The Academy (WIP)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
1

Hello everyone,

I am Trask, almost 29 and been writing for about 14 years now, about a year ago I stumbled upon CoG and recently I have decided to try my hand at translating a story to this medium. I am already half way writing the first chapter and I thought that even if it will probably be another week before I can set up a beta test for the intro (mostly due to being new to coding), it could do no harm to already lift the veil upon the story and gather feedback from fellow writers and gamers.

The Academy is a story that will take you through your first steps as an international spy.
From recruitment all the way through to graduation. (the training will be split in 3 chunks, basic training, mission simulation, and a real mission)

Characters:

I tried to be as diverse as I could in this giving the player a couple of options that will result in 16 Base Characters.

Sex (M/V), Social Background (Rich/lower middle class and Military/civilian), and offcourse the orientation.

Classes and Stats:

There will be 3 classes you can work towards:

Subtle spy: focused on stealth and playing it safe, the focus will be in getting the job done with as little exposure as possible

Forthright spy: focused on combat based strategy and guts, the focus will be in getting the job done no matter what.

Balanced spy: with the perfect balance between the Subtle and Forthright abilities, you might be unstoppable (or not good enough in either style to survive)

Your base character will have great effect upon which of these styles will suit you best as each choice will give you an edge or a handicap in your stats. But I will do my best to make sure that even if you pick the style that is completely opposed to your base characters natural abilities you will still be able to complete the story (but it will be a lot more difficult)

I will also add a renegade option but the focus will remain to see if you can survive as a spy.

So with plenty of kill scenes, and a couple of plot twist I hope to be able to get a fun game about the life of an international spy.

1 Like
2

sounds cool to me when is the demo coming?

3

hey @Prototype

I want to have the character selection part coded by next week, so i will set up a link for testing as soon as I have this done. The writing is almost done just need some editing and then I need to code it all.

I will probably also be thinkering with the Stats for a while but that should not be an issue for testing I think.

4

I’m going to suggest a different name from The Academy. Academy makes me think that it will be a school based game. Possibly a magic school. It doesn’t bring to mind spies at all.

Since it’s a Spy game is there a pun based on that or a phrase which you could use. “I Spy” is the obvious one. Something related to spying. Or secrets.

Or “The Agency”, that’s got a double meaning, since spies are generally members of Secret Agencies and they have to show agency too. And I think Agency brings more to mind ideas of spies.

Why are you starting in school? Why not the first field mission just after training?

Are you going for a James Bond style cinematic spy?

5

Hey @FairyGodfeather

Good catch, in fact I am planning a AAA story line :stuck_out_tongue: part one: The Academy because they start there part two : the Agency as it will be your first years as a full fledged spy and then part Three The Artist: The post retirement year

But I do appriciate the feedback, maybe I could indeed find a better title like I Spy: the Academy or something in those lines. To be honest I have been spending more time in getting to know choicescript and the plot then to think about a good title.

The reason I want to start in school is simply because I enjoy character development, I want to leave it up to the player to decide what kind of spy they are. And where better to start building your character then from the first day they enter the spy scene.

As for the Style, I will be guilty of using spy movie cliché’s for sure.

6

I wouldn’t use I Spy, it was just a quick suggestion of something along the lines of, but it just seems very cliched. Have a look up various phrases about spies. The suggestion of the Moment is SPY T. Pronounce it like spite, that T stands for training.

Did James Bond have that sort of past? Did we ever get to see his struggles through Spy School? What about… Mission Impossible, is that spies? Even the Spy Kids didn’t go to Spy School. I’m assuming all this though since I don’t actually watch the genre.

I think you can get character development without school. However if you’ve fun school stories you want to tell then go for it.

7

Don’t worry @FairyGodfeather I won’t be found guilty for using that much of cliché when it comes to title :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree that when watching spy movies the mystery is part of the charm. But your not watching a movie, you are becoming a spy, and if you look at movies like The Recruite, they work well to set a mood. But who knows if it doesn’t work as I have it in my head atm, I can still skip ahead to the second part of the story :stuck_out_tongue:

8

I’m going to have to google that. I think I like the mystery, I like being a spy with whatever sort of past I can imagine, with it being hazy and only mattering when I bump into people from the past. I like the idea of being an experienced spy, or at least one who gets to do missions, even if it’s the simple boring ones to start with. And who undergoes loyalty tests. And maybe has a handler to teach them tricks but no sitting down in spy school with all the other spies. No knowing who the other spies are since then you can betray them as they can betray you if you’re caught and tortured. Just this Secret Spy Network.

9

Haha @FairyGodfeather, don’t worry I think you’ll like my version of spyschool as I can usure you that all classes will be practical , will be more of a bootcamp and mission based training then endles hours reading books :stuck_out_tongue:

10

Oh good! More like Bootcamp sounds fun. Spy Bootcamp!

11

I would really enjoy a spy game (if my username didn’t give that away)

Bootcamp, just like the military, FBI, special forces etc. I would love to see all the action-packed moments of it.

12

good to know @spyfox259,

Yes it will be a bootcamp filled with action and intrigues

13

I just want to say after reading this that I think you have really thought about this story for a while. It makes me excited! Good luck!

14

i picked the link thinking in a magic school or something similar. But your story seem interesting and well think. I also recommend you add a state about the charming agent using silver tongue intelligence maybe in side de sly spy. For me spy is synonym of a master or charming and disguise almost like a expert in assassination

15

Can’t wait for it sounds epic. I like the idea of being a spy B-)

16

Is there a mole in bootcamp sabotaging everything that we need to find? Only it’s really a test of our super spy powers?

17

@antitorpiliko thanks, and yes this story has been in my head for a couple of months now, but I didn’t want to jump the gun and launch something I could not finish.

@MaraJade, Charisma will be an important stat for all styles. Even if there are going to be assassination mission spying is all about information.

@DJNIKOLDO thanks, me too. And since I have not seen one yet I thought to fill the hole.

@FairyGodfeather yes there will be moles, there will also be foe’s and friends that stab you in the back to advance their career in the spy world.

18

I think it’s easy enough to insert stats after. I think it’s easier to add them than to remove them if they turn out useless. I’d suggest just putting in *comment STATS!!! at any place where it’s relevant. That way you can work on how to tweak them, make sure they’re all streamlined and the like.

However, if you’re speaking code, I find it easiest to type up the code and choices as I’m typing up the story. I’d just put in *comment STATS everywhere that there will be stat adjustments.

19

That is actually a good tip @FairyGodfeather, thanks I forgot about the *comment command

Another thing I was wondering about, I find it nice when i get a note when my stats in or decrease. Is this a common thing to like? (I have seen way more games that don’t inform you of your progress statwise.)

20

I actually have a video answer for you there. Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_KU3lUx3u0 there’s a section where it discusses showing morality stat increases. I rarely look at the stat screen. I find stats showing up jars me a little from the story and it’s a constant reminder that I’m not reading a book, I’m playing a game which has these stats.

However again, it’s up to you. It depends on what sort of game you’re writing and how important you plan for the stats to be. How important you think raising stats is. How much you want the player to keep track of those things, and how reliant every single choice is on stats.