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[soulsisterif]

Do we have to wait for dawn to break up with her wife or can we have an affair?

Mmm, depends on what you consider an affair, I guess. Emotionally, definitely. Now, if you mean her actually starting a romantic relationship with you or taking things to a more physical terrain... I don't see Dawn going there while she's still in a relationship with someone.

[soulsisterif]

Hi :) Can you tell us about what hobbies MC can have?

Hi :)

Well, broadly speaking we have

And then there would be some more specific options for flavour text. Like, if you choose for your hobby to be music you can then specify if you play an instrument, sing or dance. If you choose cooking maybe your MC can be particularly good at baking, grilling or preparing certain foods.

[soulsisterif]

What do the ROS think about hickies. I mean, yay or nay

Abbie: Yay

Irene: Nay for giving. I think she'd feel very silly sucking on someone's neck for long enough to leave a hickey. Yay for receiving

Joanna: Yay (was there any doubt?)

Vega: LOL good luck trying to leave a hickey on her dark skin, loves (but yay)

Margot: Nay

Dawn: Yay for giving, ick for receiving

[soulsisterif]

Are there any poly routes? Asking for a friend 👉👈

Oof, this one I don't know how to answer. I've been considering it because I see potential between certain characters, but at this moment all I can honestly say is "as of now, no".

Whether or not that changes in the future is yet to be seen.

[soulsisterif]

Hi!!! Fun facts about vega and Irene, pretty please

Fun facts for everyone!

Abbie: her father was Indian and her mother is Korean. She's British [Parkour!]

Irene: loves gardening, hates being gifted flowers/plants if they're cut off. Why would you give her cadavers?

Joanna: got into The Lord of the Rings because she was interested in constructed languages but actually doesn't like the movies.

Vega: watches the Oscars every year to see which movie will win best animated feature. Complains every year because there's no Oscar to the best voice actor/actress.

Margot: when she's stressed or sad she cooks herself dishes her mom used to make for her when she was a child.

Dawn: she's not a believer like Mulder but neither is she a sceptic like Scully. Anyway, if you're binge watching The X-Files she'll join you.

[soulsisterif]

Wait, who is amaya?

Let's answer a few asks!

I totally forgot I mentioned her in the trills LOL

Amaya is the first character you meet in the game. She's in charge of hair and make-up, and will probably pop up every so often because I love her and Dawn's hair needs to be flawless 💅

[soulsisterif]

Hi, I'm really excited about this game it looks very interesting! I wanted to ask if we have to choose the heart options from the start to romance the ros? Sorry if you mentioned this already

Hey there!

No, you can ignore those and select the platonic options or the spicy ones without being locked out of the romance. It'll change the way the relationship develops but the romance will still be possible.

(I know there are asks left unanswered for months, but this one was a little more pressing :P)

[soulsisterif]

Progress Update 22/08/2024

Well, here we are again. The demo is now 50k so let's see what's new.

• I've added a Triller option in the Stats page so that you can read the audience's reactions to whatever they see on TV whenever you want. As of now there are more than 20 different trills you can unlock accounting all playthroughs so I hope you have at least half the fun reading them as I had while writing them.

Since there are so many images, I'm adding a button for every day/chapter. As of now, obviously, there's only "Selection Process" available.

These are some trills you get in all playthroughs:

And some depend on your choices:

• I've already written some of the nicknames Abbie can give you and the story behind them. Some of them, the audience will get, and some of them they can all speculate about.

• This one is still a work in progress, but I've added some more of the hobbies your MC can have. Again, you'll get flavour text when your MC and another character share said hobby. For instance, if you choose "books" or "writing" to be your MC's hobby, and for Abbie to give you a nickname linked to a book, the flashback to the first time she calls you the nickname is different and a little bit longer.

•As I was playtesting Joanna's first interactions I realised that I didn't add a purely romantic choice for bold MCs, only a charged 🔥 one so I have to go back and write one. Note to self, start making outlines for interactions instead of going with the flow, you moron.

• I'm also thinking about whether or not I want new contestants to enter the show later on. The cast is fairly small right now, but it still feels unmanageable sometimes because of all the different scenes that I already have to write. Adding more characters into the mix later on may prove to be too much, and making them romanceable downright impossible so... I don't know. It would be cool but maybe just not worth it. Also, I feel like there is enough variety in the routes as it is.

