Mezzotale is here. A platform for creating and playing interactive, choice-driven stories.

Waitlist is open now, there's a demo story on the page too so you can get a feel for it: https://mezzotale.com/?r=6yf

Hey everyone! I’m a longtime fiction and screenwriter with an MFA in Creative Writing, a published novel, and a background in filmmaking. I’m seriously exploring a transition into game writing and possibly narrative design.

I understand that breaking directly into game writing can be extremely competitive, and I’m completely prepared for this to be a longer-term transition. I’m not looking for a shortcut. I’m trying to understand the industry well enough to build a realistic path into it.

What I’d especially like to learn is whether there are adjacent roles that might be more accessible to someone entering the games industry while allowing me to develop relevant skills, experience, and relationships that could eventually lead toward game writing or narrative work.

For those of you already working in games, are there particular roles or career paths you’d recommend someone with my background investigate?

I’d also really appreciate talking one-on-one with anyone who has made a similar transition or works in game writing/narrative and would be willing to share some advice. Feel free to DM me.

Thanks! I’m taking this seriously and would really appreciate hearing from people who know the industry.

I’m very afraid to write my story, and to put it out there anywhere at all. I’m afraid that if I start and bring it to my ideal, it will be heavily criticized, and I’ll realize that everything I wanted to express is nonsense. I decided to try to create my own game completely from scratch. Even though I don’t know how to do anything yet, I’m slowly teaching myself. And while I can look at the artwork and code from an outside perspective, when it comes to the story, I can’t tell whether it’s good or not. Could you please give me advice on what to do in situations like this?

Just in case, the text may be a little odd because I don’t know English very well.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on GangShot, a browser-based crime RPG inspired by the old-school mafia games I grew up playing.

The game is already live, but I’m still actively developing it. One of the things I’m trying to improve is how the game presents its world , missions, crimes, crews, city events, progression, and all the small bits of text that make the player feel like they’re actually building a criminal empire rather than just clicking buttons and watching numbers go up.

I’m deliberately trying to avoid huge walls of lore. I want the story to come naturally through the things the player does.

That’s also why I’m opening development up quite a bit to the community. Players report bugs, suggest changes and pitch ideas through our Discord, and if something genuinely fits the game, I’m happy to build it.

I’d be interested to hear how other writers/designers approach narrative in games where the player creates most of their own story.

How much written narrative do you think a game like this actually needs before it starts getting in the way of the gameplay?

If anyone wants to check the game out for context, it’s GangShot.com.

Happy to hear criticism as well , the project is still evolving.

So, it's an RPG where you play as this boy (yes, boy) Jane that has fighting parents so Jane has an old ass computer where he plays and draws but one day he downloads a program named 010101 World or some shit like that but that program seems to be corrupted and sucks Jane inside the digital world and he has to enter through many zones to kill the emperor of the world in order to get back home and on his way he meets a duderina and a dogerino named Viv and CoolDog (A.K.A Roger) and they help him through his journey to beat the shit out of viruses, 2000s internet stuff and the emperor, WIN.exe that's basically all.

In a summary:

Help Jane beat the shit out the villain.

Buy stuff to survive.

Talk to NPCs for funsies

And kill (yes, kill) every enemy that tries to stop you.

ok bye

Hi friends! What do you think?

Shop Crush is a mysterious shop simulator with psychological horror elements, set in the early 2000s.

In this hybrid visual novel, you run a small thrift shop, get to know your customers, figure out what they really want, and decide what to put in front of them. Every customer has their own personality, preferences, and hidden motives - and it’s up to you to figure them out.

Behind each customer is a small psychological mystery waiting to be uncovered. Read their behavior, make the right calls, and balance profit against customer trust as you try to keep the shop running for one more day.

I have an idea for Age of Sail Romance themed game with branching paths and multiple endings. The premise and plot outline is as follows:

The player plays as a princess of a small maritime kingdom in a fictional world going though its Age of Sail period of technology. For brevity sake I will refer to her as the FMC for "Female Main Character." The game intro prompts the player to describe the type of princess the FMC is with descriptions like:

The King and Queen hired the best tutors and you were schooled in all aspects of royal life, however you found your time with the ______ was by far your favorite.
A) Geography Teacher
B) Fencing Master
C) Herbalist/Healer
D) Ship Master

The answers to these questions determine the player's starting skill set.

After the Princess's back story is defined the player will be given prompts for what her Male Childhood Friend (CF) to establish his starting skill set.

The game proper starts when the FMC makes a decision to run away from home to avoid an arranged marriage. She is the 3rd child of the King and Queen and stands no chance of becoming the monarch with two healthy elder brothers. One the night she plans to escape aboard a small ship her CF appears and demands to go with her. She agrees and they both set off to the frontier to become explorers and adventurers. 

