Well , my PC was broken and kinda got bored of playing hearthstone on phone so decided to browse playstore for something new and stubled to choices of dragon then got kinda addicted to em
2-3 years back i installed delight games thinking it was a visual novel collection started reading it and liked it then searched for similar apps and there were a lot of CoG HG suggesions but magium caught my eye played it by then i was hooked over TEXT games so i searched it again and started reading the Hosted games ( I read CoG a lot later ) and almost a year after delight games i found out about forum and Here i am
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I found ChooseYourStory.com first, and someone over there mentioned that one of my games was similar to the types of games you have here or COGā¦ So then I came here. 
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Search engine for some variant of the name for the type of game. It was a while ago. Canāt remember what exactly I searched. I ignored it for a while because I disliked the idea of having to pay for games that honestly felt far too short for being worth paying for.
These days Iāve bought most of the main games and hosted games. Theyāre decent fun and the prices arenāt that bad.
Searched for something - was looking for something other than AA[A] kill-'em-all-on-sight kind of game - and found, I think, Apex Patrol. Not only free, but I could pick gender too. Then I played and has been hooked on CoG ever since.
I had seen a few CoG and HG games on the App Store as I browsed the Top RPG lost for ideas, and been tempted by Psy High and A Wise Use of Time. Never bit, because I was unsure about the stats, having never experienced IF as anything but my childhood collection of CYOA books.
Some time later, I had an idea. Not that unusual, even for me. But it struck me as a very good idea. Better than any creative one I had to date. It was for a SRPG or possibly RPG, with an absurd premise, and hopefully some fairly engaging gameplay. I have zero knowledge about gamemaking, though, so I had to go about looking for someone who did. But easier said than done. As a single income family with two little girls, my inability to provide much upfront renumeration was poison to finding willing collaborators.
While posting about the search on the forum where I used to play D&D, a couple of users mentioned that I should try to make it on my own, and to start down that road I should make a simple game myself. During that conversation, one person unwittingly changed the course of my creative career by mentioning Choice of Games. I came here in June, saw the contest, and knew I had to do this to see if I could. And here I am! I still want to make the RPG someday, but just being able to complete something of this magnitude has been huge.
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TvTropes. Because that is the source of all true knowledge.
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The owner of hanako games mentioned that choice of deagon as a free game, and then I found choice of broadsides and that sealed the deal for me. Choice of vampire was just icing on the cake. Im glad those games were free then cause it lead me to this site.
I had stumbled upon Choice of the Dragon by chance. It was an incredible adventure and since then Iāve been enjoying the works from Choice of Gamesā authors. Perhaps I shall contribute to this community with a production of my own, but I write for my own pleasure, and whatever I wish to see. If I were to create for others, and not myself, I would have to take into consideration whatever they may wish to find in a world of mine. Moreover, I doubt I have the patience to hone the art of coding an interactive novel and to work on such a piece in a steady manner.
The CoG game that brought me here was actually Evertree Inn by @ThomB I soon found other games on the app store and got hooked by many of them, mainly The Lost Heir, Life of a Wizard and Zombie Exodus, to name a few. I never thought I`d begin to attempt writing a story, yet alone half-coding one until I found this forum!
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Itās pretty boring, really. I saw one of their games on textadventures.co.uk, where I first found the idea of IF, and how I found it was through my sister. Some of CoGs were posted there, including Slammed.
When I found out that some of the games there were made through one developer, I visited the site and I think when I first saw it, either Choice of the Petal Thrones or Hollywood Visionary was there. I was a kid back then, so I didnāt understand any of them too much, and a foreigner at that. But I did go through all of the demos of almost all the games there. I was a broke, but idealistic kid.
What inspired me to stick with the genre was 80 Days (an IF based on Jules Verneās French novel), and I replayed that game again and again, consulting Merriam-Webster for words. That was how I developed my English, although you can imagine that it was wonky because it was structured differently than modern English (it was set in the 1800ās, IIRC).
From there, I became a devoted fan of CoG, once I was able to understand most of it. A fan who wasnāt actually able to play any of the games, although I did check in daily to see what was new and played their demos.
I still do that mostly, but I played some of the more well-known ones.
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Alright, you caught me! I just wanted to be a little noisy about everyone, but if it helps, the very first COG I have ever bought was Psy High.
So, hereās the thing, I was literally new to COG, didnāt know about the forum, didnāt know that there were actual people running customer support, and I most certainly didnāt know that I only needed to buy once and I could play it on any other device.
What did I do?
Wellā¦ I bought PH on Amazon, however, my phone wasnāt compatible with the actual app, so I bought it on my tablet. It wasnāt compatible there, either. I tried every single device in my house until I was down to my very last dollar on Amazon and the only thought that went through my mind was āI need to buy this game even if itās the last thing I will ever buy on Amazon.ā
YES, I KNOW it was a bit too dramatic and if I did a little bit more research, I couldāve found out that I could contact COG themselves and asked what was going on, but past Pizzamarket didnāt care a bit.
Past Pizzamarket wanted that game even if they had to spend all their allowance on it.
So, I decided, āYou know what? I am going to log into my Auntieās account, send my last coins to her wallet, buy it, and play it on her phone.ā
Can you guess what happened?
