soulsisterif

[soulsisterif]

The WLW routes on LITG have become so unsatisfying that I can't be bothered to play them. I recently downloaded Romance club. I have heard good things about their straight storylines, but I was under the impression that they had no good WLW stories. Boy, was I wrong! The One, Time catcher, Vying for Versailles and Haze blew my mind. Best stories for WLW players so far.

Sorry for the very late reply, I've been offline for a while.

Rant incoming.

The thing about LITG is that... It's not improving. They ask season after season what they can do better and proceed to ignore all of it. Actually, it's getting worse. Now it's practically a pay to play, because everything costs diamonds.

I could let that slide because you can actually get diamonds for free, slowly, yes, but for free with daily sign ins and watching adds, but those scenes are so lazily written... Let's cheat to win a game. Let another contestant take you aside to tell you something and then saying nothing unless you beg for it. Let's listen in on a private conversation. Let's roast another contestant. Ugh. The worst part is still the fact that all LI's end up being one and the same when the best thing about interactive fiction should be the chance to replay and see new content.

As for Romance Club, I looooove that app. The stories are mostly great, and in the most recent ones you can choose your MC's sexuality and avoid unwanted approaches. Like my all-time favourite story is Theodora. I loved the concept so, so much. And the first season is both beautiful and heartbreaking. But the point is that I somehow got kissed by Dr. Roberts while just trying to improve our friendship. My poor Yoke.

I agree with you about Haze. I actually find the story more interesting than the romances, hahaha. It's my kind of story, I wish we could choose to learn form Sirin and become a witch instead of having just the priestess choice, but it's fine.

I like the Thunderstorm Saga, too. Oh, the noble art of insulting people while following protocol and etiquette. Fanuel was very pretty, though, which means, like Felicity in LITG, I wish she'd had a little more screen time XDDD.

Then we have that new Attack on Titan replica which I am really looking forward to, as I loved that manga. (You'll forever be in my heart, Hange)

Out of all the newest books, the one that I liked the least was Shakespeare's Code, no contest. Maybe I just don't like historical figures in my fictional stories, since Vying for Versailles wasn't for me either LOL

By the way, are you playing the Netflix Stories? Because I have opinions on Love is Blind NYC. And The Ultimatum: Choices? Do we all agree those could be/have been so much better if they toned down the drama and upped the actual romance?

[soulsisterif]

Hiiiiiii :) I just found this game and it looks really really good! I've been scrolling through the blog and I am now also swooning over Abie but out of curiosity how is Dawn's route going to work??

I couldn't find much about how the show will really look like but I'm imagining it a little like Love island with contestants all locked up in a villa so it'd be kind of weird for the host to be living with them. But if she isn't it's hard to have scenes with her? Sorry if I don't make much sense :)

Hi! You do make sense, and it's a very valid question

About the show, you'll find out more in Chapter One, as Dawn will explain things to the MC. But you're right when it comes to the contestants sharing a home. Dawn is the one leading the games, so she'll be in the house fairly often. I'll say, however, that winning games/rewards can help a lot in her route.

And do remember that there will also be outings and confessionals, so... ;)

[soulsisterif]

Can we influence abbies relationship with her mom like we can dawn with her wife?

Mmm, not really. You can choose what advice to give her whenever you talk about it but at the end of the day Abbie's bond with her mum will always be strained for reasons.

What you can choose is the MC's opinion on the woman and, depending on your choice on how your MC grew up, her role in your childhood can be different.

[soulsisterif]

Do you have an estimate for the demo release? I'm really looking forward to it! I want meet TLOML Abbie

I've gotten quite a few asks with the same question and the answer is... unfortunately no. I write slowly and don't have energy to do much after work. Sorry to disappoint but I'm really struggling with finding the will to do anything lately so that's kind of taken my focus.

But I am glad that you've found the little that's on the blog interesting enough to care :)

[soulsisterif]

Hey, it's been a while since you've posted so I hope you're doing fine. I just wanted to ask you if you've seen that Dashing Don is shutting down since you said you were going to publish the demo there

Hi! Doing ok, thanks!

