College Tennis: Origin Story

Development blog for the interactive fiction game "CT:OS"

[allieebobo]

Monsoon Games

Monsoon Games is a small indie game studio that creates cozy, narrative-driven games where choices matter. We are passionate about making games that feature diverse characters and forefront underrepresented stories & perspectives.

Website | Patreon | Ko-fi | Discord

Whether it’s about pursuing glory and forging lasting relationships in the coming-of-age sports game (College Tennis: Origin Story), or the bittersweet struggle to figure out where ‘home’ is, when torn between two worlds (Merry Crisis), or quietly carving out a new life running a space diner on a distant moon (Space Diner-WIP), our games are united by a deep focus on character-driven storytelling.

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College Tennis: Origin Story

Sports x Slice-of-life x Romance x Coming-of-age x Found-family x College x Modern

Step onto the court and into the whirlwind life of a freshman at Cargill University, where tennis isn’t just a game—it’s everything.

College Tennis: Origin Story is a thrilling, character-driven interactive fiction game that plunges you into the heart of a journey to reclaim the NCAA Div I championship title. Compete in fast-paced singles and doubles matches alongside your teammates, all while navigating the pressures of college life. 

Forge lasting friendships, pursue budding romances, face fierce rivals, and experience the emotional highs and lows of pursuing greatness both on and off the court. 

Will you make a name for yourself as one of the most promising college tennis players in history? Or will the pressure prove too much for you to handle?

Demo | Dedicated blog | Main Post | Characters | Dev log | COG forum | Crowdsourced playlists

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Merry Crisis

Non-Euro-centric x Romance-focused x Slice-of-life x Queer x Coming-of-age

Merry crisis is an intimate, contemplative visual novel about figuring out whether home is what you’ve left behind, or where you’re headed. 

Your carefully-constructed life in New York has just fallen apart. Your 4-year relationship has unraveled, you need to find a new apartment to rent, and career-wise, you teeter on the edge of burnout.

Now, you’re flying back to Singapore for Christmas, and your family will most certainly ask when you’re returning home for good. 

Between family dinners that turn into interrogations, a tense reunion with your first-love, unexpected sparks with a charming neighbor, and late-night walks through a city both familiar and foreign, the week back home throws up more questions than answers. 

As the days tick down to the New Year, you’ll need to decide: will you hold onto the life you’ve built in America, or circle back to the one you left behind in Singapore? Second chances or fresh starts?

Steam Page | Steam Demo | Official Press Kit for VN

Text-based demo | Dedicated blog | Features | Cast of characters | Dev log | COG forum | Crowdsourced playlists

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Author corner

About me

Allie, 28, she/her. Useless dumb-jock who lives for good coffee, sunshine, hikes/bikes, and slow sunday mornings. Urban planner by day, writer by night.

Send in asks, and messages to: @allieebobo (main), or at the dedicated blog handles @collegetennisoriginstory and @merrycrisis-if.

What I’m currently:

Writing: Chapter Six for Merry Crisis

Reading: The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

Listening to: Buffalo replaced by Mitski

Watching: Better Call Saul

Other WIP ideas

[collegetennisoriginstory]

ughh just here to say i love this IF so bad!! did my first playthrough with R, liked it but replayed with G and man... he won me over. ugh i love him. thank u for your writing this amazing story <3

You're totally welcome, thank you for this lovely message. Love that G charmed ya.

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Is there no way to end up only with Felix? I really only want them 😭

I know they’re a fling but…

... Not right now, but the road to the end of freshman year is long... I might change my mind 7 chapters down the line.

For now, I don't want to commit to it because I don't know if I'll be able to write a satisfying arc for a romanced Felix at the end.

[collegetennisoriginstory]

i’m not sure if you’ve been asked this before (and apologies if you have!) but what made you pick kingston ny for the setting? i’m familiar with the area and also a bit in love with it so i was just wondering haha

I went to college in upstate New York and have such a soft spot for the region <3 I love the Catskills, the Shawangunks, the waterfalls in the area, and the Hudson Valley!

[collegetennisoriginstory]

hey!! I'm so excited to read the new update, chapter 8... just one thing, will I definitely have to play through the whole game again? It's giving me a "the game has been updated, restarting chapter" error but it brings me back to the start each time..

thank you so much <33

Yeah, I'd say that whenever there's an update it's probably best to play from the start again because I usually add new variables to startup, and that means that without restarting, these variables won't be set properly.

If it makes you guys feel any better, I did add a skip to Chapter 7 function :)

[collegetennisoriginstory]

is Sam's uni SCSU or SUSC? it keeps changing and I have no idea which one it is help.

Whoops. It's SCSU. SUSC was an old name and somehow I feel like SCSU looks(?) better.

