Орлёнок (Eaglet) is an interactive story set in a country similar to 1910s-1920s Russia. You're a member of the overthrown Imperial Family, shaping the future of the Empire by virtue of arms.
It aims to be equal parts role-playing, dress-up and strategy game, with an emphasis on romance.
Although there will be no explicit nsfw scenes, it does include graphic descriptions of the horrors of war as well as personal tragedies, so please refer to the content warnings at the end of this post.
(as the project is still a wip, this overview is somewhat incomplete and will be gradually updated in tandem with the progress of writing)
DEMO: here (v0.0.2a, 21.06.2024)
Forum post: here
Number Spelling Function (IF writer resource): here
The Empire of Nevetskiya - old, proud, and utterly dilapidated. While the Industrial Revolution has enabled other Monarchies - after a few quickly suppressed workers' uprisings - to become modern colonialist superpowers, exerting their influence all over the world, Nevetskiya is still overwhelmingly agrarian, and barely holding onto its outlying territories acquired in golden times long past.
Your Father Emperor, while ruling with an iron fist and unquestionable authority over the common people, is completely dependent on the shaky loyalty of the High Nobility, who frustrate any attempt to modernize the economy or administration, out of fear upstart merchants might, in time, replace the old Aristocracy.
When a sloppily executed coup d'etat eventually leaves your family dead and you a refugee, it becomes time you grab the reins of your destiny and amass an army to liberate and rebuild the country in the way you envision.
(this is meant to be a concise overview - a more exiting and detailed description of features can be found in the offical Interest Check Thread post)
extensive character customization
extensive army customization - both in a strategy and in a dress-up game sense
focus on story over stats - success is determined on the battlefield, not by your character's personality
five distinct regions with a wide cast of characters
complex personality system - for example, how your character actually feels and what they show to the world are separate things
several ways to rule - will you become a traditional Monarch, a Military Dictator, a democratically elected Head-of-State, or maybe proclaim yourself a Living Saint?
choose how much modernization is needed - will you allow women to bear arms, at the cost of offending the traditionalist nobles? Introduce tanks at the cost of foreign powers gaining influence?
how far will you go for victory? A political police, mass executions and the use of special types of weaponry might give you an edge, but is your vision really worth it?
One of your four original companions. As a member of the High Nobility, you've met them before - maybe you've even been childhood friends?
But even if you know them, it's hard to tell what they're truly like, as they seem to switch personalities effortlessly depending on the situation.
Their work is a mystery to seemingly everyone, but they always get results: as long as you let them act freely, no enemy agent has any chance to harm you or your cause.
One of your four original companions. A war hero and renowned expert when it comes to horses, the only reason they were not yet promoted to a lofty position in the War Ministry is their pragmatic approach to new developments, which hasn't mixed well with the typically very traditionalist views of the old Imperial officer corps.
Possessing a subdued but strong charisma and deeply respected by their soldiers as a wise parent figure, they are a solid pillar of support to you, and will reliably get things done - though some people might consider the cost for that too high sometimes.
One of your four original companions. They shot up through the ranks by impressing the War Ministry with bold new ideas for utilizing modern technologies and are hailed as a genius by many - though the older officers dismiss them as a dreamer at best and incompetent fool at worst.
With you, they hope to have found someone who'll appreciate their visions for the future - plus, their relative eccentrism has left them in dire need of a friend.
Their technical expertise might just prove to be the key to your success - if you can secure the foreign support needed to get the modern equipment needed to utilize it.
Age: early 20s
★ Leon Isayev / Leah Isayeva ★
The Noble Academic (gender-selectable)
One of your four original companions. Born to wealthy nobles, they graduated the Imperial Officer Academy with perfect grades, and feel honour-bound to your family.
They were the one to gather your initial force of loyalists and act as your primary advisor. But their loyalty is to the Imperial system, with you just a symbolic representative - can you convince them that you and your vision deserve their loyalty beyond that?
Age: late 20s
★ 'Little' Semyon/Selena Shvets ★
The Hero (gender-selectable)
A young cavalry officer and leader of your Southern Forces. A protegé of the "other" Semyon/Selena, they lack their cynical pragmatism, but make up for it with a firm belief in the triumph of a better world.