Yeah, I've seen. It's a shame, it would have been super special to me having the demo in DashingDon after all the years I spent reading IFs there, and all the good games I found thanks to it.

As it is I'll either upload the demo in CoG or Itch.io, but I'll keep the ChoiceScript format. I don't think I'd be any good at learning Twine

[soulsisterif]

So, for those who have asked, yes, I am alive and this game is not dead yet, people. Thanks for the sweet messages, by the way, they mean a lot to me.

Anyway, I had to get my laptop repaired and it took two months to find a good place to take it to and then get it back, so not much progress to report writing-wise, I'm afraid. I just wanted to send a quick word to let you know this is not abandoned!

All the progress I've made is basically me writing the little tidbits that will be used later on as MC's fun facts in games, particularly in Chapter 2's Meet Me Bingo.

Sorry for the slow progress, but for those who have sent asks on the rude side of things, well, I do have a full time job that demands a lot of my time and energy ;)

[soulsisterif]

Sooo... Shadow Weavers?

For a moment there I thought you had somehow entered my computer LMAO

I tinker with that story when I feel stuck in Soul but that's it.

[soulsisterif]

okay so i’ve only fully played through s3 and romanced carmen cause i’m crazy. but i love her!!!! even though that twist was insane. but s2 rn im romancing naomi and i love her too. i always play a loyal route but im gonna go back and be real messy 😁

Oh, you're in for a treat with the other routes, too! I wish Isla's route didn't have certain inconsistencies, but I love her character the most. That said, story-wise, Carmen's arguably the most interesting out of all the girls though I wish we could make her sleep alone or just not forgive her immediately after THE debacle. I wasn't that into Carmen until the plane date, when she starts talking family. After that, I was a gonner.

Bea I found a little stifling, and Poppy is the most physically attractive to me, but infuriating at the beginning if you want a loyal route, which is my deal. Then there's Victoria, who is away for half the season... Now I get the despair Zain girlies feel.

Ah, Naomi was great, too! I loved her. But I must confess I was a simp for Elena, so Season 2 will forever be a source of pain for me LOL

[soulsisterif]

not someone asking to make this game gender selectable when its literally sapphic!! likkkeee leave and please dont ever change. I've been following you since forever and I can't wait!

Thank you, I'm trying my best!

About the ask, not a big deal, really. It's only natural for people to ask for what they enjoy themselves. To be fair, I've seen this the other way around countless times, too, with people asking for same sex ROs in other games. At the end of the day, as long as everyone remains polite, it doesn't hurt to ask :)

[soulsisterif]

also i do see your grievances with litg— try too hot to handle game! s3 is actually pretty good and i had a lot of fun with the wlw route i chose :-) but its not perfect LOL but still lots of fun imo

Yeah, today's volume didn't help, to be honest, hahaha. Of course I was called out for "going behind my back".

Oh, I've played all 3 seasons of THTH. I loved them. You're right with them not being perfect, but they're leagues above LITG. Every season gets better and, more importantly, is different. Who'd you choose? I went for Isla first.

Also being able to play them in different languages is so great. In the Portuguese version of THTH s3, instead of Danger Noodle, you can call the snake "Lethal Sausage" LMAO. There's also "Cobra Cobralinda" instead of Snakespeare, but that one I don't get. Any Portuguese or Brazilian here to help me out?

[soulsisterif]

ahhh excited to see you’ve posted. really excited to play your game whenever it drops. the premise is so interesting and im excited to see what you do with it!♥️

Awww, thank you! That means a lot. I really hope it doesn't disappoint. Right now what I'm doing with it is losing my mind, thanks to the flavour text I keep adding for the different stats and labels.

With all those variations writing takes a long time. Here you go a little sneak peek.

