"As a girl, I really hate the idea of fur bikinis or similar outfits for females when all the guys are in loincloths. I would definately go topless if I was a cave girl. It’d be easier for mothers to nurse anyway.
No one wore a shirt then anyway unless they lived in colder climates."
In-fucking-deed!
Yes to equipment and relationships will be important for your tribe to survive. So effectively the ‘Zombie Survival’ ideas you suggest will be applied here, though there’s gonna be hunting and exploration as well.
Don’t worry, clothing’s gonna be dependant on where you are and girls will most likely end up wearing much the same as guys. Whilst it is possible that people weren’t so picky on things being shown I’m gonna probably avoid that and have people covered up as needed. Though I might change my mind, who knows. I like the mothering idea, that would be interesting for female-only players to experience bringing up a child in the hostile environment. With something equal for the Dad’s to do to contrast.
Don’t worry, they won’t be morons. Ultimately they’ll have some major advantages in colder climes due to their toughness. They’ll need to have some cliches though so they’ll be hairy I think. 
Feel free to poke me out on stuff anyway, it’ll force me to do better research for the Vingettes and the like.
When it comes down to it, when I finalise the prep work I’ll have to decide how ‘romanticised’ I want to make it. So since I’m veering for realism with some dashes of fantasy (mostly creatures from multiple epochs in one period and various sentinent species outside Homo Sapian) I’m probably gonna agree with misty here. ‘Beauty’ in reality shouldn’t really be a concept that means much at this time, given that BO is probably gonna turn that hairy Cave Girl on if you’re a guy.
I do wonder in the game whether I’ll give players the option to find other races for partners. I’m sure in prehistory when Homo Sapians and Neanderthals encountered each other there might have been ‘comingerling’.
Can u just make it where the males are hairy, id hate to play through a world where all the chicks are hairy.
I doubt I’ll be refering an awful lot to how hairy one or the other is anyway. And that’s just the Neanderthals, there’ll be Homo Sapians and ‘Lizard Men’ (Probably with a better name) alongside other sentient species.
@Cloudian: If I have to play in a world with hairy dudes, you need to deal with hairy chicks. 
It wouldn’t make any sense that females wouldn’t be hairy if the males were. Neanderthal women, and homo sapiens women for that matter would not have conformed to our society’s standards of beauty.
Females would still be attractive to your character, despite being hairy.
Back then beauty, I think, did not exist in the ‘human’ mind
There actually is a lot of evidence that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens intermingled regularly, and sometimes even led to hybrid kids.
There are theories that Neanderthals didn’t “die out” per se, but simply got incorporated into our population after many generations of lovemaking.
Neanderthal DNA make up about 3% of the Eurasian genome.
Heteronormativity probably also wouldn’t be something there. Over 200 species of animals have been observed getting it on with any sex or have been shown to have preferences for only one sex. Also, intersexuality exists and this is a time when you don’t have surgery so no one would be able to make changes to make a person fit into the restrictive binary gender ideal.
Really, that’s some great info, thanks! It’s good to have a female perspective when you’re a guy writing a gamebook, because I want to make sure that the female character reads as well as the male.
I’ll certainly allow for same-sex relationships in the game. It’s possible that there’ll be a ‘Broadside’ kind of idea where the player can have their best friend or ally become their lover if they want to. Not sure how much of a deal I might make of the ‘Other’ option, since when it comes down to it this is primarily a game about being a tribe surviving a landscape of dinosaurs and other prehistorical animals.
Anyway, if anyone has a non-discussed Romance Option or another factor they’d like to see included in part of the game, let me know. Right now I’m designing the ‘World of Oxoic’ and figuring how which landscapes and creatures will be where.
