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I just wanted to share my ideas for storygames and give you guys an idea of what kinds of things I'll be writing. I want to write something decent for every single category on this website. I know what I'm going to write for most of those categories, but some are vaguer than others. Bear in mind that I haven't seriously started the actual writing process for any of these and it'll be a lot of years before all of these are done. It's because I'm lazy spending a lot of time in the pre-writing stage developing the world, characters, plot, game mechanics, etc.

Fantasy (untitled)
Initially I wanted to write something heavily involving dragons for the fantasy category because of my love of oversized fire-breathing winged lizards, but I decided to put dragons into Galaxy Tale (see below) instead.

So I came up with a new idea thanks to Morgan’s writing exercises. It started off as just "Serrene, a character I made up just now. She is a mage priestess at the Temple of Gunri who was recently conscripted into the Light Brigade of the Arefvin Allied Forces." But then slowly this idea expanded into more ideas with its own world, although it’s still in the very early stages of conception.

This story will follow the adventures of Serrene and her fellow soldiers in a war that brings all of Arefvin together against a new threat. As with most fantasy stories this story will involve races such as orcs, dwarves and elves, but with a bit of a twist. I’d also like to explore writing in the third person which I think is something underused in CYS.

Modern (N/A)
Modern, perhaps because of its mundanity, is the one category where I really have no idea what to write just yet. Maybe something to do with computers or the interwebs?

Sci-Fi (Galaxy Tale)
The project with the cameo requests, and my most ambitious storygame out of all of these. It will follow a protagonist who, after years of being confined to one planet, can finally go out and explore a vast galaxy across many planets, meeting people of all sorts of races and backgrounds, even recruiting them into the crew. I've actually got a spreadsheet full of characters just so I can keep track of all of them, and it's still growing.

Currently I've planned for five main paths which will be determined by who the protagonist is sponsored by and consequently, what the goal for the crew is. For example, one story path will have you brawling your way through an interplanetary fighting competition, having been sponsored by a company on your home planet to advertise their brand. This objective will need you to have strong fighters in your crew, but others will require people with different skill sets.

I want to make this a really rich and detailed universe with tons of replayability, so I’ll be adding lots of little things to make you keep coming back. There’ll be loads of references, some hidden and some very obvious, to things that I like. You’ll also be able to act as a ‘cupid’ to certain crew members and get them together in a relationship. I’ll write in books and stories within this storygame for you to read and enjoy, perhaps gaining more insight into this world. The fight scenes, rather than mindlessly trying to kill you at every wrong turn at every branch, will give you a flowing action sequence that goes through a different turn of events depending on your choices, although it will be possible to lose or die. Every planet will have explorable areas filled with characters, creatures and objects you can interact with. As well as the cameo requests for characters, I’ve been given permission by a certain somebody to write my own take on a whole load of their characters and lore into this storygame. I won’t reveal anything more about this just yet.

Because this is going to be such a big and complex storygame, both writing and coding wise, I'm probably going to want to practise by working on some of my smaller projects first. This one’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort.

Edutainment (Japan Adventures)
Based on a true story. An RPG based on a holiday (or vacation for most of you) where I went to Japan with my friends. The idea will be that you plan for the trip and choose a couple of friends (who all have different stats and traits) to take with you. Stats and traits will include things like Japanese (both language and cultural knowledge), physical fitness, sun/heat tolerance, attractiveness to opposite sex, alcohol tolerance, frugality, organised-ness, stomach size, and anime fanboy level. I also plan to have random events including weather.

The aim of the game is to have fun and come back in one piece, using the strengths of each character. It will have an overall humorous tone to it and some events and endings will be downright ridiculous. However, much of it will be a pretty accurate depiction of what it's like to be a tourist in Japan, hence the edutainment category.

School-Based (untitled)
This one's a very vague idea, but I'm thinking about writing a storygame from the point of view of a teacher, just to make things a bit refreshing for what I feel is one of the weakest categories on this website. I really haven't thought much about how else to make this a captivating story, though.

Mystery/Puzzle (untitled)
I’m torn between two choices for this category. The first is a game that will see the player attempting a prison break. You can gain allies in other inmates, bribe or blackmail guards, and learn the layout of the prison. I’ll try to make it so that there are multiple ways to escape, with the more challenging escapes leading to better endings.

