Stillbourn [previous Stillmoor] - preview [incomplete]

@MaraJade The Victorians had different attitudes towards drugs (and towards sexuality) than we do today. For example, cocaine was used in children’s medicines.

@Largejo, fascinating start – look forward to seeing where you take it!

Grammar quibble: where there’s a gender choice, you sometimes use “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun – e.g. “I’d paid for their services,” “received their monetary reward.” It reads oddly to use the plural pronoun when you’re talking about one specific person who’s in your bed – especially given that your game is set a century-plus ago, before modern gender politics set English-speakers on a quest for the least clumsy gender-neutral pronouns. Would a Victorian main character really use “they” to refer to the man or woman sleeping with him/her?

IMO, it would read somewhat better if you set a variable. In my game, “xhe” is the variable pronoun for characters of the protagonist’s preferred gender… and typing {xhe}, {xhim} etc. doesn’t take much more time once you’ve got used to it.

@Havenstone First, let me point out that the singular ‘they’ has been used since pretty much the invention of Modern English (and even before), so its use is by no means ahistorical in any time period, it’s only faded in and out of favor. As for its the point at hand though, I agree with you fully. When the person’s gender is decided, it’s more than a bit awkward to refer to them as gender neutral, particularly considering the time period.

@Protagonist Remember that in a lot of those cases they were used as medicine because no one knew just how bad they were until the problem was already spiraling out of control.

@Havenstone: You raise an interesting point regarding this, and I already actually have code in place that I can easily adapt to do this - when I get time I will have a look through the gamefiles and alter this :slight_smile:

Glad you’re enjoying it :slight_smile:

Indeed, @Reaperoa. One could just as easily bring morphine in as an example today: a heavily addictive commonly used pain-killer.

Maybe at certain points the POV has the option to take a nice opiate to ease their stress? A tincture of laudanum or some such, maybe. I’m pretty sure one of the early choices lets you turn the POV into a drug-abusing ne’er-do-well, so seems like it would fit well there, at least.

@dreamshell: Indeed there is an option for your character to be classified as a regular user of opium, there is also an option later on for them to enter an opium enduced dream sequence; i’m happy to add more incidents of drug-use but only if it serves the plot :slight_smile:

@Reaperoa, I stand corrected. :slight_smile:

I like the story and all the historical information that you put into it. It’s great so far and can’t wait to see more. I think the background is lovely and I like how many options and paths you can take. =D>

@Ada: I’m glad that you’re enjoying it :slight_smile: For the next few months I will have little to no time to spend on the game unfortunately, however, I do intend to get back to it as soon as I have the free time.

@Largejo glad to see you I wish you luck and return soon

I’m definetely interested in this story you came up with, it reminds me of that one mystery story… (Where the creator of said story has announced that it’ll never be finished. :c)

One thing I don’t quite get about this game now that I look at it more carefully is how some of the choices suggest something but then something slightly different happens.

(For Example: “My mother was sitting by the lake looking sadly at my father.” Aftermath: She’s lying face down, reaching out her hand towards your father who’s drifitng away on the lake as well.)

I chose for my partner to be male, but in some choices he is referred to with feminine pronouns,

I like the game so far

@MaraJade: Many thanks :slight_smile: I’m not likely to have any time to work on the game further until July/August, although I do plan to get back to it when I have the chance.
@RagEgnite: You’re quite right, some of the text does need tidying up and bringing in line a bit, this is a job i’m mostly leaving (unless it has a serious impact on gameplay) for later on in the development process.
@12lexy12: Could you post up the areas where you’ve found this to be the case so that I can correct them?
@vampierkid222 : Many thanks :slight_smile:

@Largejo happy to see you back here luck in your work

@MaraJade: Thanks :slight_smile: I’m going to keep nipping away at Stillbourn over the next few months, but i’m pretty much booked solid at weekends until July/August and so (given that the only time I really get to spend a big chunk of time working on them is at the weekend) there probably won’t be any massive changes or huge additions on the game until then.

The first big addition I would like to make when I get chance is doing a section of the ‘asylum inmate’ storyline, plus providing a few additional ways to end up in the asylum. At the moment i’m steadily chipping away at expanding the ‘seance recruitment’ section (as suggested in this thread), placing more emphasis on looking into your parents past (which should have the dual benefit, in addition with an expanded start sequence, of given the parents more character) and then locating/convincing people to join the seance.

Lol right when my character was making planes to come out of the closet it end *flips table*