Your first memory of Abbie will be determined by MC's childhood. One of the options is choosing to grow up in foster care. You can also choose if the experience was a nice one or a terrible one. If it was terrible you will punch her, and pick an emotion impulsing that reaction: fear, shame, anger or exhaustion. And then depending on that emotion, you either barely hurt her, or are close to sending her teeth flying.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is what those scenes, and most of the chapter, to be honest, look like.

And this particular scene is not finished yet, so... Yeah. I know things would be much faster if I skipped some flavour text more often, but I really like this kind of little details as a player and want to add them as an author.

[soulsisterif]

Which Harry Potter house would the ROs be in

Ooooh, so, I've written both my opinion and the actual result I got after taking a quiz answering like they would. It's surprisingly hard finding a quiz that doesn't rely on favourite colours or animals, by the by.

• Abbie

My predition: Ravenclaw. She can think outside the box, and has both brain smarts, and emotional smarts, though she can lose herself in her onw mind sometimes. Plus she's a bookworm. That's always, like, five points to Ravenclaw.

Result: Ravenclaw

Do I know my girl, or do I know my girl?

• Irene

My prediction: Hufflepuff. There's no way around this one. She's sweet, friendly and hates fighting. That sometimes plays against her, as she'd rather suffer herself than hurt someone else's feelings.

Result: Hufflepuff

Also, yellow looks fantastic on her.

• Joanna

My prediction: Slytherin. She's ambitious and doesn't let anyone get in her way; she's bold and unapologetic, but sometimes pride gets the best of her.

Result: Slythering

Gryffindor was a surprisingly close second.

• Vega

My prediction: Hufflepuff. She's very straightforward and honest, it takes courage to be that way so it could be Gryffindor, too. But ultimately I think her most defining traits are her tendency to avoid conflicts, and her willingness to do good without calling attention to herself.

Result: Hufflepuff

It was a close call with the Red Team, too, but the Badgers come on top.

• Margot

My prediction: Hufflepuff if being honest in her answers, if she was still putting up a front she'd probably get Slytherin. She's a softy, deep down.

Result: Hufflepuff

Fun fact, Slytherin got the lowest one LOL

• Dawn

My prediction: Ravenclaw (but I really can see her fitting in Gryffindor, too). She's witty, intelligent and thinks with her head, not her heart, which can lead to internal conflict.

Result: Ravenclaw

But just barely. Griffindor was, indeed, almost as high.

I couldn't resist and took the quiz myself. I'm a proud Hufflepuff, people.

[soulsisterif]

Now that I've seen Vegas romance is blocked on a 40 year old MC playthorugh, how old are the ROs? I can't find anything about that

Yeah, I don't think I ever mentioned their age at all.

•Abbie: same as MC

• Irene: mid 20s

• Joanna: early 30s

• Vega: just turned 20

• Margot: mid 30s

• Dawn: early 30s

[soulsisterif]

Ros response to would you love me if I was a worm?

BTW, can't wait for the game!

Ah, the worm ask. I wish I could fit all my knowledge about them in here but woefully not every RO is supposed to be worm-savvy

• Team Needs More Information: Abbie

"What kind of worm? An earthworm? A leech?" she scrunches her nose. "A tapeworm?"

• Team You'd be the Best Worm Ever: Irene

"Absolutely! I'd let you live in my garden. You'd help my plants thrive."

• Team I'm not Going to Add to Your Misery: Joanna

"Sure. You'd die in like 5 years, so I'd try to make you happy in the meantime."

• Team I'm Very picky, Species Notwithstanding: Vega

"Baby, I wouldn't love you if you were a man."

• Team I'll Bite, Not like it's Ever Happening: Margot

"Of course. And luckily for you, I know how to keep skin moisturized."

• Team When in Doubt, be Sassy: Dawn

"Mmm, I don't know if I could love someone who doesn't have a backbone."

[soulsisterif]

Would you consider making the ROs gender selectable? Sorry if it sounds rude, it's okay if not, just curious :)

Not rude at all :) I've gotten this question a few times along with the possibility of making MC male, but the answer is no. This is a sapphic game, and both MC and ROs are and will be women.