If you’re going for realism spiced up with fantasy I’d advise you to factor in the mind-set of hunter-gatherers somewhat here, non-egalitarian though it may be. I think it somewhat narrow minded to assume that beauty and gender are relatively modern concepts, since they are grounded in utilitarian evolutionary advantage. The honorific standards of peoples who have to fend off large beasties and who inhabit very harsh climes would be one of idolatry of the strong. This would create a social hierarchy with the most powerful males ruling their weaker brethren. Beauty would be similarly measured by how healthy one appeared, - thus stockiness and muscles would take precedence over thinness and skin tone.
Now with those being the background facts, one could build up a system of social interactions and practices to reflect the truth of the matter as well as to add flavour to the story: rather than omitting female activity, a more gritty approach would be to have strong women, akin to the mythical Amazons, having to encounter prejudiced resistance from the dominant males, but should these women prove their mettle they nevertheless gain status, - might is right, in this world, after all. Overcoming the gender-divide could make for a more interesting setting than just allowing women to interact as though the boundary was a mere smokescreen; ‘Tis better to tackle an obstacle than to remove it. Also for women and weaker men, cunning, as the precursor to intellect, could play a part. Prosperity through traps and evasion could be a valid path, though one that also encounters resistance from the dominant male hunters, who would likely view such methods as cowardly. Lastly, as in every system, there would be a desire to demonstrate ones power, so trophies such as pelts would be actively sought after by all.
By plotting out a realistic backdrop which reflects the hierarchical systems and desires of people in these conditions, warts and all, you could make a far more interesting setting.
This is fantastic! Exactly what I was looking for in suggestions! The idealogy there sounds about right, regardless of the species. There’s definitely gonna be a ‘survival of the fittest’ thing without it feeling like the player has to stick to a specific criteria of strength over everything else. The occupation concept is still something I’m playing with, not just warriors and hunters but builders or craftsmen and protectors.
I’m definitely thinking of hunting parties with both men and women, and the Amazon approach makes good sense. I’ve definitely had the idea of there being a Vignette where players try to deal with a dominant rival in the clan via a range of approaches. And others where players ‘prove’ themselves by hunting a dangerous pack or large animal to stop them killing and taking the tribe’s natural prey. Devising the stats so I can tell you that Strength and Cunning will definitely be two of them. Like the idea of traps seen as ‘cowardly’ by the more simple hunters.
I’ve mainly been playing with an idea previously mentioned which will affect the latter half of the game and give rise to a nice amount of replayability, and that’s the choice of where your tribe settles after some travelling. There’s going to be about three to four options and each one should lead to different challenges, different creatures to hunt and fear and most interestingly, a different ‘rival tribe’ in each region. I’ve been attempting to devise four to five different types of sentient species to be active in different regions. So Neanderthals to the North, Lizard Men in the South, etc. I’ve toyed with the idea of ‘Insect Men’ who are related to the giant insectoids players must fear within the swamps and jungles of Oxoic and are inspired by the creatures which existed during the Carboniferous period, 300 million years ago. I’d be interested knowing what playable species people would like to play outside Homo Sapians.
Inter-tribal strife would be as much a problem as the aggression of rival groups. You could decide to not just limit it to being a struggle for rank, but could extend it to pseudo-political machinations; prevailing dispositions as to gender, talent, and the like could manifest in opposition there. Also, an individualistic disregard for ones tribe could produce parasitic opportunists, as contrasted with more altruistic and principled hunters, which could introduce another element to the personalities at play.
Moreover, as to Strength and Cunning being stats, take note that the two need not be the antithesis of each other. Certainly, the more ham-fisted hunters would have great strength and little cunning, but if one were to, for example, flank some prey in an ambush, cunning would manifest in the preparation whilst strength would manifest in the engagement. Perhaps instead of a polarity, i.e. strength as contrasted to weakness, there could be levels of strength and cunning - the best hunters should embody both, but mastering the two would be more difficult than focussing on one.
any idea when a demo will be up??
