coyote-if

[coyote-if]

THE STARS HAVE ALIGNED AND I AM SO GLAD YOUR POST POPPED UP IN MY FEED. FOLLOWED INSTANTLY, DEMO? 10/10, AMAZING, GORGEOUS. THE WRITING? SPECTACULAR. BEAUTIFUL. I AM QUITE HONESTLY EATING IT UP ONG.

Like, wow. You're demo is just so good. Great. Amazing. Gorgeous. I don't have the words to describe it. Taylor has my heart already, Kody has my heart already, Li has my heart, yk what True too

head in hands, I'm so glad to have seen your post, thank fuck your demo popped up in my feed I've never been happier. I'm such a sucker for shift MC's and IF's, absolutely PEAK.

Anon please, you'll make me blush 🥰. I'm glad to hear the beloved, and not all misspelled True, has managed to make an impression.

I'm also a sucker for shift characters (a surprise I know 😅).

[coyote-if]

Can we kill Hunters

I'm giving you a tentative yes. But this isn't a power fantasy, you won't become some agent of vengeance that roams the woods hunting the hunters. The goal is to survive and persevere despite everything.

The plan, for now, is that there will be a confrontation with the hunters which might, depending on your choices, result in the loss of life. The focus of the story, however, is on building something of your own and protecting that.

I understand that might not be for everyone, but it's the story I want to tell 🥰

[coyote-if]

hi there.

i just finished the demo and i really liked it. especially the characters and the world. small funfact: when i first found this IF i assumed, that we play as fully animals, not shapeshifters.

anyways, i have a question:

1.) will MC´s personality at some point get locked in aka choices want change the stats anymore? another IF i played had the personality bars for the first few chapters and at some point locked the personality and turned the bars into description (like "Most of the time MC is reckless.")

disclaimer: following is not meant as critique:

im honest, im conflicted about personality stats. on the one hand they offer more variety, meaning the same choice can have a different response depending if the MC is e.g. reckless VS cautious. on the other hand if you have a character in mind (in my case a logical/sincere/cynic/friendly MC) it can feel railroady to keep up the wanted personality. e.g. at some point we can tease K about how easy it must have been to caryy us to safety. here i had 55% sincerety; i chose the tease option since i assumed it was a flirty option. suddenly the personality changed to sarcastic. in that case it was probably because i didnt chose enough sincere-options, but i always "fear" that at some point i want to take a specific choice, but that one would completely change my MC´s personality.

again, this is not meant as a critique and having personality stats wont be the cause to not playing the game.

potential spelling mistake: shouldnt it be can´t ?

anyways, thank you for your answer.

That was kind of intentional. I didn't want to treat it as a curse or as something apart from the MC if that makes sense. I wanted to treat the characters' shifted forms like an equally important and big part of them.

My plan (and take this with a pinch of salt since I'm not sure how to code it best yet) is that the personality stats will have a number of lock-in points where I will save the stats so that they can evolve over time and that those who see it might remark on a previously hostile MC warming up to them for example. But you are never going to get locked into a certain personality and there will always be room for the MC to change or to act in a way they normally wouldn't if you feel the circumstances call for it.

When it comes to the behavioral archetypes I wouldn't worry about it. I don't plan to have any kind of skill checks with the personality stats where you need to be above or below a certain value for success. They are mostly there for flavor text so if you have stats that tend to be along the middle line you won't be put at a disadvantage.

(And yes, that's wrong. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll change it with the next update 😊)

[coyote-if]

I'm not sure if it's an error, but when you get into the vehicle with who I think is V, their name only comes up as "true" (I'm playing with the 1♂ 2♀ 1⚧ RO setting if that helps)

I'll fix it with the next update. When I actually manage to figure out where I went wrong 😅

[coyote-if]

I might have a type but that won’t stop me from quietly going after Taylor >>

Also I set all of the others to men and played around with options; met a guy named true 👍

To be fair, a coyote couldn't spot a red flag, so feel free to ignore Taylor's hostile demeanour.

Yeah, that's not their name 😂. I'll fix it with the next big update when I figure out where the he'll I went wrong.

[coyote-if]

this if makes me extremely happy because i love coyotes!! they're extremely underrated animals imo, clever and scrappy little survivors! I'm loving the story so far and I'm excited to see how the relationships with all the character develop!!

Yes! Abdapable and clever, and such big, adorable ears.

10/10 - Would pet if they let me.

[coyote-if]

Wow, this IF is awesome! I was so sad when the demo ended haha, I went back and restarted right away! I really hope Lia/Liam is still alive and we get to meet them again 😭 I’m so excited to learn more about our backstory, and how we ended up on the run in the first place, even if I’m sure it’ll make me cry even more LOL. Hope you’re having a good day, author!!

Glad you liked it! I'm so torn between wanting to spoil everything and wanting it to have the proper space and writing it deserves in the story. My love for drama wins out though so you'll just have to wait and see if MC ever meets Li again

[coyote-if]

a very short MC riding the tall ROs shoulder would be fun me thinks...

I hear you and raise you with a coyote riding on the back of a massive bear.

I wrote a short snippet with K and MC. Because the visual was too damn cute to ignore.

You've been deceived, utterly hoodwinked and tricked. Foolishly, you'd assumed K wasn't capable of such deception. A clear error in judgment you won't be repeating.

"It's a short walk in the woods," they had said, so flippantly that you couldn't help but believe them. "We can shift too and twice the number of legs means half the distance."

Makes sense, the logic checks out.