IT DIDNāT WORK. AT ALL.
I was frustrated, I bought the game so many times and Amazon just hated my family devices for whatever reason, and I knew I needed to get that game because I didnāt want to spend my life just rereading the demo.
So, I decided to buy a new phone, save up all the coins I can get my hands on, go to a store, buy a gift card, and buy it once more, this time from the actual app store.
My friends, if you have stuck around reading this all the way to the end, you should feel accomplished when I say, I finally bought the game, I finally played the game, but I never got to actually finished the game sinceā¦ I stumbled on 6th Grade Detective and I wanted to play that game also.
Hehe, but you can say, 1000 points for Team Amazon, 1 point for Pizzamarket.
Take that, non-compatible device company! I am joking, I love Amazon still!
TL;DR: I bought Psy High on different devices, on different accounts, but I still didnāt get to play the game until I bought a new phone and bought it through the app store.
Thatās my crazy ride of buying a COG/HG game, whatās yours? Is yours crazier than mines or did you went the easy route and bought it? What stood out the most that made you really want to buy that game?
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Hero Rise and then Doomsday On Demand
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Started with Delight, and was okay, but disappointed in available choices. Was recommended Tin Star after watching Westworld. (I know, not the same!) However, many Steam Wallet reloads laterā¦ I am hooked on the CoG brand!
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Tl;dr : Came for money, stayed for community.
It was monie$$ (please dont murder me) the reward for the IF contests caught my eye and I though āthis is intresting, how does this work?ā Then I spent the next few days learning choicescript and wellā¦ interacting and growing a good impression of the community (they even gots me the new user of de month badge yeeee) so money baited me and then community swallowed me.
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Played Creatures Such as We. Then UnNatural. Then Zombie Exodus. Then Choice of Robots. Then, before I realized it, I was in deep these text-based games. Theyāre like a rabbit hole sometimes.
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Mecha Ace. Had just finished the original Zeta Gundam and the movie version twice over and wanted something to fill the void. The game was far more exciting than I had anticipated and also helped me get more into visual novels.
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Many of us have torn off the band-aid, taken the plunge, thrown all caution to the wind, and broke the ice to become members of the CoG/HG community. After observing the forum for more than a year, many CoG/HG authors have finally convinced themselves to sign up and be involved to write and publish their own stories. Many expressed their nervousness in doing so, only to feel happy later on because of the excellent support and feedback the community offered.
I am no different. And as my first step in being apart of this community I ask:
- What motivated you to step out of your comfort zone and join CoG/HG?
- How has the community helped you in becoming a better writer, reader, or person in general?
- What advice can you give newcomers?
Iām looking for responses from both inexperienced and experienced writers/readers/players.
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As you said, the community here is so supportive and welcoming: I rarely if ever see in-fighting or arguments or even negative feedback, and everyone is really lovely and supportive. Any ānegativeā feedback I have seen (within the community itself) is usually constructive, so I was excited to step in to this forum that just felt so warm and positive and share my work with others.
I think my days are so positive and fun when I get to check in and see what everyone is up to here: I really feel like Iāve made friends in the community, and the topics here are often full of interesting and open-minded discussions, and that affects my day-to-day attitude and interactions with others. I also thinkāin terms of writingāthat having people read your work will inevitably help you become a better writer. Iāve become more mindful of details I wouldnāt have considered because of feedback I got on my WIP.
Learn to sort whatās helpful, constructive advice/feedback from advice that might bloat your work. You are ultimately the author of your story, and you have an artistic vision that you want to carry out: otherwise you wouldnāt be writing that story in the first place. While you can (and should) tweak your vision according to good feedback you might receive (this character doesnāt feel consistent, the pacing of this scene feels too fast), sometimes overenthusiastic readers/fans may ask for things that just donāt fit your vision (a villain path, another RO, a parent who could be gender-flipped, more choices in x y z). If youāre not passionate about those kinds of requests, or if they donāt fit your vision of the larger work, donāt feel pressured or obligated or held accountable by your readers to include stuff.
You know your story best, so while you should keep an open mind and absorb feedback, donāt ever feel as if youāre not in control of your work. That is the #1 reason I feel some people (especially new writers) lose passion or momentum for their projects and abandon them. They open them up to too many opinions and try to please everyone, or allow themselves get carried away by visions of grandeur, causing the game to become too complex/bloated to keep moving forward. Have a really solid idea of what you want to do and how you will execute it before you open yourself up to advice and suggestions. Donāt let anyone else dictate what you should do next.
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Welcome to this part of your interaction with the community! The best advice I have is to ask lots and lots of questions, and donāt be shy as you learn Choicescript. This community is really quick and thorough with helping out.
My own comfort zone is really big and includes multiple neighborhoods, so I rarely have to step out of it. Butā¦I started posting here after I finished writing MIdsummer, to learn more about peopleās responses to my gameāI didnāt look at the community much before handābut I wish I had! It wasnāt really on my radar much beforeābut now I use it all the time to learn from way more experienced coders and writers and help out where I can.
In short, if you like to help others, and you want to meet a lot of friendly people, this is the right place.
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