What's your CoG Story?

It was about last February and I was bored and just happened upon choice of games in the app store while looking for interactive fiction.
Screwed around with the freebies for a while then got a few and loved them then did a quick Google search and found the forum after lurking for a couple day I joined the forum and now I’m here being the easily forgettable background guy.

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CoG has changed my life.

Back in the dark ages (ie my youth) I read a few CYOA books and liked them well enough. I also did some live action role-playing which I was really obsessed with for a while (then, when I spent more time working on my own novels I didn’t need that creativity high any more; I made my own). I’ve been writing “normal” stories and novels a long, long time.

When I realised in January 2015 that I wasn’t well enough to go back to work after kid #2, the only thing I could think of to do was write like fury and search for ways to finally make it pay me something.

A friend pointed me to the large advances offered by the “Choice of” label and by the time I knew I was writing a HG instead, I had fallen in love with the CS system, and my book (Attack of the Clockwork Army) was almost finished. I soon realised that IF pays significantly better than regular fiction - which was a relief, because by then I was fully addicted.

I read a lot of Emily Short’s blog, hung out in the forums here (mainly where people were asking what kind of thing people liked in games eg more gender choices, less aggressive solutions to problems, etc), entered the IF and Windhammer contests, and ended up with two contracted IF jobs (I’m still going with Tin Man Games’ Choices: And The Sun Went Out story, and it’s the best job I’ve ever had).

So, CoG drew me into the world of IF, where I’m having an absolute ball (AND earning a little bit of money, too). CS is still my engine of choice, probably because it’s the deepest, richest, and most bare-bones type of IF. It’s the most book-like IF, where you can really care about characters and what happens to them.

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I have long been a fan of game books (Lone Wolf, Fighting Fantasy, all of them) and tabletop roleplaying games, and I also love any video game which you can ‘make your own’ through character customization and branching storyline choices… but even though I saw several CoG games popping up on Steam, I used to always ignore them, probably because… they looked pretty ugly.

But late last year, after much playing of games “with CYOA elements” like FTL, I was yearning for a deeper experience, where choices actually meant something other than slightly better loot. Community College Hero had just come out and was on sale on Steam, so I got it on a lark and quite enjoyed it. Enough that I decided to try one more… I got Choice of Robots and I enjoyed it enough that I decided to get five more… and so on.

As for my joining the forums, well, I was always interested in interactive fiction, so a place to follow and maybe participate in conversations about the medium is great. And I’m hoping maybe soaking in this environment will eventually motivate me enough to make my own game! I have several times considered making interactive fiction, but I lack the time and confidence in my prose-writing skills. (I’m more of a visual artist, but making a fully-illustrated game is just even MORE daunting)

Someday!

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@Felicity_Banks Hey Felicity, considering I’ve played that, as one of the supposed cannon characters, but without knowing if I’m playing cannon, I was wondering what the name of your book(s) that Clockwork Army is based on, and if I should check the author as Felicity Banks; I’d probably like to order it at the local bookstore (not having any credit cards).

Thank you for that!

The “normal” book is HEART OF BRASS, and I’ve just received word that it’ll be released (in print and digital) in May this year. When it happens, I’ll shout it from the rooftops, especially here.

I wrote HEART OF BRASS in 2011, and chronologically it goes before “Attack of the Clockwork Army” (written in 2014). I now realise I made various time and space errors, but for the three people who read HEART OF BRASS and then “Clockwork Army” it will be super fun :slightly_smiling:

They both overlap slightly with “After the Flag Fell”.

When HEART OF BRASS comes out, I’ll make sure non-Australians can get physical copies if they want them.

(The most reliable way to know when I release something new is on my big-announcements-only mailing list via fellissimo@hotmail.com. I also update IF stuff at IFDB, and have a tag on my blog specifically for the steampunk Australia stories).

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Thank you. US citizen, m’self. I didn’t realize it wasn’t published yet, though. Ah, the anticipation! I’m sure it’s greatest for you~ working on my own story, I find I’m always most excited when I’m about to release and update, and enjoy all the rush of wonderful commentary.

I think it will be fun to read Heart of Brass, and then play Clockwork Army in a manner true to the character(s) in the book. Because… I want to. XD

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Yeeeeea old timers 4 life :sunglasses:

So let me start of by saying this is the first time I haven’t started a topic before so I don’t know if this is the right place or not but anyways as the title suggests I was curious as to see what your first CoG /hosted game that you remember playing and If you can’t remember that is totally fine as well. Mine was the great tournament

My first Hosted Games is Silent Gear, and my first Choice Of Games is Sixth Grade Detective

Mine was ‘Choice of the Pirate’ (which I still hold dear) even though it was off to an odd start, as I worried (due to how it had been advertised over on tumblr) that it’d be obnoxiously preachy. Gracious hells was I surprised positively :smiley:

Oh I haven’t heard of that one, sounds interesting

I think after the great tournament choice of the pirate was close behind (I think )

Mine was Choice of the Dragon. It was mentioned on Can I Play Gay?, and I thought it would be fun playing a dragon.
Then I ending up buying more than half the games available, and then I found out there was WIP’s as well, and have played through maybe 80% of those. :smile:
Now, I’m working on making my own games.

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I think mine was Choice of the Dragon or Choice of Romance, but not when it first came out. I want to say I found them back in 2011 on jayisgames.

I honestly can’t remember what’s my first HG is. All I know is that I discovered them a lot later than Dragons/Romance.

Mine was Heroes Rise: The Hero Project. I played it right through a few times, and then said, “I can do that.” Then I sent a query in to CoG a few days later.

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Mine was Choice of the Dragon in like 2013 probably. I didn’t know CoG had other games at the time and about a year ago, a friend of mine reintroduced me to CoG with Choice of the Vampire and I’ve been hooked ever since :blush:

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Choice of Romance was mine, I’m still sad about the ending of that one :cry: Couple the title with the description saying I could play as a lesbian and I was sold, after that I played all the rest that featured f/f relationships then came to these forums looking for more. I lurked for a few months before I started posting then shortly after I met the love of my life @anon57826008, now here we are almost a year later and I’m so glad I found that first game :heart:

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Choice of the Dragon in 2011 was my first COG; first HG was either The Race or Zombie Exodus, but I don’t remember as it took me a little longer to try those. And I said the rest upthread.

Well I’m not sure how to say this(cause my choice may be too bad) but my first IF game was MetaHuman Inc and I really liked it… I was looking for supersoldier-y game on Play store but didn’t want to play FPS on phone cause I hate them (on everything non-computer/console :expressionless:. ) then I skimmed through a few other games and lurked around for sometime (without an account) but community wasn’t as big as it is now so I got bored and only came up to see new releases (on main page not forums) then not so long ago I came back and saw it was sprawling with people from all over and quickly picked up on Monsters then Oval Office and before I knew it I was a regular :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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My first CoG was Cannonfire Concerto which I discovered through playing Alter Ego. It had an option to see other games and I’ve been hooked ever since. My first HG was Evertree Inn.

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