Popular (WIP)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hello!!

I’ve started working on my new game, Popular. It’s my first game and I’m looking for some feedback to know if I’m going in the right direction. I’m not a native English speaker, so I would really appreciate any feedback that could help me improve. Thank you in advance!

Plot: In Popular, you win the opportunity to participate in a reality show where you have to be the most popular in and out of the house to win. Make friends, enemies, and even fall in love while living together with a teacher, a tattoo artist, or a pediatrician among others. And don’t forget to try and win the cash!

  • Play as male, female or nonbinary; gay, straight or bisexual.
  • Be the season’s sweetheart, the drama queen, the player or the villain.
  • Up to 9 RO (although this could change).

Demo: https://dashingdon.com/play/dreasant/popular/mygame/

Currently it’s about 40k words with the prologue and the first chapter.

Thank you all, I hope you like it!

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Wowww :fire::fire:

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Damn, that’s a very big start! I’m very interested in where this will go.

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Solid start for a W.I.P, can’t wait to see more! :]

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I had so much fun reading this, I’m hooked!

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I really enjoyed this demo. It’s fun, and the writing matches that vibe. It’s a really interesting idea.

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I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played so far, but my only real gripe is that the choices the player makes have little impact in most cases, nor does background really seem to matter at all at least not yet. An example of the former would be when you pick how you’d prefer to deal with the VIP room. Picking drawing lots for example does absolutely nothing, the player character doesn’t even voice their opinion on the matter at all. An example of the latter would be when talking about which job everyone has, which the player character doesn’t add anything to at all in regards to their own background.

The characters seem nice so far, and while reality shows aren’t exactly something new it also isn’t a bad idea. If you solve the very apparent lack of player agency, then I think this game can really turn into something special.

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I do somewhat agree, I was a bit frustrated that some of my choices seem unacknowledged, but i also have faith in the author, because the writing is really good. Im holding out hope that these kinks are ironed out further in the narrative, and our choices did in fact, matter.

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This was fun! Your writing really makes me feel like I’m in the show. It’s a great WIP. The only thing that confused me was when I decided to trust Samuel and Isaac with my secret, and then the MC told Sophia, Olivier, and Charlie right after, even though it wasn’t my choice and Samuel warned that trusting Charlie wasn’t a good idea. This confused me a bit because I chose to trust only Sam and Isaac. I didn’t want to trust anyone else except Cassey and maybe, just maybe, Sophia. But putting that aside, you did a awesome job.

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Yea this writing is…it feels like its written by your MCs lover by how idk…organic it feels.

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Good start at first, but pretty quickly the lack of variety in choices and response to those choices is noticeable. For example most of the choices seem to be for an MC who gets along with everyone so the Villain stat confuses me, when there’s no antagonistic choices; other than saying no to cleaning (unless there were others); which MC still ends up doing anyways. (though it isn’t that much yet, so i may be jumping the gun there)

I also don’t get MC feeling bad about being a liar if we chose to keep a secret; why would it matter? those people are strangers . They can kiss MCs butt lmao :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

Jon is my favorite so far, Kevin has some competition lol. I legit don’t care about nobody else though. Just Jon, I like his interactions. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Wow, thanks everyone for the feedback! I’m taking notes :wink:

You’re right, the first choices don’t have any impact or reaction because I pictured an MC who didn’t expect to end the night participating in a reality show, so even if they speak up about, say, the VIP room, the rest ignore them just like they ignored Isaac when he said to draw lots or Sophia when she says she wants the room. There are a lot of new people, everyone is talking, so that’s it. But! That’s how I imagined it, and my MC is not your MC, so I’ll add some reactions to the options :wink:

The job background is just background for now. You have a little interaction with Jon about it if you stay with the men in the living room, and you can also talk about your boyfriend/girlfriend if you have one. But that’s about it for now (although being in a couple will have a bigger effect, depending on your romance choices). This first chapter is more for getting to know the characters and earning friendship or enmity points.

The villain route: If you were rude or a villain from the beginning, you’d be the first to go. That’s why everyone tries to be nice for now, including the MC. You’ll have a chance to plot with some of the characters, make deals and of course break them if you want to. That being said, on the first day, depending on your choices, you will have little chance to be rude to Etta, Cassey, Noor, Isaac, Lena, Olivier and Charlie.

The big decision for now is whether or not to tell someone your secret. One of those choices leads to the first fight, and the others will have consequences in the future. Oh, and there’s a big mistake on my part where if you tell Isaac and Sam, you end up telling Sophia, Olivier, and Charlie as well. That’s not supposed to happen, sorry!!! That will be the first thing I fix.

Like I said, I’m taking notes will make some changes right away. Thank you so much for the feedback!! I really appreciate it :slight_smile:

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Don’t worry about it, you can take your time. And to be honest with you, I also liked the path of telling Charlie. Sure, he’s a bastard, but it helped me see who my real friends are and who aren’t.

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This has been stuck in my head since seeing the title of this WIP lol.

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What the hell? Why did this song have to fit so well? Now I’m imagining the MC at the end of the WIP with 500k in their pocket and this song playing :rofl:

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I really like the idea! As a fan of reality shows, I’m curious what else you’ve got in store for us. Will there be challenges, rules, and punishments for rule breakers? If the MC doesn’t reveal their secret, will it be revealed for them when the time is right? Could somebody be lying about their background to appear more successful? And what does it really mean to be the most “popular” contestant? Does it depend on likeability among the group, or will there be televoting at some point? I could also imagine social media becoming a factor.

Two suggestions:
1.) Could you by any chance add the RO’s appearance or a general character description to the RO overview? As somebody who’s super bad at remembering names, it would really help me to keep them apart.

2.) These thoughts about Isaac struck me as weird for a lesbian MC, a straight male MC, or any MC who’s serious about their relationship: [Isaac] looks so cute that you don’t if you want to punch him or kiss him. […] and you still don’t know if you should kiss him or punch him. Maybe both.

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I’m happy you like it!! There will be challenges and surprises, maybe in the next chapter.

  1. Of course, I’ll add the ROs descriptions.
  2. You’re right it’s weird Lol I’ll change it. Thank you!!
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Love the story so far, I really hope this story gets finished because we need more reality gameshow based stories, which honestly im surprised there’s not more of them, I mean this one reminds me of Big Brother, and there was a cancelled one that was like Survivor, and both are great shows that could be turned into stories, and honestly you could make multiple stories around the concept just by changing characters.
But on to the story, I really like it so far, but I did notice it seems like you don’t really affect anything in the demo, so I have to ask, going foward will the player have more power in the game, have to ask as a big fan of the strategic players from shows like Survivor like Tony Vlachos or Russell, I honestly want to be the nice guy, who then sneaks around and stabs people in the back just to win

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Never heard of the hero project? That & this got me thinking on making a gladiator show.

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Thanks for your comment! Yes, you will have more power in the future. In the next chapter, before the vote, the MC will face a dilemma that will change things depending on their choice.

Also, I have already added a scene to the first chapter so that the MC can stay in the VIP room instead of Isaac (but don’t get too used to it, the VIP room won’t be always yours lol). This change is what’s slowing me down, but I think it’s worth it and I hope you like it :slight_smile:

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