The other idea is a murder mystery where you play as a detective to solve a crime. You’ll be gathering evidence by questioning suspects, looking for clues near the crime scene, and contemplating the circumstances of the killing.

Both of the above might benefit from including some randomness for replayability. They will be story-driven so it won’t be just "you solved the puzzle, the end." Perhaps I’ll find a way to work both a prison break and a murder mystery into one storygame.

Fan Fiction (Naruto: Dawn of a Shadow)
One of my earliest ideas. As a massive fan of Naruto I feel there's a lot of potential for a storygame set in this universe. The story will follow a young protagonist (who is loosely based on Tatsukami Renge, but less misanthropic) just starting out at the Academy and training to become a fully-fledged ninja, set before the time of Uzumaki Naruto. Other characters will be a mixture of familiar faces and my own creations. There will be all sorts of branching paths leading you to different endings including Anbu and Hokage. I even have an idea for a pretty good 'joke' path.

Gameplay-wise, you might be surprised to hear that this won't really be an RPG. It will be an entirely text-based combat system with strategic choices that are different to every situation. Your character will gain their own unique fighting style (including some jutsu I made up) depending on what choices they make and how they train. I have plans to make a system where you can fight other players' characters in what will likely be the closest thing to multiplayer in CYS.

Everything Else (The Overlord)
A few of you are probably already familiar with Tom Jackson, the insane wannabe-ruler-of-Earth teenager with a few goons at his disposal. Rather than me talking about this story, you should probably read the beta opening scene. (WARNING: it’s pretty gross)

Somehow I find this OTT sociopathic madman’s head very easy to get into and writing a scene narrated by him is very fun. On top of that, scripting-wise this will probably be my simplest storygame, so I think I should start with this project first. You might be wondering how I’m going to write a first person storygame, but believe me, I have the perfect way for Tom’s conversation-style narrative to work in interactive fiction.

I’ve put this in the Everything Else category because, while the early story is in a modern setting, the world after it becomes conquered by Tom will be very different from our current world, yet it won’t really be technologically advanced enough to be placed in the sci-fi category. Plus, technically this will take place in an alternate universe Earth with some differences in comparison to the world we know.

Love & Dating (untitled)
Essentially a dating sim made in CYS, following the love/romantic life of a male protagonist and set in modern day Earth. The choices you make will lead to different relationships and will even affect what happens to you later on in life. There will be quite a few love interests all with their own unique personalities, and I’ll do my best to make them as lifelike and interesting as possible.

Horror (Blood Aquarium)
A horror story set in a modern-day aquarium. I don't want to say much more because I feel this genre benefits from keeping the reader in the dark.

So, do you have any thoughts on these ideas? Any questions? Which ones appeal to you? Which ones sound terrible? Any particular one(s) you think I should write first or do later?

I’d also like to take this opportunity to tell you guys that I’m volunteering as an editor and play-tester for other people’s storygames. Please only ask me to edit or play-test something that’s finished and ready to be published after editing. I’d also ask that you credit me as an editor in the description for your storygame.

Okay, I don't have anything near complete enough to conscript your services yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

Cool. I enjoyed your works in Morgan's writing exercises so I'll be looking forward to it. There's just something about your writing style that is really captivating. My favourite was your opening bonus scene from the very first exercise in the first week. You really managed to pack so much thought provoking stuff into a relatively short piece.

I forgot what it was and had to go back and look for it.  That would be a great beginning to a story, I think I'll see how I can use it.

I'm happy to play test any/all. The Horror one sounds really interesting.

Thanks, and I find your interest in the horror one interesting because I didn't think anybody would like something they know so little about.

While I don't want to give away anything else about the plot, I will say that I'll make it so that the game surprises you every time you play for replay value.

I don't have any thhoughts, but I just wanted to say...  Good luck!

Thanks! :)

Good luck with your WWII inspired series too.

I have my own goal of making a storygame for every category, but I am hindered by the same issues that cause me to slow down/restart my writing. On top of that. I have irl stuff to deal with. Maybe I'll come back and show my storygame ideas for each category.

