Urban Fantasy Game | Interest Check (POLL RESULTS)

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I’m new to ChoiceScript and interactive fiction in general, though I have written for visual novels before. I’ve wanted to create an interactive fiction game or full-length visual novel for some time now, and I feel I’ve come up with a concept that would work well. Just wanted to see if people would be interested in it!

The general idea: It’s an urban fantasy game where mortals, or humans, and supernaturals live together, but it is far from peaceful. You play a private investigator who finds themself way over their head when trying to solve what they thought to be a simple missing persons case.

Check below if you want more info:

Case

I’m still working out the plot and the major players in it, but essentially the private investigator is looking into a missing persons case that becomes a murder case. From there, they must uncover the murderer, only to realize their case has wider repercussions and dilemmas than they previously imagined.

If this gets too complicated or has too many holes, I might switch up the case and its details. That still remains to be seen though!

Worldstate

The supernatural world had been hidden for decades, but in recent years, it was discovered by humans. More than ten years later, the species are getting along better than before, but tensions are still high. The investigator lives in a bustling city home to both mortal and supernatural species, though they congregate in different areas.

Player character

You can choose the gender and sexuality of the private investigator. Also, you can choose which species you’d like them to be. There are four options decided right now — human, demon, werewolf, and half-siren. Each species will come with a stat advantage and (probably) disadvantage; a vampire investigator would start the game with high charisma, for instance.

As a result, their background will vary, but the investigator is new to the PI business. That fact won’t change.

Love interests

There will be love interests! Essentially, this game is fantasy/romance. I’m still working on the characters, but there will be four love interests, with differing races and genders.

I want romance to be a big part of the game, but we’ll see if I can properly pace/write/code everything, yike.

I want to know if people would want to play this game, as well as if which supernatural species you’d wish to play as. Reservations / advice / other suggestions are welcomed too.

Let me know any thoughts you have!

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I would definitely be interested! :smile:

Question(s), will MC be like Sherlock, ie will they have an in with the local law enforcement or are they just a lowly miserable PI?

And will the perception of characters around us differ race-to-race? Like some races are just considered bad (like maybe Vampires cause blood or Orcs in Bright) while others are a bit more tolerable by their peers

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sound interesting , although I admit lol I was worried we’ll be stuck being a boring human again .

One thing you can do , to make your story stand out…is give a small pool of specie to choose from . Why ? cose then , you can add more stuff to each specie during dialogue or background history .

Like for exemple : why would a vampire become a detective instead of being in a graveyard with lackey and living a decadent life ? lol why would a werewolf be a detective and shed furr everywhere…and does the secretary ever vaccum after you? LOL

also a small pool of specie , will give you a small pool of abilities . especially if this is your 1st time . small is better then big then get over your head with too many stuff to keep track of .

for romance , let me Smooche a succubus!!! the only time I ever had that chance was in Planescape Torment :heart_eyes: I miss ya fall from grace .

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I’m relieved to hear it! :slight_smile:

As for your questions…

(1) The investigator will be closer to a lowly miserable PI, haha. I’m still figuring out how well-known I want them to be at the start of the game, but they definitely aren’t a consultant with law enforcement. The missing persons case is kind of their big break, in a sense!

(2) That’s a great question! And one I hadn’t fully considered, oops. The supernatural races have their own tensions, humans aside, but nothing along the lines of the cliche ‘vampires and werewolves hate each other’. Vampires only feed on humans, so they would get along with other supernatural races… if only most vampires didn’t have such big egos.

To answer your question, other characters may make preconceptions about the investigator depending on their race. That hinges on the kind of person the NPC is. Over time, depending on what you, the player, chooses, their opinion will change. For characters who already have a dynamic with the investigator prior to the start of the game, you can decide early on whether they’re close friends, enemies, and so forth!

Of course, since this game is still in its early stages, these answers are subject to change.

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I like the idea!
The one thing I’d caution against, though, is having too many race choices, simply because that might cause a whole lot of extra work depending on the exact number and how indepth you choose to go with it.

Essentially I guess I think it’s better to have less races but have them have a big impact with characters and interactions and opportunities such, rather than have a huge selection and have it only really affect stats and a few words in dialogue.

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I wanted to set the game apart from others a little, which is why I settled on having options for races. I’m glad you prefer it that way!

As you said, I don’t want to overwhelm myself, so I’m limiting myself to 3-5 race options. Each race will have a different backstory; I was playing with the idea of having the player choose what that background would be, but I think that’d result in too much coding. Though I want there to be a fair amount of choices, so we’ll see what happens!

To be honest, I’m on the fence about whether there should be demons or not. Do I want humans to panic about their existence? :joy: But your preference is noted!

