(shelved) Feast of Fools

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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For 40 years, the Ardent Coast has been ruled by the Lyssian Empire with an iron fist. Instead of anarchy, peace and prosperity set the country’s agenda now. But not all people thrive under this new government.
You are one of the few remaining Oracles in the world, plagued by nightmares that leave you in confusion. Until one day, you find yourself face to face with someone unexpected who only raises more questions than answers. But it’s impossible for you to refuse your help.

So, this is a little different than Mina. This time it is make-believe land and you’re going on a journey that’ll change your life.

Here a few things about the game:

  • You can choose the MC’s gender. They can either be nonbinary, female or male.

  • There are four romances. One male, two female, and one gender-switchable RO. None of these are restricted to any gender.

  • This’ll be one game, no series.

  • The world is heavily inspired by Mediterranean countries and there are a few elements of magic and mystery.

  • It’s a mix of adventure, mystery, and romance. Some passages will be funny, others scary.

  • I am still not a native English speaker, so there will be grammatical errors. Also coding bugs. I’m terribly sorry in advance :disappointed:

If you end up trying the demo, I’d love to receive some kind of feedback! :sunflower:

Current word count (8th July 2020): ~3k words

Anyways, enough talking. Here are the links:

Demo | Kofi | Tumblr

Feel free to ask questions!

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The ideas of a mercenary company falling on tough times because of a lack of war is an interesting and unique idea. I’m intrigued so far

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Typo

Screenshot (130)
Screenshot (130)1366×768 27 KB

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I love the idea . It definitely looks interesting. I am intrigued to play more

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Loved what’s available so far! The dynamic between the PC and Daria and Ezra is cute. I wonder if the PC knows about Riker’s deeds at the beginning?

Also, there seems to be a bit of a mix-up between the stat changes for after you help the kids with the goats at the beginning. The “great work you two” choice led to an increase in solitary and ruthless, whereas the “yeah yeah” choice led to an increase in sociable and compassionate.

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One thing I’m curious about: if the area has been that peaceful since the conquest 40 years ago, how has the mercenary company survived? Or has it been a more gradual pacification, with conflicts not fully drying up just recently?

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I love it so far! I’m curious about the MC’s upbringing and if they know about what Riker did or have any clues about their own past.
The interaction with Daria was short, but I’m already in love with her, she seems so sweet. I think I’m gonna love to hate Ezra, he’s going to drive my MC crazy and I’m looking forward to that. The dialogue felt natural and dynamic in all the interactions I’ve had so far.

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Oh gosh I love this! The characters are so interesting and I’m already in love with Ezra :heart: Can’t wait for more, keep up the good work!

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I love story I wonder how it’s going to play out for a character the people in the room found out mc had the thing they viewed as a disgrace and they would kill someone if they had it now I’m wondering if those two people are just going to cut the Loose Ends after they complete their mission with our group of mercenaries after finding that out but time will tell I’m enjoying the story right now in the first chapter and you did a good job Fidere

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Aaah, thank you to everyone!! :purple_heart: I’m glad that it is so well received :sweat_smile:

If you don’t want me to tell you don’t read the following part, but no. The MC doesn’t know what Riker did. I tried to make it subtle with the first sentence in the first chapter, it says that your parents died during a summer fire. That was what Riker told the MC.

Ah, yeah. Nope, the country was taken over 40 years ago, yes. But the process of pacifying took longer, it’s an ongoing process. The far-out regions are still rebellious.

And I am so glad that you like Ezra so much! He is a real pain in the ass, and it’s so funny to write him and the MC interact. :laughing:

@Takashi_Shin I guess, we’ll have to wait and see … :woman_shrugging: :relaxed:

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Sounds interesting I’ll check it out know

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Promising start, wish the mc could do fancy clothes himself, ah well…maybe later, eh?

I’m more interested about that ring the mc’s got than the fire that killed their parents.

From what I can deduce the mc’s parents seemed to have been simple peasants who built their shack in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tragic, certainly and the fire scar isn’t nice but I do think my mc is happier being able to fight and being a mercenary than he would have been as a peasant serf.

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Okay, posted it on tumblr, should probably post it here as well :sweat_smile:

(badly) Introducing the ROs

:bow_and_arrow: Daria - Out of the four, the MC knows Daria the longest. She’s very optimistic, fun and adventurous. She’s around the MC’s age (mid to late twenties), has hazel eyes, freckled tawny skin and unruly chin-long golden hair, that she braids back. One braid on each side of her head to keep the locks out of her face. She’s with 5′3″ the shortest of the bunch, but that doesn’t stop her in any way. She’s still a badass. Her romance route follows the friends to lovers trope.

:hocho: Ezra - His charm and flamboyancy don’t make up for his idiocy and bullying, sadly. Ezra is… difficult. He loves to get on the MC’s nerves. He just loves being on top. His long platinum hair, his icy blue eyes, the fair skin - that’s all a sick joke of nature. He’s pretty, yes, but also an ass. He’s 5′10″ tall, lithely built and in his late 20s. His romance, to no one’s surprise (hopefully), is a “rivals and lovers” one. Not a ‘to’, an ‘and’, you hear me?

:muscle: Hector/Helena - As the 'leader’ of the mercenary trio, they are considered to be a true fighter with a level head. They are in their early 30s and 6′3″ tall. H. is quite muscular with starkly tanned skin. They have steely grey eyes and dark brown shoulder-long hair. They act calm most of the time, but inside they’re quite the opposite. When you tease them too much, they will eventually snap. Their romance is more of a “love at first sight, but neither wants to admit it” kinda situation.

