What kind of ChoiceScript game are you looking for?

In what context? You are a Supernatural creature, you hunt Supernatural creatures, you study and or observe them? The first two have many games that fit them.

Where do you think it belongs?

I don’t know XP. You are writing it not me and other than that I am really bad it ( I thought I just had to throw it you will expand it).
Edit: Let me read the guidelines again.

In my opinion, a good game is not really determined by its type or genre but by the characters, the story, the choices and the different paths you can take.

So I would like to see a game when I feel I’m free in my choices and the characters are well written and interesting.

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Try changing the title to something more specific, like What kind of ChoiceScript game are you looking for? and move it to the category General or something.

Edit:

What works for me when you’re trying to keep your story a workable size is to write down a general outline beforehand and try to stick with it. Changing the situation the MC is in to something that automatically limits the MC’s possible choices might also help.

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I agree about that. I feel that if you can’t form an emotional attachment to the characters then the game is losing some of it’s potential. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy Bioware games. I always fall in love with the characters.

Thanks for the advice. I renamed it and moved it, hopefully it’s less misleading now.

Darth,

Are you struggling to think of a plot, or struggling to narrow the focus? Both have their own challenges, but keep in mind that these games are inherently and primarily about one character. Start there. Flesh out every iteration of your MC, confident you have created something that people can relate to, and branch out from there. If you ever want to chat about this, PM me. Happy to help.

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Either a badass person in some sort of fantasy place that accidentally gets some magical powers and then sacrifices themself at the end
Or
A badass astronaut in some sort of sci fi place that ends up being almost killed in space but wakes up on some random planet and… Sacrifices themself at the end

(If you didn’t notice, I like games where the main character ,aka you, gets to sacrifice them self at the end to save everyone)

I’d be interested in games where I could be a succubus. I’ll leave peoples imaginations to fill in details :smiling_imp:

That already exists on the hosted page.

@DarthDovahkin, one suggestion I’d give would be to limit the number of characters in the story. Many people (including myself) get too crazy adding too many characters, and it becomes difficult to give them all the attention that need to become three-dimensional people. Seriously, a story with a MC and maybe two or three other main NPCs would allow a writer to really flesh them out and make the game deeper instead of wider.

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Which one? I don’t recall seeing one but I’ve not played all the hosted games.

Edit, never mind, its dancing with demons. Could use more games where I can MC a succubus then :smiley:

There was one called monster high or something, whose author was a mod right?

Ooo old Ideas I never got to do anything with.

Amnesiac android!
who made you?
What were you designed for?
What do you do?
Are there people after you?

or
The Mind Is A Terrible Thing
You are a ‘gifted’ child in a genetic weapons lab
an experiment
a weapon
one day on a routine transfer the train derails and you’re loose
a super-human that has never seen the world
could be a few kids
could fast forward the years the escapee’s all trying to fit in or take advantage of the world
another ‘weapon’ unleashed to hunt you all down.
yada yada yada

Yeah I have more ideas that I can possibly do anything with, feel free.

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Yeah, Sashira has that on hold for now though.

I was wondering what had happened to it…

Speaking of Bioware games, Jade Empire is free on Origin as an ‘on the house’ game.

I particularly liked Choice of Kung Fu (I think that was it) as it reminded me of that game. I find I really enjoyed good plots with interesting characters on here. As for my own ideas, I’ve always wanted to write an epic tale, but I can never quite get the balance right between the story and the interaction. Also, it is difficult to push the story through certain paths without making it so forced, so I admire any author who can write a story with multiple paths that doesn’t feel forced.

When does it start to feel forced for you? I’ve got an epic or two in my head but I’m trying to adapt them to this medium.

Good question, hard to pin it down to any one thing, as it is usually a feeling you get when reading the story.

Obvious ‘dead end’ choices for example, are fine in isolation but when they occur too often can get annoying. Basically a “but thou must” in terms of progression.

Others include, scenarios where very specific events combine to push the story in a specific way - It has to be well disguised, if it is too obvious… Also, oversights by the author, for example if they author creates a choice situation and offers say two or three choices that are similar, yet fails to offer a choice that is obvious for the reader. Champions of the Gods did this one or two times, I think the first one choice was a good example; I wanted to obey my parents but that choice wasn’t available, it was either behave petulantly or outright lie.

I found that when writing an epic, because of the scope, I ended up taking certain liberties with the story direction. If I didn’t funnel it in a certain direction then the story would bloat out of control and I’d effectively write multiple stories within the story. I felt, as a writer, that my abilities weren’t good enough to disguise that. When I re-read my work, it just felt off, like I was going through a certain progression path and I felt my audience wouldn’t particularly like that. Unfortunately I couldn’t think of a way to solve that. :frowning:

Hope that’s useful info.

That’s fair. Though I suppose at that point of no return, the character has to live with the choices he’s made, so I’d forgive an author restricting my options a bit. As long as the choices don’t make me feel tricked in the first place.

My question to you would be, does there have to be an obvious answer for the player? My biggest problem thus far has been making 3 choices all seem viable, not to trick the reader, but to rationalize all the play styles.

I’m sure your good enough to hide plot flow, you already recognize it as a thing. You also see behind the curtain more than the readers do, makes it damn near impossible to suspend your own disbelief around your own work. I know of no writers who happily curl up with their own stories on a rainy Saturday haha. We see warts that aren’t even there.

Bottom line, I hope I get someone as thorough as you testing my work.

P.S. have you heard of Noah Gervais? He’s a youtuber who creates utterly inspired critiques of video games as a storytelling medium. His 2 or 3 hours on mass effect is the best time sink on the Internet when it comes to agency and choice for a gamer. Worth your time.