Chasing Stars IF

[chasingstarsif]

Chasing Stars IF

You're the new manager of the Gabbia, a once respected hotel that has lost the trust of both the public and all hospitality authorities.

Try to restore the hotel's reputation and maybe find love along the way.

[wlw game]

DEMO: 28th March, 2026

[chasingstarsif]

I need you to let me call Mattea mistress. This is not an ask but a statement

I'm way ahead, love

[chasingstarsif]

will we meet any new characters in the new chapter?perhaps.....a butch..? *pleading*

*smiles placatingly*

Nope. It's currently Autumn in Bretema and our Butch is supposed to pop up in Spring, like a daffodil, but I might speed things along because someone else sent me an ask about her a couple days ago and they guessed stuff LOL

I would introduce a placeholder butch to apease y'all but I know how the wild place called Tumblr works and if I make her too charming OR too mean you'll want to romance that one too on the basis of 'another butch is never too much'

...It does rhyme if you read it like you're from Dublin.

[soulsisterif]

Now I'm curious about what other ifs you play. I know you've played love island and thth but I mean more the small creator community. Any recs?

Ooooh, buckle up because this is gonna be a long trip. I've got so many, though you probably know most, if not all. (I really should start reblogging other authors if they have a Tumblr).

Let's stick to text-based stories. I haven't had as much time to play lately so I may be missing newer, cool stories. I'm going to have to leave some out; otherwise this post will be never-ending and it's already half a bible.

Might do another with more stories. How lucky are we that people write so many marvellous stories? And for free!

Number one is my first love and the main reason I started reading text based IF when I used to focus on visual novels:

• Scout: An Apocalypse Story by @anya-dev. Five years later I still think about the Orange Plains. We miss you, Anya. Hoping you're okay and thank you so much for this story. Your legacy carries through time like the cough of the Rover through your desert world. E, you were destined to be my soulmate but Sabine doesn't give a f*ck about destiny. The image of a guy using his very limited electricity supply to iron his clothes in the apocalypse still lives in my mind rent-free.

• Since I already mentioned it College Tennis: Origin Story by @allieebobo. Very slice of life, great dynamics among characters that go beyond their interactions with MC. You'll come to this story for the romance and you'll stay for the community feel and the engaging tennis descriptions. I love playing the matches so much I don't even unleash the kraken anymore. There are lots of customization for you to enjoy and countless little things that get acknowledged by the story (including race and gender). Y'all know I'm a sucker for that kind of flavour text. Same author of Merry Crisis which is being adapted as a visual novel (you go, author!) and is also a very enjoyable read. Coming-of-age vibes.

• The Golden Rose by @anathemafiction. Can't wait for the second book. Welcome to a new version of Tarragona! Explore the city; fight with your horse; get your face Halloween-ed; feel like a rich bastard after meeting a street rat and remember how dirt poor you actually are after meeting actual rich folks; enjoy the flavour text you'll get (including differences depending on your MC's sex). Alessa, I will make a simp out of you. Or not. I'll love you anyway because I'm a soft-hearted fool. Never had I ever raced an old woman who pushed her steed to its limit. She also pushed my buttons. In a darker playthrough the memory of this hag might just be the last straw for a corrupt and likely insane Romanus.

• Love After Death by @loveafterdeath-if. The kind of story I enjoy immensely and that I know I will never be able to write because I'm no good at writing confrontation. Won't leave you indifferent, will make you feel. May be rage, may be hope, may be hurt but it will definitely make you feel. You'll get your heart broken, though it can be mended by a grumpy cat with a liberal idea of what a litter box looks like. Then again, your heart is the least of your concerns if you let your sanity suffer blow after blow. Be damned, Juliet. Heaps of customization, flavour text and reactions to choose from. Solid 10.

• The Wayhaven Chronicles, by @seraphinitegames. Need I say more? Insane branching across books, good and varied romances great plot and dynamics. You can have mommy issues! Honestly, what else could you possibly ask for? In Book Two a little girl may be told that all she has to do to achieve her goal is to work hard and she may answer 'oh, I don't want to do that'. If you can't relate... Have bought all three books. Will defo buy the fourth when it's out.

