I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but @Vendetta, do you have any idea when you’ll be submitting the next part of the story? I’m dying for an update, my friend.
It may be possible towards the end of the week but more likely sometime over the next weekend. I really want to have four full “weeks” available for some vital feedback on that whole aspect of the game, as it’s intended to be a regular feature throughout the rest of the game so it’s important to get it right from an early stage.
Problem is, it’s proven to be by far the most complicated scripting I’ve attempted so far, so I’ve spent much more time hunting down & squashing elusive bugs than I’d planned for. On the positive side, it’s all coming together nicely now and I’m very happy with recent progress. 
Can’t see why they wouldn’t want to host this, it fills a genre gap and is absolutely fantastic.
There is actually a “pitch” process for wannabe designers, whereby one submits a general outline to CoG in advance. However, I knew that my preferred idea (this one!) would not tick all the boxes (lack of gender option, for instance)–and may even tick some negative ones due to the subject matter and character type (a bad guy in a basically nasty world)–so I thought it best to complete a fair chunk first and thereby let them properly weigh the pros and cons.
Besides, I also wanted to be certain in my own mind–not being a programmer type at all–that I could actually pull this off . . . I’m happy to say there’s no longer any doubt on that particular score.
To be honest, I think they’d be absolutely foolish not to pick this one up. As others have already said, this is easily one of the most impressive ‘demos’ on the site, and it seems to have the potential to just run and run.
I’m honestly quite surprised that gender selection is one of the ‘requirements’ for submission to COG, although it’s nice to have, it often seems to have little or no impact on some of the COG I have played, at least not in sense I would have expected.
I say take your time and continue to hone it, already what’s been achieved is excellent and a fantastic show case for what choicescript can do given the time, patience and skill. On a personal level, I’d rather not have the gender choice, the trade off being a really tailored experience instead of a rather bland, generic one. I might be biased because my own project doesn’t currently cater for gender selection (mine’s also a bit risky given the default role is as a female), but there are good, justifiable reasons for that - as I think there are with Vendetta. I would certainly consider implementing gender selection later on, but only after refining the ‘default’ experience and making it as good as it can be.
Well CoG’s usual solution to gender selection of just making it be completely meaningless does leave a lot to be desired.
@Vendetta: I think that method’s a good one. Get your game made and popular among the forum community, and they’ll be more likely to accept it on the site.
Nightmare Maze, one of the hosted games, has no gender choice, and has a reference to a wife hardwired in. Did it just get grandfathered in?
I’m not so sure myself that CoG are actually opposed to games with no gender choice, if there actually seems to be a good reason for that decision (as opposed to sheer laziness on the part of the designer). I suspect it’s also probably as much a business decision as anything–on the very solid grounds that the broader the appeal, the wider the potential market. There’s nothing wrong with a simple, commonsense approach to marketing your brand, which is what I believe this actually boils down to.
In Vendetta’s case, however, there is no escaping the fact that the target audience is probably 95%+ male and predominantly those with at least a passing interest in the prohibition era, gangsters, or organized crime in general. Some will just enjoy playing a bad guy for a change, free from real-life inhibitions and morals–i.e. pure escapism-- and hopefully some will also just enjoy “the story” on its own merits, with little consideration given to the actual subject matter.
All that said, the only thing I feel absolutely certain about is that for many of the main, actual target audience, adding a female character option would bring the credibility of the work into question. Many would, I feel, find themselves asking: “How realistic a portrayal of the era can it actually be if it allows you to play Alice Capone?”
Right or wrong, that alone would be severely mocked on the “target audience” sites where I one day intend to focus my efforts in promoting and advertising this game. I’m simply not prepared to shoot myself in the foot after all this effort, so that’s not a compromise I’m willing to make.
The question then is: “How realistic is a game ?”
Since it’s a game and YOU are the writer, you decide the universe of the game. You decide upon the setting. So, it is only your decision whether to make it realistic or not.
