The Colors Of August WIP (Greek Island Life Based IF) (Prologue Release, 60k+ words)

[Lydiah]

Demo Link (Prologue Released, 60k+ words)

CoGDemos

For as long as you can remember yourself, summertime has beckoned you to your grandmother’s home, in the idyllic island of Zakynthos, Greece. You have dipped your toes in the golden brown sand, delved into the crystal blue depths of the Ionian sea, and made memories to last you a lifetime beneath the scorching Mediterranean sun, your flock of close-knit family and friends always by your side in your carefree summer escapades. Your quaint seaside village has been a haven, a specter of a time bygone, a dreamland oasis.

However, this year, something dark and sorrowful stirs beneath the tides, a shared loss reflected in everyone’s eyes. A real estate mogul is aiming to purchase the seaside lot and re-purpose it into a luxury hotel. If they are successful in their endeavors, the familiar taverns, homes and shops, including your grandmother’s own coffeehouse, will be bulldozed over to make room for tall spires of concrete and marble.

The sunlit reverie of your youth is coming to an end. You may never get to spend another summer season like this in Zakynthos. There is thus only one thing left to do: Make the most of the time you have left.

In The Colors of August, you play as a second generation immigrant, who has visited the island of Zakynthos every summer, alongside your tightknit circle of childhood friends. It is a slice-of-life game, centered around the beautiful and messy lives of you and your entourage, old and new faces alike, while you make this summer into something worth remembering.

Depending on how the player approaches the game, it can either be an interpersonal drama about discovering old family secrets and finding your place in the world, a quest to save your village from the evil clutches of capitalism, or a story of aligning yourself with the capitalist Powers That Be to lead your village into a bright new era of commercialization.

Core themes include: summertime (of course), tourism, romance, self-identity, self-discovery, nostalgia, coming of age, breaking cycles of trauma, healing, the power of community, the old vs the new, the division between the generations, environmentalism, the past and how it haunts, and more.

The Colors Of August is rated 18+ for optional sexual content, cursing, discussions of generational trauma, etc.

The game heavily incorporates elements of modern Greek island culture, and is based on the author’s own experiences of such!

Features

• Customize your character’s personality, appearance, gender, sex, preferences and goals. Do you cling to the happy memories of your childhood or does the thought of modernization excite you? Does Greece call you to as your homeland or do you discard your roots? Shape your future and discover how your past slots into it, if it does at all.

• Embrace Greek island life! Enjoy the Mediterranean cuisine, engage in local traditions, and interact with the island’s lively and colorful cast of residents.

• Participate in all sorts of wacky summer shenanigans. Explore an underwater cave! Go on a submarine ride! Witness the hatching of baby turtles! Try skinny dipping! Get so blackout drunk that you and your friends wake up on the other side of the island and are forced to retrace your steps, basically re-enacting the Hangover Ala Greek!

• Unravel your complicated family history, and how it entwines with the village’s own muddled past. Face generational trauma and decide how to move on from it, possibly reforge your family bonds, and uncover secrets hidden in the attic for far too long.

• Engage in steamy summer romance! Fall in love with your wise-cracking (yet oddly secretive) childhood friend, or pursue the unattainable, stoic and withdrawn man/woman of your dreams, who to your misfortune also just happens to be your brother’s best friend. Experience a whirlwind romance with the cute and shy tourist staying over in your grandma’s B&B (one bed trope here we gooo), or explore your undeniably fiery chemistry with the business mogul who is actively trying to drive your family shop out of business! Or do all of the above! What happens in Zakynthos, stays in Zakynthos… or does it?

• Decide the future of your village. Save it from the evil clutches of capitalism or help it transition into a bright new future! Enjoy your last summer in Zakynthos or carve out a life for yourself in the island, permanently.

Romantic Options

• The Local (Lukas/Lukia): The boy/girl next door, L has been your steadfast companion every June through August. The only other kid in the village exactly your age, unlike you, L is a permament resident of Zakynthos and holds no desire to change that fact. Characterized by a sunny disposition and a zest for life, you don’t believe you have ever seen L without a grin on their lips.