Some may call their optimism naive, and their personality has been mockingly compared to a Golden Retriever, but they have proven time and time again that underestimating them on the battlefield results in a crushing defeat.
Age: early 20s
★ Nikola ★
The Rebel (nb)
Leading an anti-authoritarian peasant uprising in the West, Nikola is more likely to be your enemy than your ally - but they don't seem to care enough about politics to refrain from flirting with you, so... there might be a basis of mutual understanding there?
Their personality is pretty sweet, at least - if you ignore the fact they'll cheerfully gun down prisoners if they feel like it.
Age: mid-20s
★ Rakhmil/Rakhilya Feldman ★
The Logistician (gender-selectable)
A member of the Western Rebel Army and best friend of Nikola's adoptive sibling, they've poured their soul (and countless nights without any sleep) into somehow maintaining the rebels' supply network in the face of their rapidly swelling numbers.
Unhappy with Nikola's carefree attitude, they might end up aligning with you instead in order to save their cause.
Grand Duke Lebedev, the main leader of the Aristocrat faction, stood by and watched when your family was executed. Arseniy/Amaliya is their younger sibling, and serves as military commander of his personal forces that aid several warlords in their efforts to establish their own petty kingdoms.
But they're already uncomfortable with their brother's methods, and if you can convince them that you're not actually "an incompetent little puppet who's trying to ruin the country out of arrogant delusions", they might become a very valuable ally.
Age: mid-20s
★ Lyudmila Demyanovna Naumova ★ (f)
A minor noble who reluctantly turned into a Warlord in order to protect her territory and her people. All she wants is peace - but she'll not hesitate to fight if she believes it necessary.
Unfortunately, you can't just ignore her - all must choose a side in this war - but you have options how to deal with her. Will you subdue her by force? Or fall back on the age-old option of political marriage to secure an alliance?
Age: late 20s
★ Jan/Jana Novotný ★ (gender-selectable, under certain circumstances)
A member of your Personal Guard who has distinguished themself and eventually rises to become its commander. Others might betray or doubt you, but Novotný only cares about one thing - your continued, unharmed existence.
And they will go to any lengths to guarantee it.
Age: mid-20s
CONTENT WARNINGS
...will be added as they become relevant in the demo.
First, I'm still alive and doing a lot better (in terms of health, not financially) since I lost my old job.
Second, the project (and all others) is now officially paused until I get enough practice writing dialogues and generally low-stakes scenes. A story can't just consist of super dramatic ones, after all.
Once I'm confident I can actually do that, I'll come back and finish my IFs.
Found a bug in my number reading function while working hard on the new update; fix available on Git or on the forum post
https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/number-reading-spelling-function/147293
Sorry to bother you but I tried to play it multiple times and it doesn't work. I think this website doesn't work anymore 😭. Also love your if it sounds amazing 🤩. That's it byee🫶🏾🫶🏾♥️♥️.
Yeah, sorry, Dashingdon doesn't exist anymore. I haven't uploaded my game on a new hosting site because it's currently not in a working state anymore, so it's not playable; but I'll fix it as soon as possible and re-upload it (including the new content I've been grinding at for the past year).
I just took a lengthy nap and have dreamt what's possibly the most problematic ro ever into existence
just a complete piece of trash
but I already love him so much
and tbf the whole project he belongs to probably belongs in quarantine in the first place
(it's project number four, btw. don't worry though, I never work on three and four unless an idea comes on its own. the plan is to finish @a-dying-wish-if, project three and project four in succession on the side so I have something completed to show for during the years it will take to complete Орлёнок.)
I just took a lengthy nap and have dreamt what's possibly the most problematic ro ever into existence
just a complete piece of trash
but I already love him so much
and tbf the whole project he belongs to probably belongs in quarantine in the first place
(it's project number four, btw. don't worry though, I never work on three and four unless an idea comes on its own. the plan is to finish @a-dying-wish-if, project three and project four in succession on the side so I have something completed to show for during the years it will take to complete Орлёнок.)