Looking forward to playing this keep up the good work.
you no what, i dont really care that back then beauty wasnt a thing, it is now so ha!, but i think that having relations with other sentient species would be pretty cool, but is the MC playin as a Neanderthal or is it up to the player? also why be so darn restricting as to make it " realistic" by having hairy ass women, heck if it makes female players happy put in some super model guys in there(by that i mean guys who are shave their body hair) its darn fiction it dont have to be so freaking realistic. and i deffinately aint having my character bangin some monkey haired chick. i like to play as myself in games or at lest as close as i can get so yeah my preferences are my characters preferences.
@Cloudian: Then don’t play, no one’s forcing you to. Your misconceptions are ridiculous. Early Humans (including Neanderthals) were not nearly as hairy as say, Chimpanzees or Bonobos are today, I was simply against having only the females be completely hairless, while the males were not. And please use some proper grammar, you’re hurting my eyes.
The game looks great I personally would ditch the idea of the incect-people, it just seems to far fetched for them to evolve that way ( from what little I know) I would think haveing reptile people would be interesting but as most reptilian species have been around for forever and evolved farly little in that large amount of time, haveing them be intelligent life seems far fetched. Again this Is going on a farly small knowledge I have and I could very well be wrong, and if you want to change that and put bolth those in the game that’s fine I am just pointing out that they really are not real or based on real organisms. It would make more since to have dolphin people or mabe people that had fur like a leopard. Just saying. base the species you chose to give a jump in evolution to based on there intelligence.
Insects cant grow large because they have no lungs and take oxygen in through there exoskeleton there were only large bugs in the past because oxygen levels were higher.
And as for humanoid lizards there are people who have claimed to have seen them and think they live underground, (see the hollow earth theory) and since the author has set this up as a “land that time forgot” type story i think your safe.
Sorry for the delay in replying, Ive had a couple of busy and distracted days.
I think I’m going to be spending a lot of time devising within the tribe the players live in how different characters act, function and consider matters with there being a number of ways players can influence their fellows and act themselves. There might be some kind of split at some point, as well as looking at the influences of advances like fire, which I can see as a skill players can leanr to use in various aspects.Definitely want players to tailor how their character uses skills and abilities, regardless of sex or species.
Alas I cannot give you a solid answer to this question as I’m having to learn the coding, getting it onto a playble format and then write it at the same time. I think it likely that if I can get the Prologue and the first chapter or two done that a demo will be availaible not too long afterwards. So my advice is to keep asking very so often and if I’m not already I’ll try to update the progress to it and the finished product.
Thanks! It’s the enthusium of people for this project - together with a range of diverse and great suggestions - which gives me the drive to see it through. 
To clarify, no you don’t have to be a Neanderthal, it’s one of a few types of playable characters I’m thinking of with certain benefits and weaknesses (akin to Skyrim with Nords, Argonians, Imperials etc) as well as (hopefully) different descriptions of the player and tribe in some scenes. The realism vs fantasy thing is something which I’ll probably be debating right up to the demo and final version - it’s realistic with usage of the actual animals from pre-history (or in some rare cases certainly inspired), but fantasy in that they’re all eisting at the same time. Since there’ll be the need to differentulate Homo Sapians from Neanderthals as the two human/mammal player types I think that with their ability to survive colder climes they’ll be hairer with both sexes.
Thanks! In answer to your questions evolution might be one of the more fantasy ideas I’m prepared to let slip in the game, as well as give players a chance to try playing some more exotic characters if they want to. Reptile Men is actually inspired from suggestions that some of the more intelligent species of Dinosaur might have with enough time developed enough intelligence to be considered sentient. Although in terms of fiction I’ve mainly been inspired by the Silurians from BBC’s Doctor Who’ (although the reptile men in my story won’t be armed with laser and telepathic third eyes or enlongated poison tongues). Insect Men right now are inspired by the ‘Prawns’ from the film Distinct Nine, who I feel are a good indication of what an insectoid being might look like. I toyed with the idea of a sea-faring race (not Mermaids of course but a species able to survive amid the deadly creatures of the seas) funny enough. I suppose the thing to say here is that the game will be fantasy with realistic elements.