The Shore of Two Seas (WIP 75k)

[KoegeKoben]

“Play as a gladiator in a changing world. Reclaim the identity that was stolen from you, or forge a new one in the pursuit of freedom.”

Hi folks.

The Shore of Two Seas takes place in a region heavily inspired by North Africa, but which takes elements from various regions and different periods, such as India, Arabia, ancient Greece and Rome, Southern Africa and pre-colonial Australia.

Foreign settlers have constructed city-states all along the coastline and exert their authority all the way to the mountains in the west, all at a great loss to the indigenous population.

You play as one of the Nu, a fiercely independent people inspired by fennec foxes, who was enslaved as a child and forced to become a gladiator in the city-state of Nes Ankar.

The story follows your journey as you seek not only freedom, but also to forge an identity, to replace the one that was forced upon you. It will span a period of several years, telling the story of an exceptional, but rather unimportant individual, as she navigates history-defining events far beyond her control.

My design philosophy for this project seeks to mirror the experience of the protagonist, with themes of disempowerment and deprivation of agency. At the start of the story, key parts of your identity, such as your name, has been forced upon you - But as the story progresses, you will be able to control more and more of these aspects, slowly reclaiming your own personhood.

The story is gender-locked, and I have no plans of changing that, due to specific planned content not making sense otherwise. Exploration of gender is planned to be a rather big theme towards the latter half of the story. Romance is planned as well, with inclusive options.

CW: Racism, slavery, references to sexual assault, substance abuse

Future CW for gender dysphoria.

https://dashingdon.com/play/kgekoben/the-golden-sea/mygame/

[AletheiaKnights]

This sounds amazingly good. I wish you the best of luck with this project.

[Valixon]

I agree with AletheiaKnights while wont have a chance to play demo yet since work lol i defintly shall though when i get the chance. I am looking forward to seeing what you present us and how the story will develop as you delve further into it.

[Basketball_Fanatic]

I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I must say the concept is quite solid. Good luck friend!

[FreeFaller]

I really like it so far and am excited to learn more about the world and peoples. Not sure how far I’ve gotten into what you’ve written so far, but I’m getting an error playing on my phone and can’t get past this page:

Good job and good luck on your writing!

[Tarch]

This is really interesting so far, could you give us some more details on what the Nu look like?

How fox like are they? Do they have a fox like face with a muzzle or a mouth like a human? How much fur do they have does it cover all of their body or just parts of it? Do they have hair or something like it?

[Valixon]

Within the stats screen is a encyclopedia it tells a little bit more about the various races and what there like. Should help with your question mostly

@KoegeKoben apart from the error type message allready mentioned by a previous poster i encountered a line break error during a conversation with the old man.

All in all i enjoyed your writing style and i am looking forward to seeing more going to half to play through it again for there was something else that caught my eye but will half to be for later lol.

[KoegeKoben]

Ah, sorry, thought I had removed it from the demo. To clarify “gladiatoring” is just one of a few placeholder scenes (. You’ve reached the end of the demo so far. I’ll update the demo and remove it.

Really glad you enjoyed it so far.

[KoegeKoben]

I will add more descriptions, but to be frank, I’m still not quite sure on some of the details myself, like whether or not they have tails.

But with the caveat that all everything is prone to change: They have elongated fox-like faces with muzzles (like Fantastic Mr. Fox). Their fur covers most of their body, but not the palm of the hands. They do not have hair.

[ChanceOfFire]

Just taking a break from my own WIP to mess with someone else’s.

I found the following while playing. I’m not sure if it’s an incorrect *if condition or *line_break, but anyway:

The crowd goes quiet. The

s must be presenting the next fight. You can’t hear the words, but you know when your “name” comes up. It is the moment where the crowd begins to boo.

You’ve made your way through the tunnels, and stand before the final gate. On the other side is a choice between life and death.

How do you feel

Minor suggestion, for injuries and scars, I suppose there could be “none” or some other flavor text.

[KoegeKoben]

Thanks, I’ll correct it.

I’ll make sure to add some flavour text at some point, thanks for the suggestion.

Edit: oh wow, it wasn’t even a bug, I just straight up managed to delete a bunch of text.

[kb12]

so i just got finished talking to the guy after our trip to the smithy and then i got an error.

[mowque]

I am really digging the themes going on here.

I found an error here on a page where you beat his head against the sand. (I’d screenshot but I can’t get the pic to load). Here is the text.

'You begin pounding his helmet into the ground. The impacts hurt your hands, but it hurts him a lot more.

He lashes out, trying to strike you, but he is weak, disoriented. You barely notice. You just keep pounding.

The strikes cease, he has gone limp, an opportunity you seize.

You tear off his helmet. His eyes are open. Dazed, fearful.

**rip out his throat line_break break him line_break make him bleed like the others’

[KoegeKoben]

Thanks, will fix that in the next update (which I’ll probably put up at the end of the holidays).

Glad you’re into the themes <3

[KoegeKoben]

-Update 1-

I was originally planning on releasing another 16k words today, but unfortunately, circumstances were against me.

My holidays have been kind of tumultuous. At times, I’ve been too sick to write. While was healthy, I saw a woman die at a party I was attending, and after that, I wasn’t really in the mood to write, especially not about violence and death. So when I finally got back to it, I focused on romance instead. Unfortunately, most of that is relegated to later parts of the story, so although I did manage to write about 10k words, very little of it can be put into the demo yet. Hence, I’ve decided not to update the demo this time around.

Here’s a little teaser for the romance options (so far):
Akli, gentle giant and fellow gladiator from the demo.
The ambitious son of Aeneas, your current master as of the end of the demo
A mercenary captain who’s going through some stuff. What stuff? To quote Robert Jordan: Read and find out.

I also decided on a new name, “The Shore of Two Seas”, as it’s more relevant to the actual plot that I’ve planned (and the cover art that I’m commisioning from a friend). Just like the old name, this one is also a region of the world, but one that is more specific to the plot of the second act in particular, whereas the old name was only

[Valixon]

No worries life comes at us in various ways so defintly understandable and i for one am intrigued to see how those potential romances will come about and how the name change ties into the story plot you have in mind.

[KoegeKoben]

-Update 2-

Finally posting some actual content.

7500 words, the majority of which spans a period of one week in the story. About 1k words belongs to an interlude I’ve added between the prologue and chapter 1.

This new chapter introduces a new character and aims to flesh out Akli a little.

I’ve also added some stats: Aggressive vs Defensive, Monstrous vs Noble, and Disobedient.

I’m hoping to get some romance content into the next update, as well as a bit more content in general. My original goal was to double the word count of the demo by the start of 2024, and that still hasn’t happened. In hindsight I was being a bit optimistic considering that I had exams comming up (and still do). But slow and steady is better than no pace at all.

[coal8]

is saving going to be implemented?

[FreeFaller]

I’ve come across a few coding errors when talking to the old guy. I can bypass the first by picking the other option, but can’t get past the second one.

[KoegeKoben]

If I can figure out how, then yes.

• It’s been added with the help of @ChanceOfFire