• Your Brother’s Best Friend (Atlas/Athena): The most mature of the gaggle, though distant, stoic and often biting in their remarks, A acts as the group parent, ensuring that you have drunk enough water, put on a sufficient amount of sunscreen or remembered to take your jacket with you. They have always seen you as a kid that they need to take care of up until now, but perhaps this summer that will change.

• The Tourist (William/Willow): W had no intention of imposing on your grandmother’s hospitality so long, but a sudden break up has them deciding to prolong their stay in Zakynthos. Not that they infringe all that much, seeing as they are quiet as a mouse and twice as skittish. Shy, sweet and with a deep love for Greek history and mythology, W is hoping to take advantage of their vacation time to come out of their shell.

• The Business Mogul: S is a suave and confident playboy/girl, who seems to take a lot of pleasure in teasing you. Shameless in their hedonism and even more unashamed in their business acumen, S has come to Zakynthos to survey what they are determined to make their property. Having a wild summer while doing so, is really just a coincidental plus.

Currently the Prologue is done at 64.905 words, and this project is intended to have 8 Chapters, including it. Knowing how much I tend to write, I expect most chapters to be at least minimum that same length, probably quite a bit longer, and I am aspiring to update every few months.

Chapter has been beta-tested by me and a friend of mine, who is a saint, but we may have missed something. This is my first time sharing my writing to such a degree, so I welcome all and any feedback on writing, coding, etc.

For asks, updates, sneak peeks and more, feel free to follow me on Tumblr!

No — This project does not contain the output of Generative AI

Yes — This project contains the output of Generative AI

[Zen1]

It’s really unfortunate the engine not have pictures, the place describe is beautiful

[will]

Fantastic, really loved it. I missed the boat and got grabbed by A before I saved and signed off, will return.

Character creation was quite long but putting a framing device on it and having the MC be interacting with the taxi driver, calling friends, getting run over by a car, etc. while character creation was ongoing helped make it go more smoothly. I think the only awkward bit was the beach. I can see why you included it but having a memory dream sequence within a flashback is a little much.

The specificity to Greece and the way that you give so many options to define the MC’s relationship to Greece and their dual identities is really interesting. Hoping it’s more than flavour text later. I picked options that made my character very Greek – including the swear word which I thought would be fun – but considering himself to be both American and Greek equally and not tolerating either side of his heritage being disparaged. I figured that would make for the most interesting arguments with the villain.

I think the Greek levels are at a six and I’d like to see a nine or ten on the Greekocity Scale. You’ve got a Greek vocab list in choicescript_stats – hit us with the ultraspecific stuff. We can take it.

Also the stats page is a bit broken. Not all pages link back to the others! You can try

*temp stat_page true
*temp ro_page false
etc
...
*label stat_page
etc
*goto stats_nav
(at the end of each page)
...
*label stats_nav

*choice
  *if (stat_page = false) # Player Stats.
    *set stat_page true
    *set ro_page false
    etc
    *goto stat_page
  *if (ro_page = false) # Romantic Options.
    *set stat_page false
    *set ro_page true
    etc
    *goto ro_page

Watch out for pronouns – very frequently ROs would be referred to as they/them (not the pronoun I picked). A was also obviously intended/written with Atlas in mind instead of Athena, because I noticed you slipped up with he/him at least once.

Really enjoyed the prose style overall.

[Lydiah]

Hi, Will! Thank you so much for your thoughts and feedback! I really appreciate it immensely and am glad that you enjoyed yourself.

I see what you mean about the beach scene. Originally, the Prologue was meant to be WAY longer and L was going to be introduced WAY later. I added the flashback in part because I realized that this setup felt unnatural.

Narratively speaking, MC has known L the longest, but by introducing them so late, it would create (imo) emotional dissonance. Because the character would have spent the most amount of time with L out of all ROs, but the player would have spent the least time with them. I also briefly considered adding L in the first scene with grandma, but I felt the shorter that scene was, the more effective the opening would be.

I recognize though that it is not as smooth as it could be, so I will try to see what reworking I could do before moving onto Chapter 1.