[soulsisterif]

I've seen you play litg too. Opinions on this season?

Oh-ho, buckle up. I have opinions and I'm bad at summarizing.

Warning: I only play wlw routes in LITG, so I may be missing some cool things about the game, who knows.

First off, I like Lisbeth as a character. And Eisha seems sweet, too, but I'm a faithful woman. That said, I wish Ava was an option. They owe me after robbing me of a Estelle route, hahaha. C'mon fusebox, rivals-to-lovers when??? Because, let's be real, Gabi was gorgeous but, as everyone in Season 5, utterly insufferable and poorly written.

Anyway, there's still the same old problems that come with this game in general and wlw routes in particular:

We're already at the point were dialogue and scenes are merged no matter who it is that you choose. Exhibit A: "I didn't let you finish. It's the last time I do that today." Or whatever it was. Exhibit B: "It's you, it's always been you. You must know that." Both good but the same for everyone.

If you choose to be interested in just Lisbeth you're still forced to string along a guy that you "like the most". Despite saying openly that you like her you're still treated as if you're doing something wrong by having any kind of romantic interaction with her. Why do we have to sneak off at all when I said that I was twisting with a casa boy out of strategy? Let's see how movie night plays because I swear if I'm accused of cheating for having kissed her in casa I'm losing it. I was dumped! I was single! Cheating on whom?!

There's also this curious thing with the female LIs, that I think should be done with all LIs. If you reject them once, it's over XDDD Practically the only choice that gets acknowledged. But seriously, sometimes I'm even hesitant of not choosing a single option that hints that MC is interested in a woman because I fear it'll lock me out of her route. If you compare that to the men, who you can reject over and over again in increasingly rude ways without them ever leaving you alone... Yeah, guess that's Fusebox.

Also, this season was supposed to be all about branching (which, mind you, is the least an interactive story should offer) and your choices, and how compatible you are with the other islanders but... Nothing really matters. Even the emojis stopped popping out. It's so disheartening. The rotten cherry on top was that one compatibility challenge where not only did our choices not matter, they didn't even bother to show us the results at all. Like, WTF?

I also think, though this is probably an unpopular opinion, that there are too many sex scenes and they feel out of place. They feel way too rushed and aren't really good, either. Whether you take the initiative or the LI does, it's the exact same description; the props box should be forbidden considering whatever you choose to use barely participates anyway. I haven't seen any screenshots from the sex scenes with the male LIs, but I'm also pretty sure they're all the same that the ones you get with Lisbeth, and obviously written with the boys in mind. Because the shower sex scene? XDDD Are you telling me Lisbeth, SHE, is holding BOTH MC's hands up against the glass, MC has a leg around her and they're both getting off at the same time? Perhaps not impossible, but let me tell you, if I had one leg around another woman's hips, it'd be very hard for us to grind against each other while we're both standing. Plus, safety hazard. With just one leg for leverage you're bound to slip LOL And with our hands out of the equation... I don't see the sight.

Back to the romance itself, I feel like I hardly know Lisbeth beyond what she does for work. Maybe with the men it doesn't feel so strange because you get to go on dates and to pair up with them for challenges, but for Lisbeth's route it's like you get two lines of dialogue if you choose premium choices and then either shove your tongue down her throat or have the scene end early.

I keep thinking back to Angie's route, in which you get a sense of her strengths and weaknesses little by little throughout conversations without them being spelled out (she's protective and caring, but also judgemental and blunt), and a lot of details about her life away from the show: her bond with her sisters, her tense relationship with her father, her dramatic ex stories, why she chose to be a paramedic instead of a doctor, how she winds down when she's stressed... She's just fleshed out in a way that other seasons don't allow.

