Oh thanks you are great 
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Maybe there is someone who can offer historical insight. But before you mentioned detroit, I almost thought you were talking Madrid in the 90s or 2000s.
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My game is based on Alternative America that differed from our reality when Kennedy was killed. Now, the game happens in 1970, an American dictatorship empire is conquering nearby Countries and follow up restricted politic and racial laws. You either are a Hispanic woman or a Cuban Black man . Both are astronauts and both had suffered a lot of discrimination and emotional scars. You also can choose to be homosexual. It is in this case when you as a player can choose to remember This scene in 1964 was a club you were with a date was attacked by the police and white supremacist . The scene is skippable, and It is need to understand the emotional distress of the protagonist and why ended up as astronaut.
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I likes dystopic ucronies too. Kind of remind me P.K.Dick.
I guess you could add trigger warnings and offer options to āblack screenā on the more disturbing scenes. Like the tv shows where they deal with sensitive topics.
And maybe someone can help you identify potential trigger that we might miss.
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Hi everyone! Happy October! Had a bit of a rough start this month with family stuff thatās taking up most of my time, but I hope to get back into my wips as a way of escaping reality a little and living in a world I can control 
I wonder, how has writing been for people during the pandemic? Something to do? To be proud of? An escape? I know for me itās one of the things that has kept me going.
Good luck to everyone on their goals this month!
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Finished! Woohoo Iām gonna watch my favorite Ghibli film tonight 
! I kinda wanna hear peopleās thoughts, but itās only just the prologue (about 7 1/2K words) and I want to make at least 5 more chapters before I consider making it public and making a thread. But either way, Iām happy right now! I can finally say that the first draft of it is doneāI canāt say itās the finished product because thereās no feedback yet, and itāll probably improve over time, but right now, I can move on and continue chapter one! I managed to write everything that I wanted to see in the prologue, so thatās a plus. Okay Iām rambling so Iāll stop now.
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All of the above. 
(although it still is difficult work, only fun in bits and pieces)
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Iām not ashamed to say I havenāt written a single word since the beginning of October. A lotās been going on that I need to prioritize things other than writing.
So instead Iāve been just thinking about writing. Thinking about potential scenes or the plot or just reviewing what I have done so far concerning characters/backgrounds/lore/etc.
As I was folding some laundry I got started thinking how I wanted to immerse the reader into being a detective, specifically with breaking down crime scenes and deducing what happened. I have several ideas but none of them feel right, so Iād like some opinions from other people!
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Option One: Stats (Observation/Intelligence) during deductions/crime scenes.
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In this option, the player would have different flavor text that rewards a high Observation where the Detective would notice things that low Observation Detectives donāt and that would (hopefully) reward them with clues that would help them have an easier time deducing what happened. Other ways a high Observation would help is by having flavor text where the Detective notes that something doesnāt match in a witnessās story/alibi.
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One drawback is that maybe some players donāt want to have the Observation stat basically give the game an easy mode. In this case, Iād make a
true/falsevariable to turn that Observation narrative on and off. -
Intelligence. A Detective with high Intelligence is book smart in a word. Iām not sure if I should use the Intelligence stat to grey out deductive choices that are wrong or have it act as a saving grace if you choose the wrong deduction and your Intelligence stat saves you.
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Again this is the same drawback between players not wanting an āeasyā mode and other players wanting to have an easy read without having to think, so maybe a toggle button?
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Option Two: No stats during deductions/crime scenes. This would essentially put the game on āhardā mode/force the reader to pay attention to the narrative and use their brain. Some people will like it, some people will hate it.
- A compromise is again the toggle button.
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Option Three: Call in a friend.
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You will have a partner during the story and they can obviously help you out.
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Drawback? The player might feel as though their Detective is useless or incompetent since they rely on their partner so much to help figure out crime scenes/make deductions. Other than that? I have no clue. I briefly considered punishing the player with a stat drop if you ask your partner for help for two seconds but immediately scrapped it because it unreasonably punished the player.
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Option Four: Give the player the choice to Observe or use their Intelligence.
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As it says on the tin. In this case, the player would have a look around and spot key clues or write off certain scenarios based on their Observation and Intelligence stat.
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Drawback? Again the āeasyā mode complaint, but Iād be giving the players the option to choose the āeasyā options and you can probably (not 100% sure however) still correctly deduce the crime scenes if you donāt pick these options. Plus it wouldnāt render the stats completely useless.
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Let me know what you think about each option and if you have a better idea! Iād love to hear it!
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Option 2 all the way. Iām a sucker for puzzles, especially hard ones.