I am very happy that you are enjoying the Greek aspects of it all! And also a little amused that my hesitation in going full Grecian on everyone is showing lmao. Chapter 1 is going to oversee the introduction of the village of Gaidaros and its people, and Chapter 2 is largely centered around a Greek cultural event, so hopefully those Greek influences will show more and more as we go on.

A few things will develop differently based on whether the MC embraces or retreats from their Greek heritage! I intend to add a bit branching for each variation, as well as potential for arcs for MC to change their stance on the subject (reconnecting with their roots, learning to let go, etc).

Thank you also MASSIVELY for the example code. I will be fixing that up to and reintegrating the code you have given me into the code.

Also good point on the pronouns. When I first started writing, I did the mistake of writing first and coding later, which meant I had to go back and swap out the they/thems for the ROs with the code for their pronouns. Honestly, bad idea, and I will definitely code while writing from now on.

I will do a more thorough reread to spot any such mistakes! If any particular examples come to mind, you are more than welcome to send them my way, and I will get to working on those ASAP.

Once again, thanks for the feedback and I am very glad that you enjoyed yourself!

[Mayall]

It’s always fun to play something leaning more on the slice of life, and the theme is clearly one from passion with how well it flows into the initial narrative, I’ll definitely need to gather my thoughts before I can dissect anything more, but I’m curious on the stat managament part, what’s the feel of Local/Foreigner vs Tradition/Modernism?

Edit: I will also agree some of the choices seem slightly bugged in terms of personality raises, stuff like not believing in superstition even as a kid raising playful instead of serious, or agreeing to the surpestitions because you worry about the grandmother’s mood raising abrasive, may be worth a look into

[Iukan]

I don’t have time to screenshot and send here, but found some bugs such code error showing text like [text] and (text), and the personality bars are wrong

BTW: loved the if

[snas]

seconded on the slice of life thing, really cool to have some low stakes stories too and this one is pretty dang cozy. the trigger warnings thing makes me wonder how long thatll last though heh

[Valhallawaffle]

Great story.So far.Can’t wait for more

[will]

Great! Glad the code example wasn’t too confusing – the idea is that you use the same *choice for every page and hide the option to return to the page you’re on. If later on you go back and add more pages to the stats, it makes it way easier!

One thing I didn’t mention that I also quite liked is the characterisation. Everyone immediately feels distinct and has their own voice. Even the unnamed taxi driver is clearly written with a point of view on the world (like his assumptions about your greekiness) and has little moments of humanity like giving you the side-eye if you casually mention on the phone you want to bite his head off. Reminds me a lot of cab drivers in Vietnam who were often pretty wary of me until I made an effort to give directions in Vietnamese and they could tell I was more than just a tourist.

Point is, I think it’s great that even nameless side characters we won’t see again are written with a very clear idea of who they are and the point of view they have on the world. I think that’s one of the strengths of Slice of Life as a genre.

[The_Unknown]

Hi! I loved the demo and I have been waiting for the game to be released since June. The wait has been so worth it! I would just like to raise one issue that I have been having with the personality stats, no matter how many times I choose the options for the blue side of the personality stats to increase, the red side is the one increasing. I’m not sure if I’m the only one having this issue though but I wanted to let you know still, just in case.

[phaedon]

Hi! Best of luck with your project.

I’ll have to check it out in detail tomorrow, but I have a quick note. The suffixes of last names in Greek are gendered and hint at a particular ancestry.

For example, the MC’s last name is Diamantidou. This is a feminine suffix and hints at Pontic (though not necessarily immediate) ancestry. I know Greek Americans don’t follow the suffix rule, but since last names are patrilinear, Diamantidou doesn’t make much sense for a guy.

Another short note, certain first names like Dimitrios are used in official functions but have a colloquial version like Dimitris that is used in the day to day. You could even have diminutive nicknames like Mitsos, Mimis, Takis (or Mitros I guess, if you’re a 60 year old dude with a forest of chesthair popping under your tank top).

Again, best of luck and I’ll be sure to return with more notes soon.

[yizhens]

Interesting premise and I really liked the writing style and the characters presented so far (especially MC’s grandma!)

