Season of Shadows (WIP) (Prologue 30 000 words)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
,
1

It’s the Regency era, and you’re a young lord or lady debuting in your first Season. You’re expecting months of dancing, decadence and possibly a little romance in spring-time London, but you get much more than you bargained for.

FEATURES

  • Choose one of two backgrounds:
  1. a young noble jilted by their fiancé searching for vengeance or closure
  2. or one that must save their family from ruin by capturing an advantageous betrothal.

  • Male, female, gay and straight paths have many different scenes in the game due to the stringent views of the era. If you’ve finished playing one path, dive in to experience the differences in another.

  • Romance a number of interesting characters who are more than they seem. Get close and intimate with noble lords and ladies, duel your rivals, and try not to fall in love with villains. (Or do.)

  • Choose to scandalize society, or be a good, proper little noble. Try to win the approval of the ton by improving your looks and accomplishments and behaving in a pleasing manner - or stomp all over propriety and cause outrage.

  • Customize your MC’s appearance and personality, and choose your goals for the Season. Do you want to marry as you’re expected to, or would you rather ignore your obligations? Perhaps you have entirely different ideas on how to spend your time in London?

  • Explore Regency era London and all its charming Season activities - or dive deeper into its seedier past-times.

DEMO:
Read it here: (CoGDemos)

RO’s:
The Friend in Need - Griffith/Ginevra Haines (gender is the same as MC’s) (Female 21, Male 25)

Women
The Scandalous Widow - Alexandra McCawley (27)
The Brilliant Commoner - Iris Bancroft (19)
The Sheltered Noble - Lady Esther Daughtry (18)
The Cunning Beauty - Quinn Wallace (19)

Men
The Brooding Baron - Baron Levi North (24)
The Rebellious Heir - Marquess William Blevin (23)
The Haunted Noble - Viscount Christian von Kessler (28)
The Pompous Idiot? - Viscount Lancelot Linden (31)

The cast includes a host of other characters: family members, rivals, enemies and red flagged flings.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Summary

-I am not an expert on the Regency period - but I have been reading up on it for the past two months (wish all research included reading some bodice ripping romances). I may get historical aspects wrong, though I’m trying not to, please do correct me if so.
-One thing I’m purposefully getting very wrong is the inclusion of different races in the nobility and for your MC. It may not be period accurate, but everyone should be able to feel comfortable in their (literal) skins while reading interactive fiction. I am mostly sticking to the eras views regarding sexuality and gender. Women do not enjoy the same freedoms men do. You can be gay, but you won’t be able to marry. You can still enjoy a lot of romance though.
-English is not my first language, though I’m fluent in it. Please let me know if you find errors. And any suggestions or constructive criticism to make the story better is very welcome.
-(Also, the stats screen is not balanced at all, I’ll refine it as the story progresses. Very new to all of this and very dumb with coding.)

CHANGELOG

Summary

28/02/2025 - The most egregious mistakes are hopefully fixed. I’ve also edited to make your reactions to being dumped feel less strange if you’re playing the asexual or gay route - let me know if it works. (I added a requested average MC with no special talents or skills to play as, should be fun… but, be warned, the Season will be more difficult to navigate.) I play tested the edited version a few times, but again, please let me know if you find mistakes. (There are bound to be, I’m pants at editing.)
20/03/2025 - Made some small dialogue changes and minor grammar fixes. Also added a cheat mode and added options to castigate your former betrothed or your father. (I am finished with my work project and back to writing Chapter One, wahey!)

233 Likes
2

I just finished playing the demo having chosen the jilted lover route, and you have me hooked.
By the end of it, I really wanted to know what the hell was going on with my previous fiancee, and her new lover and who I could go after to make her seethe the hardest, to find out what exactly was up with Griffith’s sister’s engagement, and especially what shenanigans Virtue must be plotting to get into the Season as no one with that much chaotic energy would ever listen to her parents and stay at home.
All in all this seems like it’ll be a lot of fun.

8 Likes
3

You are nourishing my regency loving heart :heart:.

This made my so happy and I very much enjoyed the read (jilted lover for now) .

Will we be able to find out what happened with the ex betrothed?

I will watch this and it has a potential to become a favourite (I am a sucker for regency era).

So off I go reading the next path.

Also best of luck you choose a hell on earth with the branches. I have massive respect for that (was actually a reason why I never got to write my own because of the massive branching with gender in that setting.)

2 Likes
4

Thank you! The plot is very convoluted, this is only the tip of the iceberg. (I don’t know why I must torture myself so lol.)

