the days apart. It was just…me all alone and-…and waiting to die, I suppose…”

Whew! That was a lot of reading i’m sure. Thanks for your time everyone!
Please leave your thoughts, concerns, questions, etc, if you have them! :grin:
Once I get a general feel for your thoughts, i’ll likely be closing this topic or deleting it so that I can return later with a proper demo, or a different game idea.

Also, if you have the time and are not very interested in this game, please take five seconds to complete the poll below regarding some of the other ideas I have.

If this game doesn’t interest you, which of these would? (If you choose the “none of these” or “a different Gothic game”, please leave a comment below detailing what you’d be interested in! Otherwise, it’s not particularly helpful to me. Thanks!)

EDIT: As Mermaid/Siren is a clear favorite, i’ve gone ahead and put together some info on what a game like that might entail. Hope you enjoy! And hope it’s helpful!

I’ve decided to put my action/superhero as well as other ideas on hold for various reasons. Namely, I think those ones are pretty well-represented within games that already exist. And the other options don’t hold as many votes as this or the siren games does.
Sorry, folks! If I had all the time in the world, I would make each and every single one of these!

Mermaid/Siren Ideas:

Summary

I won’t list any specific plot details here cause that’s still very much a work in progress! But here’s some rough lore info.

Both Sirens and Mermaids exist in this world.

Mermaids are the more benevolent race or species. They’re what you typically think of- combing hair and singing, collecting things, etc. Most mermaids are born as they are. But, some dying seafarers are also offered to be turned, if a mermaid finds them worthy enough. This requires a process of approval from the ruling “government” of mermaids. Thus, mermaids tend to appear more human as well. That’s not to say they’re perfectly “good” or without their faults though, of course.

Sirens are the volatile souls of those lost or killed at sea, unable to rest at peace. Think Seelie vs Unseelie Court. To grow their numbers, they recruit anyone they find, singing their song, then dragging them to the depths of the ocean to change them. Or kill them. They work to help each other gain vengeance. Their appearance is “sharper”, for lack of a better word. They look more like modern takes on mermaids, with gills, etc.

Naturally, the Mermaids and Sirens don’t usually get along very well for various reasons. But they do work together, occasionally, to fight against very big threats to their lives, the ocean, the world, etc. (hint hint)

There would be romance in this one as well. And i’m debating whether to let the protagonist choose to be either a siren or mermaid, or to play a dual protagonist story that switches back and forth between povs (you would be able to customize both protagonists) to let them experience both sides in one run.

The setting is still being decided upon, but i’m leaning towards a fantasy rendition of the pirate era.

  • mermaid/siren game
  • action/superhero game
  • a traditional fantasy game
  • none of these
  • a different gothic game
0 voters
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Sounds promising and highly intrusting… Not to sure about the cheesey part, but I will wait until the guda parts.

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Heh. “Gouda parts”. I see what you did there :wink:

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Seems interesting can’t wait for demo

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Horror is keeping the reader on its toes. Romance (with a capital r) is just Melancholy and dark in tone. You have examples of this in Frankenstein’s monster, Edger Allen Poe, and some of Stephen King’s navels.

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Yep! My thoughts exactly. Thought i’d halfway make that distinction in the description, but i’ll edit that to make it clearer. Thanks! :blush:

Looks like it has potential.

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I’m choosing not to vote because I think the game you’ve described so far is interesting enough on its own! :smiley:

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I’m intrigued! A gothic theme, romance, monsters… definitely checks off things that get my attention :grin:

I would be really interested to see where this idea goes if you decide to roll with it

Well, what can I say? I’m interested.

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Interesting…I like the concept just needz angst!!!

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I really like the sound of this. Hope you choose to make this one

I didn’t answer the poll because what I really care about is the story, not what genre it is attached to. Maybe you could add a little info on each of your other stories in the first post if you would like us to help you decide on one?

Having said that, I love anything Gothic and have no talent for writing it so I’m always super keen when I see it being presented! And, as far as I’m concerned, the more molten hot, cheesy love in such a setting, the better :see_no_evil:. As to the companions, I take it you intentionally didn’t reveal what kind of supernatural creatures they are? Is that going to be a thing in the story too where you don’t quite know what they are until a ways in? Because that’s something you don’t see very often and it could be fun trying to pin down exactly what kind of creature you’re talking to!