In terms of bugs I think you need to double check the *else’s and *elseif’s used in the code because there are a lot of flavor texts that aren’t showing up even though they should have been triggered

some examples

I’ve seen that there’s some flavor text regarding MC’s height when meeting Jason but I didn’t get it when playing (I chose that my MC was short, but I think it must be the same if you pick tall/very short/average as well)

I didn’t get S’s physical description when choosing that they’re a man

I didn’t get the bit about A’s hair being the same when choosing that they’re a man

I also chose that the relationship with Jason was distant and didn’t get the flavor text here either (and it must be the same with ‘beef’ too)

Outside of these there are a lot more other instances (and with other variables besides the ones in there) where this happened as well

I don’t know that much about choicescript so I’m not so sure but maybe it’s because there are more indentations in the *else or *elseif when compared to the initial *if command being checked?

[will]

Oh, looks like an indentation error. *if, *elseif, and *else should all be on the same level of indentation, but instead they’ve all been incremented by one.

I think I coincidentally got the first *if option for almost everything in my playthrough and didn’t notice anything was missing lmao

[Lydiah]

CoGDemos

Hello all! Sorry that I have been a bit inactive here the few past days. Various bugs and mistakes in the code were made known to me and I was hard at work correcting them.

Thanks to everyone who dove into the code, pointed out mistakes and presented solutions immensely! I know I have not responded to all of you, but I did take all of your comments and implement them.

If I missed anything, it was by accident.

Regardless! Here comes a BIG bug fix, with a few additions and changes too:

Statscreen navigation has been adjusted according to the advices of @will

I tested it myself and it should work.

Stats variables were all out of place cause I had misunderstood how opposite variables work. This has now been corrected.

There were a lot of problems with indentation. My bad. I am very sorry. They have been fixed. Now logically, a LOT more lines are going to appear in each playthrough, because I had messed up variables.

I went back through the script and corrected as many typos as I was able to find. I also corrected a few pronoun-related issues that popped up.

Corrected a few lines where variables were not set in place right (adding lines about crush on A when MC did not have one and such).

I did a thorough read to get rid of such mistakes, but a few might still remain.

I also incorporated some other feedback I got. Some wanted Greek culture to be highlighted more, and while that will come in future chapters, for now I have added a new category in the stat page with tidbits about Greek culture, which will continue expanding as the game goes on.

I have also added a new option for making a character from Türkiye. Türkiye and Greece have a very contentious relationship, so characters from both lands get a few unique lines referring to just that. Since some of those lines touch on themes like xenophobia, I have also added the option to not have those lines included. I will flesh out this branch more in following chapters.

I added a few more lines for an MC going to Harvard with A, and also just a few more things here and there. New word count is 66.814.

I appreciate everyone’s patience and kindness, and I apologize for the above mistakes which had to be corrected. Now that the first big bug fix is done with, I will make sure to respond to more comments and such! Thanks again. You all are the best.

You all are the best. Chapter 1 is currently being outlined and is shaping up to be BEEFY. I have learned a lot from this chapter alone, and I will definitely code while writing from now on. Just wanted to put out a quick update!

[Lydiah]

Happy to see grandma getting some love! She is truly an icon, and will get a lot more time to shine in Chapters 1 and 2.

Someone pointed out the indentation problem in my tumblr asks, and yeah, I misunderstood how it was supposed to work and happened to also pick options which did not show the problem when beta testing. It has now been amended (hopefully).

Thanks for pointing it out, it’s a lot of help, and I am glad that you enjoyed the cast.

[Lydiah]

I have realized I can respond to multiple people at once, so I will be doing that now haha.

@phaedon
Hi! Thank you so very much!

I am aware of the origins of the last name Diamantidi/ou! It was chosen intentionally. This will be touched upon later, but much of the core community of Gaidaros hailed from Asia Minor and Pontus, so various last names have maintained their connections to those lands.

I also knew about the male/female split of last names, but when I was first drafting the Prologue, I felt very hesitant to introduce too many Greek elements, which I worried might, like, require more context to be given to players early on. Since I have been told by various people that they are enjoying those Greek influences, I am amending that and the new versions has two separate versions of the last name.