Aww, thank you so much. I was nervous about posting and this made me feel more confident. Yes, you will find out what happens to your betrothed, and more. And yeah, the branching is going to be quite something, but I find I’m really enjoying writing from the different perspectives so far, deepening my empathy.

I hope you enjoy the other route too, I call it the beetle route.

3 Likes
5

I loved this so much!! Every character is so interesting and there’s so much chemistry between everybody, the best friend especially.

I played the betrothal route, and oh my gosh, the fiancé is such a bastard! My MC is heated enough to smash the cup and burn the letter without reading too (after I save scummed of course), and she’s on her vengeance arc now. I am so looking forward to seeing her fall in love.

Crossing my fingers that Virtue doesn’t try and steal whoever we like and is just going to be rebellious–but I have such insane trust issues with drama IF’s lol.

Great work!!

3 Likes
6

Thank you so much. Virtue is only 15 years old, so I really hope she doesn’t do that haha.

Agreed that the cup smashing and letter burning route is the most satisfying. I hope you’ll enjoy your revenge.

1 Like
7

This was great, just wanted to let you know that “nonexistent variable” came up for embroidery!

1 Like
8

Thank you, I’ll go fix that now!

Edit: I think I found the problem, hopefully it’s fixed now. Please let me know if it’s not or if you find any other issues.

1 Like
9

Oh I love this so much, the characters, our sisters, our best friend.
our ex-fiance (I think there is more to his story then we know…and I need to know more about this unproper man) did he even love us? :sweat_smile:
I’m looking forward to more :heart_eyes:

3 Likes
10

ALRIGHT I love this so so much!!! I’ve already replayed it a few times and every time it’s exactly the same absolutely 10/10. The replayability is amazing but god I’m incredibly curious about G’s route, especially since it’s quite scandalous <333
I’m one of the few people here (ig??) who played bankruptcy route and hehehe the additional drama is delicious

1 Like
11

Thank you so much. You’ll definitely see the unproper man again, but I’m not saying any more than that…

It makes me so happy that you played it a few times, that was the idea but it’s still really gratifying. The bankruptcy route is actually the original one that I started the story with - got inspired by a blog excerpt I saw on beetle racing in the Regency era. I added the jilted route just because I had a sudden need to write a vengeance novel at the same time lol. Glad you liked it, and I hope you enjoy the rest when I’m done writing the first chapter.

5 Likes
12

Hello, I just want to know where the demo end. Is it only the prologue now?

1 Like
13

I was immediately sad when the prologue ended. I am so ready for this and for Griffith. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::+1:

3 Likes
14

The demo ends where you choose your goal in London. It’s only a prologue for now. But you can try the other route if you want to read more?

Ooh, you like Griffith? Yaye! I’ll do my best to do the Griffith in my head justice. (He probably won’t get that much spotlight in the first chapter though, the other RO’s need some screen time…)

2 Likes
15

Ah I see, thank you.

Well I really like the premise so I wish you good luck and can’t wait to see more of this :blush:

1 Like
16

I love this this, cannot wait to see more! I’ve always kinda wanted to write a CoG and 2/3rds of my ideas are usually in this time period…Albeit in a vampire setting :rofl:. Btw i was wondering, is choicescript tough to learn? Its always been my biggest deterrent to doing one of these. Any advice if someone (me xD) were thinking about it?

2 Likes
17

Thank you! Yeah, write your story! I basically wrote this one because I saw there were practically no Regency stories on CoG, and decided that had to be rectified.

I’m a complete newb with coding and I didn’t find it very hard. (That said, I really only know a few basic commands and I make a lot of mistakes, especially with remembering the correct spacing.) There’s a tutorial you can use if you download ChoiceScript IDE, I only went through half of it and then jumped in.

Edit: Here’s the link for ChoiceScript [CSIDE] The ChoiceScript IDE

2 Likes
18

just like the comments above I’m a lover of the regency era. this if is certainly between the ones I will follow the progress. I’m already anxious for what comes next. the two major branchs are really interesting, seeing myself with lots of mc just to explore ahahah your writing is amazing, btw

2 Likes
19

Yesss, i absolutely agree! Id love to see way more of this stuff xD. Also cool, I guess I’ll be checking out that tutorial. Thanks!

1 Like
20

I’ve tried the gambling route now too, and the increased focus on the family and how volatile their relationship has become after Dad’s big mess, as well as getting to interact and dance with our peers in the ball was very fun, even if I think I’m still leaning more on the vengeance route.
This definitely has solid replayability potential.

1 Like