And, another question, what do you mean by alignment? Does that mean we can generally decide how violent/chaotic we are? Or is that more like, we get to choose what side we’re on? I always love alignments in games so I’m curious as to what your approach is going to be!

Sorry for all the questions, but like I said, I’m always a sucker for these kinds of games. :grin:

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Sounds really cool! I always liked the Victorian era. But the mermaids story would be cool too! We don’t have many of those and it’s always interesting to play a mermaid :heart_eyes:

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I like your current idea too but you can’t put mermaid on a poll and expect me to not click on it

None of these! I just want this!!!

I think this is interesting! :relaxed:
I really like the love interests, especially the count(ess) and prisoner. So I decided not to vote in the poll bc I want to see what kind of story you’ll make.

This seems really interesting!! I’m also a sucker for high cheese romance XD so I’m looking forward to that if you do decide to put a demo out! Gothic romance is a genre I wouldn’t mind seeing more of in interactive novels :slight_smile:

All the RO’s seem interesting! But I’m especially intrigued by the prisoner, oh my :hushed:

Hey all! Thanks for your interest in this game! You’re all being super kind about this dumb idea I came up with at 3 am after watching too many old school movies which is really humbling.

To answer a few questions:
@Revache
That is correct! Some of them will be kind of obvious, because there are just some thing you can’t change in a setting like this, I feel like :relaxed: But, yes! Most of the RO’s are, in fact, classified as a supernatural creature, or part of one anyway. You will find out throughout the story, but likely not 'til later.
Also, yes! A little bit of both. Alignment would be how you essentially play your character- violent, vengeful, falling more on the side of the dark, or the light. As the main plot revolves around you being a Daywalker, it would be up to you to either side with the light and “save the world”, or you could totally decide “nah”, and let the the darkness take over as the sort of “ruler” of it.
Also, no problem at all! I love questions! It helps me flesh things out myself so thank you for asking :grin:

Also, I could swear I saw one comment talking about angst, though I can’t find it right now. To answer that one, yes! The possibility of angst abounds! In some way, you’ve known a few of those RO’s (or they’ve known you) longer than your character might realize! Although just how angsty you wanna make it will be up to you (at least, that’s what i’m planning. I haven’t written too much of this game yet)

Here are a few rough ideas for the mermaid/siren game to help you all decide!
I’m thinking of check the numbers after a week or so? To fully choose one or the other. So here’s a brief outline of it. It’s a lot rougher, so if I did go with this one, I would likely post a few polls to help me solidify ideas regarding the plot or lore.
I will also edit my original post with these ideas in a bit!

Mermaid/Siren Ideas:
I won’t list any specific plot details here cause that’s still very much a work in progress! But here’s some rough lore info.

Both Sirens and Mermaids exist in this world.

Mermaids are the more benevolent race or species. They’re what you typically think of- combing hair and singing, collecting things, etc. Most mermaids are born as they are. But, some dying seafarers are also offered to be turned, if a mermaid finds them worthy enough. This requires a process of approval from the ruling “government” of mermaids. Thus, mermaids tend to appear more human as well. That’s not to say they’re perfectly “good” or without their faults though, of course.

Sirens are the volatile souls of those lost or killed at sea, unable to rest at peace. Think Seelie vs Unseelie Court. To grow their numbers, they recruit anyone they find, singing their song, then dragging them to the depths of the ocean to change them. Or kill them. They work to help each other gain vengeance. Their appearance is “sharper”, for lack of a better word. They look more like modern takes on mermaids, with gills, etc.

Naturally, the Mermaids and Sirens don’t usually get along very well for various reasons. But they do work together, occasionally, to fight against very big threats to their lives, the ocean, the world, etc. (hint hint)

There would be romance in this one as well. And i’m debating whether to let the protagonist choose to be either a siren or mermaid/man, or to play a dual protagonist story that switches back and forth between povs (you would be able to customize both protagonists) to let them experience both sides in one run.

The setting is still being decided upon, but i’m leaning towards a fantasy rendition of the pirate era.

Hope that helps ya’ll!
I’d be happy to answer any more questions you have!

Also, i’m so excited and glad that there are other high-cheese romance fans out there! And that people are already taking a liking to some characters over others. It makes me super happy to see! :relaxed:

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