Thanks for the feedback and I will make sure to work more Greek naming conventions in, because your comment really

@Mayall
bugs are hopefully fixed, BUT in regards to Local/Foreigner and Tradition/Modernism:

A local MC regards themselves and/or is regarded as being ingratiated into Gaidaros culture. It will affect a few different things, amongst them how the villagers of Gaidaros approach and respond to them. In small communities often it is either, you are “one of us” or you are othered, and this stat keeps track of just that. This is why if you like Greece, you get a boost and if you dislike Greece, you get a penalty to the stat.

Tradition vs Modernism, the benefits and hindrances of each, are a core theme of the story. Different characters will favor different leanings and that will affect your interactions with them. For instance, an MC leaning towards modernism has more conflict with L but gets along easier with S.

Modernism would include things like caring about technological progress, furthering yourself from local traditions, supporting S’s plans for the village, etc. Tradition would include involving yourself in the local customs, participating in traditional wear and dances and stuff, etc. It has some crossover with local vs foreigner, but you can be a local who sees the positives of commercialization and a foreigner who has a sort of more distant appreciation of the local culture, like a tourist would have.

I hope that answered your question. If not, please feel to ask me more!

@snas

thanks so so much, very glad that you enjoyed. The greatest stakes in this story are going to be what happens to the village, which on a personal level sure might mean a lot for people in the story, but sure is more low than saving the world haha.

The trigger warnings are because I want to cover all my bases and make sure the game does not cause anyone harm! Like for instance, someone may not want to play a game where them being a second generation immigrant is brought attention to, because it touches on something personal and sensitive. I prefer to be safe than sorry.

There will be darker elements to the story, primarily people working through trauma, but my approach to that is that it happened in the past and is something that they need to work through now, rather than the dark material occuring in the novel itself. Genre wise, there may be some hurt/comfort themes in there, but for the most part, the story is mainly centered around summertime shenanigans.

[Romaan]

NOOOOO it ended too soon! I was so attached that the cliff hanger meet me eat my nails!

I absolutely loved it! This is definitely on my watch list and straight to favourites! Keep up the great work your doing!

[Mayall]

I still see a few moments with the kindness/abrassovenes and seriousness/playfunesss where, say, kind responses will give ‘kind +5%’ but since kidness is the right hand axis it ends up adding visually to abrassive, same with seriousness when adding or reducing ser. Maybe just swap them around visually in the axis?

But I guess this is penny-pinching, really

[chrisbat]

Having been to Greece and many other parts of the Mediterranean, a developer building a hotel doesn’t seem all that controversial particularly in Greece where tourism is one of their largest industries.

[Lydiah]

@Mayall
thanks for pointing that out! I had it reported to me by a couple of people and I was uncertain what had been coded in wrong, so I have switched the axis around! Hopefully that should resolve the problem.

@Romaan
thanks sooo much! I am very glad that you enjoyed it so much

I am hard at work at Chapter 1, so I hope I will be able to make another update ASAP. Fingers crossed!

@chrisbat
You are right! It usually would not be a very controversial move, but this happens to be a unique case. Some plot details are reserved to be revealed in the story but:

1. S does not simply intend to build a hotel. They want to buy out and trample over large parts of the village so they can build a megahotel. They are also not necessarily behaving morally in their efforts, even if nothing they do is technically illegal.
2. The community of Gaidaros is largely made up of elderly who have lived in the village for their whole lives, and who therefore don’t want to move away (which is the above factor would necessitate that most of them do).
3. There actually is quite a bit of debate within Greece about the extent to which tourism has actually harmed local cultures, altered, commodified or simply erased what made them unique. This debate is particularly prevalent in smaller communities, who are predictably resistant to large changes.

So yeah, in most places in Greece, tourism is just part of the course, but Gaidaros specifically has been a small, isolated village, with its own culture and habits, which are now being turned on their heads. What is regular for Greece at large is not, by necessity, regular for every part of Greece.

I hope that clarified a few things for you!