Blaise (The Fame Game)

An interactive fiction saga about ambition, betrayal, and the price offame.

What would you do for fame?

Some people chase it. Others are born into it. A few destroy everything in their path to reach it.

And some discover that fame isn't just a dream.

It's a game.

You play as a prodigiously talented young musician whose life begins to spiral into a world of rivalries, devotion, obsession, and secrets that stretch far beyond the stage. The people around you all want something. Recognition. Power. Love. Survival. And each of them is willing to pay a different price to get it.

But the deeper you climb, the clearer it becomes that the spotlight hides more than it reveals.

Some people become stars.

Some people become legends.

And some people become something else entirely...

(This game is romance heavy. It is one of the main themes, but not the sole main theme. Music is, and always will be, and the rise to superstardom itself. In the prologue, romance is...well you'll see. Expect the game to have a plethora of RO's, with new ones introduced constantly as the story progresses. What would you do for fame?)

[SUPPORT ON PATREON]

I’m not asking for extension customization or anything like that, but I  don’t understand why ‘pale’ and ‘white’ are both options available while skin tones in between that and ‘light brown’ are entirely missing. Same problem here with ‘dark brown’ and ‘black’. 

You’re not obligated to add anything, of course, and this might have already been addressed, but it’s just a little disheartening to see as a person of colour. Good luck on the rest of the WIP! Wishing you and your brothers well :) 

Career, not really. Image? Kind of. There will be…uh different reactions to doing certain things depending on gender. If MC is a female, you’re definitely going to get hit on a bit more by other industry folks, while if MC is male you’ll have more groupie attention.

Look at you, asking questions I obviously won’t answer yet 😂😂

You mentionned that this is a romance focused game. Is it then possible to have a list of ROs, please ? And if not then just a confirmation on if Alex is going to be romanceable in the future ?

5) can I just say E is well written! Whether or not that’s who I would choose as the RO the moments between MC and E are well done, so I enjoy the plot line anyway.

6) need more Alex and Nina! Some of my fav moments were MC growing into new friendships while on tour.

7) continuity point: when you get ice cream (at the zoo I think) in your childhood you have the choice to get strawberry…

8) this is probably a me problem bc i finished this at like 3 am but who is Ash referring to in the end? MC or E?

9) I wanted to see both endings so I played through both. And I thought after the “Don’t” option and your friends all walk away disappointed or angry at you that the other option would be better. And actually it’s worse lmao. I actually laughed because I couldn’t believe what was happening. Like what the fuck. No actual question here just reaction

5) Ty. E is my favourite. After that, probs T (who you’ll meet in ep 1)

6) Yeah, they’ll both be back throughout the story.

7) Yeah that was already fixed for the next update.

8) Huh?

1) there’s a lot here, especially if this isn’t even the whole prologue. It almost feels like it could be a stand alone story if you wanted to flush out the choices more. Would you ever make a separate if centered around the time spent at ardent/training?

2) does Marcus ever come back? I lowkey forgot about him and then there’s no mention of keeping in contact

3) are there going to be stats for characteristics/traits or for career (fame level, skills,etc)? Or will it stay the diary entries?

4) at some point will there be bios for the ROs in the stats page or pinned on tumblr?

1) Nah. It would be appealing but if I did that I’d not be able to work on this game much. Though if I did do it, I’d definitely have time to make Ardent WAYY more detailed as to how it works. Ardent is really only a prologue setting in this game and far from the main focus, so I didn’t want players getting the impression it was a school sim. Though part 2 does dive deeply into Ardent specifically.

2) Yes

3) Yeah kinda, not number based though. I hate maths.

I'm not usually a fan of IFs that start the main character off as a little kid, since most authors either make the kid seem like a midget adult, or completely powerless/pointless. However, you did a great job at making the early childhood section enjoyable: most toddlers - young children are really obnoxious, hyper, weird, idiotic trash goblins and you nailed that extremely well! Yes, that is intended as a compliment.

At the very beginning, I wasn't sure about the almost absurdist writing style (the metaphors and similes are definitely on the absurdist side) and for a while, I ended up not liking it at all; however, it was surprising to learn that the more I read, the more I decided it actually fit the story and decided that a more grounded style would not have worked quite as well, especially not for a very strange young goblin MC with synesthesia.

I think you also did a very good job with both David and Coleman; they definitely fit the bill of tired and frustrated, yet proud and indulgent dads.

I do not like Cecilia, Rosalee, or Ren at all - and it's not because they are poorly-written characters! The three of them are perfect examples of "the friend that no one likes," for different reasons~ You did phenomenally well with writing the three and my only real gripe is that the main character doesn't have the option to be sarcastic, bitchy, or even that irritated with the in the first part of the prologue. Which I do understand is because it's the first part of the prologue and I won't ask if you'll include options like that in it- I'll just quietly hope that there will be options to not always be friendly when (and in Ren's case, if) they make an appearance and do something dumb to the MC again.

The childhood shenanigans were actually pretty well-done!

E is a decent character and I get that the whining, clinginess and weird jealousy is because, like everyone else, E is still just a kid. However, I am hoping that Jett ends up being one of the ROs and not just a supporting character, since so far, he's the one I would have had my MC hook up with.

I know it's kind of nitpicky/weird, but with the character customization in the beginning, would it be possible to request that at some point, it gets expanded to include a few more options; such as being able to create an albino MC, (pinkish or reddish eyes, white hair, extremely pale skin) or MC that has vitiligo? It would make no sense to request things like piercings, tattoos, or dyed hair for child MC, but it would be great to be able to decide if MC has anything of the sort, when they get older.

That's really all I can think of right now~! I'm definitely looking forward to the next update and to see where everything ends up going!

Yes, with regards to the customisation that’s pretty much a placeholder because at the time I was too lazy to do it in detail as it was low priority in comparison to the actual scenes. It’ll be overhauled completely in the future and more detailed, particularly making you pick an ethnicity, as in the later episodes MC will unavoidably be treated differently by certain characters depending on ethnicity and gender. Adult features like tattoos are already options in episode 1.