I think that's all for now. Have a nice week, everyone!

[soulsisterif]

LITG Season 9

(Not Soul Sister related, people, just ranting)

After weeks and weeks of not playing I got up to date with season 9 and... Well, actually I didn't finish playing the latest volume. Same disappointments as always. I'm not one to post to complain but I'm kinda frustrated. Ranting got too long, so, under the cut.

First off I understand that male LIs are also infuriating and that wlw players are not this game's target audience (then again, there are few of those) but dude, at this point I'd rather not have any sapphic options. The last route I recall being actually good (by which I mean the female LI not stringing me along à la Marisol until the very end) was Najuma's and Angie's, and that was season 4. Yes, you can only couple up with Angie at the end too, but you get so many info about her, and so many sweet moments and bonding that I didn't even care. And it's more about her being unsure of her feelings than unwilling to be with you. Quite relatable. Peak of this game for me, if I'm being honest. Good friends to lovers, even if they went too far too fast with the sex scene in my opinion. Still, it was very well written!

But every single season after that had the female LI fucking drooling over several men (and sometimes women too) and then adding a half-assed line like, "'oh, but I don't know, I have my eyes on someone else too', she gives you a wink". Like that makes it okay? I think the only truly unapologetically loyal female LIs were Najuma and AJ back in season 3.

They put so little thought into incorporating the wlw routes that to make them progress you have ludicrous paths. Like, in my playthrough Henri won a challenge and as a prize my MC could actually dismiss him and choose to go to the hideaway with Natasha or Kelly instead. Like ??? That's just bad writing.

What's worse, we can't even make friends anymore, it's all about romance, which wipes out most of the appeal this game had for me. Practically every islander, even after you reject them, comes at the MC confessing their undying love like a crazy stalker for no reason, because we know nothing about each other! Besides half of the options you have to get to know more about what's happening around you force you to be an insufferable gossip or a petty child. "Let's listen to a private convo, MC", "Why don't you sneak a kiss with guy 2 to make guy 1 jealous?" And you have to pay an unfair amount of gems to do it, on top of it!

I want to get to know the characters BEFORE I choose who I want to pick. I want to know the characters even if they are not romanceable. It's ridiculous, though, that there are seasons in which you know more about your besties than you do about your LI. That's why Angie, or Seb, or Nicky, or Viv or Thabi, hell, even Hope and Lottie, wth all their flaunted flaws are so appealing. That's why Season 2 is so goddam popular. We had actual interactions back then. Now, whatever interactions there are, you just witness.

This is also why people like games like Too Hot to Handle so much more. I'm not really into guys but I still play their routes because it's good content beyond romance stuff. Hell, Jirayu may be my favourite out of this season's bunch. And they're all different! It's an interactive game, choices should matter.

At this point I'll probably stop playing and limit myself to read other people roasting Fusebox. Honestly, a company that asks for the fans' opinions season after season just to ignore all the feedback doesn't deserve half the players they still have.

There, ranting over XD

[soulsisterif]

Progress Update

I just wanted to let you know that despite not being very active on Tumblr lately I'm still working on the game. Very slowly, admittedly, because real life is draining me, but still...

Remember when I wrote in the pinned post that this was a self-indulgent game? Well, this is what I meant, and I'm having way too much fun with it.

Or...

I should probably be actually writing, but I'm afraid the main point of this project is for me to have fun so... Sorry if idiocies like this make the demo take longer, people. Which reminds me, apologies to everyone who has sent an ask that has yet to be answered, but those are taking a backseat as of lately.

I just want the summer to end so that I can finally have a break from work. I swear, working service in a country that's flooded by tourists every year is a special kind of punishment. Everything is so crowded that there's barely any space for thinking. Not to mention parking. Ugh.

But back on track, of course the tweets trills, I mean... The web is called Triller, after all, *coughs*. Whatever. The trills would also chage depending on your choices. The hardest part is the custom name of your MC... Honestly I was tempted to just give you some names to choose from and that's that but I understand tipying in your custom name is one of the big appeals of IF games so... I gues I'll try to make an option to set a nickname for the MC early on and make several versions of the trills so it fits.