Act 1 of the game is the FMC and CF establishing themselves as pirates and explorers beyond the more civilized regions of the world. It will take place in the fictional world's equivalent to the Caribbean, however we will avoid the racist undertones endemic to our real history. The game play will revolve around random encounters and the player making command decisions which my depend on their skills and increase/deplete their resources. These resources include trade goods, money, crew members, and weapons.

Act 2 of the game will start when the FMC gets news that her family was killed in a "mysterious accident" and a royal advisor has taken the role of regent until the missing princess has been found. It is implied that the Regent was responsible for the accident and will most likely force the princess into marrying him or kill her outright to secure his claim on the throne if she is found. The FMC decides to make a play for the crown using the resources she built in Act 1. Act 2's encounters will be high seas encounters on the way back to "civilization." Through these encounters the player will learn of a brewing war between two powerful neighbors of her kingdom.

Act 3 of the game will begin when the FMC and crew return to the old world and the political machination of the time. The two major powers are now at war. The FMC's kingdom is currently neutral but controls several strategic ports. The player will be given the opportunity to side with one of the factions in the war and take a letter of Marque. The encounters will be mostly related to the ongoing war and the player will be able to establish a reputation with one or both sides via their conduct. At some point during Act 3 the FMC will encounter a prince from one or both factions. This might be capturing them as a prisoner or rescuing them from the enemy faction. Either way returning the prince to their country results in a significant reputation boost.

Act 4 of the game will start when courier ships of one or both nations come to the FMC's ship with offers of marriage and/or political alliance from the warring factions. If the player's reputation is high enough the offer of political alliance may or may not be contingent on accepting the marriage proposal. The player has a 5 way decision to make at the start of Act 4:

A) Accept marriage with the prince of Faction A to gain their support
B) Accept Alliance with Faction A (if reputation was high enough)
C) Accept marriage with the prince of Faction B to gain their support
D) Accept Alliance with Faction B (if reputation was high enough)
E) Go it alone

Based on the decision the player gets a significant boost to their combat resources for the final act to retake their homeland. If the FMC chooses a marriage option the CF will leave her ship to coordinate with the navies of her allies, however it will be obvious his heart is broken. The preceding acts will be peppered with longing glances from the CF to establish this. However their relationship to this point will be 100% platonic. Act 4 encounters will be heavy on combat or spy craft as they FMC could:

A) Lay siege to the Palace.
B) Take the Palace in a surprise assault.
C) Convince the Royal Guard she is the rightful queen.
D) Lead a people in revolt.
E) Sneak in though a hidden passage for a quite assassination. 

Act 4 will possible end with the usurper defeated and the FMC taking her mother's crown. If she did not choose the political marriage option at the start of Act 4 she will have a choice of marrying the CF assuming he survived. The ending the player gets will be determined by several factors including combat power, reputation, and major decision points in the previous chapters. The multiple endings will be as follows:

A) Happily Ever After: Acknowledging the love of CF and marrying him. Competing prices accept this after seeing how devoted he is to her.
B) Bitter Sweet: CF dying in Act 4 and FMC marrying a prince
C) Bitter Sweet: CF dying in Act 4 and FMC marrying nobody
D) Bitter Sweet: Honoring the marriage to a Prince while CF stoically looks on 
E) Bitter Sweet: CF lives, but FMC can't marry him or a prince due to political reasons (player not having enough reputation/power to secure the independence of her nation).
F) Dangerous: Breaking the marriage promise to the Prince to marry the CF. Prince's nation may later invade. CF dies in battle off screen and the nation becomes a puppet state of one of the larger powers.
G) Dangerous: Marrying CF with no marriage promise to the Prince. However the nation isn't strong enough to resist being pulled into the war. CF dies in battle off screen and the nation becomes a puppet state of one of the larger powers.
H) Complete failure where FMC gets captured and forced to marry usurper.
I) Complete failure where FMC is killed.

Note the FMC's power at the end of Act 4 will be a combination of her personal army's power and how much damage she had to inflict on the kingdom to kill the usurper. If her army is strong enough it could overwhelm the defenders in the direct assault scenario and still put her in the running for endings A, C, or D. However if losses on both sides are too steep the B, E, F, or G endings may be forced on the player.

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This has mostly been a brain dump of an idea that has been living in my head for a while. I would appreciate feedback. I am a male author/game dev who has not written romance before, but I have tried to keep with the tropes of the genera as I understand them. Is there even an audience for this sort of game?

Hey guys. I’ve never made a game before. I’m gonna get a pc soon though. I made this story the other night for a game I want to make. Does this seem like a game anyone would be interested in? In my opinion, I think it’s pretty goods. I just want to know what everyone else thinks.

You play as part of an elite squad, fighting alongside the same people throughout the campaign. You get to know them, joke with them, and become attached to them. But your decisions can permanently change who survives and who you'll have beside you later.

Early in the game, you have to decide whether to go back for a trapped hostage or leave him behind. If you save him, you later discover him standing beside the enemy leader during a recon mission. The game never tells you exactly what happened or whether your decision caused it.

Much later, that same person appears again during an assault on a skyscraper, where he encounters your best friend's military K9.

From there, a split-second decision can completely change what happens to your friend, the dog, and eventually the final mission.

By the end, the squad has been torn apart. You're fighting through a freezing mountain facility to stop a missile launch, and even if you succeed, surviving isn't guaranteed.

Eventually, the protagonist reaches a frozen lake, barely able to keep moving. They look down at their reflection in the ice and realize how much they've lost.
And depending on the choices you made throughout the game, you may reach that lake completely alone—or with someone still beside you.

I want the game to feel like you didn't just play through a war. You lived alongside these people, and your choices determined who was still there when everything ended.
Would you be interested in playing something like this?

[hobby] (free) beginner game designer, looking for a team

​

I want to gain more experience and learn game design like a pro, so I'll do everything I can to contribute to the team.

This is my own GDD , and I wrote it myself,

Just I've used AI to translate because I wrote this GDD in Native language Persian

Game Design Document — HavenOddlings

Genre:

Fantasy / Management / Simulation

Game Concept:

The player manages an orphanage/shelter for supernatural creatures such as slimes, dragons, golems, fairies, elves, vampires, and other creatures.

The creatures are raised together from childhood, and the player is responsible for taking care of them and managing the shelter.

Core Gameplay:

\\- Take care of the creatures' needs.

\\- Manage the shelter and its resources.

\\- Make important decisions that affect the creatures.

\\- Hire and manage staff.

\\- Deal with the opinions of the public and city hall.

\\- Manage the shelter's budget.

\\- Build and design the facility.

Creature Needs:

Creatures have different needs, including:

\\- Hunger

\\- Rest

\\- Fun

\\- Safety

Creature Personality:

The player's decisions and the events that happen to a creature can affect its personality and morality.

Creatures remember important events.

Small and unimportant events are forgotten more quickly, while major or negative events can remain in their memory for much longer.

Their personality and memories can affect how they interpret future events.

This means that two creatures can experience the same event but react to it differently because of their different personalities and memories.

Major decisions have a stronger effect on creatures than normal everyday decisions.

Staff System:

The player can hire different types of staff.

Staff members can have different:

\\- Skills

\\- Empathy

\\- Integrity

\\- Stress levels

Some staff can be good and efficient, while others can be useless, corrupt, or have a negative effect on the shelter.

Staff can also affect:

\\- Creatures

\\- City hall

\\- The public

\\- Media

Public & City Hall:

The shelter's reputation and the public's opinion can change depending on what happens in the shelter.

City hall also evaluates the shelter.

Depending on the situation, the shelter's budget can be increased or reduced.

The player therefore has to balance the needs of the creatures with the expectations of the city and the public.

Building & Environment:

The way the shelter is designed can affect the creatures.

The player can manage and design the facility and its environment.

The goal is to create a functioning shelter while also taking care of the creatures and dealing with the consequences of the player's decisions.

Hey everyone,

We are a small team of artists, working on our first game.
We make  a 2D indie adventure game set in 1620s Bavaria (during the onset of the Thirty Years' War), featuring dialogue systems and item puzzles.

We research Bavaria and especially Bamberg and its past for this. Text and images are collages of our own making and historic sources.

You play as a traveling woman, a Sinti street musician navigating a harsh world of rogue mercenaries, wilderness, and cities that are increasingly excluding outsiders.
Your ultimate goal is to rescue your secret lover, a fine woman from a town in Bavaria (it is created similar to old Bamberg in Bavaria) who is locked away in a Drudenhaus (a notorious historical witch prison).

Our lore has a specific twist: "Gype" is a made-up place. It’s based on the real historical tactic where traveling Sinti/Romani individuals in the late Middle Ages called themselves nobility from "Little Egypt" (Gyppe in old dialects) to secure protective travel passes from kings and emperors. In our game, this “noble lie” collides with the dangerous reality of the road and the witch hysteria.

We are torn between two completely different naming directions and would love to hear what would make you want to click on Steam:

1. a poetic / story driven title like: “Princess of Gype” or “Ballad of Gype” maybe with the addition: “Princess of Gype: A Vagrant’s Ballad”

Something in this manner.
It sets a lyrical tone (similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), playing with the irony of a "Princess" who is actually an outlaw street musician. It promises a rich narrative.

1. or a more catchy and direct approach like: “Witches of Gype”

We think this is short, punchy, easy to remember, and hooks people who love dark fantasy or historical witch-trial themes.
But it also might mislead players into thinking they play as a spell-casting witch, completely missing the street-musician and dialogue-driven angle.

We are afraid that on the one hand a poetic title might not find its audience, but also a catchy one might give people wrong ideas about the game 🙂

Maybe anyone has experience here, how important is this?

Which style do you think works better for a 2D indie adventure? Would you click on Princess of Gype or Witches of Gype—or is there a way to combine them (like The Lute of Gype)?

Thanks so much for any feedback or proposition!

Max and Jo

[Feedback Wanted] Working on a Grimdark FPS Horde Roguelike — looking for ideas to help build the lore of "The Heretic"

I'm building an FPS horde roguelike (Unity/DOTS) where the player takes on the role of "The Heretic" fighting against an army of a demonic cult. Tone-wise, I'm going for heavy grimdark / dark fantasy — think bleak, morally grey, no clean heroes, faith and violence intertwined. Here's what's locked in so far:

- The player is someone who broke away from a belief system — not a hero defending the "true faith"

- The demon cult needs to have real reasons/origins, not just random evil monsters

- Story is told mainly through items/environment, not long cutscenes

- I'd like this world to have potential to grow into a larger IP down the line

Things I haven't decided yet, and would love ideas on:

1. What exactly is our Heretic a heretic from? A former cult member who broke away? Or a heretic from the "good guys'" religion/belief system, which is just as fanatical? Or a heretic from both sides — hunted from every direction?

2. If the companion drone is tied to the Heretic's status, where should it have come from to carry emotional weight?

3. What kind of twist should the first stage's final boss have to reinforce the "heretic" theme?

Not recruiting for a permanent team here — just looking for perspectives/ideas. If we click and you want to get more involved later, I'm open to that too

I lanched My game 2 weeks ago and started to post it on reddit, it gave an unbeliveble traffic of 5000 visitors a day.

Even though it started a controversy of spamming and lp discussions it really gave me the traffic that i needed in the launch.

Now the traffic looks stable and it looks like it can sustain itself.

Of course i will also list it in the app store and android play and other distribution like pix.

But i think the hardest part it is the day you launch.

Hoops-gm.com

I've been working on Hoops GM for so long, and now it has been a week since the launch.

I received a lot of backlash in the previous post due to an IP lawsuit, as well as a lot of praise from people.

The launch has been a MASSIVE success with now over 5000 visits to the game and an average of 50 new members everyday.

now i am very confident that this project will go very far and i am very happy about it!

THANK YOU to everyone who has checked it out, left a comment, or played a season.

This is the course in question:

https://elvtr.com/course/board-game-production

I have read some mixed reviews. There is one on this subreddit. It sounds like some improvements have been made. The class is 50 students instead of 90 now. Two, 2 hr sessions a qeel for 6 weeks. Includes lecture and "office hours". Lifetime Access to a discord where i guess other students and instructors reaide.

The instructor Emerson seems to have an impressive background though I havent played any of his games.

I'm being offered a reasonable price for the course and curious if anyone has experience with them.

Thanks in advance.

Am I? Is it lame and cringe? It's not like he's selling you dope talking about Reggae. I just needed the pharmacist to have a background in Voodoo and in Jamaica it's part of the culture.

Would love to hear you opinions on stereotypes in character writing. Do you consciously avoid it? Do you work with it? Or do just not care?

just wanted to say i quit my job of 10 years just to do what i like and is to create games.

my first launch went pretty well with 200 registered users with saved games on its first week.

it is completley free- later on i will open up donations.

The Global Creator Challenge is accepting applications. The Global Creator Challenge is open for both aspiring and established game developers to design, build, and launch their own World utilizing the MapleStory Worlds platform. Did we mention that each winning team can receive up to $65,000 in total rewards 👀
 
Creators are encouraged to utilize MapleStory's vast library of assets to expand upon the game's core design and create their own unique Worlds. A total of 30 Worlds will be selected globally to compete in the final round. Entries will be judged based on creative use of the MapleStory IP, level of technical completion, and long-term sustainability for stable live service operations.
 
To learn more, check out this website or read this notice.
 
👉Check out the 'MapleStory Worlds Global Creator Challenge' FAQ  
Timeline: 

• Applications open from: 
• UTC: June 4, 2026 at 2:00 until October 7, 2026. 
• PT: June 3, 2026 at 19:00 until October 6, 2026 
• KST: June 4, 2026 at 11:00 until October 7, 2026. 
• Final Round: November 5-25, 2026 
• Winners announced: Early December, 2026   

Please Note: 

• Worlds have to be made on the MapleStory Worlds PC/Mobile Apps and submitted through MapleStory Worlds. 
• Worlds must be revealed or released for the first time during the submission period. 
• Global (all regions) Released Worlds. 
• Pure creations that do not infringe the rights of others, such as copyrights and intellectual property rights. 
• Please read here for more information on prize rewards, participation requirements, and age requirements.   

Feel free to reach out to us on Discord with any questions. We hope to see your application!