You can skip the feast. But then you end up seeing the thing with M because you shadow walk against your will to see the scene with him. After that, you hear screams when the Shadowman shows up and you go to see about it. But you do skip the feast this way. And piss off whoever asked you, depending on who it is A gets particularly miffed, lol.
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I this game! The cliffhanger is killing me though. I made a choice and someome died and by goddess if it turned out to he a horrible choice in book 2 and I killed an innocent person I will cry for a thousand years 
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I am terribly sorry for finding this:
when being in a relationship with M, killing Q will lead to M be both alive and dead
And starting ro with G and being in R’s car, causes two arrival scenes of G’s car: namely the default one and the G-romance one
Hi,
Please refrain from using “Chinese” knockoff. You could be critical and honest but kindly convey it in a respectful manner.
Thank you.
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oh man i loved this game. its already in my top 5 hosted games. the wait for book 2 might kill me.
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is Q always a shadow that the others didn’t know about of or did i miss something?
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This is a gentle reminder to please keep conversations directed at the topic at hand and not at the individuals themselves. Focusing replies on the individuals themselves instead of the topic at hand can lead to friction between members and often causes the thread to derail.
Please also remember that it is often not so much what ones opinion is that causes friction, but how one chooses to express that opinion. Using negatively-charged value words are a good way to start friction, as is generalisation and sniping. Personal comments lead to friction and flaming.
@jcury – The use of “Chinese knockoff” is using negatively charged value words … criticism is allowed, but it should be constructive … please keep this in mind for the future.
Sniping back and forth will often lead to the system closing the thread down, let’s avoid this if we can.
*Finally, if you see disrespectful posts please do not reply to them. Rather, please use the report feature and let forum staff deescalate friction.
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Thanks everyone for the comments! I’m still working on the update as much as I can.
I hope it’s okay that I post this. I’m not intending to start any argument and I’m not angry at anyone in particular. But I’m a bit tired, disheartened and don’t want to tiptoe around this any longer.
I’ve tried to keep myself from addressing this too much thus far, but it’s getting pretty tiring constantly being compared to Wayhaven as if I tried to copy it, so here I’m going to list the reasons why it might seem similar:
Before I discovered CoG I was obsessed with Visual Novels: interactive stories that usually comes along with along 2-5 or more love interests, whom you can choose to spend time with and develop romance with while following a story (or you go onto different routes, but that’s not necessarily something I’m as big a fan of as following an overarching plot and having romance as an addition, so to speak).
I originally always wanted to make TSS a visual novel, but I can’t draw and I at the time had no income to pay someone to do the art. So I pushed up the dream of making a VN for a long time.
As I played visual novels a lot, I also found the visual novels that the author of Wayhaven had made, and one of them I really enjoyed. I found Choice of Games because she had announced somewhere that she was making a text-based interactive fiction, and TWC was the first one I read before starting with TSS (EDIT: I completely forgot this at the time I wrote this response, but the first one I read was actually “Affairs of the Court”. That was a very long time ago, and since it didn’t really grip me and I didn’t try out anything else from CoG after that experience, I completely forgot that this game was from the same company. Just thought I’d mention that!). So I was under the impression that CoG was much like Visual Novels in text form, and that’s also how I modeled TSS. After reading more titles (after already having started the story), I realized this wasn’t the case but I didn’t think mine would be the only one modeled that way apart from TWC, which apparantly is the case?
As for the characters: perhaps there are a few similarities on surface level, but that’s because they’re common tropes. A cold and stern one, a happy one etc. Maybe not in CoG, but it definitely is in the Visual Novel world, so I didn’t think much of it or that it would be unusual.
And as for the supernatural element - even though the story, planning and writing on TSS is rushed (for reasons I’ve probably stated earlier), I’ve still had the idea for a long time of another world with shadows. I only added the love interests because I wanted to write romance and because I thought CoG books were expected to have them, like Visual Novels are. I don’t think TWC has that, so I’m not sure about that comparison, but if you’re writing about another world with a different kind of people, it’d be strange not to make the love interests supernaturals, imo.
I don’t know if I covered everything that’s been said. I do understand the comparisons but had I known that these things that I mentioned above only applied to Wayhaven there’s no way I’d have written TSS in this way. Unlike a lot of authors I was never a lurker here before publishing my work so I didn’t know how a lot of them were written, and now I regret it because it sucks being compared so much to someone else in such a negative manner.
Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say.
EDIT: I’ll come back to answer some questions later! I just needed to get this out and now I’m taking a step back for a bit. Again, thank you everyone for feedback 
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Don’t strain yourself out. You’ve done an amazing job. I’m a patient reader, so knowing bare-hand this is not just one book story, it didn’t bother me not to know the secrets behind the characters or the Shadow man. I let my Mc flow with the story, I assumed that they decisions do not have a lot of weight on the main plot, yet. This first book shows a lot of potential for a series, I liked, I played several times and I’ll keep playing it. Besides, I really like Q as a character, is the most interesting as individual. As for the Shadow man… if he doesn’t value life automatically is a villain to my MC, he is a charismatic villain. So, in short, I think you’ve done a great game. 
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I literally can’t collect my thoughts, this was sooo amazing. I love that you can side with the Shadowman.
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@Carawen – Your game is unique and is far from a copy or knock-off of Wayhaven.
The genre your game occupies, dictates certain elements be present… this is common to all genres. The fact that you share these elements with other games in your genre shows us that you know how to write these type of game spot on.
This community has been spoiled … there are a lot of very talented and prolific authors making games for them. They often do not appreciate this.
I view the comparisons to Sera as being complimentary … if they compare your game to one that many consider a fan favorite, then that means yours is of equal standing.
The Choice Script Virtual Novel format that has developed these past few years is going to influence the games that are released afterwards – that is both a good and a bad thing. It also means that at times, there will be non-actionable feedback given.
Those that try to dismiss your work as a “copy” or “knock-off” is non-actionable 99 out of 100 times. When you get this non-actionable feedback, the best thing to do is acknowledge it was given, then ignore it thereafter.
I have always been in your corner and I never once have thought you were doing anything but creating a unique and original game that is of a quality much higher than others recently released.
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I don’t get all the Wayhaven comparisons. The only similarities i see are the supernatural element and the fact their are a few love interests to choose from. And those two are things found in many other titles from this site.
And while i’m here i have to gush about this story. I love it so much and have replayed so many times to see all the possibilities. Gwyndal is my absolute fave though, can’t wait to see him again <3
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Can you rival romance someone, like in dragon age?
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The system you use for romances isn’t even the same one as Wayhaven’s…
I’m not that far in but to be honest, the only thing that really reminds me of Wayhaven is the fact that the cold icy RO’s name starts with an A.
And this A isn’t like that A at all once you get past first impressions.
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Thank you for the clarification, I had no intention to offend. It just jumps out as very alike with many of the aspects of the story. Also there was an error about 70% into the game, I did mail it but don’t know if you got it.
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Hey local lurker here, I wouldn’t worry about people comparing TSS to TWC. The only thing that is similar between them is the genre with them both being supernatural romance mysteries. Be proud of your work.
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Is it weird I’m more worried about what clothes to pick instead of why M is needed?
Also idk if this has been told or not but I found a spelling error. The word to has a z on it.
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This is great I don’t know why everyone’s complaining smh
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Exactly.
Even with first impressions, Azur is nothing like Adam/Ava. Azur is forward, confident, and catches onto the MC’s attraction right off the bat. Not to mention, Azur is way more mature than A!! And doesn’t act like a damned tween angst machine. He also actually makes a move on the MC, instead of sitting around giving longing looks and pouting like a freaking 13-year-old girl. There is only one other romance in HG that I’ve seen done as well as Azur, and that’s Rook, from Breach.
The other ROs have absolutely nothing in common with TWC ROs. R is completely unique, with their shyness and confusion over the MC’s reactions to them. G is very forward and happy, with a great sense of humor, and Q? I’ve never seen anything like Q anywhere, yet. Don’t even get me started on the Shadowman, either. Yeesh, that charm + a bit of darkness = serious hotness…
So @Carawen, don’t worry about naysayers and people making unfair comparisons. What you’ve given us is original. The characters are awesome, the story is intriguing, the world is extremely cool, and two of the romances (or three, I haven’t tried Q yet!) show progress in the first book. That fact alone, sets you apart. Like @Morning-Guy said, be proud of your work. You have every right to be.
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Eyes twitch you take that back about A… 
And let’s not forget the setting, and the MC Job. And friends, and even the vilains.
And to be honest, there is no rules that say '‘Supernatural setting belong to X’ anyway.
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