What Would Your Favourite Choice Of The Games Interactive Stories Be? Would You Have A Favourite Type?

What would your favourite choice of the games interactive stories be? Would you have a favourite type? Romance, Fantasy etc. and did any of the inspire you with the ones you are currently writing? 😁

Oh boy! This is going to be a long answer, brace yourself lol

Let me start by saying that I have a degree in English literature (in fact, I'm going to do a PhD on it), so reading, in general, is one of the core activities of my life.

As for text adventures, even if not from Choice of Games Ltd., I'd like to mention a few inspirations: my passion first came from the original Choose Your Own Adventure series, and I still remember which numbers obsessed me as a child: Mountain Survival #28, The Dragons' Den #33, and more than any other, Space Patrol #22! (The latter may have also fueled my unhealthy obsession with Star Trek TOS, actually). For those unfamiliar with this fantastic book series, the genres of the three books I mentioned are, respectively, adventure, fantasy, and sci-fi. This gives you an idea of how varied my tastes are...

Later on, I discovered interactive fictions and text adventures. Dude, it was a dream come true. I started with Adventure ('76, never finished it, of course) and Zork ('79, never finished that either… of course. How damn hard were they?!). Then Mystery Mansion ('78), Castle Adventure ('82), and too many, many others. I'm a sucker for Sorcery! from inkle, and I deeply loved Magium (RIP Chris, you won't be forgotten). For my Italian-speaking friends, I also really enjoyed the Fra Tenebra e Abisso series (although its current status is unknown).

But back to CoG-related things. I've read a lot, and I'd probably be faster telling you what I didn't like! As you may have figured out by now, I don't have any particular genre preferences as long as a story is well-written, though horror-thriller stories usually grab my attention more easily.

Important note: I've read a lot of stories and, with a few exceptions, I liked most of them. To avoid writing a too-long list, here are the published stories that really impressed me:

A Crown of Sorcery and Steel,

A Midsummer Night's Choice,

Blood for Poppies,

Blood Moon,

Broadway: 1849,

Choice of the Cat,

Choice of the Vampire,

Donor,

Doomsday on Demand (1 and 2),

Gilded Rails,

Golden Rose: Book One,

Jazz Age,

Lies Under Ice,

Life of a Mercenary,

Life of a Space Force Captain,

MetaHuman Inc.,

Noblesse Oblige,

Paradox Factor,

The Evertree Saga (all four books),

Rent-a-Vice,

Revolution Diabolique,

Siege of Treboulain,

Tally Ho,

The Daily Blackmail,

The Dragon and the Djinn,

The Fernweh Saga: Book One,

The Fog Knows Your Name,

The Gray Painter,

The Grim and I,

The Ghost and the Golem,

The Lost Heir,

The Midnight Saga: The Monster,

The Parenting Simulator,

The Play's the Thing,

The Soul Stone War (1 and 2),

The War for the West,

Tudor Intrigue,

Vampire Regent,

Vampire: The Masquerade (all of them),

Way Walkers: University (1 and 2),

Welcome to Moreytown,

Werewolves: Haven Raising,

Zombie Exodus,

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven.

And now, onto works in progress! There aren’t that many because I barely have time to follow my own (heh…), so here, in alphabetical order, are the ones I'm following with the most interest:

Adoriel's Tears (@adoriels-tears-if),

A Father's Love (@kal-down),

Crown of Ashes and Flames (@coeluvr),

Dawn Chorus (@dawnchorus-if)

Disenchanted (@disenchantedif),

Dragon's Edged (@dragonedged-if),

Elysium (@elysiumcircusif),

Fallen Lights (@fallenlightsif),

For King and Country (@forkingandcountry-if),

From The Ashes We Rise (@kal-down),

Hubris (@hubris-the-if-game),

Kingdoms and Empires (@kingdoms-and-empires),

Return to Misty Cove (@fluorescent-if),

The Abyssal Song (@ri-writes-if),

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - An affair of the heart (@doriana-gray-games),

The Lonely Shore (@thelonelyshore-if),

The King's Hound (@the-kingshound),

The Reaper Watches Me (@thereaperwatchesme),

The Bureau (@thebureau),

The Unseelie (@theunseelieif),

Van Helsing (@vanhelsing-if),

When Life Gives You Lemons (@when-life-gives-you-lemons-if).

Okay, that was… a lot. As for direct inspirations, I don't have any direct ones, but I can say I felt like writing a post-apocalyptic story after reading Doomsday on Demand! Other than that, I guess the collection of narrative, text adventures, and interactive fiction I've read have led me to where I am now.