• The Cruel Palace by @tispyyyyy. Every single character the author introduced feels real. Gorgeous writing, flows like a calm river going downhill; it's solemn and poetic but also fun and witty when the story allows for it, and the writer sure knows when the story allows for it because the tone is always on point. The missives are top notch. MC's mother and older sister are severe but still managed to worm their way into my poor little heart. The fact that they are so similar and yet don't get along didn't escape my notice.

• Blood Moon by @barbwritesstuff. A lot of branching and different paths for such a "short" story. Very straightforward and not the tiniest bit less interesting for it. It's refreshing to read something that doesn't need to be incredibly convoluted to earn the 'good plot' badge. I might be biased because it's very rare that I don't lose interest in complicated games, even worse if they rely heavily on stats. I'm so incredibly envious of writers that can tell a story without losing sight of the big picture. This is it. I adore werewolves, I adore this story and I sure adore the fact that whoever wrote it also knew about ducks' corkscrew dicks.

• When Life Gives You Lemons by @when-life-gives-you-lemons-if. This one is strange for me because I remember playing the demo when it first came out and I didn't like it that much. Maybe because I'm not a messy player and I wasn't interested in any of the ROs. BUT. It has a very distinct style, there's humour galore, a soft comfy vibe all throughout and it updated recently. Boy, I was hooked. It's like those open-world games that let you explore and before you know it you've got 100 hours played and you never did a single main mission. You can skip romance (or devote yourself to Fiffer and Fiffer only, like moi) and it's still such a wholesome game. Slice of life is rare in the IF community. I saw a post the author made and I was shocked to learn she only gets 25% of the revenue. It may be fair for shorter games since HG gives you the program to actually make the game but man, for a story that has almost a million words? It seems a bit unjust. Still will buy it. 25 is more than 0.

• A Taste of Heat (formerly Spices of the Heart) by @when-life-gives-you-lemons-if. Again, very distinct style. If you read a story by this author you know it's hers. Slice of life, lots of smut but you're good to play without it and still feels like a very special game. Fun and funny, the MC feels like an actual person with their flaws and their virtues. We'll save your pizzeria, Alexis! Screw the Michelin Restaurant! Descriptions are great and the writing really makes you feel like the food is important. Lots of content and many ROs to choose from, all of them quite different from the other. I also like that stats are present but not the be-all and end-all of the story.

• Cantata by @fir-fireweed. Unique story, great worldbuilding, marvellous cast even outside of the ROs, lots of flavour text (I can only take a guess at how draining it must be keeping track of all those variables in Twine so my utter respect). It's very wholesome but bittersweet in certain parts. Super original premise and very imaginative. Calliope's gadgets are incredibly interesting and I've played several times and changed my MC's attunement just to see what her daddy came up with. The kind of writing that tells a lot without being convoluted and still manages to tell it beautifully. The kind of story I read and think, 'man, I wish I could write like this'.

• Season of Shadows by Krisis. Sooooooo goddamn gooooooood. Funny as hell, awesome dialogue, perfect and mocking depiction of sensationalist press, sensible understanding of what being a social pariah looks like (applicable but not limited to MC's situation). Very different characters that all manage to be interesting, not a single page is boring to read. Quantity and quality because who said you can't have it all? I adore this story. Every word and punctuation mark. Jane Austen would be proud (and probably also very low in Lady Blackwood's list. She ended up a spinster, anyway). One of the few stories in which I genuinely don't know who I'm going to romance first. So probably whoever has the earliest lock-in.

• Such Happy Campers by @girlfromthecrypt. What a shame the author had to deal with certain comments that made them put the game on hold. If you read this, author, I love this game to bits. DashingDon is gone and so is the demo as far as I know but I still remember it and do so very fondly. Flo saying that people are drawn to him because he comes across as mysterious only to leave him behind once they realise that "under all that 'me' there's just more 'me'" still haunts me in a beautiful way.

• Mantle: Mask On by @jjdove. I am so hyped for this story. I love the banter and dialogue choices; they really make MC feel like their own person and it allows for a lot of freedom as a player. Tilly is already growing on me (and I'm befuddling her with Xtreme kindness) but I'm mostly dying to know more about my darling Bee and whatever happened to her. Ain't no bathtub high enough that she can't conquer it but I'll be nearby in case she ever wants help. Or two buff, strong arms to cradle her Not letting us hug her right there is a crime, by the by.

