#choice based

[allistaar]

An update is live!

After a long winter, the first of many updates is live. This one brings the total count to 17 772 (Excl. commands), it brings a large number of changes since the last update, too many to list to be frank. You now have a full dialogue between the team to properly get to know everyone and get a sense of what they are like. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, we have laid out some plans for RO's but nothing is set in stone yet, so if you have any strong opinions now is the time to voice them. Who would you be interested in pursuing as an RO?

As is tradition today's update comes with a competition, first one to Message me with the correct answer gets their name in the next chapter! (No cheating, ok? 😇) What Rifle does Ren use?

🏆 The last winner was Vance who found out where Legion was from last time.

Good luck and happy easter!

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Welcome to a bunch of reviews...

... where me, Manon, will sometime play some games and review them (mostly IF stuff, but not just) in a long form post. There are obviously my take on the game reviewed, which you can obviously 100% disagree with.

These reviews will probably include:

general information about the game(s) reviewed

playthrough characteristics

the rating (if applicable)

an overall summary and my thoughts about the game(s)

The formatting of the reviews will look different with game jam entries, or very short games.

=============Links

Find me @manonamora-if, where I talk about the games I've made and other IF stuff.

Read the IF Reviews on the IFDB.

Read VN Review on the VNDB.

Submit a Game for Review!

Go through the tags.

=============Metrics

You may notice different ratings between the review here/IFDB and the one left on itch.io. That's because I use different scales.

Itch: Enjoyment of the work

Here: same was the recommended scale on the IFDB.

I will not be rating (here/on the IFDB) incomplete pieces, or if I don't feel like it. You can find further details on the scaling on this post.

=============

Reviews whenever I have time.

[pocketraptordraws]

I recently got around to play 'Vampyr', needless to say I rather love Dr. Reid as a character so I decided to sketch him up for craps. He's got a great design and after going through the game twice doing both a pacifist run and a genocide run I can faithfully say I enjoy more goodie two shoes Reid. I think it suits his personality even if I did get a kick out of scaring Dr. Swansea or some of the other characters with the more evil slanted dialogue options.

I don't get to play a whole lot of games very often these days but I'd definitely recommend folks to chomp into Vampyr - it was one hell of a ride. Definitely right up my alley - I do have a big soft spot for some classic vampires or turn of the 20th century settings.

Cheers!

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Pitch for a video game:

GENERAL IDEA

A choice-based romantic drama along the lines of “Detroit: Become Human” and “Life is Strange”.

You play as Demetrius Davids (voiced and mo-capped by Michael B. Jordan), a successful lawyer living in Seattle, Washington. At the start of the game, Demetrius ends his 5-year relationship with his girlfriend, Tanisha Wallace, over irreconcilable differences. The two then have a falling out which leads to Demetrius cutting Tanisha out of his life.

Six years later, depending on the player’s choice, Demetrius’ life can be in either one of four places:

1) Married to Dominique Wells, a fellow lawyer who is dealing with her deeply problematic brother, Lamar.

2) Married to Amy Potter, a florist and single mother who won full custody over her children from her abusive ex-lover Dylan.

3) Married to Joy Chang, a news reporter whose first husband, Jason, had supposedly died in a plane crash while serving as a Marine stationed in Afghanistan.

4) Married to Eduardo Cruz, a rising actor in Hollywood who is dealing with behind-the-scenes drama with his agent, Carlos.

Demetrius is happy in either of these relationships and things seem to be going well for him…until Tanisha returns to the fold. As the two exes grapple with their complicated past, Demetrius also learns that not all is right with his current marriage. There are secrets all over and it’ll be up to the player to figure out what those secrets are and how Demetrius will react.

Basically, you’re in charge of this dark, sexy romance movie that could end in either happiness or despair for our main hero and everyone else involved.

WAYS THAT THE STORY CAN BRANCH OUT

* Players can start a toxic love affair with Tanisha. Obviously, this won’t end well, but for players looking for a juicy, drama-filled story, this is one path to take. Players who don’t get involved with Tanisha will still have to deal with her as she plots your downfall with Demetrius’ other enemies (see below). Either way, Tanisha can either be an ally or a villain as you deal with the other major problems in Demetrius’ life (see below).