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If It is 2 I will directly stop read back there as I hate puzzles like that. But you should be clear at the beginning about what game do you honestly want to write. If it is a puzzle game, just be clear in the description of the game and go all in.
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2 is annoying if you take a break, and then canāt remember some important info.
It also belongs in puzzle games, not games with roleplaying, as it tests the reader, not the character.
So itās important to make all info clearly available, and to take into account the type of game.
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Yeah. Two requires people to stop and think which could cause them to quit the story.
Letās say the Detective is casing a crime scene. Their partner is talking to witnesses. The two of them meet up to discuss what they discovered. Regardless of Stats or No Stats, the Detective would have the option to go into the trash and finds several items, one of which is a fast food restaurant receipt.
With Stats enabled and a high enough Observation, the narrative would point out that the witnessās alibi is backed up because of the receipt to prove they were there.
With Stats disabled, then thereās no narrative to point out the significance of the fast food receipt and the Detective is allowed to deduce correctly or incorrectly.
@The_Lady_Luck Good point. I guess a solution to that is to have a Notepad the players could reference in the Stats screen, but then thatās a lot of possible back and forth. Alternatively, the Detective could sit down with their Partner and hash all the evidence out.
@AChubbyBlackCat Think you should make a poll about this on the poll thread, otherwise this threadās going to be flooded by replies.
Personally, I like option two. Iām not a fan of my stats determining the availability of clues in a detective game.
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Interesting way to find your creativity ā¦
I would suggest designing crime scenes that incorporate elements of all four options.
There are a lot of things one can discover at the crime sceneā¦
Option One: Using observation/intelligence might reveal something about the crime scene that using other options do notā¦ there were stab wounds on the deceased, but her cloths were not torn or poked with holes. using your intelligence, this must mean she was dressed after being stabbed.
Option Two: The stab wounds were dressed with gauze and medical tapeā¦ this is a narrative-driven observation that the reader must use their brain to figure out the meaning ofā¦
Option Three: Your inquiry into the facial recognition software has given you a hit on the FBI database. After calling a friend in the FBI, you find the murder victim was a known mule for the Sonora cartel and was known to run drugs across the border.
Option Four: The jacket the murder victim is wearing is drenched in bloodā¦ you also note that it is zipped up to her collar on this hot muggy summer nightā¦ what could this possibly mean?
I knew my watching Cold Case Files would be of help tonight and it wasnāt just procrastination at work 
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Mhm. Ideally what you just described is what I want to achieve, so hopefully I can achieve it.
Guess I should start binging crime shows again on Netflix!
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Hoo boy, Iāve just started writing using ChoiceScript, and itās been an up and down. The coding isnāt so much the problem as learning when to reel back my grand ideas, lol. That, and Iām terrible at knowing the plot in the midsection, so Iām flying by the seat of my pants. But! Iāve actually written more and more consistently in my game than I usually do with novels so thatās something! I think I might actually have a higher word count per day doing this than my last NaNoWriMoā¦
Also, super excited for @HarrisPS! Sheās the reason I decided to try writing a game, so Iām so happy that she won awards 
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Oh my gosh thatās such a nice comment, Iām so glad that youāre inspired! My project is goingā¦ effortfully and without much speed. But itās going.
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Even a small step forward is still a step forward! You got this!
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I spent the afternoon adjusting my game based on feedback, plus editing a scene. Iāll count it as a win!
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Wow, is it 10/10 already? I barely even realized September was over.
Iāve been slowly building up momentum on writing again, and wanted to stop by and thank you all for supporting me back on my feet, as usual. 
Starting to get into the proper beginnings of the romance routes and excited/terrified to start working on that. Also getting the characters to interact more with each other has been fun. Definitely hitting a point where Iām starting to have to set up different conversation paths and what should or shouldnāt affect future talks, and all the variables therein.
Itās funny, I started my story with a particular scene in mind, namely an end state/āfinal bossā, and started the story with the intent of getting there (well, that end state being one of many possibilities because *choices and stuff). Iām starting to realize that my story may be evolving in such a way that that ending may simply not be possible to reach, even in the context of IF. Which isnāt really a bad thing, but Iām still kind of mourning it because I liked it a lot. Not that Iām abandoning for sure, but I also donāt want to force the story to go somewhere that it just wonāt organically, you know? I think Iām going to go ahead and write it independently anyway just for fun, but idk if it will ever reach the story proper. Anyone else ever have a scene that they loved that ultimately couldnāt make the final cut for whatever reason?
Anyway, I hope you all are holding up well this October. Stay sane, stay healthy, keep writing. 
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