Interactive Fiction Ftw

DEMO (16k+)

18+ Interactive Fiction sets in dystopian cyberpunk city.

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The old world has ended 50 years ago. The world temperature reached its tipping point in 2048 and destroyed the world’s landscape. By 2052, the world map looked completely different. It was The Collapse of the Civilization, or what you and most people simply refer to as The Collapse.

Life was not easy for you. You were born 20 years after The Collapse when the world was still reeling from the aftermath. You barely remember anything from you early life. For all you knew your world was limited to the walls of the orphanage. You were constantly hungry, cold, and weak. There was never enough food, never enough blanket, never enough water.

You tried the hardest to survive, and for a while, it seemed like you could make it. Until you turned sixteen and the world you knew changed, and not for the better. What happened next broke you in ways you didn't think possible. And when you eventually escaped the nightmare, you were no longer entirely human.

Now it's 50 years since The Collapse.

You have closed that chapter of your life. As the Steelwater City moved past recovery toward the future, you too have moved on. Now you are carving your name as one of the best assassins in Steelwater, utilizing your augmented body to its maximum capacity.

Or so you think...

The Method and The Madness is a text-based interactive fiction where you can…

Play as a man or a woman, select your personality from two distinctive options: trigger happy (loud, dramatic, theatrical, and an art lover) and even keeled (practical, efficient, and obsessed with weapons)

Select your moral compass, manage your reputation, and maintain your sanity.

Build romance, friendship, or keep things strictly professional with five other main characters.

Content warnings: violence, death, trauma, loss of body parts, avoidable sexual content (at the time of the demo, no sexual content is being written yet)

Note: English is my second language so I appreciate if you could provide input (i.e., the flow of the story, the description) or report any typo/bug/grammar issue in the link here.

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[All images in this post have alt/id text if you need it or want to copy paste anything]

With no warning, Itch.io, a site where many host their indie games, comics, books and more, has started purging and shadowbanning explicit and LGBT+ works. Creators got no warning. And if they were still owed payouts from these works, Itch.io is saying they won't give them their money as they 'broke the rules'. Rules that were only just set in place, with no warning, and therefore no way for creators to try and draw out their money or delete these 'offending' works before they got banned under the new rules.

So Itch.io has been the most recent to fall to the demands of a group that's been contacting Visa and Mastercard and convincing them to threaten sites/businesses with 'stop selling what we consider to be explicit content on your sites of we'll stop allowing your site to have transactions with Visa and Mastercard'. Steam folded, and now Itchio has too. And a reminder earlier this year Gumroad also stopped allowing explicit content, further back than that Patreon banned some kinks and fetishes even if it's depicted in fiction not real life, and I don't have to explain to you guys the great Tumblr explicit content ban of 2018.

And as always remember this doesn't stop with sexually explicit work as LGBT+ stories and people are often labelled as explicit and already we're seeing works being taken off Itch.io that are about LGBT+ and especially trans stories. Other non-sexually explicit works I've seen already getting shadowbanned, delisted or deleted are SFW games featuring furries/anthros, SFW dress up games (because when you take the clothes the model is nude), and the aforementioned SFW games that include LGBT+ characters and stories.

I'm compiling here information I've seen around various social medias, mostly Bluesky, because I haven't seen all these things shared over here.

I don't personally have explicit content on itch, but I had been considering one day selling things on there and I do currently have explicit content on my Patreon, my main source of income, and am terrified that Patreon is going to fold next (if anyone knows alterative for hosting audio content behind a paid subscription service please let me know so I can start maybe making a back-up in case the worst happens). Because for me personally if Patreon goes next, it's not like I can go out and easily get another job. Not only because in general finding and getting a job is difficult enough, but I'm autistic and have chronic pain and have been constantly getting sick or new pains over the last few years and don't feel safe being trans in the UK right now and all of that combined rules me out of a lot of jobs and makes me feel unsafe to apply to any. I'm so grateful I've been able to make a community around my work, but if Patreon caves next and I just leave my SFW posts on Patreon... 10% of my Patreons are signed up to the SFW tier, 90% are signed up to the explicit tier... I know if Patreon caves I will go from someone living comfortably who's searching to move out of my parents so I can live in a safer environment to someone who can no longer even afford the rent I pay to my parents. I'll try and get an alterative found and set up in case that happens and I can only hope you guys will follow me to whatever other site I have to set up... but it feels unlikely that people will get a whole new account on a whole new payment provider just to support me on a website they might never have heard of...

But what can we do right now?