Like you said and you are probably right in this case: Your target audience is 95% male, but if you allow for a female character, you’d get that extra 5%, since you would get a broader appeal to your game. It doesn’t detract from the game, since people can choose to play whichever character they want.
Especially, since another point is that it’s relatively simple to do- i.e. create himher, heshe variables and just call those whenever your character speaks or is spoken too - there is little reason not to do it.
While I’m not saying you should do it, as I see no real problem in making a game with just a male or female character, I’m saying that your argument for not doing it is quite weak in my opinion.
Would people NOT play Skyrim, because they have the choice of being a woman ? Would people NOT play Fallout, because they have the choice of being a woman ?
Most likely not.
Would people MAYBE play Fallout/Skyrim, because they have the choice of being a woman ?
Most likely yes.
So to finish this long rant. The only REAL problem I see is the extra work needed to add variables and put it inside the text. Now, for me that’s the real question that should be asked. And then the answer is all dependent on the writer of the story, which in this case is you.
My 2 cents.
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It’s a fair summary of the opposing argument, granted, and if that were my only reason then I would have to agree with you: on it’s own, it’s not a particularly strong one. I mentioned that particular one here only as an extension of the discussion on CoG’s possibly-commercial reasons for encouraging gender choice, this being my own “commercial” reason for choosing not to have the option.
My other, far more varied reasons have been stated repeatedly in the previous Vendetta thread–and I’m certainly not going down that road again!
How is chapter coming along.
Eh, if those short games like Dilemna and Nightmare Maze were able to get hosted without gender choice, I’m confident this’ll be able to do so.
No problem, like I said, I don’t really mind either way. Was just giving you my opinion on that point
Good luck with the game and looking forward to the next chapter.
@Rogar It’s coming along fine, only slightly behind schedule by my going back over Chapter One again and making some changes there as well, including adding one or two new scenes & variations. Still on track for a big update this coming weekend.
@13ventrm We can but hope so. I’m comfortable with the ChoiceScript system now (although still learning almost daily, it must be said!) so the future is very promising, especially as I always have more ideas for new games than I could ever hope to complete in my lifetime.
@Pladio The net would be a pretty boring place if we all had exactly the same opinion on every subject. 
I must admit, one of the things at the very heart of my stubborn stance on the subject is a growing desire to convert / rewrite the entire game, upon completion, into “Vendetta: Rise of a Gunmoll”, where the only gender choice is female. I think I would very much enjoy the challenge of trying to write from the point of view of a tough woman in what is predominantly “a man’s world”, with the protagonist having to overcome what seems like insurmountable odds and the prejudices of the era, and those of its underworld culture in particular. The bulk of the main storyline would remain the same, as would the main options for the most part, but the different character interactions and some additional options stemming from those would make for interesting variety.
I know it’s still not quite PC, it would not address all the issues concerning / reasons given for supporting gender neutrality in these games, but I do honestly believe that it would be far more interesting than the usual, bland, everyone’s-the-same approach. We’re not all the same; we don’t look, think, act or react the same, and those differences are what–to me–actually makes life interesting.
Are there going to be assassinations in the game?
Absolutely–your own, if you’re not careful. 
Seriously though, yes, you will definitely find yourself in situations where certain aims are easier to achieve by the removal of obstacles, usually taking the form of rivals or someone else standing in your way (such as a political figure). Likewise, two of the main three storylines will involve carrying out hits under orders, either for promotion (to ‘make your bones’ / prove yourself) or for some other reward. The third main storyline is slightly different, however, as for that one you choose for yourself whether or not to take on a particular hit, purely for monetary reward and increased respect in the underworld.
You’ll have to figure out for yourself which of the main paths is which . . . although it’s not really too difficult to determine that, from just some early scenes in Chapter One.
Awesome as I shall not consider myself a true gangster until someone tries to assassinate me. of course if I survive I hope to get revenge
uuurgggg update cravings .
Vendetta said this weekend, which would be a great birthday present for me.