“Good morning recruits! Be grateful I’m not one of those pricks that will make you say it back. Then they go through the, ‘I can’t hear you’ bullshit making you say it louder. Disgusting!”
And just like that Wilkes became the most based man in the entire galaxy
Wahalli what do you mean we have to train for 194 hours straight before we sleep I’m gonna lose it
Yay! Finally my mc will get to specialise in becoming an officer on one of the big ships of this setting. Like I said in most Scifi interstellar settings the big ships get relatively little of the love. 
Glad you’re enjoying it! Thanks for pointing out that extra zero. I’ll fix that right now.
I’m glad you’re looking forward to that. The big ships will get their time in the sun, I promise.
When talking about what ships the crew wanted to command, I’m surprised there were no carrier options, are the battleships like Star Wars and they have their own hangers were they can act like carriers
Yes, the battleships have hangers.
Loved the alliance path, got me hooked instantly and stayed up till 4 in the morning playing it 
Wow that’s quite a compliment! Thanks a lot! Now go get some sleep!
Marine duties also include shipboard and shorebound security of navy vessels and facilities, asset protection, boarding and counter-boarding operations, as well as the operation and maintenance of shipboard weaponry smaller than deck/main guns (where do you think the rank “Gunnery Sergeant” originates)
Plus they’re really good at carrying heavy things as long as someone is supervising them.
Happy holidays everyone! Hope you’re having a nice and restful end of the year. Or I hope you’re having lots of fun. I am writing a sci-fi game but I do also love history. Going back thousands of years, this time of year around the winter solstice has always been a time of celebration. Drinking, feasting, dancing, singing, everything. A celebration that you made it through another year and one last hurrah before the cold winter settles in.
So I congratulate you for making it through another year and will remember those who didn’t. This project has been a big part of my 2024 and those of you that have read and supported me along the way have as well. A big thank you to you all for your continued support!
This is a map of the galaxy sectors, I’ve mocked up to provide visual context. The original map is by Pablo Carlos Budassi and I found it on his website. Credit to him. I like that it shows Earth and has a handy arrow pointing in the direction of Andromeda. Thanks again! Expect the next Navy update to be out near the end of January.
She is a RO.
Navy ROs:
Devin: Anyone
Kell: Anyone
Goose: Straight
Julia: Straight
Merchant ROs:
Alby: Gay
Burn: Anyone
Cora: Gay
Sally: Straight
Vince: Straight
Kurt: Anyone
What are you talking about? Just because the kid is bi or pan I found Devin to be the best RO thus far.
There will be more romances introduced on the navy path. Sorry if the available ones didn’t fit your preferences.
Dashingdon Ending
Hello everyone!
Work on the next Navy path update is underway. With the recent news that dashingdon.com will end at the end of the month, I thought it best to update you on how this will affect Starways Saga.
As of right now dashingdon is the only site where my demo is playable. So, I’ll have to change over to other sites. But, work will continue, full steam ahead. CoGdemos.ink has been recommended, so I’ll look into that. Itch.io is another site I’ve heard a lot about but never looked into. You have any advice or preferences let me know.
I’ll try to have a working demo up on another site soon. Better to get it out of the way now. I’ll let you know when that’s ready.
Thanks!
Far as the itch io goes i dont really play the wips and games there… not saying there bad because i know of a few good ones that went there in the past… an im pretty sure there competion to cog/hg when it comes to acctual releaseing of games monetarily. Not sure on the difference if any when it comes to coding that uncertainty would at least have me favoring you having the demo on the cogdemos site if for no other reason than i could continue to play and post here about your game. 
In any case in the end its up to you how you go about it.
I have a serious dislike for CoGDemos, hearing that itchio is an option as well warms the heart since I much prefer it over CoGDemos.
DashingDon is GOATED and it’s a damn shame it’s shutting down…
CoGdemos Demo Up
Thanks for the feedback and continued support. I posted a demo version up on CoG demos. It was pretty simple, which was nice. I’ve never used the site before, what do people like and not like about it?
I’ll work on adding a itch demo as well. Casting a wide net, just makes sense. Of course I will continue posting on this forum, so no worries there.
The demo doesn’t have any new content, but trying it out and making sure it’s working would be much appreciated.
I’ll post it here too: CoGDemos
I know theres a bug involing achievements thats a site issue at this time. An the way to get past it is for the player to make a save then load from that save to continue past it i think. Beyond that not sure lol
Thanks, good to know
I tend to gravitate towards Sci-fi Choice of Games (No pun intended), so I was looking forward to trying this one. There’s a lot of good stuff in here!
Here’s a mess of random thoughts I had during my playthrough. I did the merchant route, since I read up above it was the most complete path. That, and it sounded more interesting than military.
Searching for a lost space explorer is a great hook to start with.
I picked non-binary mainly to check whether the pronouns stayed consistent (I have trouble maintaining that myself since they sometimes make you change parts of the sentence structure). For the most part everything was good, but a couple times you used “theirs” instead of “their”.