Damn, it took me hours to write this answer. I hope it's satisfying at least! Thanks for asking ☺

Hey! In the novel the in between, what genders are the actual love interest? I know for the interactive novel you can select preferred gender but I was curious what you had assigned them in the novel ( would love to read just am not sure where to buy it from ) thank you ❤️

This is so sweet, thank you! I never actually published the novel in Italian I straight up converted it into an interactive fiction in English, but I really appreciate the thought.

I started writing the novel in 2017, and coming from a rather homophobic environment, the first thing that struck me about that university was how open-minded it was. I had already published a fiction book, and I was about to release a second one, an LGBT-themed drama set in the last century. But this time, I thought, why not write a story with non-cishet characters living in a setting that reflects my everyday life… and actually make it work! At the same time, though, I didn’t want that to be the main focus. It had to be a drama novel, yes, but of a different kind...

The protagonist in the original novel is Nicola, a skinny, introverted guy. He meets Alessandro at university, who’s super friendly, and Chiara, who’s also really outgoing. But soon after, another Alessandro shows up (this is kind of a joke since Alessandro is such a common name—think of something like Liam or Noah in the U.S.).

From this point on, there are spoilers under the cut. If you'd rather avoid them, you can stop here! Otherwise, if you want to get to the conclusion, there’s a gif marking the end of the spoilers—just scroll down to the cat image!

Nicola’s old acquaintance Alessandro not only got him involved in something dangerous, but he’s also his ex-boyfriend, the one who cheated on him. Nicola, who’s gay, broke up with him, and by the time he starts university, he’s single. Alessandro, on the other hand, is bi/pan and keeps seeing Mirko, the guy he cheated on Nicola with, but it’s more of a convenience thing than anything else.

Meanwhile, the other Alessandro is straight and has a huge crush on Chiara, but eventually ends up with Cinzia, Chiara’s childhood friend. Chiara, who’s also straight, was dating Gio, but she’s got a crush on the other Alessandro.

*confused noises*

...So yeah, it’s kind of a mess (YA college drama everyone?), but it only serves as a backdrop to the family drama and the themes of freedom that gradually take center stage in the story.

That said, this is just one version of the story, and it’s now a lot more accessible! It’s a bit tricky to tweak some of the parts that are kind of “hard-wired” into the concept of “I’m a young gay man in the closet,” but I’m doing my best to put those behaviors on MC's inherent shyness and introversion instead.

I hope this answers your question! Thanks again for your interest ♥

Starting tomorrow, it's going to be three big weeks for my patrons!

First up is The In-Between update, followed by the new Patreon-exclusive next week (which I’m dying to share more about!!), and then the After Dark update the week after that.

I'm totally exhausted but also super excited! (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)♡

I've finally published Hope Abides' prologue!

It's very, very short (only 11,000 words so far), but I hope it conveys the right atmosphere! In case you're curious, since it's a Patreon exclusive, you can find it here.

And now... back to work on After Dark! ♥

bro I want to say that I really enjoyed your long weekend!!! You're so good! but for god's sake I've played it three times and the ending still isn't what I thought it would be💀 so please tell me what can I do to make my MC have a good ending, I'm starting to doubt that my MC actually was originally no good ending lol

Hi! I’m really glad you enjoyed A Long Weekend!

I had written a short guide on the forum, but it didn’t attract much interest, and since it’s quite a bit of work, I didn’t finish writing the walkthroughs. Let’s see if I can help you here now!

First of all, let me ask you a few questions (sorry if they’re a bit basic, but I’m basing this on my past experiences!):

Do you check the stats while you play? Right from the start, there’s not much, but you do need to keep an eye on the "Mind" and "Energy" bars!

Do you try to balance Mind and Energy? What values do you reach toward the end of the game?

Do you meet Alex? If so, what are your choices?

Do you generally choose "passive" actions? Like, staying in bed, not going out, etc.?

Do you generally choose "jealous" actions? Like, checking the photos, calling the bff, writing a negative email, etc.?

By understanding your playstyle, I can guide you a bit better in the right direction!

Thanks for playing A Long Weekend and for reaching out to me about it ♥

Hi! The in between interactive novel is honestly amazing! I love how you added different levels of Italian also. I am bilingual and this was truly amazing to see, as primarily I use English now it was awesome to read some parts in Italian ❤️ what made you want to add Italian elements to it?

I'm really happy to hear that. I was hoping someone might appreciate this feature!

The In-Between is set in Italy, more specifically around (and inside) a famous university in Naples. I started writing this story as a novel in Italian when I was attending it, and I had really LOTS of free hours between classes. There was no crime drama in real life, though :D

When I started translating it into English, I was a bit sad to lose all those cultural references, nuances of meaning, etc.—actually impossible to translate into English. Having studied translation and cultural mediation, however, I realised that I could turn the novel into a textual adventure, thus making it possible for different translations and/or linguistic additions otherwise unfeasible in traditional fiction. Et voila, here is the end result. Well, the result in progress, actually ☺