Ninelives [WIP] [DEMO]

This is a slight nod to wearing brightly colored clothing (or reflector jackets) when walking at night so that drivers can see you. It’s something I think about whenever I’m walking at night, so it never occurred to me it might not be a very obvious statement. Since this is unclear, I will plan on revising it.

Totally fair lol. I made this thread when I was roughly seven hours past when I normally go to bed, and I was sleep deprived and making silly mistakes. I noticed this later myself and I was like, hmm, that’s not really how I wanted to say that… It needs to be updated, but I’m not currently able to make edits to the topic post, so it will have to wait.

Absolutely a fair criticism. Writing the bad relationship w/ Sun route is difficult for me as I’ve never had a bad relationship with my own sibling, and that right there is why hearing feedback is so helpful. I’m going to make it a point to review any mentions of Sun throughout the story so far and make sure they better reflect the current (and past) relationship with him. Thanks for pointing this out!

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That’s OK, but it should’ve been like
wonder if you should’ve wore different clothing’. What you wrote kinda suggests opposite of what you said though.

I love my näive twin sister and annoying older brother and I also love my mother but she is absolutely unbearable and lol I literally moved to different continent (moved every few years) just so I can stay away, I’m an adult with my own family and three kids and she still wants to treat me like I’m a preschooler in her school.

Cool, G’Luck with writing and have fun.

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Oi @springsalad

check this please

your voice feels like someone else’s at first when you speak.

But the third choice (the one marked with white) is not to say anything at all (even the fourth one sounds weird).

So instead of when you speak ya can try when you try to speak.

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Really enjoyed that demo ! Can’t wait to read more :smiley:

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Haven’t read this yet but i wanted to thank you for the inclusivity. As an Asexual a lot of people just assume that just because sex isn’t a priority that some of us don’t want to be with romantic partners. So thank you for representation.

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Oh wow this is interesting! Can’t wait to meet more ROs. Though I have a question, is Alex AMAB or AFAB?

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Honestly, actually, there is one thing I didn’t like so far in your story… the last page, where the demo ends, seriously. Like Aww man, I can’t wait for another couple or more pages to come. Bookmarked! You’ve got me… so interested. Cliffhanger like.

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Finished reading it and I love it. I love Sun so much! I can just tell he’s gonna be my baby. Anyways I like Ansel a lot. He’s weird and I love it. He also just comes across as sweetheart. Cherry is honestly way more like me than I like to admit. I’m interested to learn more about the MC’s power. Like why did they see themselves with Sun at the lake when that didn’t even happen apparently? Judging from the Title I’m guessing that the MC’s power only works 9 times.

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Alex is AMAB

:rofl: you had me in the first half
glad you liked it, thanks for the comment!

super glad to see people asking questions like this, cuz hopefully that means i’m setting up the narrative the way i wanted to! i can promise this will eventually be answered :slight_smile:

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Really cool premise! I can’t wait to read more

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Really enjoyed playing this. I really like Ansel even though we haven’t seen a lot from him. That scene at the end when he’s trying to calm the MC >>>
Also, I love how if you’ve shown interested to Alex but think Ansel is hot or charming, there’s this part that talks about how would that work when you’ve been flirting with Alex.
It was pretty unexpected but I really love that because of how realistic it was. It also made me think is there going to be a point where you choose your RO?

Error

Found this error. If you pick “I used to have a crush on them.” when talking to Alex at the beginning, followed by “well it’s nice to hear from you anyway” when they call you, it gives you this.

But besides that, this was a really fun read and I can’t wait to meet the rest of the cast and learn more about everybody’s powers.

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I sometimes don’t like it when choice-based games don’t account for flirting with multiple people because it can feel like the game doesn’t know it’s happening, so I really wanted variable text based on having attraction to more than one person. You can bet there will be more of this in the future.