Also I got called Mademoiselle once. I don’t know whether that’s valid or not, but I doubt it.
Starting the player with a family is an odd choice, but they were all very nice and I appreciated their inclusion. Those interactions would have been a lot harder to set up if they were variable.
Sometimes, I was confused by multiple characters talking in the same paragraph. Like this:
“Aint’ that the truth,” Dad says laughing. “Your family? Don’t worry about Lee, this is the best merchant frigate in the galaxy. While I see to this cargo, you can say goodbye to your family,” Vince says.
Since Dad was just talking, I assumed “Your family” was also Dad talking. I had to go back and re-read a couple times to understand the paragraph.
I think “perks” instead of numerical stats is a good change. It’s a lot more interesting, as long as it’s balanced right.
“It was Coley’s but we had it thoroughly cleaned.”
Eww. I laughed at this one.
I breath a sigh of relief when I see the pods. They’re very nice.
But then the options after this include “wow this pod sucks”. I don’t know if MC is lying to get a rise out their guide, but if not you might want to hold off on having them make a judgment until the player has chosen their response.
FYI - I couldn’t remember all the characters, especially the ones without major identifying features like tattoos. Now, I am stupid, so it might be just me, but if it’s a common issue you might consider including a little character guide in the player stats, like a little journal. The player could use it to track relationships, or even health status of different characters.
Vega pulls up a screen with all the single people on it. “Did you really organize a presentation?” I ask. “Please I’m not that invested.”
Liar!
Seeing the Captain seated with a glass of wine gives me the impression that he’s Count Dracula. That’s a strange image, but I think I like it.
The vomit scene is horrific (by necessity). That said, if something like that happened to me I would be mortified, but the MC seems to brush it off quickly. Maybe that’s for the best…
The romance starts up and escalates pretty quick! For me it was Burn. The speed felt a little odd, but maybe that’s just part of being stuck in deep space for weeks.
It seems like a lot of you young people don’t like to know about Earth.
Yeah, same.
I noticed the wine again during the ship’s dinner. For some reason, I don’t normally equate wine with space travel, so it stuck in my mind. I don’t think that’s a problem, though - it adds an unusual bit of flavor.
…Maybe the whole crew is vampires?
I try to remember how Gerry did it, but I can’t quite piece it together.
This scene hits close to home. It stings, but that’s good - relatable sequences can effectively draw the player into the world. It worked on me!
The Captain’s hostility at the science outpost felt odd at first. “Let me in! I need your wine!!” I imagined him thinking.
“You have no respect for the way things are done outside your little bubble!” Captain Seta snarls.
Couldn’t they say the same about you?
Of course after that they explain about this specific faux pas, which makes a lot of sense. You’ve done a great job establishing the space trading culture!
“I start by calling him a big fat bitch for not sending me a message,”
Heh. Yeah, it’s like that.
They both close their eyes as the fill their shards, opening their eyes when the shard’s glow blue.
The memory shard stuff is one of the most interesting parts of the setting so far. There’s a lot you can do with this.
Captain Seta presents a fancy looking bottle of Sambuca.
I don’t know what this is, but I am dead certain it’s wine. Let me look it up real quick
Sambuca is an Italian anise-flavored liqueur. Sambuca is sweet with notes of licorice.
Alright, so I was wrong. That stuff does sound pretty good though.
Captain Seta gifts Captain Ridgeway a case of wine
Aha!! There it is!
“I think Captain Seta may have developed a crush on Captain Ridgeway in the short time we’ve been together”
From the embrace they shared when they met, I had the impression they had history already. Was that just part of the ceremony?
At the spaceport, my only dating options were Kurt and Burn even though that wasn’t the case when Vega first offered his lineup. That’s okay since I was already going with Burn, but I was surprised those were my only options. Since Vega had warned me to get tested before getting with Kurt (nasty!!), I had already counted him out, so it felt like there was only one real option… not a big deal, just a little odd.
“I think a quiet romantic winebar would be best.”
W I N E
D E T E C T E D
Very tempting but I did the concert instead. Shame about that second act!
Heads up - my playthrough ended in a crash. It happened after I finished the firing range training. This was the error message:
Merchant line 1759: Invalid option; conflicts with option ‘Playing as much chess as possible.’ on line 1751
Just before this, I picked the top option at the chess guys (“it might teach me something”) and got the “Eager” perk. Checking my stats after the crash, I didn’t see that perk listed under my earned perks…
In case it matters, I was using the CoGDemos version of the game.
I’m interested in where this “backstory” is leading. How long until it gets to the “actual story”? Setting up a character for later is a cool concept, but the backstory also has to be interesting or it’ll be a drag to play through. What you’ve got so far is interesting, but there hasn’t been much action yet. Or, more specifically, there haven’t been any serious decisions yet.
I hope your writing goes well!
In particular, I want to see the Ship Builder path. I’m also surprised it didn’t get votes - spacefaring corporate espionage sounds incredible. Maybe people just read the title “Ship Builder” and didn’t check the description?