* Players who married Dominique will have to choose whether or not they will get on Lamar’s good side or bad side. Befriending Lamar will lead to him dragging Demetrius into his destructive schemes. Antagonizing Lamar will put Demetrius in danger as Lamar will be gunning for him.

* Players who married Amy will be harassed by Dylan, who wants full custody over their children. Dylan can be dealt with in many ways, such as directly getting him killed, framing him for a crime, or talking with him to reach an understanding.

* Players who married Joy will eventually learn that her supposedly-dead husband Jason is actually alive. Jason will want his wife back, so it’s up to the player to either fight him or be reasonable. Also, your choices will determine whether Joy stays with Demetrius or leaves him for Jason.

* Players who married Eduardo will eventually learn that Eduardo’s agent Carlos is blackmailing them for profit. The player will have multiple ways to deal with Carlos, such as outsmarting him or just straight up killing him. The worst ending would be Carlos leaking the dirt he has on Demetrius and Eduardo, thus ruining them for life.

FANCAST (voice acting and motion capture)

1) Michael B. Jordan as the protagonist, Demetrius Davids

2) Ruth Negga as the deuteragonist/major antagonist, Tanisha Wallace

3) Lashana Lynch as Dominique Wells

4) Elizabeth Henstridge as Amy Potter

5) Ali Wong as Joy Chang

6) Johnny Sibilly as Eduardo Cruz

/

7) Damson Idris as Lamar

8) Ewan Mitchell as Dylan

9) Harry Shum Jr. as Jason

10) Kirk Acevedo as Carlos

[lilislegacy]

percy, holding out his fist in his palm: ok wise girl. rock paper scissors time. if i win, i get to pick the movie for date night

annabeth, doing the same: fine, but if i win, we move back across the country to that house in westchester that i love

grover, looking over in alarm: what?! how is that even—

percy, nodding firmly: deal. rock pap—

[ditzybat]

bernard: i just love true crime, don't you?

tim, trying to impress him: i may or may not be a war criminal with a hypothetical body count in the triple digits who's trained under multiple trained assassins as their apprentice

bernard: ???

[theribbajack]

"Now, the vow will be honoured, and my Lord brother's soul will return."

Radahn stans keep winning, but I personally am in Miyazaki's walls rn

[lilithism1848]

[ctrlzxoo]

what if Ivan took the tape off of Till during Top 3?

(aka. the ANAKT kids learned what kisses meant to humans)

[allistaar]

Planning Vanguard with Articy:Draft

After some initial playtesting of the first chapter of the prologue, we decided to take another look at the structuring of the final confrontation to ensure we had some interesting choices and consequences lined up, so we went back to our dialogue mapping software of choice to plan it out. We have been using Articy:Draft since the start of this project, this is a piece of software often used by RPG devs (Shout out to ZA/UM, makers of Disco Elysium) to help keep track of dialogue trees. Using this tool allows us to make comprehensive and nested maps of all the interactions and choices we have planned and ensure they make sense and have a driving motivation behind them. However, a challenge approached as we started writing... Character-based writing in an IF is really hard to plan coldly for, sometimes you kinda just find a choice set that needs to happen otherwise you break with a player agency too much. An example is that sniper, many players would likely just teleport up to him if they knew where he was, so we either had to make a whole branch just for that or change it up. (We chose to change it up... for now) I would still say planning the story out like this is super important, but like any other plan, it rarely survives contact with the enemy. For those needing assistance in planning their IF, I highly recommend checking out Articy:Draft!

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Great-grandmother and the war by Autumn Chen

============= Links

Play the game

See other reviews of the game

See other games by Autumn or follow her @cyberpunklesbian

============= Synopsis

It is 1937, or the 26th year of the Chinese Republic. In the city of Tianjin, nine-year olds Zhang Xiaoyun and Yan Yan struggle to survive through the Japanese invasion, the civil war, and beyond.

============= Other Info

Great-grandmother and the war is a Twine (Harlowe) game. This was the first piece from this author.

