Scarlet Sorceress (full beta open, 372k words), Romance, High-fantasy

[ChanceOfFire]

It’s done. I’m probably crazy to do this. It’s been uploaded on itch.

Itch link is here.

This build has passed quicktest and randomtest.

Find love and adventure in the Kingdom of Seraphine. Solve mysteries, go on quests and work to resolve a conflict between two factions. Go for romantic outings with your companions, and perhaps decide the one for you.

Inspired by otome visual novels, Scarlet Sorceress is a 370,000-word interactive novel, set with cuteness and charm in a fantasy romance world. Play as a sorceress, with the freedom to customize your name, specialization and appearance.

Blessed with the gift of magic, you are a sorceress, able to manipulate the power of fire. Sorcery is tightly controlled in the Kingdom of Seraphine, forcing spell casters to live under the watch of the Guardian Order, or live as outlaw mages. Living in the Eterna Forest, away from the city, with your pet cat, you soon find yourself tangled in a conflict between both factions.

Romance your childhood companion, your Guardian protector or one of two mysterious mages.

• Play as a sorceress. Romance male or female characters.
• Choose from four romance interests, two male and two female, as well as another two minor romance interests.
• Customize your appearance with the magic mirror. Use different styles to optimize your stats, or choose the Blessing of Inner Fire to customize your appearance without worrying about stats.
• Collect different jewelry stats, each with different impacts on the game.
• Play the game on standard mode for a traditional stat-management experience, or opt for story mode to play the game without having to worry about stats.
• In addition to the main storyline, enjoy two mystery-based sections and ten side adventures.

Feedback

Anything is fine. I’m flexible.

Romances

Sofie Hawthorne - A knight and your close childhood companion and your confidant. Sofie is loyal, supportive and always by your side.

Gaius Grimhammer - Your assigned Guardian. As a sorceress, you are not permitted to travel around without a Guardian to observe you. Still, Gaius is caring and loving towards his charges. Relationships between Guardians and their charges are discouraged, but that doesn’t matter… right?

Mystria Darkstorm - A mysterious sorceress, gifted with air. Despite a ruthless streak, she seems to have a compassionate side to her. Also, it appears that she has taken a liking to you.

Elbrus - A sorcerer who hides a dark secret. Cunning and reserved, his background is a mystery. One which will be unraveled, and which could play a critical role in the conflict between the Guardians and Mages.

Minor Romances (Spoliers, I may expand these depending on interest. These can be done alongside the main romances.)

Ari the Younger - A playful sorceress, gifted with water, who lives on the outskirts of Seraphine City, away from the rules of the Guardians. Ari enjoys the outdoors and adventure, away from rules and restrictions.

Lord Darrin Whitecastle - A young Guardian-Commander and a member of the powerful Whitecastle House. Darrin finds more fulfilment as a Guardian, preferring to stay out of the sordid affairs of his noble house, but getting tangled in them anyway.

Content Warnings
This is a romance game. There are some mild depictions of intimacy and nudity, but nothing very explicit.

[AletheiaKnights]

I’d say a cute romance with elemental magic was right up my alley, and that’s definitely the truth, but you really had me at “pet cat.”

[HeWhoSees]

Your first demo of the game is of 372k words?

[ChanceOfFire]

I hope it’s long enough.

[AletheiaKnights]

It’s not really a “first demo” of the kind that most WIPs get, where it’s just a chapter or two. This is a completed game that’s been posted for the mandatory testing period before submission for publication.

[ChanceOfFire]

Meanwhile, I’m providing all the art assets in the interest of transparency, and also to provide an example of a full set of cover art for a HG release. (Art made from pixabay assets.)

ICON:

TITLE:

SPLASHSCREEN:

STEAM:

[attolia]

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

[ChanceOfFire]

About 14 hours after the game was published on itch, these are the analytics at the time if anyone is curious. (Yep, this WIP thread did most of the heavy lifting.)

[ChanceOfFire]

If I may be upfront, does anyone have any comment at this point? The link seems to have gotten a fair bit of clicks as of this writing, but it’s still kinda silent here. I don’t know if people are still working their way through a 372k word game, or if this is a sign to pack up the shop.

Also, I’m now suspecting that it may be necessary to ask this question sooner or later, so I’ll pick sooner. Is there anyone who would be interested if not for the gender-lock? If anyone here is insistent that this game should have gender choice… let’s just say it’s something I’m willing to allow on the discussion table at this point.

---

On a more cheerful note, Scarlet Sorceress is now in third place of the New & Popular section under Interactive Fiction on itch, so I guess that’s one win.

[sana]

Hihi, I’m still going through the game and wanted to give my full thoughts later when I’ve finished a playthrough, but I will say this: it’s been such a nice and lovely experience! I do wish the choices led to more detailed text though but that’s my only early suggestion (for example, when I chose that my cat was being nice because he likes me, I got a single line afterwards about it. If it was meant for comedy ofc leave it in, but these are just my thoughts)

About the genderlock, I know that there’s a good amount of people in the communtiy who are put off by genderlocks outside of their preferred gender to play as. If you were to expand the gender choice, it would probably get more eyeballs on the project. This game is feminine, but I’m certain there’s male players who would enjoy that. I haven’t really encountered anything that made me think this game “needs” the genderlock (not yet anyway, I may be proven wrong lol) but if you intended a female experience and it’s essential to your vision, then I say stick with your guns

[LeannaMandragoran]

Hello @ChanceOfFire
The game looks interesting. How ever İch is not much accessible for the blind. Can you consider uploading all so in CoGDemos?

[ChanceOfFire]

@sana

Hihi, I’m still going through the game and wanted to give my full thoughts later when I’ve finished a playthrough, but I will say this: it’s been such a nice and lovely experience! I do wish the choices led to more detailed text though but that’s my only early suggestion (for example, when I chose that my cat was being nice because he likes me, I got a single line afterwards about it. If it was meant for comedy ofc leave it in, but these are just my thoughts)

Thanks. I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I could expand that section. My style was quite minimalist when I worked on the earlier chapters over a year ago, so I might review and rewrite some of the text.

@sana

then I say stick with your guns

I guess I’ll stick with my guns for now.

@LeannaMandragoran

The game looks interesting. How ever İch is not much accessible for the blind. Can you consider uploading all so in CoGDemos?

CoGDemos

You should be able to use this link. This was what I used for personal testing, and it should have the latest files now. It’s set to private, so you’ll need to use the link for access (i.e. it won’t show up on the public games list). Code-sharing is enabled.

[LeannaMandragoran]

Thanks.

[Cecilia_Rosewood]

@ChanceOfFire

If I may be upfront, does anyone have any comment at this point? The link seems to have gotten a fair bit of clicks as of this writing, but it’s still kinda silent here.

Have mercy. It’s been one day I plan on giving it a good read through for feedback, but my usual speed is, like, one or two months per round of feedback I unfortunately didn’t have time this weekend, but I’ll try to squeeze in some reading time after work.