So I have a question. The story currently contains a surprising amount of swearing (at least for me – I don’t really curse all that often). It will also have some graphic gory scenes, and maybe even a bit of sexuality. I’ve not decided on that yet, but at the very least it’ll be mentioned or implied (probably not in a pretty way – i.e. not romance. Causual sex maybe).
What limits are there on this kind of thing? None of it’s gratuitous – no violence just for the sake of violence – but at the same time, it could end up having quite a bit of it in the end. Personally, I think it’s written well and it helps develop the story.
Depends on your audience. Some stories are meant to have adult audiences, and if you’re comfortable with focusing on an adult audience then I see no problem with sex, violence and gore. There’s no real limit, as there is an audience for all sorts of content. The only real worry you should have is where you want to publish this. COG is sorta slack on censorship. The apple store and other places, however, have a much more strict policy. However, if you want to go ahead with adult content anyway, then do it and publish on your own Web site. You’ll still have an audience. Perhaps you’ll even have a new audience (since adult content tends to be a draw for some people).
If its not violence for the sake of violence, then i say full speed ahead. some of the most popular games on the site have alot of violence, but as you said, it helps develop the story. and on the sexuality aspect, maybe not a full out sex scene, but if its impied thats fine. Choice of romance has tons of implied sex and its pretty popular. I vote romance, though. Im a sucker for that kinda stuff.
Yup its a pretty awesome game,and the error is when Zaren is running around naked and stuff when you first awaken,you get the choice to follow along or stay quite,the scene repeats itself only the second time around it only has one choice wich is different from the previous two @Trywm
Oh and in response to the violence and sex scenes post.Well me personally love it when books have violence and romance,like the Starz show Spartacus…gives it a more “real world” sense in my opinion and also i think its only fitting to have those both in a story that,correct me if I’m wrong,noble court politics or just politics at all…but uh that reminds me politics are going to come into play in this story right? May be a stupid question but just making sure @-)
@TheDragon Thanks It’s always nice to hear something likes my work.
I can’t find an error there… Do you mean the way the choices are presented?
Not a stupid question at all, considering the lack of any real political elements so far. There will be a fair amount of political choices to make. Not a huge amount because I want to focus on the conflict between you and Zaren in a more direct way, but you will have options to certain gain allies (some of which are already present in the demo) and perhaps make some decisions outside the immediate area of the Court.
Thanks for the responses. Seems everyone’s anti-censorship – which I guess isn’t too suprising on an internet communty on writing.
I’ve decided that for now I will write it the way I want to write it. I can always edit it later if I happen to go too far with something. Besides, it’s no fun having Zaren kill someone unless I can do it in a spectacular way.
As for who will want to censor you, it will almost certainly be Apple. (CoG is unlikely to do any censorship so long as the game has actual artistic merit.)
The problem, however, is that Apple’s censorship is completely arbitrary. There are posted guidelines (somewhere), but they probably won’t help you figure out if it’s going to be banned or not, as we’ve seen that Apple’s decisions as to what to ban are based mostly on complaints (which I doubt you’d get a huge number of writing IF). (Copy pasted my post on another discussion.)
Some further discussion on sexual content is here.
Just want to chime in but don’t censor yourself over something a third party may or may not do, if your story requires sex, voilence and gratuitous nudity to work by all means include it. While I generally prefer romance and implied sex to fully descriptive scenes of the act, if you, as an author, feel that such things are needed to make your story work, you should go ahead and include them.
I’m currently working on the second chapter, what I call “the Feast of Sol”. I’m done the first real combat scene of the game. I had a previous version of it, but it was just awful, so I redid it. I’m glad I did, too. I’m not super fond of the way it is now but I like it much better, so an improvement, at least.
I haven’t really had much time to work on it because of school, but after exams I should have a great deal more, at least during Christmas break. It might be optimistic of me, but i think I could finish the second chapter. So far I have the first three roughly planned out.
As I get further into the game stats factor in more, and I’m attempting to put more choices into the game (I know there wasn’t really much in the first chapter), so it grows more complicated, but will hopefully be a better experience for the reader. I’m getting better. At least, I’m not making indentation errors anymore.
A few questions for anyone who enjoyed the first chapter:
Did you like the choices? Did they seem reasonable? Is there anything else you would have done in any situation?
How do you feel about the characters so far? Any romantic inclinations so far? Relationships aren’t on my to do list for this game, but I haven’t completely ruled it out so far.
Anything in particular you’d like to see happen?
Does anyone have any good ideas for Zaren one liners? Just crazy stuff for him to do. He’s by far the most fun to write, and the funniest to read.
Lastly, I’m thinking about making gender a choice. I’m leaning towards leaving it as is, but I still want to know what you guys think.
Adding gender choice can significantly expand the amount of potential players (and buyers) of your product, it is a lot more work however and you need to have faith in your abilities to convincingly write both genders (unless you do the Broadsides gender flip thing, then it’s purely cosmetic). As for relationships, I haven’t met any male characters who really grab my attention other than Zaren yet (and he’s your main rival, not to say that would definitely rule him out, but it would be tricky to say the least).
It’s always nice to hear something likes my work.