Status: Completed

Genre: Historical, LGBT, War, Romance

CW: /

Note: war, death, execution, famine

============= Playthrough

First Played: 7-Aug-2022

Last Played: 25-May-2023

Playtime: around 2h+

Rating: 5 /5

Thoughts: An episodic bittersweet tale of struggles, pains, but also love and family.

============= Review

Great-grandmother and the war is a story within a story, following Lan/Christine Zhang (referred as Lan/Christine below) listening to her great-grandmother (Zhang Xiaoyun, referred as Zhang below) recounting the tale of her meeting Yan as a child, growing up during the Sino-Japanese war, and her survival. It is a mix of hyperlinks and choice-based interactive fiction.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

I couldn't help myself and heard the post-mortem before laying down my thoughts...

From the start, you are informed the story will have three distinct part, each with the possibility to start from the main screen. Those parts depict different period of Zhang's life throughout the Sino-Japanese conflict, through her retelling to Lan, her great-granddaughter: during the bombing of Tianjin, where Zhang is just a child having to leave everything behind; under the Japanese's rule, during which Zhang lives in a girls' boarding school, having lost contact with her family and struggling with her identity and emotions; and starting from China's liberation at the end of WWII, where snippets of Zhang's adult life is described, as she yearns to find who she considers to be her family.

An interesting parallel to this is that Lan/Christine experiences the retelling of her great-grandmother's life at a similar age Zhang is supposed to be during the story and facing mirroring those events, as Lan is about to move to the Americas as a child, then coming back as a teenagers struggling with her identity (changing her name being a major point), and as an adult reconnecting with her family after many years apart.

An other important character I have yet to mention here is Yan. First finding and following Zhang (or pushing Zhang to overcome her anxiety about the situation), then staying with her at the boarding school where she ends up getting involved with the local revolutionary group (and romantically with Zhang), before leaving Zhang behind in the final part to join the Communists. Yan and Zhang do manage to find each other twice after that (both by chance), with the final meeting reigniting their relationship, until Yan's death.

From the writing of things, it is clear the story stems from a very personal one (see post-mortem), from the questioning of one's identity and place in the world, the yearning for connection (family/lovers), to one's survival in strange times. There awkwardness in some of the dialogues (aside from Zhang's awkwardness), which I found very touching, and somewhat added to Zhang's struggles with adapting to the changes outside of her home/of the boarding school or of her relationship with Yan (stranger to closer to lovers to cold to strangers to family). It also made the more romantic passages all the stronger.

Another interesting thing with the depiction of these characters is how opposite Zhang and Yan are from one another. While one is very shy and awkward, the other was social and outgoing; one comes from a comfortable bourgeois setting with little thoughts(?) about social order, the other a lowly orphan* with strong communist leanings; one needs to be pushed to move with her life**, while the other kind of takes life by the balls. Like the saying goes, opposites attract...

*well kinda...

**you do have active choices, but her character seemed to be a bit more of a pushover, especially compared with Yan.

It took me a while to grasp it, but Zhang mentioning how she sees Yan in her great-granddaughter felt more of a wish than a parallel (at least I wasn't seeing it as clearly as Zhang did): finding a friend in a strange new place and adapt to changes, discovering yourself and be more vocal about your identity, reforming bonds with family.

Additional context about an event, a location or a character is hidden behind hyperlinks, where "present time" Zhang or Lan/Christine will interject/get cleared/ask more question... This also sometimes strengthen the parallel between Zhang and Lan/Christine and the bond they have for one another.

There was quite a bit of abruptness within each part of the game where time/location jumps a bit out of nowhere. It is more forgivable in the first part, as child Zhang might be a bit confused by what is happening around or more by what it means. But in the second and third parts, those abruptness feels like something is missing (as in something had been planned for scrapped up at the end, which was confirmed by the author). Still, one could write it off as the great-grandmother forgetting bits of her history as she gets older (and maybe senile) or repressed memories from that traumatic period in her life (in one bit, the missing explanation through a hyperlink is filled in by an uncle).

