The Saga of Oedipus Rex (Released)

Thanks for reading, I’m a little confused though by the comments. Do you mean you didn’t marry and it said you never married again?
Orestes is the other tutor :slight_smile:

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During the game i never married but at the end it said that i never married again but that would imply that i already married

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Right, I understand now thanks! I’m trying to weed out a few problems in the last sections after the marriage choice where there needs to be an *if put in if you don’t marry so I’ll change that too :slight_smile:

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I always thought that the major plot of the story of oedipus was the “icky” stuff. I am not saying that this can’t be a good game but, when people think oedipus they think mother******. Once again I’m not saying it can’t be a good game but, the reason oedipus is a tragedy and the main plot in the story is that. Im just wondering if maybe another Greek story would be better for a game rather than telling this story without the main plot point

Perhaps, there’s more to his story though. There’s actually a lot of misunderstanding, probably in part caused by Freud and his “Oedipus Complex.” The whole tale is a lot more complicated than that. I’d hope this helps give some understanding of it.

Well since I’ve already written it, unless I want to scrap the whole story that’s a moot point isn’t it? Not saying you’re definitely not right, it could well get completely canned in the store reviews, I’m just going to have to hope for the best since if I completely railroad it, there’s no choice in the story to be had.

There’s a few plot points that are integral, (arguably the death of his father and the concept of unavoidable fate/divine intervention/when bad things happen to screw over good people, is just as important if not more so to the original text than what the story is “best” known for.) I’ve railroaded some of the the story points to keep it on track overall with the original but being a choice game it’s probably not wise to make only a single ending possible. It’s kind of why I’ve tried putting the tragedy or Oedipus and the story of oedipus there as a first choice so you can play it as the original story if that’s what you want. As an aside, the alternative ending track borrows heavily from the story of Orestes, but I kind of thought the saga of Oedipus/Orestes would have been confusing as a title :slight_smile:

Just out of interest, have you read it?

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Nah I misspoke when I said something about trying a different Greek story, I meant something more along the lines of a name change to the story so that the story is no longer associated with oedipus, in which people have the expectation of “icky” events. I read the project and it was well written, I am just saying that removing such an important plot point from a story can have unwanted effects on a story, and maybe a different plot point is needed to make up for this. Oedipus’s downfall in the end was caused by his unwillingness to stop looking into things he doesn’t have to. His realization of what he has done causes himself to blind himself. I’m just saying that just the killing of Oedipus’s father who he does not know may not have enough of an impact on himself to cause him to blind himself, or even really have a downfall.

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Nods. It’s tricky, there’s a bit of a gap between what belief systems were in ancient Greece and what it is today. At the time this was set, matricide/patricide were considered one of the worst things you could possibly do. Even if you didn’t know who they were or there were mitigating circumstances, it was very, very bad. (Before Orestes with his “mitigating circumstances” and divine intervention came along, it was kind of considered that you would end up dead/insane from that act via the Furies. Enough to make anyone pretty upset even if they were in Oedipus’ position of not knowing who they were.) I’m doing a little rewording to hopefully help convey that more clearly in the alternative path as you’re not the first to bring that up. Blinding is actually not an option if you don’t marry for the reasons you’ve outlined as well. it’s a pretty knee jerk reaction, there’s other things to kind of drive sanity towards the edge that happen otherwise instead of that.

Anyway thanks for the imput :slight_smile: I can see where you’re coming from, I guess I wanted to tell a particular story based on Oedipus’ life but I’ll have to see how it gets received due to that. I need to do a bit more editing to it so will see if I can hopefully make things a little clearer to the reader.

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Hi! i’m back again. Question: is it possible to avoid killing Laius on the first encounter?

And by not doing so, it’s as if he has avoided his fate but then, the gods or fate itself would always find a way to lead him to Laius to kill him. but eventually, Oedipus can see the pattern and begins to question his connection to Laius and then maybe he can seek the truth about this.

It would be great to have this development just so we can show how relentless and keen the gods are on making prophecies come true. Or maybe just show how really capricious and proud the gods are. (they wouldn’t allow mere mortals to deny their power :smiley: )

Probably something like this:

Hermes: Your highness, Oedipus has failed to kill his own father as he should when you arranged it to be so.

Zeus: What the hkfhakdhkasgkdjgl?! Trying to avoid his fate eh? We’ll see if he can avoid this one. By the time I’m done with him, he shall know better than defy my will. APOLLO!

Apollo: Yes, father?

Zeus: hearken to me my son, you shall reveal the same prophecy to the priestess in Delphi about that wretch, Oedipus. And make it known that he can never escape from it no matter what stratagems he might employ.

Apollo: It shall be done, sire.

Zeus: (turns to Hermes) Call my Queen, call my other sons and daughters and all the gods here in Olympus. We shall play a game of “who-can-make-Oedipus-kill-his-father-first”.

Hermes: Yes, your highness!!

Narration: And so the game of the gods began…

It would be nice to see something like this since we all know how shallow the gods are and can be. Case in point: Helen of Troy

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@Mari_Gold Sorry missed this! With Laius I’m probably going to leave that as a locked event. What you’re suggesting sounds really fun though. (Well maybe “fun” isn’t the right word for Oedipus, but from an interesting story point of view…)

I guess you’re not really meant to know who the guy on the road is at first (although people who know the story can probably give it a good guess even on the first play through) and if I start adding sequences in where the Gods start coming and and directly intervening rather than working behind the scenes I’m not 100% sure how to work that into the rest of the story without completely derailing it because the player now knows the full impact of all their decisions from that point onward. I’d imagine it’d turn into a story of who can hunt down Oedipus first among the Gods, but how I’d convey that with and at the same time without clueing in the reader everytime it happens I’m not sure.