• Soulmates Inc by @soulmatesinc-if. Love the concept. Super original, lots of options on how to carry out a mission. MCs company is shady as fuck but Romero and I don't see eye to eye so here's to hoping I'm mistaken. Sam, dearest, I don't need a machine to tell me about you, I'll simply court you the traditional way. I like to think this is how Tinder actually operates, then the amount of weirdos that use the app would make sense. Those profiles belong to infiltrated soul-links, people. "Anne Nonimmus, 25. 'I have 3 kids and 4 baby daddies (we're still sorting out who fathered the youngest one). If you're less than 201cm and will make a fuss about paying for my and my kids' meals on a date don't even bother'."

• Apartment 502 by @apt502-if. Sitcom vibes? Immaculate. Option to ignore and/or be spiteful to the person who made you move to another city/country? You betcha. Calli, I'll wait for you (or get charmed by Lani) while your relationship crashes and burns. Either way, I'll support you, girl. I would tell Rainn to go eat glass but we're not on speaking terms and I blocked her number. Which is funny because I choose to act all high and mighty when we happen to meet face to face. Good news is, if you're not happy with this ex you can have another one! Yay!

• Étreinte by @etreinte-if. Criminally underrated. Criminally, I'm telling you. Even if it is fairly popular. The contrast between playing the innocent, proper girl like mommy dearest taught us while she narrows her eyes, 100% aware of the duping and yet her being completely unable to smell the bull if you go the humble way because she's completely unacquainted with the notion of humility will never not be funny. Lots of flavour text depending on your choices, nice plot, solid characters and a very clearly horrible person so that everyone can agree on whom to hate. Nothing creates communion like a common foe does! Also, the drastic way my poor Lena changed from a vibrant little girl to a subdued young woman kills me every time.

• This one may be a little of a hear me out but I f*cking stand by it. What Makes a Shinobi by heeheehaw. I must confess I didn't expect much of it. I thought it would be just another Naruto fanfic but in a different format and I guess in a certain way it is, but the writing sucked me into the author's world. There's a lot of insight in the way we're told about MC's progress. I still remember the instructor explaining the lower rank missions and saying something along the lines of 'most of you won't ever go beyond these. This is not failure, this is the job'. I will keep that sentence in my heart for as long as I live. It's hard to surprise a fan of the original when you're borrowing a very well-loved and popular manga. This one did it for me!

• The Abyssal by @theabyssal. No words for this one. Sooooo immersive. An unbelievable freedom to craft the way you feel about a proper betrayal. From indescribable sadness to insurmountable rage. From clinging to a past in which you were happy while struggling with the reality of what was done to you to cutting ties with everything and everyone and wanting nothing else but to make them pay back in full for what they put you through. Masterpiece!

[chasingstarsif]

These are great. I can't recommend them enough!

[chasingstarsif]

I'm hoarding this one too, Anon, that's why I'm not 'answering' it properly. Some compliments are for my eyes only XDDD

I'm so glad you're having fun with the game so far! I really wanted to try the Love at First Sight thingy, and I have an absolute blast thinking about scenes to add that you only get if you choose this option.

It's probably because games mostly punish you for being messy but rarely reward you for being faithful to ROs. I'm a faithful woman and I like rewards. (People having an eureka moment about why I like the Good Girl Path so much in 3, 2... LOL)

As for the smile part, it felt more interesting and natural choosing an attractive feature from the RO's perspective instead of the MC's.

(I'm afraid the final RO will arrive once the weather in Bretema warms a little. She will have her finest tank top dry cleaned for the occasion.)

[chasingstarsif]

Progress Update

Chapter Two is currently 32k words so we're very close to completion since I don't want chapters much longer than 40k. Just a few more scenes to finish. It'll probably be out next month. Hope I don't jinx it like always LOL

Other than that, I'm working on the Index feature. A gift for you and for myself (testing can be annoying without it since some variables are set at the very beginning of Chapter One).

The thing that's giving me the most headaches is the stats and relationship points because those usually change with dialogue so skipping chapters makes them hard to keep track of. I set them as closely to an actual playthrough as possible but it's obviously not 100% accurate.

It doesn't affect this update that much but when stats start being relevant I might have to make you choose them manually...

I'm a little worried about it so if anyone would be willing to beta-test the game, not necessarily this update but when the time comes, I would be very grateful. Just message me or shoot me an ask (can't be anonymous, though, since I would need to send you a link to the private version of the game).