The point is I want the contestants to be shown the audience's reaction to what's happening in the house and throughout all the show, really, since everything from the day you apply is being recorded. I was thinking about Dawn showing some online reactions to the contestants at the end of each day. Or maybe week, I don't know. It's quite a lot of extra work considering that I have to write exclusive messages for all the different possible conversations and developments but... Damn, it's so worth it. I just have a blast with this crap. Oh, I could add memes! And once the audience knew their messages could reach the contestants I could make them actually ask things. Pot stirring from the outside!

[soulsisterif]

Progress Update

After Spain's victory (sorry English people out there), I'm back on track with the writing. We're around 40k words for the demo, right now. I must confess I was aiming for something much shorter for this first chapter. Like, 15k at most, but I kept adding scenes, and those scenes needed flavour text and whatnot so... Welp, here we are.

But let's get into the important stuff.

•Depending on your choices you can now get two achievements that would allow you to know more about Dawn's marriage's state. You can only unlock, at most, one per playthrough, as they depend on your MC's personality. This second one I've added depends also on age, so... Yeah.

You will influence the way Dawn deals with problems in her marriage through your words. Sometimes those words will come because of previous choices regarding the MC's traits, but later on when you've built a stronger friendship/romance with her, you can choose more freely what advice to give her.

•I caught and fixed a few coding errors already. Mostly swapped code that affected stats it shouldn't. I'm fixing them as I playtest the game, so it's a slow process, and I'll probably miss a lot of them when (and I say when, not if) I forget to try some paths.

•I can finally tell you for sure that you won't meet all the cast in Chapter One. That would make the chapter way too long, and I really want to realease it sooner rather than later. You get to meet Dawn (obviously as she's the one interviewing you), Abbie and Joanna.

•I'm having way too much fun adding flavour text for age. Late 30s and early 40s MCs are my babies. Here you go a little preview.

Shared text:

Flavour text:

•Early 20s

•Late 20s

•Early 30s

•Late 30s

•Early 40s

Ah, 40-year-old Abbie simping hard on that last one, after years of pining. *sighs dreamily*

[soulsisterif]

Progress Update

Hey there!

I'm tweaking the scene in which you can choose your MC's reason to apply for the show and adding the pertinent stat points for the different options. You can even choose to lie about your intentions.

In this scene you make the first impression on the audience's perception of the MC, and depending on your choices you can even get your very first achievement of the game! This achievement would allow you to get a brief glimpse of Dawn's marriage.

I've added a couple more achievements that I'm very exited to write about, but you won't get to se them in Chapter One. Well, at least the code is already there and they won't screw with the saves in further updates of the game.

Remember that wording and personality are very important in this game, since you can be viewed differently depending on that, meaning, even if your reason to join the show is the same, your MC's personality and how they choose to express that will have an impact.

On another note... SPAIN IS IN THE EURO FINAL!!!!!

[soulsisterif]

*Smiles nervously* Hi, people! Been a while hasn't it?

Not gonna lie, I haven't been writing very much these past two weeks but, you see... The Euro is in full swing and as a European and a Spanish I have to watch it! (We're in the semifinals!!!!) Copa America is also in progress, and that means my stupid ass has been staying awake for more than half the night to watch the games. Like, I'm going to sleep at 5 or 6am. I'm surviving and keeping my sanity through power naps and being petty.

Good news is we're just one week away from the end of both tournaments, so I'll come back to the writing soon enough.

Anyway, I know you probably don't care about all of this, but I just wanted to let you know why I haven't posted in a while. The game is very much still being worked on, though!

[soulsisterif]

Progress Update

Tomorrow is my day off, so I'll be working all day on the game (or maybe half the day, I really want to go to the movies and watch Inside Out 2).

Anyway, there's still a lot for me to do.

I'll be mostly focusing on writing out the choices on MC's reasons to go on the show and explaining in more detail the rules you'll have to follow if you want to participate. It feels too rushed as it is now.

I also have to polish the scenes where the MC writes out her personal info, mostly when it comes to custom name. I have different scenes for the default names suggested but it's harder to write one when I don't know what the name will be. It needs to have a certain ambiguity but also be entertaining to read.