Locking in ROs is something I’ve gone back and forth on a lot since before I even started writing. I still haven’t decided 100%, but I’m leaning toward yes. I think I would like to make it so that you can lock in your RO eventually. I’m toying with the idea of making this possible at a couple of different junctures based on the romance level so that you might get slightly different scenes depending on when this gets locked in.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are a few ROs that could potentially be open to a poly relationship with others. I’m still on the fence about how to deal with this aspect of the ROs and I’m not sure how it will make it into the story, if it all. But I would really like it to, so that’s a possibility. If it does happen, I’m not sure yet how it will factor into locking in your RO.

Thanks for reporting! I can’t spot any errors in the code here, and it playtests fine when I make those same choices, so I might have fixed this absentmindedly. Keep an eye out for the next update to the demo.

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Omg wow. I love that idea of having poly routes. Ansel and Teagan poly route let’s go :relieved: !really just assuming because of that scene at the end with the MC wondering if there’s something more going on between them. But even if it doesn’t happen still pretty excited for this with the intrigue and the ROs.

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While I’m not into poly routes, as long as no romance is “poly only”, I don’t mind them being there :rofl:

The only thing that makes me wary of the mere presence of poly routes is if there is already something between the two ROs that can also have poly routes, because considering I wouldn’t go for the poly option, that would mean my MC is “breaking” what’s already there between them, and that makes me feel very bad. Very few games have managed to pull that out in a way that doesn’t irk me.

Including poly routes is definitely difficult terrain to navigate for many reasons, this being one of them. Any solutions I think of to this problem come with pros and cons of their own, but ultimately I have concerns about there not being enough time to establish a poly route in an organic way within the scope of one book. I’ve so far planned Ninelives as a single book, and I just don’t know that a single book is enough time to really explore poly route in a way that would feel good, hence the reason for my indecision on the matter.

That being said (and I’m making zero promises with this), I can see potential for sequels without even needing to make changes from what I have planned now. If I do decide to take this story into more than one book, it may simply be the case that poly options wouldn’t present themselves until a 2nd book.

I really love the idea of it because I myself am open to poly relationships in real life and I love to see that represented in IFs, but it might not being something that is feasible for this story, and I frankly won’t really know until I’ve gotten further in what’s actually written.

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UPDATED 4/2/21
Since I cannot yet update the topic post, I have to make this notification with a reply. Once I am able to update the topic post, I will include changelogs here on the forum. Until then, a changelog can be found here.

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Cool update!

But may I ask why was bro’s name changed to Sungjae? It’ll get some time getting used to since I liked the old name, but I don’t have anything against the new one - I don’t mind one way or another, it’s really mere curiosity.

Though, since we’re talking about names… I was thinking about something… During flashbacks, when the MC and his brother talk, Sungjae uses MC’s name if no nickname is selected. But in my case, Rhean, my MC’s name, is his “chosen name”… The thing is… isn’t it a bit strange that he already choose a different name than his birth one when he was only 9 years old? Maybe it would be interesting to have Sungjae use a nickname for his sibling when the sibling was a kid?

Also, for the nickname selection… I actually wouldn’t mind Sungjae having a nickname for my MC, but I feel uneasy selecting the nickname myself, since it’s something given by bro… Wouldn’t it be possible, it the player selects the being called by a nickname option, to open another choice, where they’d select if it’s a nickname invented by Sungjae (something default) or a nickname the MC selected themself (player input)? I know it would be a lot of work and so it’s a mere suggestion, but I guess there is no harm in mentionning?

Typos and other things:

On the page where hair color is selected:

“Best to stick to what’s possible, anbd taking the time to straighten up is easy, but hiding in the bathroom isn’t a miracle cure for a bad mood.”
Typo with “anbd” instead of “and”.

When joining the parents for the first time:

“Your mother, on the other hand, is not. Recently she has started looking older than she really is. Her hair is still a long and lovely black, no gray hairs to speak of, although you’re pretty she started dyeing it.”
I guess there’s a word missing, and it should be “you’re pretty sure she”.