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I love the idea of a sort of “disenfranchised” race. I don’t know about panic, but maybe more akin to teiflings in the DnD universe where they’re looked down upon because y’know… demons.

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I’m so glad you do!

And yes, I already have a lot on my plate in regards to the plot and love interests, so I don’t want to complicate the matter too much. The race options will be limited to 3-5 — I’m focusing on worldbuilding at the moment, after which I’ll make a decision, aha.

The plan is to have the investigator’s race affect the story! It determines their backstory and stats, but I want it to play into interactions as well. I’m planning on it to affect the advantages and disadvantages the investigator has while, well, investigating! (For instance, a werewolf investigator could see in the dark, but they’d have difficulty charming witnesses. That sort of thing.)

Hm, I’d think all supernatural races would be disenfranchised in a sense, but I see what you mean! I do think humans would panic when they learn of demons since most religions have them and aren’t favourable towards them — and that’s putting it mildly, aha.

I’ll play around with the idea though, for sure.

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I am interested in reading/playing this.

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Recently updated the topic post to ask: If you had the choice, which supernatural race would you want to play as?

At the moment, I’m at the worldbuilding stage, so you can reply with any supernatural race — even if they’re not as ‘popular’, such as vampires and werewolves.

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i’d love to be at least a half-siren! even though i’m terrified of the ocean and everything living it in, i’ve always found sirens to be endearing. can’t wait to see what you do with your concept :smiley:

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Sirens aren’t an option I had considered, but I am intrigued by the suggestion! It would certainly be something cool to consider… though I’d go with half-siren if anything, since sirens would likely be confined to the sea. :sweat_smile:

Thanks so much for your interest, by the way!

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So a hot huggable tanuki could be an option then?

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I dont get it . why would human panic ? if we are vampire…are we like hiding the whole time?

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raise hand AS A SUCCUBUS!!! :joy: if I cant smooche one , then let me play as one!

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Off the top of my head… demons, wendigos, maybe some kind of aquatic race?
though, depending how it’s written wendigos might have a lot of overlap with vampires, so that’s kinda questionable (though i love the myth of the wendigo anyway).

Demons I just like for being the sort of downtrodden underdog race.

And aquatic races just sound fun. All the complications that would arise from living on land as a race that usually lives in water. Would they dry out? Maybe they’d have trouble moving about on land. Who knows? It’s open ended enough for interpretation.

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I tend to play as human when it comes to this type of genre but are witches/warlocks considered as a race?

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Can I play as a Lesbian Version of John Constantine? Wise cracking detective joking in the face of death and occasionally kicking serious ass.
Can I play as a bitter alcoholic who doesn’t know why they haven’t put a gun in their mouth yet? like in highway wars

How did you feel about your mission and the words of the militia commander?

I don’t care about the whys. Life’s lost its meaning; I just go through the motions.

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@Adam_VanCleave_Perro Hmm I likely won’t go with tanuki since, while I know a bit about them, I don’t think I want to stray too far from what I know. If that makes sense? I’ll definitely be at least mentioning supernatural races such as kitsune and fairies though.

Thanks for the suggestion, regardless — I almost forgot to incorporate different cultures’ supernatural races for a moment there!

@E_RedMark Basically, humans hadn’t known the supernatural world existed for centuries. It’s fairly early before the game that they realize they do. I’m still playing around with how many years I want it to be. So it’s safe to say they were shocked and panicked by these creatures they thought were fictional.

Succubus is noted! I think I’m warming up to including demons, so we’ll see, aha.

@Gwenstn I won’t be including the Wendigo in the game, unfortunately. The Wendigo is a part of Indigenous folklore, and many Indigenous peoples are not comfortable with people incorporating them in fiction. I won’t say they don’t exist, but I won’t say they do either. Just to make sure I’m not offending anyone!

Aquatic races such as sirens and selkies do exist, though! Thanks for your lovely suggestions.

@resuri08 That’s an interesting suggestion. But magic doesn’t quite exist in this world. Or rather, humans can’t utilize magic. The human investigator will be an ordinary human, though they’d have some tricks up their sleeve… :wink:

@GenecoInheritor As the player, you can certainly decide how the investigator reacts to people and situations. So a wise-cracking, sarcastic investigator is on the table!

As for whether they’ll fit the bitter alcoholic with signs of depression/suicide ideation mold… I likely won’t go that route, because this isn’t the type of game that can explore that as thoroughly and properly as it should be. If that makes sense? Though I will play around with a film noir tone.

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I suppose to have such broken mindset they’d have to have suffered great loss. Played a game with depression and it was interesting but ideation wasn’t in it either just escape into Alcohol and/or drugs