A petition you can sign (international but you do have to give your name, email, and postal/zip code):

Get calling:

Mastercard (US): 1-800-627-8372

MasterCard (UK): 0800 964 767

Mastercard (International.): +1-636-722-7111

Visa (US + Can): 1 800 847 2911 / 1-800-VISA-911

Visa (AUS): 1 800 125 440

Visa (UK) : 0800 891 725 or use their international call collect +1 303 967 1096

Visa (International): (call collect - it costs them $): +1-303-967-1096

PayPal (US): 1-888-221-1161

PayPal (UK): 0800 358 7911 from landline, +44 203 901 7000 mobile

PayPal (International): 1-402-935-2050

(numbers gathered from these posts X X X )

Don't know what to say on the phone? Here's a script written by timidtanuki:

Creators have had their work removed off Itch.io with no warning and since it's been removed for 'breaking the rules' (rules that were suddenly in place with no warning) they aren't entitled to get their payouts. Just like other sites such as Youtube and Twitch and Etsy, Itch.io hold onto money from their users in a wallet and then give them payouts. So there is money creators have made, are owed, that Itch.io is not giving to them.

People are recommending that if you still have works on Itch.io to turn down the revenue sharing to 0% so that Itch.io no longer takes a cut or your money if you no longer want to support Itchi.io finically but don't want to remove your works from their platform. X

Other Bluesky posts and calls to action I've seen:

radiantg.bsky.social is asking for anyone on Itch.io who got their game deindexed, removed , or payouts turned off to reach out to them (espeically if you make explicit and/or LGBT+ games) for a piece of journalism about what is happening.

sleepyhard.bsky.social is making a threat of all the games that Itch.io has censored/removed from their site search function. Obviously be aware this will include 18+ only games, games with sexual content and other dark or heavy themes.

thetransfemininereview.com wants you to reach out to them if you're a trans creator on Itch.io who is being affected by this so they can make an accurate report. they say 'authors' in their post and I'm unsure if they also want game devs to reach out.

dropdownbear.bsky.com wants you to reach out if you have purchased things on Itch.io that you can now no longer access because of this ban. they can include them in a report being filed with the Australian Consumer Commission as this may be a violation of Australian Consumer rights. If you are Australian you can no longer access things you purchased of Itch.io you can report directly with this guide.

It's a scary time for adult creators and sex workers. It's a scary time to be trans. Support creators. And if anyone knows of any alternate payment providers that allow explicit work, and/or alternate websites to Itch (and in case things get worse, also give me Patreon alternates please) where people can host, sell and/or offer paid subscriptions to writing, images, videos, audios, games and more please leave them in the replies. And please help share this post, the posts I'm linking too, and any other resources you can find.

Blood of the living (chapter 4) - fields of asphodels book 2

College tennis origin story (chapter 7) - in love

The Eternal Library (chapter 4)

Adoriel's Tears (part of chapter 2) - delicious

Love after death (chapter 3) - I am not ok

Apartment 502 (chapter 2)

The Bastard of camelot (chapter 4 + part of chapter 5)

After Dark (chapter 3)

Press play (chapter 3)

The soulforge order (chapter 2 part 1)

Stygian sun: total Eclypse (chapter 1 part 3) - I am not ok again. Don't touch my sibling

When Twilight strikes (chapter 12)

Burning Academia (chapter 3)

The trials and tribulations of Edward Harcourt (completed game) - criminal that I still have to play it, a bit afraid of the bad endings

Where they wait (VN, completed game)

The Woods Hungers (chapter 3)

Moonlight (chapter 1 part 2)

The Night Market book 2 (chapter 7)

Cantata (chapter 2) - there is lots of food because the author also has another completed if: Viatica

The Sovereign's Ring (new content)

Birds of a rose (new content)

From the mud (chapter 1)

Updated: 03/27/2021

I’m trying to clean up my blog, so I’m putting all the games I like here.  From now on, I’ll be re-blogging updates and posts about #other games from main (@justannushka)