Anyway interesting idea, I’ll have a think about it, but it’ll probably end up with a completely different track from the other versions as it wouldn’t fit in with a lot of the original stuff. But yeah, your idea is definitely in keeping with some of the stories out there. There really seemed to be a tendency for the Greek gods to get quite vendictive at times!

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Hi all, I just sent out a message to everyone who has helped with beta testing this game. If anyone who should have got a PM didn’t, please let me know :slight_smile:

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Back to the thought of trying with another story, if this does well and the author is willing I would read other Greek stories converted to choice-games in this style because initially I thought that Oedipus was just a mother******

Hi @Munkee, glad you liked it :smile:
I’ve got a couple of other WIP’s I should finish up after this one, but if it ends up going ok, I’d definitely be interested in writing some more like this in the future :slight_smile:

@Jacic glad you like the idea, though I agree the way I put it wasn’t very low key. Hmm… maybe they could use code names or coded language? For example:

Hermes: Your Highness, the butcher has not killed the chicken!

Zeus: The what?!

(Hermes repeats himself)

Zeus: We don’t have chickens in Olympus!

Hermes: Sire, what I meant is the thing about the uh… prophecy.

Something like that ^

As for the gods, you don’t have to show how they’ll plot Oedipus’ downfall. You can use the above scene only to show that they’re keen on really having their will fulfilled. They can still work in the shadows but of course, the events they’ll orchestrate would have a tendency to fulfill the prophecy.

For example, the player has the option not to marry Jocasta but since the gods are petty, they will do some stuff to have it fulfilled like maybe when Jocasta is with Oedipus, Aphrodite could sway Jocasta’s heart to feel romantically attracted to him (*think Hera turning Heracles insane).

Or maybe a servant spreads some rumors (still influenced by the gods) about the Queen and Oedipus’ relationship and this could be the catalyst for them to talk about their feelings and if either one confesses, they could fall in love.

These are some suggestions though. I just put these out there because the prose is very interesting and every bit of expansion into the story line would make it more fun to read. Anyway, best of lucks with this one!

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@Mari_Gold I kind of did that with Jocasta, although maybe I was too subtle about it? I’m not sure, did anyone catch that? Does it need a choice or something at that point to bring attention to it? Nothing actually happens, but I imply that she’s starting to think about Oedipus as more than just a friend by the time the reveal comes around. I wasn’t quite sure how to write in that she may or may not be under the influence without hitting readers over the head with a pretty blunt “the gods want their prophecy forfilled. Look there’s Eros hanging out in the shadows lining up a bow and arrow…” laughs, I’m not always good at writing that right balance between too subtle and captain obvious, and I didn’t want to force the issue with the MC being attracted to her since the player is meant to have some free will. Kind of. Maybe not a lot in Oedipus’ case :stuck_out_tongue:

Hmm. I guess my problem with making Oedipus’ father an optional thing (at least at first) it is kind of causes all sorts of problems down the track. Like if he’s still alive when Oedipus meets him in the city, that’s going to really mess up the rest of the prophecy, even if he does die later. If he dies earlier, I’d have to try and work out how to get that moved into the story line without derailing it. I think it’s a nice idea, I’m just not sure how to implement it well :slight_smile: (lol @ Hermes talking code to Zeus)

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@Jacic I did feel there was “something” between them especially right before Creon arrived, but yeah, knowing the gods, it could be a little more forceful. Like instead of sending Aphrodite (love) they’d send Eros (erotic love/lust), meaning the attraction between him and Jocasta is merely physical. Since Oedipus’ fate is tragic, maybe the gods would go the extra mile of making his life profoundly miserable by being unloved?..

On second thought… maybe not. I think Oedipus could use a little breather. After all his misery, I think he deserves a bit of happiness even if at the end, it proves to be tragic nonetheless. Gee, I feel so evil just by suggesting it. :smiling_imp::smiling_imp::smiling_imp:

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Yea, @Jacic has a thing for tragic storylines.

@Mari_Gold Cools, I’ll definitely look into that then and see what I can do to make it a bit clearer. Thanks for all the suggestions by the way :smile:

Oh wow, I just realised you’re right. The last two have been real downers haven’t they? (Three if you include my semi secret project which is really just as bad.) Even sea maiden isn’t the happiest story in the world either. I’ll have to make an effort to write something super rainbow happy as the next project I start :sweat_smile:

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@Jacic no problem. Glad I could help. :slight_smile:

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Probably in the final testing stages now. Just finishing up a bit of an extension with regards to the sphinx and an alternative ending. The link has been removed for now, but if anyone would like to test and has time to do so over a short period of time (about a week or so) let me know and I’ll give out the link once the final draft is up :slight_smile:

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A version of the final draft is done. Final call for anyone who has not already let me know they’d like to test, and wants to see if they can make the right decisions to save the sphinx :smile: (This is a short test, probably only running over the next week or two at most depending on the number of changes I need to make.)

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