I've seen some of your writing and ideas in the writing exercises and I have to say that you have some really epic stuff, especially the story set in Greek mythology (the one about overthrowing the Olympians). I'd definitely read that if you finished it as a story. It'd be interesting to see your ideas for each category in comparison to mine.

Lots of great ideas here. The only problem I see is that they're very ambitious and will take a lot of work and time. The one thing I'm definitely looking forward to is more Tom Jackson, but it will probably be a while before I see it come to be. The only thing that concerns me is the School-Genre one, but I think that comes with the weakness of the "genre." Honestly, the more I think of it, the less I think it should even be a proper category.

Also, if you need ideas for Modern adventures, you might want to check out what some interesting places that people explore.  Maybe look up urban exploration.

Yep, they are all ambitious. I mean, I'd like to finish all of these eventually but I might not be able to. We'll see.

Tom Jackson's story, The Overlord, should take a shorter time to finish than others. There will be hardly any scripting in that storygame (two or three variables at most, if that) and I feel like ideas for that story come very easily compared to other stories. Somehow writing stories narrated by Tom is a breeze and takes relatively little time and effort. He's just one of those characters I really click with like that. So it's just a case of finding the time to do it with this story.

I admit that the school genre idea so far is pretty weak. I have, however, found a way to link this story together with many of the other storygames which will all share certain background goings-on. That's going to remain a secret for now. But yeah, I agree, out of all the categories that one doesn't seem right for this website.

I now have an idea for modern adventure. See below if you're interested.

I just looked at your profile and it looks like you're full of ideas for different storygames. Do any of those listed there involve Rob Miller, that character you interviewed in week 1 of the writing exercises? I found him a very compelling character.

I'm excited to hear that work for The Overlord is going smoothly and quickly. I could tell from the Exercise Challenges that you already have a real good handle on the Tom character. I'll be looking forward to seeing that story published. I'm also glad to hear you have an idea for the modern adventure genre, especially one based on Tales from the Basement. That story was insane. From the sound of things, you're working with a shared universe with some of your storygames. All of a sudden, the projects are sounding more and more ambitious, in a good way.

Sadly, I'm afraid that for all my ideas posted on my profile, Rob Miller was made for none of them. He is a character I made to flesh out the very minimal story and setting of the Diaclone toy line, which is the toy line featuring toys that will eventually become the Transformers. However, I do have every intention of fleshing out Rob's character, world, and story in at least two separate narratives.

Anyways, from the sound of things, progress looks like it's going well for you. So I wish you luck and wish you well on your goals.

I'm glad to see that you've got plans for Rob Miller. It would be a shame to let such a good character go to waste.

Do you have a thread somewhere for all those storygame ideas? I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks, and good luck with your projects too.:)

Thanks, I'm still surprised at how well-received Miller was.

Right now, I have no threads yet for any of my storygame ideas. Admittedly, most on my profile were very old and were made before my long hiatus from the site. However, there's one I am working on. When I have enough of it worked on, I'll put up a thread, then.

As well as the interesting character that was Miller, people were impressed at how you managed to make a character talk and reveal a lot of personal information when he was reluctant to do so. Yet it made complete sense given his situation and didn't feel forced at all. That was very clever. All some people did was just get a chatty character and asked them questions. Mine, for example, was basically just a self-loving egotistical character monologuing about himself, which really wasn't as subtle or creative in some sense.

Is your Atlantis stuff going to be a thing in your future storygames? There was some good worldbuilding and characters in those pieces of yours.

I'm afraid not. The Atlantis stuff was made up the day of the challenge. I do like what I created, but until I come up with inspiration and a story, it will probably remain unused for anything, sad to say.

I hope you do come up with some ideas for a story for Atlantis, because I'd definitely want to read those. Those writing exercises are a great way to get you thinking about new ideas.

Update on my storygame ideas

Fantasy (untitled)
While I haven't progressed as much with the plot and character for this story, the worldbuilding is going pretty well. I've got what I feel is a unique take on how magic works with some pretty detailed info on it all. In fact, it's gotten to the point where I've got loads of ideas that I really want to show the reader but I might not be able to cram it into the story itself. To include all this information somewhere I might have in-game documents/journals or maybe a guidebook built into the game for the player. I'm even considering adding a co-author for this game who could help out with making diagrams or graphs for what will be almost a scientific look at the way mana and magic works in this world. What was going to be a relatively simple project has grown to become much more ambitious.

