10/1/26 Update: Rewrite in progress.
Paranormal Pest Control is currently undergoing a major rewrite.
The existing demo will continue to remain available while I work on the new version, but please keep in mind that things will change pretty dramatically and that the old demo is the original and not the end game.
The premise won’t change (I love the idea and characters way too much), however I will be focusing more on world-building, character interactions, paranormal encounters, and the cozy (yet sometimes bizarre) experiences of working at a paranormal pest control company.
Once the rewritten demo is ready, I’ll update this post with the new version.
Old premise: Play as a broke college student who needs to find a source of income quickly. Finding a flyer for a job as a Pest Control Specialist you decide to try it out- what could go wrong? Explore the city, meet the people who live and work in it, encounter and learn about the paranormal as you build your own field guide (Occupational Occult Observatory/Ooo), and figure out how far you’re willing to bend the rules to get the job done.
What you do, who you trust, and what you choose to investigate will shape your experience.
New premise:
You were going to find an internship… eventually. But the end of the school year came too quickly and left you scrambling to find one in order to fulfill graduation requirements. Applying to the last place on your list, you land an internship with Paranormal Pest Control, a company meant to ‘take care of’ the creatures that you wanted to make your career caring for.
Learn the realities of the business, meet the people who make it work and the clients that they serve, and discover that there’s a lot more to the job than you previously thought.
Between calls, the rest of the summer is yours. Spend your downtime with friends, explore the city, pursue your interests, take on extra work or just keep an eye out for new and interesting creatures that you won’t necessarily meet on the clock. Document what you discover and gradually build your Field Guide before the summer ends.
You may have procrastinated your way into this position, but what you do with it from here is up to you.
Features
- Play as a customizable college student.
- Choose your name and pronouns.
- Develop your character’s personality through your choices.
- Get to know your coworkers, clients, and other people you meet throughout the summer.
- Explore an urban-fantasy city where magic and paranormal creatures are an ordinary part of everyday life.
- Approach situations differently depending on your choices and what you’ve previously discovered.
- Decide how closely you’re willing to follow the rules when dealing with paranormal problems.
Current Demo
Status: Currently being rewritten (10/1/26)
The current demo covers the opening portion of the game, beginning with the player’s summer break and financial problems and continuing through their search for work and eventual hiring by the paranormal pest-control company.
The first paranormal pest-control assignment and the larger mystery are not yet included in the current public demo.
Current word count: 12.6k without code
Last updated: 9/25/26
Added: New scenes and code. (The new chunk of scenes have more text than choices so please let me know if I need to change that or if it messes with the flow- Thank you!)
Fixed: minor bugs and coding errors.
Links to the demo:
Paranormal Pest Control (choicescript) by Ddri
Feedback
I’m currently looking for feedback on:
- Pacing
- Choice frequency and whether choices feel meaningful
- Characterization and dialogue
- Whether the setting and its magic are understandable without too much exposition
- Stats/skills and whether their changes make sense based on player choices
- Bugs, continuity problems, and ChoiceScript errors
Content Warnings
As this is meant to be for young adults and teens, I’m not planning on anything being too graphic or triggery, but please let me know if I need to add a warning that I didn’t take into account.
Authors Note:
I started out wanting something short and sweet since this is still my debut into the interactive fiction world, so I decided to pull WAY back and start from the beginning.
The first version of this story taught me a lot of things about writing interactive fiction- what works, what doesn’t, and just how different this style of writing is from writing a regular novel. As I wrote, I continued to have ideas that I just had to add, and I quickly found myself adding more and more choices, which then led to more and more branches and quickly spiraled out of control 
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I’m hoping that this rewrite will be just as accepted as its predecessor. I appreciate all of your support as I discover the best way to bring my stories to life.
Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope that you enjoy!
AI Disclosure:
No — This project does not contain the output of Generative AI
Yes — This project contains the output of Generative AI
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