(WIP) Rivers of Blood (Gothic Fantasy) Update: March 24

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hello everyone, this is my first IF game that I started working on in February 2024.

Rivers of Blood (old name: Sanguis Malus) is a gothic fantasy game set in a dark Victorian-esque world.

You are a grimblood—a descendant of an ancient magical lineage whose members possess the power of sanguine manipulation. Today, there are very few grimbloods left in this world. The Inquisition has been exterminating your kind for the past few centuries, sparing no one on their path. Survival at any cost is your grim reality, while living is but a distant dream.

About the game

— This is not a power fantasy. You are not the mightiest being in the world.
— This is a standalone book.

Summary

You were living a relatively tranquil life, until a sudden encounter with another grimblood twisted it completely. Now, you find yourself on the run from the Inquisition. Meanwhile, a disease that turns people into monsters drowns the lands in death. To survive, you have to make use of the sanguine powers you possess and fight for your life.

Features

— Play as male or female.

— Use your blood powers, but try not to lose yourself.

— Try to get the Inquisition off your tail.

— Navigate the cruel world consumed by a deadly outbreak.

— Battle monsters and Inquisitors alike.

— Romance a fellow grimblood, a sworn enemy, the deadliest person in the world, or no one at all.

— Decide the fates of the people around you. Perhaps you could even decide the fate of your kind?

ROs

  1. Maria/Marcus (Mar for simplicity)—a friendly grimblood, whose sudden visit to your village forces you on the same path. Together, you try to navigate the merciless world while being hunted by the Inquisition.

  2. Isabella/Isaac (Isa for simplicity)—a Holy Knight of the Inquisition. The ruthless leader of the group that hunts you and Mar. Won’t let anyone stop them on their mission.

  3. ???—

Content warning:
Harsh language (a lot of swearing), self-harm, blood (obviously), graphic violence.

Feedback
  1. Grammar and spelling.
  2. Pacing.
  3. Overall quality of writing. What could be improved?
  4. Characters. Do they feel distinct?
  5. Worldbuilding. What is confusing? Should there be more information provided about the world?
  6. Fight scenes. Do they have enough action? Are outcomes fair?
  7. Anything else you feel like pointing out, like overall plot, game code or something else.

Feel free to ask questions about anything regarding the story, characters, world or anything that catches your interest.

Demo link: https://dashingdon.com/go/15761

Update log:

24.02.2024: demo release. 1/3 of Chapter One. 23K words with code. Without code: 21K.

  • fixed some spelling errors and save failes.

24.03.2024: major update. 2/3 of Chapter One. 40K words with code. Without code: 36K.

Hope you enjoy it!

233 Likes
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like it and saw so far no gramma mistakes, a bit short but thats ok will defintely keep a eye on it. good work :slight_smile:

Save System: well its overwirtes saves from another wips so would be nice if you fix that

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Very fun! Tried to note down little things I noticed, sorry if I missed anything. English is my native language but I played this demo on barely any sleep!

Spelling/Words:

Tried to add images but they unfortunately wouldn’t load so tried to grab the full thing from the code to make it a bit easier to find.

*fake_choice
#“What is it?”
"You’ll see, kid.
#“Why are giving me this?”

Feel like this should be “Why are you giving me this?” As otherwise it feels stilted, why are you giving me this can cover both asking why the person is giving you something and why you’re being given something at all.

Eyeing you both, the old man sighs and says. “I’ll help. Don’t wont you dead, after all!”

Think this should be, “Don’t want you dead, after all!”

I love Wilhem, he’s too pure. Whilst I didn’t personally go for the mean options I really respect that they’re there! The world you’ve created seems very interesting and I’m excited to see where you go with it.

A very small part of me was sad that the pet cat was already gone even before the events of the demo but given how suddenly we have to abandon the village it makes sense.

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Wow, seriously? I’ll try to fix it tomorrow, but currently I have no idea what might cause it. Sorry about that!

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Glad you liked it! Thanks for pointing out the spelling mistakes, I’ll fix them.

About the cat, well, I’m planning to make each option of the “interest” variable have some unique stuff, so there might be something with it in the future.

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On the save issue you need to give it its own special save string basically a name of the game or something different should work. if what im hearing is right lol havent gotten into demo yet.

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This was a good start, I’m definitely looking forward to more.

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The worldbuilding is decent so far, but in general there seems to be too many exclamations. It makes the dialogue seem a bit juvenile, and also forces your character to adopt that demeanor, which isn’t what I think you’re going for. I’m not a writer though, so take what I say with a grain of salt :slight_smile:

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Tried fixing the issue with saves, so let me know if it works correctly now.

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Its fixed now at least from a glance at it.

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yes is fixed thank you :slight_smile:

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Just out of curiosity, will this game have sexual content in future?

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I don’t plan on it, so probably not.

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Wow, this is really good! Though how many chapters are you expecting? :smile:

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Thank you so much! I’m outlining the later parts of the game and so far I expect 6 chapters. My word count goal is at least 200K, but it will probably be more than that in the end. We’ll see.

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Great first chapter so far. Theres a bit of typo on the option “My shin is olive”.

From what I could gather there are two path in which we go with the fellow grimblood or not. The narration feel like pushing toward leaving together, is that intentional? I feel things are more fleshed out if we go with the grimblood rather than meeting with the Inquisition

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Yes it’s intentional, since in those circumstances that would be the sensible choice. And you are right about meeting with the Inquisition feeling less fleshed out. I decided to add it rather late, because I needed something interesting to happen in the path where you stay alone. It will be improved upon in the future update.

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Hi! In the hair selection scene, shoulder is spelled incorrectly.

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This sounds like a great story! I’m looking forward to reading the demo.

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Hello, good people!

Unfortunately, no update for now. It seems that March had other plans for me that didn’t leave much time for writing.

I’m currently working on the second half of Chapter One. Can’t say anything about when it will come out, but I’ll do my best to update as soon as possible.

13 Likes