[chasingstarsif]

Okay, I've gotten similar asks about how people like that MC can woo ROs so now I'm curious about whether or not I should add more scenes like this.

Do you prefer ROs wooing MC or MC wooing ROs?

MC stands for 'Main Character'. Let me be wooed!

I like MC putting in the effort. Let me woo the ROs!

Depends on the situation so, both.

Here to snoop.

Voting ended onMay 12

[chasingstarsif]

All right, poll almost over and seems most are okay with having a balance in this regard. If it ever feels like I'm leaning too much one way or the other do feel free to give feedback.

I'm a little surprised. I thought the 'Let me be wooed' option would be higher, but I guess the most important polls are the ones that prove you wrong!

[chasingstarsif]

Okay, I've gotten similar asks about how people like that MC can woo ROs so now I'm curious about whether or not I should add more scenes like this.

Do you prefer ROs wooing MC or MC wooing ROs?

MC stands for 'Main Character'. Let me be wooed!

I like MC putting in the effort. Let me woo the ROs!

Depends on the situation so, both.

Here to snoop.

Voting ended onMay 12

[chasingstarsif]

the flavor text for sleeping with claire at her apartment then being a brat with mattea is so fucking funny. girl you are a MESS!!!

I'm like god giving you free will but keeping tabs ;)

Be as messy as you want, love, but I'm calling you out with my Narrator Powers ™

[chasingstarsif]

Given Claire loves going to the museum in Bretema, is she a history buff or did she just particularly like that exhibition?

It was an art exhibit, I'm afraid. Claire is very much into art and knows only the history that overlaps with that subject but I do imagine her as the kind of person that will enjoy anything she learns from a passionate source.

"In 1741, Spain won the Battle of Cartagena de Indias against Great Britain in spite of being severely outnumbered" Yuck. Boring. No Good. Claire no interested.

"In 1741 the Brits, with their 200 ships, were so sure about their victory against Spain (only 6 ships!) in Cartagena de Indias that they minted coins depicting their triumph before the battle even happened. They ended up suffering a very humiliating defeat. Like, if our civilization fell and our recorded history was lost, future archaeologist and historians could find those coins and rewrite what happened!" Super engaging, 10 stars, wanna know more. How much of what we consider history is actually a lie? *lost gaze in the horizon*

[chasingstarsif]

Oh, my god, I just checked Chapter One to see where the missing scene was. My past self had no trust whatsoever and she was right about it, hahahaha

[chasingstarsif]

In the next update are we going to get the missing option for Claire's scene at the pub's bathroom?

Oh. Yes. Yes, of course. I didn't completely forget about that.

[chasingstarsif]

So you're telling me Claire is based on you?

*checks breath, fixes hair, smooths clothes, smoulders sexily*

I am slain XDDD

I wish I was a little more like Claire because she's a natural with casual affection and I get embarrassed and overthink the shit out of it. The character I put the most of myself in is not in this game.

[chasingstarsif]

Claire likes MCs smile what does Mattea like?

Don't say boobs and arse, don't say boobs and arse...

Breasts and buttocks.

Nailed it

[chasingstarsif]

Who's your fave RO? The unmet one included.

I don't think I have a favourite and no, I'm not just saying that! Like, in my other IF I do have a preference and I said who it is more than once but for Chasing Stars... I really don't know.

I do, however, find Claire easier to write because I'm pretty similar but that hardly equals 'favourite'.

[chasingstarsif]

I know the uhauling thing was probably a joke but... Can we actually move in with Claire? Pretty please?

No :)

The smiley face is not me mocking you but trying to soften the blow :):)

[chasingstarsif]

Wait so if I'm a brat Mattea won't like me at first just lust after me??? She thinks I'm hot but not worthy??? *wilts and dies*

"She thinks I'm hot but not worthy" LOL

It's not so much that she doesn't like a Brat!MC but that she is charmed by a GoodGirl!MC

For you to get on the GG path you necessarily have to be forthcoming and tell her why you were fired which can be pretty deep depending on your choice and makes her see you more as a person with their own shit to deal with in any case. You also have to let her talk and ask about the hotel's problems, which tells her that you care about your job, the people working at the Gabbia and her family's legacy.

Basically, even in Chapter Two, she already feels closer to and understood by a GG!MC.

I feel like some of you got the impression that she likes a Good Girl simply because she's submissive but there's a little more to it than that XDDDD