Except for the major caveat that K's legs are four times as long as yours. The lack of backpacks has also deprived you of any snacks that might have replenished your waning energy as you weave through the trees with no end in sight. You'd like to think you have some pride, some stubbornness that would translate to you enduring the rest of the walk. Maybe indulging in some pouting, silently and with dignity, of course.

That determination eroded soon enough as you plopped down into the moss with a low whine. Maybe you'll just sleep here, softly cradled by the undergrowth.

A warm puff of air shifted your focus to the, somehow still, energetic bear that towered over you. Deep brown eyes twinkled with amusement, you'd expected them to wait and let you rest for a bit. Instead, the massive bear had lowered their shoulders, nodding toward their back in invitation.

Surely they don't mean...

But they did, and now you lie, reluctantly comfortable, curled up on the broad back of K. The deep brown fur is soft and warm underneath you, softer even the plushest of duvets. You're rocked gently from side to side as they walk, lulling you into closing your eyes for a moment. When you open them the view is drastically different. Log cabins have replaced the trees and the moss has given way to lush grass.

There is also a smug bear looking right at you, having obviously caught you napping on their back. You throw them a glare to hide your embarrassment before leaping off them, trading warm fur for dewy grass. K snorts when you almost stumble, legs still heavy from your unplanned nap.

You bashfully trot away, feeling K's self-satisfied eyes glued to your back as you go.

They are never letting you forget this, are they?

[coyote-if]

Giving Taylor whiplash was 100/10

Especially when K just beams about it :3

Taylor is a menace and thus deserves to be menaced.

To be honest, K is just ecstatic that Taylor might be getting a friend who isn't a coworker or family ��

[coyote-if]

Do you have any specific bear species in mind when you picture K & Taylor's shifted forms?

Absolutely! I have thought about this an unreasonable amount. K is very similar to a Kodiak bear, with a warm, deep brown fur. Talyor is more like a grizzly, with dark brown fur that fades to an almost blond over their flanks.

Fun extra fact: Two of the cubs, who you'll meet in the story, look like grizzly-polar bear hybrids (nicknamed prizzly- or grolar-bears). One of the other cubs looks like a spectacled bear.

[coyote-if]

rly lovely demo so far :^) coyotes r literally my favorite animal ever so u can imagine my delight at finding this ^_^ how did you decide what types of shifters the main cast would be?

This was so much fun to answer! So I kind of went overboard with this. I hope what I've written is at least semi-coherent to anyone not living in my messy brain 😅

Since it became way too long, I put the answer under the cut.

K has always been a bear shapeshifter. They existed as a character before I had a story in mind for them. As such, I didn't really create them with any kind of intent. I just saw an image of a bear, and my mind was like, "but what if they were a person?", and K just came to life from that 😅.

Taylor came to life shortly after because K, on their own, felt wrong in a way and like they were missing a part of them. And from there came Taylor and the rest of the bear family.

Initially, the MC's story was separate from that of the bear characters. But I always wanted the MC to be an outsider without feeling too special. It took me some time to decide which animal I wanted them to be. Wolf felt wrong, far too powerful and well, badass, and then I considered casting the MC as an arctic fox, but they felt too small and cute. The moment coyote came to mind, it felt perfect. A survivor, scrappy and without the inherent strength and reverence the wolf has. (Generally, coyotes aren't always painted in the best light, and the first version of the story featured a coyote MC living in a wolf pack that didn't like them at all.)

Li is an artifact from when the story was entirely different. A coyote living among wolves with Li as their sole ally and friend. The story mode from there, but Li stayed and remained a wolf.

[coyote-if]

me again hehe i have finished reading the demo a few times now and i love it so much!! it’s now on my “obsessively check on these blogs for updates” list of ifs!!

wishing you all the best in this beautiful endeavor, author! make sure to take care of yourself as well!! <3 :D

I'm glad you got to the end without any more issues! I'm sure I'll need the well wishes with the amount of complicated coding I have planned 😅

[coyote-if]

i played the demo and wow.

this story is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. i cried about every damn page and i couldnt stop.

something about the way you write mc’s internal dialogue is just so…. it speaks to me in a way that very few works can.

i spent my entire read drawing parallels between the shifter experience and my own experience in life.

this story is absolutely beautiful already and i cannot wait to see more.

also i’m in love with L like that’s my baby i cannot wait to meet them again!!!

Thank you for the lovely comment. Everyone deserves to feel seen and represented in media, and I'm glad my story resonates with you ❤️

You'll be seeing Li in the MC's dreams soon.

[coyote-if]

It would be cool to have a young hunter ro as an option who we would meet when we accidentally step our paw onto some bear trap and they don't know what to do with us.

I actually considered something similar. One of the ROs was initially meant to be a Park Ranger that worked in the nearby national park. Sadly, they didn't fit as the story evolved.

[coyote-if]

Wait MC left their parents or did the hunters separate them ?

The MC and Li were forced to leave when hunters came for their families. Their parents ordered them to leave.

[coyote-if]

Will we learn about MCs family in game ?

A bit? MC was very young when they left their family, circa 5 years old, and doesn't really remember them. So, while they might be mentioned in passing, it's not something that will be discussed in detail in the IF. The only one who might know a teensy bit more is Li, on account of them being about a year older, but they've never felt the need or want to bring up family with the MC.

Or the hunters, of course. But they're not likely to sit down and tell you about them.

[coyote-if]

found another bug! it’s when we go speak w kody while he’s changing tires

This and the bug you sent me earlier should be fixed now!