Modern (untitled)
I'm going to write a storygame with a relatively light and simple plot and writing, but with many many choices. I'll try to have at least three choices for every page, and some paths will just go on and on and on. It'll be a 'random' story in the sense of it not making too much sense, a little bit like the Ebay Escapist path of Tales From The Basement by EndMaster, but it will be on a much bigger scale. It'll be a humour based storygame.

You can do what ever you want, but I personal think for the mystery/puzzle, the prison one is much more interesting and original. 

You're right about the prison theme being more original in CYS, because murder mystery type things have been done a fair bit. I can also see some other advantages, including being easier to make multiple solutions to the puzzle and being easier to add random elements to make it more replayable.

OK, so I've written some pages for The Overlord but, I have to say, I'm not really happy with what I have so far. I think that if I wrote any of these storygames now, I don't think I'd be satisfied with the results.

I'm going to take a hiatus from at least the writing of all these storygames. It might be months or even years, although I still will probably work on the pre-writing stuff for these from time to time.

While I take a break from writing these, I'll be reading, reading and reading some more in an attempt at improving my English and gaining knowledge about a wide range of topics. The former is mainly to improve my vocabulary and the latter is because I'm terribly ignorant about the world, and I think knowing more about it would help me become a better writer.

Truth be told, I'm not really a writer in the sense that I haven't written anything of note as of yet. I like to think of this as a timeskip a la shonen manga/anime, which I love and get a lot of inspiration from. XD I'm also going to be taking a class in creative writing, which will hopefully help me improve my writing too.

It's possible that I'll have abandoned many of these storygame ideas by the time I come back. However, I'm certain that Galaxy Tale is going to be completed one day, partly because I've made a promise to people who have made cameo requests. Just don't expect it to be published anytime soon. I'm also pretty sure that I'll want to write for every category on this website eventually.

That reminds me, I actually have a proper idea for the school category now.

School-Based (School 0)
The setting for this story will either be an alternate universe Earth or a whole new world altogether. Where the protagonist lives, at the age of 11, all children take an exam. The exam is used to find out children's innate talents and therefore decide which school they will attend. There are thousands of schools, all with their own numbers and their own careers they are dedicated to. Everybody in this world has no choice but to stick with the education and career that is decided for them at the age of 11 by their exam results. For example, there are separate schools for training soldiers, plumbers, teachers, doctors, shop clerks, and cleaners. By educating children from a young age in a very specific field allows the government to create a society of experts.

The storygame will be told through the point of view of a child who is starting attendance at School 0, the place where they send kids when they're not sure where to put them. Some of these kids are useless, some of them are lazy, some of them have too many innate talents to be placed in a specialist school, and some of them are troublemakers. It's widely regarded as a school for outcasts, weirdos and the dregs of society. This institute, due to its unusual status, has many urban myths and legends surrounding it.

Aw, I'm sad to see that we'll have to wait a bit to play Overlord or Galaxy Tale, although the idea for School 0 is intriguing!

Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad I thought of something that isn't too vague for the school category.

School 0 sounds like a premise full of potential. With those myths and legends, there's some possibly great stories to tell just from the school setting alone.

While I'm sad to hear that your projects will be on hiatus, I do support your deicision if you're not happy with what you have. Do what you need to do. You deserve to be satisfied with what you make.

Thanks. Let's hope the time is worth it, haha. :P

How are you doing with your writing?

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day. Not to mention reading's always a great thing for (potential) writers to do.

I got a good start on my horror game. I already have the paths worked out. All I have to really work on is the actual writing part, which will actual be the most important and difficult part. After all, since it's not advanced, it'll be more story than game.

Good to hear you're making progress. Any chance you could go into more detail about this horror storygame of yours?

I want to be careful. I don't want to give away to much, considering the nature of the story. I'l just say that the premise of the story is that you play in the POV of a scared child in a house. Sorry, I don't think I can say much more. Thank you for the interest!

I understand. With horror you don't want to give out too much info about it. The whole genre is built around mystery and the unknown.