Time of Genius (WIP Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Romance)

I’ve been doing hard work on my game Time of Genius. Here’s a good synopsis of the setup for the story:

You’re the child of a well-respected scientist. In the months before her death, your scientist mother began confiding that all through her life she has heard something she cryptically calls “The Song” - a kind of harbinger to danger, death, and destruction - and it’s only gotten louder and stronger through the years. It’s hereditary and has been in the family line for decades, “and one day,” she says, “you will hear it too.”

After your mother’s death, you’re taken in by your Aunt Marie; “The Song” makes its presence known to you. It guides your life, taking you from home to home, until it brings you to your mother’s alma mater, MCMI. It doesn’t take long for you to learn that “The Song” doesn’t always take you away from danger, but it always takes you to who you need to see, and where you need to be.

There are four romanceable characters, including a spunky engineer, a snarky professor, a billionaire ex-scientist, and a seductress historian. You can play as either male or female (trans inclusive, of course), and can pursue both men and women regardless of your gender.

I’ve currently mostly finished three chapters. There may be some programming issues. I will update as much as I can.

If you want to play the demo and give me some feedback, it’s here https://dashingdon.com/play/truedevilsadvocate/time-of-genius/mygame/

Character creation and first three chapters are up for demo on Dashingdon, now with a save system in place.

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Hey! I’m interested in the game, but I cant’ get past the scene to choose what chapter to play, because chapter 1 doesn’t load

Yup - just spotted that myself. Should be fixed now. Thanks for your interest! :slight_smile:

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When I was in the middle of asking Lexi questions in Room 133, it suddenly jumped to another scene with a Sebastian in a car, I think it’s probably a bug?

So sorry about that. Should be all fixed now.

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Thanks! It looks like a good start, will be watching with interest.

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Since you talked about this in another thread, I wanted to give this a look because it sounded pretty interesting. (Also, romancing a snarky professor? You already sold me.) I got to Professor Thorne’s scene (right at the Mess with him/Think better of it choice) and I clicked the Show Stats button and got the error below:

Screen Shot 2019-12-09 at 8.33.02 PM

I’ll give it another look tomorrow once it’s been fixed it up. I do have one actual note though. I recommend avoid using “had” as much as possible – as in, “had begun,” “what he had did.” It puts everything into passive voice, and it’s very hard to read.

This looks like fun, I like what there’s so far. I’m very curious about what happened in chem class. I also got the same error as trevers17, in the same spot. Also found some other problems:

Summary

Player name doesn’t display correctly at the end:

When returning to the dorm, both “make a dramatic entrance” and “listen quietly” give an error that prevents me from continuing:


I was sold and clicked once I saw sci-fi! Not sure if I’ll romance anyone as I’m mostly drawn to the plot. :thinking: I shall wait for the inevitable angst the song will bring…

Aha anyway found an error near the beginning of chapter one when we’re being shown around the dorm room. For reference, I picked the food option first then went in order for the rest.

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I’m extremely excited to see so much interest :slight_smile: And thank you to everyone for submitting any issues. I believe each of them should now be fixed.

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Another error on chapter 1 listening to our room roommate and Professor talking.

I enjoy your writing – I can’t decide if you mean this story to be a lapooning or if you just mean it to be a bit weird like Douglas Adam style weird … either way, I do think you’ll find a growing audience for your story as long as you deliver on your potential.

Thank you for sharing it with us.

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Oh shoot - Where is the error?

I take that as a compliment for certain :slight_smile: My take on Sci-fi is certainly not an Isaac Asimov style. Humor, romance, and drama are what are most important - so, I find ways to implement those any way that fits.

What bits made you wonder if I was lampooning?

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As I mentioned – your writing has shade of Adams in it but also I see a lot of Piers Anthony’s Xanth series type of humor and maybe a touch of Heinlen’s irony as well.

Ofc – it is very hard to see where you are going with everything with the sample you shared but that was my first impressions.

The game just jumped to another scene with Sebastian and a car after ending the questions with Lexi without asking anything.

I’m back again with more errors. I’ll wait until tomorrow to try again so I don’t keep spamming you…or giving the same bug reports whoops.

Summary

I’m also getting the same error with the ‘jumping to another scene’ with Sebastian. Really jarring going from the room (right after being shown around I think if I remember correctly) to teasing Sebastian haha. He seems cool though.

Text repeats here.

Also this.

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Oi - embarrassing how many errors there are. I’ve fixed the ones recently reported. Thanks for catching them out.

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Found a few bugs:

Summary


It is also showing the two versions of what happened at the class.

And this error:

Don’t be. This always happens with a new demo, especially ones that are far along. If there were no errors to find you’d hardly need beta testers.

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