CYOA Insight - Planned features & ideas! (Patreon)

I figured I'd do my own write-up just for some clarity and to properly communicate it going forward since I'd like to model around this as my main sort of content. These are the ideas I have going forward into something more long-form.

Pacing

First off, the pacing. As it's been brought up; the pacing felt pretty poor in the back-half. I have no intentions of making the next project quite as dense on the sex, I'm hoping for an even blend of exploration and world-building as I introduce original concepts woven into an already established world that leaves quite a lot up to interpretation and original concept building!

Naturally this is, in part, affected by the choices voted! And that's fine, of course, but I figured it was good to establish (or rather, re-establish more officially) that the H-scenes will be more sparsely spread out to avoid repetition and to feel more like they're properly earned. This will probably be the hardest part in this sort of project, especially one that requires quite a lot of adapting on the fly with new ideas! Be patient with me on this! ♥

Daily Polls

Here's the first major change to the formula, and something that can be changed back at any point if I decide it isn't working out. The polls and updates will no longer be daily; instead the CYOA will be updated every other day. I think it was manageable to do daily, but I'd like to take the time to construct and plan out what comes next - particularly the poll options were something I struggled to come with on the spot, fresh off of writing. This will also allow for longer and more in-depth updates, though the quantity of the text will often remain about as long! This ties into my next talking point where I'll elaborate on the planned formatting.

Community Suggested Poll Options

About what it says on the tin, tying into the new formatting for uploads. I'll post an update, and in the comments of that thread (or maybe a different post entirely!) Patrons will have the ability to reply with poll option containing some sort of (contextually appropriate) action. The following day (the day between uploads) I'll run a poll featuring one community suggested poll option against 2-3 of my personal poll options.

I'm currently considering the Patron tier that will be able to access suggesting poll suggestions since it'll require a delicate balance between too many and too few options, not to mention it will require some in-house voting (and a splash of my preferences) to begin with to choose the community poll option! This is something I'll be working on how to appropriately implement over the next few days.

Self-Insert Protagonist & Original Characters

This is something I believe I'll be implementing this next CYOA. It just allows for exponentially more freedom in setting and narrative. Naturally the gender of the protagonist will be voted on, as well as the setting and their history!

I appreciate that you guys all seemed to like the original characters! Of course with a self-insert character this'll wind up skewing the balance somewhat, but I hope to make up for it with references and direct interactions with established characters in the lore! Being realistic these will be still scarce, as average joes are far more common on the streets, but I hope I can continue to design interesting characters to interact with! Think of it more as a general Runeterra CYOA, and not necessarily a League CYOA if that makes sense.

Items

Just a fun little mechanic and a no-brainer that'll unlock SECRET POLL OPTIONS, and also tying back into community suggested poll options it will enable the player to get more creative with how they tackle certain situations. This'll be contextual, and inventory and things like that will be featured on the sidebar of the google doc! No one's today using these items will always be a good idea though, hoping for a balance between powerful effects and the struggle of morality in using them!

Effects & Consequences

Of course, can't have immoral choices without the consequences of your actions! This was something that got touched on but never established due to the short-lived nature of the CYOA. Hoping to expand on this and utilize it to the fullest for the sake of making it feel properly like a fully interactable game. Will there be bad end potential? No idea, maybe something of a soft bad-end unless it seems fitting - all of the consequences but the opportunity to continue.

Dice Roll Clarity

What it says on the tin again, less vague percentages and dice roll checks seems like it's more fun than a simple "success" or "fail"! This goes hand in hand with more generally just more dice rolls and randomness!

This was all more or less a bit of rambling just to get my ideas more concretely down in text! Could've probably been summarized in "more game mechanics, more interaction, more story, slightly less gratuitous sex"!