When meeting Ansel and being prompted to follow him:

There’s that one choice, when meeting Ansel and he ask the MC to follow him, and you have to select if MC does so or if they stay there. If following him, it makes the “daring” stat go up a lot, but I find it a bit weird since it’s pretty normal to follow the owner of a place who asks you to go with them to their office and talk about the job you’re applying for. It would be weirder NOT to follow? So I can’t really see why is it daring. Why would it be cautious to stay there awkwardly and not listening to your possible future employer?
That choice actually bothered me already when I played the first time, but I forgot to mention it back then. I have a hard time seeing it as anything else than an affinity choice with Ansel.

Anyway, I was really happy to have found a way to interract more with Tegan this time around! I didn’t think it was possible, and considering he’s the RO I’m interested in, I’m glad I managed!

Also, I was thinking about something else…

I’m curious when will the MC conclude - if at all - that the reason why he “survived” the car crash that killed his biological parents has to be his power - whether it actually was or not. Cause I also can’t help but think the BEST plot twist would be if it actually WAS mere luck!

Just imagine that scenario: MC has used up all of their resurrections (assuming the game’s name actually reflects the number of lives the MC has), but for some story reasons, they HAVE to sacrifice themself if they want to save something and/or someone dear to them. And so, they heroically do so, despite knowing they’ll die for good. Then, once the dust has settled, the heartbroken chosen RO craddles their love’s lifeless body in their arms… And suddenly, they start healing?! And well, afterwards they discover that yes, baby MC was just THAT LUCKY and actually survived a car crash that killed two adults, and thus didn’t use up a life. :rofl:

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Sungjae was always intended to be Korean-American. The reason for this change is because someone was kind enough to point out to me the racist connotations of single-syllable names, especially for Korean immigrants (and children of Korean immigrants).

This is something I did consider when making this change. The “when” of an MC changing their name is up in the air, so this may work fine for some people but not for others. It is likely I will revise that scene in the future to account for this.

I wanted a player entry there so people could make nicknames based on their character name and also for people to have an option to avoid nicknames that they may not feel as appropriate for their gender. I can definitely add some pre-made nicknames back in there as well! It would be very easy to do.

This is a good point. Chapter 2 is still on the list for more thorough revision, so I will take this into consideration when I deep dive into it.

I’m glad! I quite like Chapter 4 for this reason. Teagan, unlike Ansel in this Chapter, has no qualms about interacting more honestly with MC provided you reach a certain relationship threshold with him (which is pretty easy to hit if you’ve chosen to interact with him). So Teagan gets quite a few chances in Chapter 4 to express himself in little ways, and it was very fun to write.

Glad that people have been picking up the connotations from that scene. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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Aah, I see, thanks!
Either I didn’t know or realize, or I’ve missed the fact he was intended to be Korean-American (though obviously it’s hard to miss with his name now). Considering I didn’t actually think he was Korean-American, it just seemed like an original and fitting name! I genuinely thought you actually made him a Korean-American now. Though I guess I could have used that as an explanation for the name change haha! I guess my thinking got only so far on that!

I’d love that! I’m not fond of nicknames based on the actual name anyway, so a few premade “pet names” made up by bro would be nice!

Okay! I’ll check that out when it’s done then!

Haha, I thought about the first part of the reasoning when playing for the first time already, when we had that flashback with MC’s dad talking with him about his past. But that plot-twist ideas and so on… that came to me when replaying now.
I’m very curious about that either way!

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Again, apologies, but, as I’m still unable to edit my topic post, I can currently only update through replies.

As I continue working on this story, I have different ideas on how romance can be approached in Ninelives. More than anything, I want players to feel comfortable with how romance is handled in this story, so I’ve opened this process up to some feedback.

I’ve created a form opening up my potential approaches to input. If you’d be willing to share your input on this, the form can be found here.

If you’d like to see more detailed progress updates, I typically make a weekly update on my tumblr, which is linked in the topic post.

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