Published Games I Like

180 Files by @scribble-games

Keeper of the Sun and Moon by @keeperofthesunandmoon

Our Life: Beginnings and Always by @gb-patch

The Shadow Society by @carawenfiction

The Soul Stone War by @intimidatingpuffinstudios

The Wayhaven Chronicles by @seraphinitegames

Active-ish WIPs I Like

An Absinthian Ballad by @locria-writes

Andromeda Six by @andromeda-six

A Tale of Crowns by @ataleofcrowns

A Thousand Miles of Sky by @athousandmilesofsky

Amygdala by @amygdalagame

Arcadie: Second-Born by @sofia-d-asb

The Bastard of Camelot and Supernatural in New York by @llamagirl28

Demon Bound by @demonboundif

Diaspora by @diasporatheblog

Divine Intervention by @divineinterventiongame

The Edge of Dawn by @elysianfiction

Exiled from Court by @beeanca-writing

Fields of Asphodel by @asphodelgame

The Golden Rose by @anathemafiction

Greenwarden by @greenwarden-cog

Guenevere by @newarcana

Heir to the Throne by @heir-to-the-throne-cog

Herculean by @herculeangame

Love and Friendship by @salty-stories

Lure of the Gallows by @lureofthegallowsgame

Mind Blind by @mindblindbard

Mind Games: Obsession by @gatheringstarduststudios

More Things In Heaven and Earth by @morethingsgame

OFNA: Birds of a Feather by @ofna

The Porthecrawl Witnessby @porthecrawl-witness

Reports from Philomena by @reportsfromphilo

Roots by @roots-game

Sentinel by @nyehilismwriting

Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem by @azalynestudios

Shepherds of Haven by @shepherds-of-haven

SOS: The Mortal Coil by @sosthemortalcoil

To the Whistling Winds by @tothewhistlingwinds

Virtue’s End by @crimsiswrites

A Witch’s Curse by @a-witches-curse

Whisper in the Dark by @whisper-game

Zeus’ Dilemma by @trinitytrilogy

WIPs I’ve Been Meaning To Try

A Mage Reborn by @mage-parivir

Citadel by @bouncyballcitadel

The Emortuus: Betrayer by @emortuus-if

Golden by @milaswriting

Harbringer by @harbringercog

Souls of Nothing by @souls-of-nothing-wip

Speaker by @speakergame

When Twilight Strikes by @evertidings

Inactive (?) WIPs I Miss

Betovering House by @betoveringhouse

The Brandings by @thebrandings

Bright Eyes, Black Blood by @brighteyes-blackblood

The Fox of Sunholt by @foxofsunholt

Honey and Fire by @honeyandfiregame

The Watchwood by @compassroseproductions

Wilhelmina  by @fidere-k

“His light is Old Porthecrawl’s, not yours, and you see him as he is - a man on a darker street, in a darker time, with no shelter from his night’s rain.”

What an uncanny feeling when I saw this, because oh my word, there he is. 

I’m James, and I write interactive novels for the amazing “Hosted Games” label of “Choice of Games”. I’m currently working on the Relics of the Lost Age trilogy, a series of stories about a badass 1930s American archaeologist who fights Nazis, discovers ancient secrets and has amazing adventures all around the world. It’s inspired by Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Uncharted and the like.

The first game’s already out. You can find it here.

The second one’s in progress, and is well on the way. You can find its Work in Progress thread on the Choice of Games forum here.

On this blog, I’ll be answering asks every Sunday, reblogging stuff I find about Relics, Hosted Games and Choice of Games, and occasionally putting up progress updates, dev diaries and character profiles. All questions, art and anything else welcome.

Ethan Ramsey and Mc (all versions of the game) dressed as MORTICIA and GOMEZ (from Family Addams)

I hope y’all like the drawing!  It took me a week to finish.

Halloween season is the BEST!

@playchoices

They... don’t? Patrons have access to new chapters a month earlier.

I’m hoping you didn’t mean to ask the opposite.

Frankly I’m a bit exhausted by these questions and maybe I’m not in a calm state of mind, because I just can’t let this go without getting seriously irritated.

Not you anon, but for everybody else who’s been bugging me about “why Patreon”, “why exclusive scenes”, “why does it cost money” etc:

From now on I’m not replying to Patreon/money/early access questions. In any other platform, this is never an issue. Somehow when it comes to indie games, expenditure becomes an incredibly mysterious unknown concept. You are pissed when freelancers are not paid adequately, but require anyone who pays them to pull out those espenses out of their ass.

Games are not free to make, even when they are free to play. They cost a lot of time, money and effort.

Your guilty pleasure is mine and my team’s livelyhood. You may have 0 respect for the content, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s really really hard work of multiple people.

I’m not going to underpay my team, or stop making free to play games for the people who actually appreciate them because a small percentage of loud mouths can not grasp the concept of fair trade.

They have been hit EXTREMELY hard and I have seen no posts going around talking about it. It is one of the hardest hit places in ARIZONA, a state that already has horribly high case numbers.

They have a Covid relief gofundme. Please donate if you can and spread this if you can't.

Reblogging October 3rd, 2020

Sooo ooc. Like only a few frames before he was teasing her in a sibling like way and then he is suddenly making eyes at her and the MC? Yeah, no.

Like you know I could see the Jax/Lily/MC threesome because there was a bit of a dynamic there, the Cleopatra/Caesar/MC one fit the story and MC’s role as a courtesan who was gifted to Caesar, and the Carter/Veronica one was fine as we are to believe that everyone at Belvoire hooks up with everyone else, but all the others have seemed weird and at this point they have written so many of them that any shock value is gone and it’s just a cash grab.