Yeah, uh... sorry about that. The demo update will be on a Friday, I guess.
I've been in a ridiculously bad state both physically and mentally for the past year, and things only seem to get worse (which is especially a problem because right now I'm in the midst of my final exams with my financial lifelihood on the line).
That being said, I've never stopped working on my various story projects, both interactive and not, and although Eaglet has seen the least progress out of all of them, it means that all of them including Eaglet will be finished someday (unless I off myself before that, fingers crossed).
Demo will remain unplayable (not moved to new hosting site) because I don't have a playable version currently - all the not completely finished parts added throughout the current demo as well as the mass of combat code (more about that below) currently makes it a mess of dead-end choicelines which I'd rather finish than mark as such.
Lastly, the combat... you've read the posts about the warfare system? Thought that it sounded incredibly complicated?
Well, turns out it was. Both in terms of code and playability. Don't get me wrong, I did finish the code - which is why I know it's too complex in terms of playability - but I will have to scrap a large part of it, namely the map system. Which is a shame, because the random map generation in particular was a nightmare to code. But not only is it really hard for players to properly navigate the map as Choicescript - nor any other text game language, by their very nature, at least as far as I am aware - does not have a graphical interface that would support such a map. I'll make a proper map painting grand strategy game someday, but for now I'm giving up on tangible maps.
(Also, I didn't think about how randomly generated maps with dynamic movement and that many tile modifiers would affect the AI - coding a responsive and actively maneuvering enemy is always a big task even if the action happens on static nodes, but on such a complex map it's far beyond my capabilities, especially in a programming language so utterly unsuited to this kind of thing.)
That's all folks, thanks for reading if you did. I'll probably not have the energy to post here again unless there's news, but you can assume none of my projects are dead in the meantime (if I'm dead, @reinekes-fox will know from me ghosting him for longer than the by now usual two or three weeks (sorry ;_;))
So, while finishing up the third project ( @perceptron-failure-if ), I've stumbled over a line I was unsure whether to leave in because it's quite crass. I ultimately decided to keep it though, as it accurately represents how men think/talk about women when they're among themselves.
Context (tw sexism):
On the day I wrote the section in question, there was a sports day at school and I suffered the great misfortune of accidentally listening in on some guys from my class talking, thinking they were among themselves. Wasn't the first time, but it never fails to shock me.
I was originally pretty happy because they were doing some of the exercises with two girls from a different class and were very normal towards them, to the point that they thanked them for making the (forced by the teachers) arrangement comfortable. My happiness only lasted until the two girls were out of hearing range though.
Because then, the conversation immediately became this:
Guy A: So, Girl 1 looks like she's quite easy to get into bed, but I honestly prefer Girl 2.
(other guys give their opinions on who of the two is more worthy of being fucked by them)
Guy A: Actually, i think I might have to retract my choice, I don't think Girl 2 is 18 yet. (vocational school, age range is all the way from 16 to 40. these guys were all 19-23)
Guy B: Eh, as long as she looks like she might be 18, it doesn't matter.
Guy C: Yeah, as my boss at work always says, if you take them from behind there's no difference between 13 and 23.
I can only put on headwear the first time we can dress ourselves, the other clothing doesnt work or im too dumb to understand
Either way girly will continue slaying even if clothed in bloodied rags
Can you please elaborate what you mean by "doesnt work"? Like, does nothing happen when you click on the other categories? Or can you go into the categories, but the options there do not save?
The code is pretty straightforward, I need more information to check for errors ;_;
sorry i woke up in my rantsona. but like seriously isn't it fucking twisted that every child in almost every country are basically legal property of their parents. like their parents have complete control over where they can go, who they can talk to, which words out of their mouth are truth or lies; they're allowed, encouraged even, to be the sole interface by which the child connects to everything else in this world. like isnt that extraordinary. like how is it a mystery to anyone that children are constantly dying under parental abuse or growing up into utterly dysfunctional traumatised adults. why are we talking about these nebulous narratives of "the unstoppable and nuanced cycle of abuse" instead of looking straight at the reality we've built specifically for this purpose