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Kisses for your beautiful brain 😘

How many chapters will the story be?

I can’t wait for the full release so I can buy it and read it all in one night 😍

Aww thank you!!

It will likely be 1 more chapter and that'll be the close of the fall semester + winter break. Then probably another 7 chapters for the Spring Semester + National Team Championships.

To be fair, I think given how much content there is in the fall semester half of CT:OS and how much there'll likely be in the spring semester half, I'm not sure reading it in one night will be possible hahaha. Though I'm sure you guys will prove me wrong :P

Previously someone had a suggestion to potentially release the first-part release of the fall semester first, which is possible. I'm still considering this as a possibility as I want to make sure it's a fulfilling standalone experience.

[collegetennisoriginstory]

hii! i just wanted to mention that i was replaying the game and in chapter 7 i wasn’t able to continue after i saw sam at the doubles tournament because there was a “non-existent variable “‘talk about pan’”? i don’t really know what that means so i’m so sorry for this if that’s an issue on my end 😭

Oh dear, it's because I added a new variable talk_about_pan to the startup file. It's because I wanted to actually address the seed I planted ages ago re: Max's twin and never brought up again!

[collegetennisoriginstory]

hey! i'm not sure if i've asked this before, but are we ever going to meet max's twin, alex? i think it was mentioned that they went to the same school as sam when max was introducing themself?

Oh my gosh I completely forgot this was a thing! I just went through the script I made some changes... this is now properly canon. Twin's now a different name though....

[collegetennisoriginstory]

my first playthrough i wasnt able to make up my mind between rayyan and G and ended up making it official with rayyan but i regretted my decision as soon as G gave me the “rayyan can have forever, but i just wanted a couple of months” and i swear it broke my heart i can’t stop thinking about it. i cant do a playthrough without redirecting back to G, i have to make sure every year will be ours 😭

Ahhhh yes so glad the line made an impact on you!! I think it's very G-coded to be like, "I'm not asking for a lot, just the ability to unapologetically feel the way I feel for you while I'm here" but also be very wrong about how they'd be okay with not having forever.

[collegetennisoriginstory]

just wanted to let you know the esu doubles win password does not work and defaults to a loss when you enter it :)

Fixed, thank you!!

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Helloooo, been loving your game for a while now! I just recently saw I missed several updates and am catching up now. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do I get the option to ask Felix to be my doubles partner again next year? Currently on a not messy (at least as little as possible) route with them. Also playing for them women's team

Ah, you can't cause Felix is graduating next year! That option's only available for Rayyan/Tobin! Go pro and invite Felix, I guess :P

[collegetennisoriginstory]

hii I loved the update, you my favorite if writer <3

I caught this:

He sets the eggs, sunny-side-up, next to

*if (vegetarian) one slice of bacon.

*else one slice of your favorite brand of plant-based bacon.

Very glad I'm still your fave IF writer after evilly feeding all the vegetarians bacon and all the non-vegetarians plant-based bacon.

(Fixed)

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Hi Allie!! Loved the new update :>

Just wanted to let you know that the scene where we get to pick our preferred clothing style is missing if we choose to skip going to the party.

Oh! That's strange. If you hadn't set it before, it should funnel you to a choice of clothing style right before the orientation bits.

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Also there's a scene after the bigot incident labeled *label react_to_words_queer, but I can't find how to trigger it, did I miss something?

No, it's a vestigial passage in the code that can't be reached now because the scene with the nasty Ashford boy now comes BEFORE you can kiss your doubles partner, so I couldn't find an appropriate way to make it make sense that the Ashford boy knows you're queer.

Next time, I guess? D:

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Hey! Just finished reading the update, it was very cute and am glad to see a glimpse into what the MC's life was like before heading off to college. And I love Rayyan 😊 I really do hope to meet their family soon.

One consistency error, I had won the friendly match with Sam, yet it shows later in the text as if Sam won.

Anyways, that's all. Thanks for the update and I appreciate all the work and effort you're doing to make an IF for people like me to enjoy. Great job and have a nice day 💜💜

Hehe yes! I hope to at least be able to write some super short winter break visits for MC in the next chapter.

As for the inconsistency, got it! I've fixed it but it will likely involve restarting the chapter to get it to set correctly.

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Popping in regarding my earlier ask about the missing G relationship bar, I went ahead and tested some of chapter one again and it seems the problem is connected to formally meeting G in chapter two instead. My main save doesn't go to the party or climb out the window, instead making introductions the next morning, and the relationship bar never appears. If they go out the window and hang out with G (Or presumably attend the party, I didn't have a save file before making that decision) it appears as intended. Hope that helps!

Got it! I forgot to set the G_met variable to true after meeting G during freshman orientation. It's fixed now!

As for the relationship bar, it's fixed too!