There's also the matter of a nickname or shortening of the MC's name. The default options have one, so I should add the option for the custom name, too. I think I'll write some scenes where you can have the other contestants give you a nickname depending on choices and events, but that'll come later on.

Other than that, I have to comb through all the code to make sure the stats work the way they're supossed to and that the flavour text shows when it ought to (I'm already regretting having so many hairstyle options), though I must confess after all the strife I went through last time, I'm tempted to just leave everything as is and have whoever finds bugs tell me to fix 'em. I'll still playtest some paths at least.

I don't think I'll have the time for it this week but after I include Abbie's casting interview... That would be a wrap for Chapter One people!

Release date is approaching!

[soulsisterif]

Well, the poll results say that I can keep writing according to plan >:)

Games of the Show

In the last post I was telling you I had written the part of the story where Dawn explains the show's mechanics. The relevant thing for this post is the games and their rewards. You'll have to win games to get rewarded in the show (getting dates, choosing group activities and so on) and I also wanted those games to help you learn about the ROs lives, interests and preferences. About themselves, in short.

That means conversational games are my main focus, even if they're silly, particularly if they can be used to discover what is it that they look for in a relationship: Orange Flag, Weird Words, Hot Takes, They're a 10 but...

Oh, I really want to involve the audience in some games, too. That'd be rad. And it would be a good way to put the How the Audience Views You stat to use, too.

I'm open to suggestions, as always. The only thing I refuse to change about this game is how the relationships among characters deepen through interaction. You can sleep around if you're shallow, but if you want to romance them, or even just have a genuine friendship with them, you have to actually get to know them. Now, in a normal, day-to-day dating environment that would mean deep chats and coffee dates, which you can get in the game, anyway. But this is a dating TV show, so there should be something else to it, and I have my take on how I'd like to do that.

I was a little against games involving kissing because I'm the kind of player that chooses one RO and sticks with them as faithful as a puppy for the whole playthrough (unless they screw me over. Looking at you Threxia from Soulless). Then I realised that I have to allow people to play the field, too, so they can be good for that.

The thing that I'm worried about is what I call the "Love Island ick". For reasons...

I'm not adding games like "kiss the hotest cotestant", "imitate a sex position with whoever", "give a lap dance to—". Nope. That's just... Nope. I might add some spicy games to play privately with your chosen RO later on, but as a group it just makes me cringe. A game of good ol' truth or dare, or two truths and a lie can be a fantastic way to get to know someone in a fun way, but if you write it in a super crass or childish way it's just painful to read. (watch me fail misserably for trash talking, hahaha)

Still, I did want to include those but turning them into a competition. For instance, imagine a game of Truth or Dare with scores. Like, if one dares MC to do something, the other contestants can bet on whether or not MC will do the dare or pass. If they're right they get a point. MC would only earn a point if she takes the dare and the person who issued the challenge can only earn a point if MC passes on it.

Contestants would pick easier and more relevant questions and dares if they are interested in someone, but go harder on those they don't fancy as much and try to win some points instead.

There's also follow-up scenarios with this game. Let's say someone flirty (*cough* Joanna *cough*) was into MC. Then they may be interested in asking something like"what is your favourite type of kiss?". That would be an opening for the RO give MC that kind of kiss. Or even have several ROs try out, to see who she likes better, maybe in exchange of one of your points?

There are a lot of ways to play it, but you get what I mean. You could always pass and refuse to answer the question or take the dare, of course.

This way you could both state your MCs romantic/physical predilections and also learn about the ROs'.

Damn, it's late, this got way too long and I just want to go to bed. So, to sum it up, I want conversational games, the audience involved sometimes, and you'd be rewarded for winning them.

[soulsisterif]

hi!! i was wondering if the shy/bold stat applies to all aspects of mc’s personality or if there will be a separate stat for flirt or something :) sorry if this has been explained somewhere already!!!!

Hey there! :)

The shy/bold stat is there for two main reasons:

1) so that I can add flavour text as needed depending on your choices, much like every other stat (find example here).

2) Because the ROs have preferences on the kind of person they want to date, so starting the game as shy or bold can give you a boost in friendship or romance stats.