When I compare that to Lisbeth's route I'm like, what happened here? How is it that I know nothing about my main (and only) LI but still can sleep with her three, four, whatever times? Personality-wise, all I know is that she's outspoken without coming across as a bitch, and that she has some witty moments. I still laugh when I remember the silver spoon comment at the beginning of the season. Still, not knowing that much about her makes certain things feel very rushed. Like, when she says how close to MC she feels. Why? How?

I believe that's mostly how the game itself is but I really wish they would let us actually talk with other contestants for something other than gossip (that you have to pay for). All conversations are about what other islanders are up to, gossip, jealousy or kinks. Even when you can choose to do something interesting it's just underwhelming.

Like, I'm forced to go on a date with Tristan, of all motherfucking people and I can't even grab Lisbeth for a moment to tell her not to worry? I have to make do with a half-assed "my head won't turn" in front of whoever happens to be in the dressing room?

Dont' get me wrong, it's not the worst season ever, and some volumes were actually entertaining. Especially the first ones, when people seemed to have a distinct personality. It's just... My honest opinion? If this was the debut season of a new game, if I wasn't fond of LITG because of the memories that I have after playing it for years, since it first came out, I wouldn't be playing it at all. And that can be said for every single season starting on Season 5.

It is what it is.

[soulsisterif]

Progress Update 18/12/2024

First of all, Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating, and Happy Holidays for those just enjoying the season.

Wow, I look back at this past year and I wish I'd had more time to write because I have certainly not achieved as much as I had hoped.

I've been scrolling through the blog and, girl, so many things have changed as I developed the idea... When I first started writing this game I thought I would release the demo in, like, a month tops, and that it would be about 5k or 10k words.

And yet, here we are in December, 80k words in just counting Chapter One's file. To be fair, I could probably have released the demo as a teaser many months ago, but at that point the only character you would have interacted with is Dawn, and there would be no romance in sight, so it felt kind of better to just wait. Still, I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I haven't managed to finish Chapter One.

The demo has changed a lot since May, particularly in the last three months. Most of the changes revolve about how I wrote Abbie into the story, and I must say that I personally like it better now.

I've played games that give you your bestie as an RO before, and some of them left me a little indifferent. Even when the routes were well written and interesting, they didn't feel any different from the others. That made me see that I had to do a rewrite because I realized that there was no point in offering a best friend to romance if the character was presented the same way other ROs were. I had to give you snippets of Abbie's shared past with MC during the interview with Dawn, and more interactions with her during the process of signing up to enter the show, all of that before meeting the rest of the cast. If their bond rings hollow, what's the appeal in a friends-to-lovers route, right?

Unfortunately, this also meant taking some scenes out altogether, and changing the way I introduced stats, since I needed to know your MC's personality early on so that I could write her behaviour in flashbacks accordingly. Basically, the way I first structured Chapter One was unusable.

Some of the scenes I added are short, and others, considering all variables and flavour text, are like 4k words. You can even unlock special interactions or references, later on. Unique tattoos, inside jokes, specific gestures, fond memories, special places... The kind of thing that you would share with someone who's been close to you your whole life.

With that out of the way...

What's new:

• Some choices will block romance. You can choose to be shown which ones they are and they'll be marked with an x. As an example, the first one you'll encounter very soon into the game. If your MC is in her 40s, Vega's romance will be blocked.

• You can pick some family background for the MC.

• There were initially unique scenes for each pre-set names and the custom name. They now share the same scene that gives you another glimpse of Abbie and MC's past, as well as Abbie's relationship with her mother. The deleted scenes will be used later on in the story. I like them too much to let them go completely LOL

• I've added two new stats: Empathetic/Clueless & Easygoing/Hardass. Stats have changed, if slightly, since the first posts I made about them. Right now, things are:

• Since she has a nickname for your MC, MC will now be able to give one to Abbie, too.

• Abbie and MC can be roommates.

And that's it. I'm so sorry that it's taking me sooooo long to write this game. Thank you all for sticking with me, despite my lack of posting!

I'll also try to answer some of the asks that have been sitting in my inbox for a while. I might not answer all of them but they always mean a lot, so thanks for sending them in :D