The game ends bittersweetly, with a visit to the family memorial, where great-grandmother Yan is now buried. Yet, there is this sort of hopeful future that emanates from it, as sunrays break through the rain-heavy clouds...

[pocketraptordraws]

I really liked Dr. Swansea as a character spite the flaws he has. I really wanted to draw him up just like Dr. Reid, so I did. During the two playthroughs I did I never did embrace him for either run (although I did look up on YouTube on what happens if you do which I got quite the kick out of).

His interactions with Reid were pretty entertaining and he was definitely a highlight of Vampyr. I hope if there's ever a sequel made we get another colourful cast of characters.

Cheers!

[mooncaustics]

Are you ready for the summer?

So are we! Once the Kickstarter reaches its goal, you'll get to see Friend Zone episodes like never before!

💌Enhanced graphics

💌Fun and interactive minigames

💌Complex story branching

And so much more!

Check out the first episodes of Friend Zone: A visual novel series for free! See how the Kickstarter help the series reach new heights and how you can support our team !

[willing-but-not-able]

I'm only making this one because I'm actually writing a story about a group of highschoolers who live in a city where crime is in the very air they breathe (if anyone's curious I might talk about it on my main blog).

So naturally I'm always interested in mafia/organized crime (not doing it btw).

But, those Grand Mafia ads are hilariously stupid and it really makes me wanna have a game that has ridiculous options in a setting like that.

I might not be able to find it, but one if my favorite ads is when the Lv. 10 thug has a choice to help a woman lying beside a trash can or to turn hee in for an x amount reward. He turns her in and after she gets out (or is never put in prison) she finds him and has her men beat the guy up.

These options are so stupid and honestly... I kind of like how stupid they are.

So, what I came up with is more or less what it shows in the fake ad. You start in some random seed with a certain amount of funds, infamy, and allies.

I can't think of a world where this game has just one goal for you to reach, so I feel having the players pick what they want to do would be better.

For ex. Let's say you wanted to become the cities most infamous gang. Your random seed would start you off with some weapons, no allies, and a decent amount of funds.

You can do whatever you want from here.

Wanna attack a big time leader? Go ahead.

Think you can just rob a bank? It wouldn't hurt to try.

Maybe you just wanna sit back and wait for someone to ask for help. Well, there's that option too.

I would imagine the "evil" options being something like stealing the hard work of another NPC.

In the end, however you reach your goal is up to you. It might take a day or it might take a month.

Random events could would also take place and it would range anywhere between getting 1 mill from a heist to you getting ratted out by someone.

I also want to associate some form or risk-reward system or a reckless vs. calculated option. Some options would be safer to pick with a lower payout, but help in the long run, while the risky options have a higher reward output and less advantage long term.

Honestly, it'd also be a nice way to teach people about decision making and how impulsive choices can sometimes backfire hard.

It sounds like players would make the most ridiculous choices and I would love to see something like this lol.

Now I wanna give a typical playthrough in case anything I said doesn't make sense (that's entirely possible)

You start the game, make your character, give them a certain set of stats, and you're dropped into your seed.

From here, you're given a list of goals. Most infamous crime leader, owner of 20 different fancy sports cars, billionaire, private island owner, etc... (Some I thought of are more serious, so I'm not gonna put them, but I'm sure any true crime lovers can take a guess.)

With your goal picked it's up to you to make it happen.

During anything you do, there's a chance for random events to take place that can alter the your success. Almost all decisions you make will happen, but there's a chance (I'd say around 10%) that something unexpected can happen.

So, you keep playing until you meet your goal. Sometimes you can be set back for miles or you can get a huge boost in whatever you choose.

I had a similar idea with those King's choice games, and it would more or less be the same. Especially the ones that say you can pick how to raise your child.

I just imagine you adopt a child thinking your spouse will see you as some Mother Teresa and then you just neglect to raise the child properly and the kid snitches on you making becoming a monarch 20x harder 😭

I'm a big fan of choice based games as well as visual novels, so I'm sure this would be a funny asf game to play.

Check out the Hero Wars one I did also.

But, thanks for reading if you got this far!

[verytiredmeerkat]