:mortar_board: Ziba - She’s quite the opposite from the others. She’s not a fighter, but a scholar. She knows stuff and loves to learn more stuff. She seems like there is a stick up her butt, and that might be right, but once she defrosted a bit, she’s actually pretty cool. She’s 6′1″ tall and in her early thirties as well. Ziba has black skin, dark brown eyes and very long braided black hair. Her romance path starts out a little slow but blossoms once you’re past the initial awkwardness.

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Or, basically Ava/Adam from TWC :joy:

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Riker’s as a mercenary is understandable actually he’s not some monster he’s just a person trying to do his best to keep his people alive any mercenary leader there are mercenaries leaders that go too far but Riker’s actions in the story show that he cares in his cruel way but more differently than others

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Looks like fun so far!

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Hello everyone! I have an announcement to make …if you want to call it that? :sweat_smile: :see_no_evil:
Anyways, I put the story as it was through quite a lot of changes. Because I realized that it wasn’t really working out. I needed to change some major things in order for the game to become what I wanted it to be.
So, what does that mean for you? Well, the first version of the demo is completely invalid. The MC is no longer a mercenary, no longer the surrogate child of Riker. Instead, they are an Oracle, basically getting thrown into the fray without a proper preparation period.
The ROs remain pretty much the same. With one exception. You will be able to choose Hector’s gender now, and he will have the role of the leading mercenary who the MC was before. Everything else you will discover in the game.

I can totally understand if you lost interest in the game now, given the changes. But maybe you will still give it a try?

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Aww…I really liked being a mercenary, now it seems like the mc is a helpless damsel in distress instead.

Indeed, but since the training the mc had was basically their entire childhood I do feel the mc is kinda useless now as old (well middle but in the old days our middle age was old) age will start to catch up before they can ever become a semi competent adventurer by now. I also miss the old rivals relationship with Ezra, before it wasn’t so bad because the mc was trained too and was indeed a rival, now it seems like it will simply be one sided bullying as the mc now doesn’t get to give as good as he takes.

The motivation for the mc is also weaker, risking their lives for a dream and unlike in the old scenario there will be no monetary rewards either beyond maybe a pittance the mc can get for cooking and cleaning up after the mercs.

So, yes, I did like the old demo far better as I feel the mc’s motivations are really weak now. I mean it’s not like the mc can do any other magic, so I feel it is entirely valid for them to believe the seizures are more of a sign of mental illness than visions from the gods.

Yeah, but she’s a scholar (and she’s actually getting paid for this shit too), from our new starting circumstances in the shack it doesn’t seem like the mc is particularly well-educated either and getting an education at this point has the same drawback as fighting skills in that the mc would be middle aged before they could boast of a passable one as a scholar or scientist. It would be slightly more valuable than martial skills because old and middle age aren’t as much of a drawback to scientists and scholars but right now that is still only a thing the mc could maybe strive for in the epilogue rather than a valuable asset they have right now.

I still feel like to the others the mc is likely to be perceived by the others as an entirely unskilled crazy camp follower (and let’s not talk about the other thing camp followers commonly did for mercs in the old days besides cooking, cleaning and polishing their boots as that would really give Ezra somehting to lord over the mc and not in a cute way). :unamused:

I get what makes the archaeologist/scholar a valuable addition to a team of mercs/looters but the mc just seems like a crazy unskilled kid with a mental or physical condition that causes frequent blackouts to boot, so they’d be more of liability. And the pittance they’d historically get for risking their lives as a camp follower means the mc really can forget about having fancy clothes now, because the “pay” as a camp follower would barely be enough to survive on and unlike Ziba I don’t see them getting a full cut now.
So in other words a lot of polishing of fancy merc boots in the mc’s future but they’d still be barefoot and in rags themselves. :unamused:

The trouble with them being what I think they are, aka more visions would be that the mc would still be entirely passive they’d be following commands from the godess or their crazy subconscious, depending on whether they believe those visions to be genuine or not but there is still little active agency in them.
And if the other mechanic (I can think of anyway) is the mc suddenly discovering magical talents more suitable in combat that still brings them back to the same dilemma they’d face with physical prowess that they’d still be utterly untrained and unskilled at wielding them. :thinking:

The new story also drastically alters the ro’s because the mc’s relationship to them is much more unequal now all the ro’s are superior to the mc now, whether socially, financially, physically or intellectually which makes them all enter unequal relationship territory now.

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Yeah, I really understand what you mean. Some of those points I thought a lot about myself before I ended up changing the story. :weary:
There will be a lack of physical prowess, yes. That’s something I kind of regret, but I have alternative game mechanics for that, and I am trying to give the MC a bit more fighting skills over the game. But Ziba is as well not a fighter. So I think the mercenaries will have to deal with that - after all their job is to protect the scholar (and the MC) because both are valuable team members (they have to gather information and not punch the temple, after all :joy:)
But the biggest problem was that with the mercenary!MC the story would have either gotten stretched out in the wrong parts or cut incredibly short. The middle would have been endlessly boring, sadly. And it would have lacked explanation. This is just not their story, sadly. But I’ll keep them stored and maybe I’ll think of their story at a later point?
Thank you so much for the comment! I know this might have sounded a little sniffy - which I am not :hear_no_evil: (text is not the best to convey emotions :flushed:) - but I really appreciate you letting me in on your opinion.

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Hum sorry but the news story is less interesting to me ,
The damsel in distress is just not what i’m looking for when i play
again sorry

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