⋆ souluble but you can call me soul || devblog and updates for interactive fiction: Iced (do those words mean basically the same thing?) || when sports meets murder mystery ⋆
When a previously-cold case sparks once more, you'll take what you can get.
You live for hockey. The ice is your home. You know it, everyone knows it.
Friends and family back at home often joke about you skating your first steps before walking. Especially your parents—with them being your biggest fans, and the ones who ignited your fire—they were the ones who helped you take both. Even when you're off the ice, your hands fidget for your stick. You itch for the rebound of the puck. You crave the chill of the rink. There is at least some truth to their statements.
That day was supposed to be a celebration, to commemorate the blood, sweat, and tears. You were supposed to end the day with a celebratory dinner after bringing home the win for your school's hockey team, not provide a witness testimony for two dead bodies.
It's been ten years since then. Your dream of winning in the major leagues has dampened. You feel mediocre for a professional, always seeming to be middle-of-the-road with no progress in sight. Everything has just been so stagnant, and you're this close to throwing in the towel altogether. Little did you know, this year's about to be the best in a long time.
Try to stay afloat in the meantime.
Iced is a work of fiction aimed towards mature audiences, and contains themes such as explicit language, substance use, murder, descriptions of murder, sexually suggestive themes, that may be triggering to some. This list is subject to change.
Play as a semi-famous pro hockey athlete, with an immense love for the sport that surpasses none. Probably.
Solve a decades old mystery and finally put all those lost souls to rest, all while finally breaking out of your progress lull to achieve what was once a distant dream. Make your parents proud, and see how far you've come.
Choose your greatest asset, and fatal flaw, on the ice. Will you rank in the top six, or at the bottom of your team, as a center player?
Be the charming stoic, the team's quiet-but-deadly comedian, the fans' favourite haughty Samaritan, and more unique personality combinations to discover.
Become world renowned, or an infamous villain in the hockey world.
A wide range of customization to choose from, that do matter (or an option to randomize everything if ya don't care).
Romance 5 ROs, and get caught in a love triangle between two of them. Or, avoid romance entirely.
Jealousy and drama abound!
Participate in tomfoolery.
Find a family within your new team, or stick to purely colleagues.
Can you juggle the responsibilities of a professional hockey player, and find the murderer behind it all?
CHARACTER MOODBOARDS
THE SUCCESSOR OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
For a detective, they sure are dense...
HIRAN/HATHAI ANUMAN (m/f) is the one who you've reached through that window of opportunity for, and arguably the most important piece to solving this puzzle.
This disheveled, crabby detective likes to say otherwise, though. With a no-nonsense attitude, Anuman likes to live inconspicuously, using the quietness and mundanity of their life to help balance the crimes they investigate. They prefer staying in their court, picking up cases that helps keep them out of the limelight. With an eye for detail, they mainly use their skills to help determine the tax of their groceries.
As much as they like to keep everyone at an arm's length, there's a hidden part of them that pushes them to ask if you'd like some water, or if you need a break. Which, may be difficult to tell at times.
That mask of indifference and professionalism has a limit. Will you be able to take it off or break it?
THE ENIGMATIC POLITICIAN
Do politicians have the time to be a fan?
KELVIN/KELSEY WEN ZHONG (m/f) is one person you would never have expected to ever meet—especially at a hockey game.
Intertwined by a chance meeting, your first impressions of Zhong don't fall short to the real deal. Intelligent, personable, composed, likeable, they make for the ideal politician. Hell, even the way they carry themselves says important. The words they say make you nod along with them, and leave you agreeing with a new perspective you've never even considered. Unexpectedly, there are times where a spirited enthusiasm exposes itself in the midst of a goal.
You find it impossible to forget the look on their face when they watch a game. An expression so foreign and childlike, but maybe it's because you haven't gotten used to it yet. Although, it fits them more than you expected it to.
And, judging by their reactions, you might just have a new fan.
THE UNSTOPPABLE FORCE
Holy crap they're good. Personality could use some improvement though.
LESTER/LYDIA RAMIREZ (gender locked based on MC) would probably benefit from daily meditation. Although, with how physical hockey can get, one could argue that they've got the perfect temperament.
Unfortunately teammates, Ramirez is quite the character. They burn with a passion so hot and overpowering, it takes up everything they do. It's not an unfamiliar concept—after all, you're here too, but the way they go about it is not giving them the brightest reputation.
They aren't shy about getting physical themselves, making them popular among your fans and despised by the rest of the league—but even they have to acknowledge their skill on the ice. Although, their tendency of getting into fights can cause a bit of a headache for your coach and the team. For Ramirez, winning comes first.
If they're not going to do it, how will you preserve the team dynamic?
THE TOUGHEST LINE OF DEFENSE
Much tougher than you remember, or maybe you hadn't noticed until now.
ELLIOTT/ELLA LAMBERT (gender locked based on MC) was the best defenseman on the team, and the only freshman to make it on.
Back in high school, no one expected the short, scrawny kid to make it on back then, nor blow most of the competition out of the water. Lambert could steal a puck like no other, and weave through bodies as if it were just another warm up. Being a sweet kid with a cheery disposition, and a toothy smile to match, they were someone you wouldn't think would be able to stand getting bodied, and get back up like it was just a small rough-and-tumble.
Not much has changed since then, except for the height. No longer the freshman who admired you with wide eyes, they've grown into an even more skilled player, and an even tougher opponent.
You don't remember a stubborn intensity being there before, but now that you stand face to face, you have a chance of getting more up close and personal than you would have all those years ago.
THE HOTTEST SINGER OF MODERN POP
How the hell do they have a natural tan at this time of year???
CITRUS/CHERRY MOORE (m/f) is the newest pop singer on the scene, and they are crushing the charts with each new release.
Or, at least they should be.
Moore can command a stage with a presence that pulls you in by the collar, and a sound that rocks you to the core. They are charismatic, fun, flirty, and bring a new kind of energy to the table. