Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[yourstalkeroutside]

Boc is supposed to have 7 LIs??? Geez... I forgot about that lol. Llama is already having difficulty with only what, 4?

Now 8 LIs with 5 currently available to romance. If you call whatever is going on with Galahad and Nimue a romance.

I find insane that Mordred end spending more scenes, has more dialogues and hangouts with a random girl that (depending of choices) they don't care about instead of their first boyfriend (romanced Gawain)

Oh yeah, the biggest reason I think Dragon Friend romance should've started in chapter 5 rather than having them confess to each other in 3. It often just feels like a rehashed Gawain romance but now with monster fcking (quite literally) and somehow a lot more close. Outside of it being the cause of another rewrite.

Despite being the first LI you can actively romance, Gawain has 0 character development. Teenage Gawain acts like his 10 year old counterpart, and he still basically functions as a reason to have Galahad and Mordred in the same place rather than a character and LI in his own right. Dude gets more development in Patreon stories than within the main storyline.

 

[Zoklitsos]

Btw, guys, question of the week: now that Amy has uploaded a public version of ch5 is it bug-free? Contemplating if I want to waste a couple hours getting through ch 1-4 to see what my choices actually amounted to (and not have my MC yearn for August mandatorily)

Just yesterday I read on reddit that it's apparently still pretty buggy, but people did say that the most jarring bug with the romance points allocation (if you jumped straight to chapter 5) that was causing every single RO to lust after the MC lmao has been fixed. So there's that, at least. But I did read that there is still some sort of bug with the variables for whether or not your MC drinks that has people pretty annoyed and locking them out of some choices, giving them wrong flavour text, etc. I am pretty sure this bug has been present in the game in one form or another from the previous chapter lol, I could swear I remember people talking about it when chapter 4 released too.... but that was ages ago There's also some more minor bugs with stat allocations and variables, but you wouldn't notice those unless you're looking at the code probably.

Also it's very, very clear she desperately needs someone to go through and find her bugs and maybe also sit down with her and make her make a master list of her variables with what they track listed/described for her to reference as she codes; like if you look at the code for her side story/pov extras in comparison to the main game she changes the variables between them (such as using sromance interchangeably for both Sebastian and Seven when in the main game she uses sev_romance/seb_romance or having sevenpast as a variable in one and spast in a different one) that probably contributes significantly to the bugs. For the main game itself it's rather clear to see (and I wouldn't be surprised if she's calling the wrong variables elsewhere that I just haven't caught) when you write for UW/SV as at least for the UW side (I haven't checked for the SV-writing side) it'll switch between thinking your writing for SV and then the very next page correctly call up reactions/flavour text for UW before going back to thinking your writing the song for SV rinse and repeat until the challenge is over.

Omfg yes, every time I look through the code of the game, it seems like it's turning into more and more of a clusterfuck with the variables. Like it's such a mess atp that it's giving me a headache lmao, and this is only on chapter 5. I can't imagine what kind of spaghetti code the game will have with all the variables if it ever gets to a point where it's like at chapter 10-15 (in about 20 years maybe ). I get that I am biased because I am a programmer, but also like.... ChoiceScript is ridiculously easy. I can understand struggling with it if you are not experienced with programming at all, but as a general rule, it's not something difficult to pick up and learn. At this point, it's been years since Infamous has been a WIP, it has multiple chapters and patreon stories written in CS. So I'm just baffled as to how the code continues to be a hot mess and how it feels like there's no improvement whatsoever on that front. I feel like part of why the chapters end up taking to long to release is because of Amy struggling with the mess of variables. And then she has to waste more time to fix them anyway lol... if she does fix them, that is. Either way, even with the state of the game now, if Amy ever wants to fix it, she's gonna need a decent amount of time to sit down, fix her variables, and then go through the game and make sure they're all in the correct place, etc. And don't even get me started on the stats

 

[LtheStoryteller]

Also it's very, very clear she desperately needs someone to go through and find her bugs and maybe also sit down with her and make her make a master list of her variables with what they track listed/described for her to reference as she codes; like if you look at the code for her side story/pov extras in comparison to the main game she changes the variables between them (such as using sromance interchangeably for both Sebastian and Seven when in the main game she uses sev_romance/seb_romance or having sevenpast as a variable in one and spast in a different one) that probably contributes significantly to the bugs. For the main game itself it's rather clear to see (and I wouldn't be surprised if she's calling the wrong variables elsewhere that I just haven't caught) when you write for UW/SV as at least for the UW side (I haven't checked for the SV-writing side) it'll switch between thinking your writing for SV and then the very next page correctly call up reactions/flavour text for UW before going back to thinking your writing the song for SV rinse and repeat until the challenge is over.

Oh yeah, I also noticed the ****ed up stat checks when writing songs for either SV or UW

Omfg yes, every time I look through the code of the game, it seems like it's turning into more and more of a clusterfuck with the variables. Like it's such a mess atp that it's giving me a headache lmao, and this is only on chapter 5. I can't imagine what kind of spaghetti code the game will have with all the variables if it ever gets to a point where it's like at chapter 10-15 (in about 20 years maybe ). I get that I am biased because I am a programmer, but also like.... ChoiceScript is ridiculously easy. I can understand struggling with it if you are not experienced with programming at all, but as a general rule, it's not something difficult to pick up and learn. At this point, it's been years since Infamous has been a WIP, it has multiple chapters and patreon stories written in CS. So I'm just baffled as to how the code continues to be a hot mess and how it feels like there's no improvement whatsoever on that front. I feel like part of why the chapters end up taking to long to release is because of Amy struggling with the mess of variables. And then she has to waste more time to fix them anyway lol... if she does fix them, that is. Either way, even with the state of the game now, if Amy ever wants to fix it, she's gonna need a decent amount of time to sit down, fix her variables, and then go through the game and make sure they're all in the correct place, etc. And don't even get me started on the stats

To be honest, that's the main problem with CSide, and if she went to fix it, she'd have to go through all of the things she's done up until now to fix it, and that would be a major pain in the ***.
The thing with CSide is that it's very f*cky to use, albeit it being extremely easy. And unlike Twine, where you can easily see the branching and make connections and fixes there, on here, it is all on the same "page", kind of like a giant word file. And don't even get me started on the fact that CSide still has troubles with checking for multiple things at once. I swear, I once had to make a Frankenstein code in it, just because it never managed to check two things at once ($something is true and $whatever > 50, something like this I think was the case)
So yeah, if I was to give her any advice, I'd just tell her to use the time to either transfer it to Twine or VScode, though Twine is easier to look at and keep track of things, I think. Because her work is only going to grow even more, and even now it would take a **** load of time to fix all the variables that she has, so I can only imagine how it will look later on

 

[LosLorento]

To be honest, that's the main problem with CSide, and if she went to fix it, she'd have to go through all of the things she's done up until now to fix it, and that would be a major pain in the ***.
The thing with CSide is that it's very f*cky to use, albeit it being extremely easy. And unlike Twine, where you can easily see the branching and make connections and fixes there, on here, it is all on the same "page", kind of like a giant word file. And don't even get me started on the fact that CSide still has troubles with checking for multiple things at once. I swear, I once had to make a Frankenstein code in it, just because it never managed to check two things at once ($something is true and $whatever > 50, something like this I think was the case)
So yeah, if I was to give her any advice, I'd just tell her to use the time to either transfer it to Twine or VScode, though Twine is easier to look at and keep track of things, I think. Because her work is only going to grow even more, and even now it would take a **** load of time to fix all the variables that she has, so I can only imagine how it will look later on

The way CSIDE handles indents drive me up the ****ing wall xD. And all I've ever used it for is to make a single html for the all the extras so I didn't have to make a character every time I wanted to read one and speaking as someone who isn't a programmer it is ridiculously easy to code in CS (too bad the company that owns it is so shitty). Though the startup file does start to feel ridiculously long the more complex a game gets.

For the multiple checks on variables in CSIDE though if you write it like so: *if ((var1) or (var2)) or ((var3) or (var4)) or var5 | it'll check if true/false for each of them and only return the ones that equal true. You can probably apply the same logic to non-boolean variables to but I hadn't tried those the last time I was figuring out CS. And five was the max I could get it to do without breaking.

Though, personally, I'd recommend Ink over Twine for people who aren't used to coding/struggle to code since it's a markdown language (which I, personally, find easier to wrap my head around as a writer dipping their toes into coding) and it's editor is even set up like a word document.

 

[LtheStoryteller]

The way CSIDE handles indents drive me up the ****ing wall xD. And all I've ever used it for is to make a single html for the all the extras so I didn't have to make a character every time I wanted to read one and speaking as someone who isn't a programmer it is ridiculously easy to code in CS (too bad the company that owns it is so shitty). Though the startup file does start to feel ridiculously long the more complex a game gets.

For the multiple checks on variables in CSIDE though if you write it like so: *if ((var1) or (var2)) or ((var3) or (var4)) or var5 | it'll check if true/false for each of them and only return the ones that equal true. You can probably apply the same logic to non-boolean variables to but I hadn't tried those the last time I was figuring out CS. And five was the max I could get it to do without breaking.

Though, personally, I'd recommend Ink over Twine for people who aren't used to coding/struggle to code since it's a markdown language (which I, personally, find easier to wrap my head around as a writer dipping their toes into coding) and it's editor is even set up like a word document.

Yeah, I remember how ****ed up it was when I was making a skip page for Neon Dreams, and that **** sucked (so many ****ing indents ). Also, I am not familiar with Ink, but as a relatively good programmer by now, if you need any help, feel free to hit me up. Maybe it's just me, but I find coding in Twine to be quite easy, at least in Sugarcube, even with all the JS and CSS stuff

 

[LosLorento]

Yeah, I remember how ****ed up it was when I was making a skip page for Neon Dreams, and that **** sucked (so many ****ing indents ). Also, I am not familiar with Ink, but as a relatively good programmer by now, if you need any help, feel free to hit me up. Maybe it's just me, but I find coding in Twine to be quite easy, at least in Sugarcube, even with all the JS and CSS stuff

Thanks for the offer but my style of learning so far just hasn't jivved well with what I can find on Twine so I've kinda just given up on it xD. Plus Ink just clicks for me and comes with the same out-of-the-box stuff as Twine (built-in save system, JS/CSS support, and a default light/dark theme) and also has a similar license (possibly the same one but I'd have to look that up again) when it comes to commercial/personal works. I just like to recommend it since people seem to just see CS/Twine as the default or only options outside of Renp'y.

 

[LtheStoryteller]

Thanks for the offer but my style of learning so far just hasn't jivved well with what I can find on Twine so I've kinda just given up on it xD. Plus Ink just clicks for me and comes with the same out-of-the-box stuff as Twine (built-in save system, JS/CSS support, and a default light/dark theme) and also has a similar license (possibly the same one but I'd have to look that up again) when it comes to commercial/personal works. I just like to recommend it since people seem to just see CS/Twine as the default or only options outside of Renp'y.

Ohh, I didn't know it also had all of those features, that sounds so cool. And yeah, people flock onto CSide or Twine because those are the most popular ones (renpy for the more VN type of stuff), but yeah, those two are the only ones talked about, even though there are quite a few alternatives

 

[yourstalkeroutside]

IFs about fame when someone is tossing petty insults at you:
> Say nothing
> Ignore Them
> Talk back (always treated as the wrong option, if it exists)
> Stay there stunned and upset
After the MC mopes about the insults and has their confidence shaken.

My AI Slop, Kim K Hollywood rip off options when dealing with petty insults:
> Seriously, find a real hobby
> He's not into you, sweetie (about one of LIs in game that the petty character is chasing)
> Don't come at me because you're incompetent.
MC after: Wait, they actually thought they're better than me? They're more delusional than I thought.

 

[BiscuitB]

I don't understand how you make a rec list for 2026 like this. You have 6 thats on hiatus or not been active, one doesn't even have a demo.
It's such a poor choice of option why include them?

 

[LtheStoryteller]

I don't understand how you make a rec list for 2026 like this. You have 6 thats on hiatus or not been active, one doesn't even have a demo.
It's such a poor choice of option why include them?

"Likely hiatus" and "Likely discontinued" for ****'s sake
Imagine your recommendation being something that's literally not going to get finished, and is only a glimpse of an IF

 

[BiscuitB]

"Likely hiatus" and "Likely discontinued" for ****'s sake
Imagine your recommendation being something that's literally not going to get finished, and is only a glimpse of an IF

Literally!! How can you put the first rec on your WIP list a IF thats' not been active since 2023 and there's no demo.

It's like asking for places to eat today and the person saying that they've closed down, or already finished like why give me options I'm not able to utilise?

 

[LtheStoryteller]

Literally!! How can you put the first rec on your WIP list a IF thats' not been active since 2023 and there's no demo.

It's like asking for places to eat today and the person saying that they've closed down, or already finished like why give me options I'm not able to utilise?

Facts! Like I do get a lot, but recommending stuff that's not going to be finished is very bad taste in all honesty, and just because they are your friends, doesn't mean that you should promote their unfinished works

 

[yourstalkeroutside]

Facts! Like I do get a lot, but recommending stuff that's not going to be finished is very bad taste in all honesty, and just because they are your friends, doesn't mean that you should promote their unfinished works

Good friends tell you to finish your story,

 

[Ireth313]

I don't understand how you make a rec list for 2026 like this. You have 6 thats on hiatus or not been active, one doesn't even have a demo.
It's such a poor choice of option why include them?

I have such huge beef with interact-ifs Tumblr for reposting posts that are basically game promos for stuff that doesn't even have a demo yet. It's interact-ifs, not look-at-concepts!

 

[Grace5963]

I have such huge beef with interact-ifs Tumblr for reposting posts that are basically game promos for stuff that doesn't even have a demo yet. It's interact-ifs, not look-at-concepts!

Everything I've seen has a demo of some kind, but honestly, I think they reblog without really looking if that's the case.

 

[Ireth313]

I think they reblog without really looking if that's the case.

Nah, they have a whole 'no demo' tag in there. I got to the point that if I see any unfamiliar IF announcements in my feed, I scroll to the bottom of the post to see if there's a demo link.

 

[LtheStoryteller]

Good friends tell you to finish your story,

You'd think that, but as someone who's been in the writers IF discord server, I can tell you that that toxic positivity and encouragement is only directed at you NOT wanting to write.
Prime example would be how a bunch of folks on there would be like "oh, I haven't felt like writing, in like a month", and everyone would be kissing their ***, being like "oh that's okay! Take your time, I only managed to write 100 words in a month, blah blah". I'm not even joking, that's literally how it goes, and what "Vent" channel is used primarily for

Nah, they have a whole 'no demo' tag in there. I got to the point that if I see any unfamiliar IF announcements in my feed, I scroll to the bottom of the post to see if there's a demo link.

I get why they do this; it's promotion, so I suppose the marketing aspect of it is alright, but what does become a problem, is if the work never gets published, gets abandoned, or any other case like that. Then it gets a bit meh, but other than that, I must say kudos to them, for promoting smaller writers, unlike the "big" names from the IF community, who only promote their friends and themselves and that's about it

 

[seneya]

for promoting smaller writers

tbf they reblog the posts they're tagged on mostly. It's not like there's a conscious effort to promote smaller writers.

 

[LtheStoryteller]

tbf they reblog the posts they're tagged on mostly. It's not like there's a conscious effort to promote smaller writers.

That's true, I must agree

 

[Grace5963]

tbf they reblog the posts they're tagged on mostly. It's not like there's a conscious effort to promote smaller writers.

true but that does mean smaller writers get promoted because most people knows about interact-if's existence if they're on tumblr