However, when you're actively flirting or spending one-on-one time with an RO, your picking a bold or shy choice will affect your individual relationship with them, which you can find in "Go to Your Relationships" option within the Stat Menu.

Spoilerish example under the cut.

This is one of the flirty interactions you can have with Joanna when you first meet her as a shy MC.

In this case if you chose the bold option it would reflect on your bevaviour with her alone, and not in your main stats as you can see below. (I'll probably revamp the text so don't mind it much)

And of course, it would also impact Joanna's own view of the MC (in the "Go to RO's" option of the Stats Menu).

The fun thing about the way stats work in the game is that in this particular example both the MC's and RO's relationship stats are more or less the same which is not necessarily true in all scenarios.

In this first meeting, Joanna's view of her encounter with the MC will only increase her romance bar either with a shy MC or if you choose your bold MC to act shy with her, because that's her personal preference. If your bold MC acts bold throughout the whole interaction, then only her friendship and desire bars will change and her romance will stay at 0 which can be really cool if you want only a friends with benefits route with her, or one path where your MC falls for her while she remains kind of oblivious or only interested in the sex for a while.

The crappy thing is that it's a huge-ass amount of variables and work for me to cry over, but I like the results so, I hope you girls do too!

[soulsisterif]

Games of the Show

In the last post I was telling you I had written the part of the story where Dawn explains the show's mechanics. The relevant thing for this post is the games and their rewards. You'll have to win games to get rewarded in the show (getting dates, choosing group activities and so on) and I also wanted those games to help you learn about the ROs lives, interests and preferences. About themselves, in short.

That means conversational games are my main focus, even if they're silly, particularly if they can be used to discover what is it that they look for in a relationship: Orange Flag, Weird Words, Hot Takes, They're a 10 but...

Oh, I really want to involve the audience in some games, too. That'd be rad. And it would be a good way to put the How the Audience Views You stat to use, too.

I'm open to suggestions, as always. The only thing I refuse to change about this game is how the relationships among characters deepen through interaction. You can sleep around if you're shallow, but if you want to romance them, or even just have a genuine friendship with them, you have to actually get to know them. Now, in a normal, day-to-day dating environment that would mean deep chats and coffee dates, which you can get in the game, anyway. But this is a dating TV show, so there should be something else to it, and I have my take on how I'd like to do that.

I was a little against games involving kissing because I'm the kind of player that chooses one RO and sticks with them as faithful as a puppy for the whole playthrough (unless they screw me over. Looking at you Threxia from Soulless). Then I realised that I have to allow people to play the field, too, so they can be good for that.

The thing that I'm worried about is what I call the "Love Island ick". For reasons...

I'm not adding games like "kiss the hotest cotestant", "imitate a sex position with whoever", "give a lap dance to—". Nope. That's just... Nope. I might add some spicy games to play privately with your chosen RO later on, but as a group it just makes me cringe. A game of good ol' truth or dare, or two truths and a lie can be a fantastic way to get to know someone in a fun way, but if you write it in a super crass or childish way it's just painful to read. (watch me fail misserably for trash talking, hahaha)

Still, I did want to include those but turning them into a competition. For instance, imagine a game of Truth or Dare with scores. Like, if one dares MC to do something, the other contestants can bet on whether or not MC will do the dare or pass. If they're right they get a point. MC would only earn a point if she takes the dare and the person who issued the challenge can only earn a point if MC passes on it.

Contestants would pick easier and more relevant questions and dares if they are interested in someone, but go harder on those they don't fancy as much and try to win some points instead.

There's also follow-up scenarios with this game. Let's say someone flirty (*cough* Joanna *cough*) was into MC. Then they may be interested in asking something like"what is your favourite type of kiss?". That would be an opening for the RO give MC that kind of kiss. Or even have several ROs try out, to see who she likes better, maybe in exchange of one of your points?

There are a lot of ways to play it, but you get what I mean. You could always pass and refuse to answer the question or take the dare, of course.

This way you could both state your MCs romantic/physical predilections and also learn about the ROs'.

Damn, it's late, this got way too long and I just want to go to bed. So, to sum it up, I want conversational games, the audience involved sometimes, and you'd be rewarded for winning them.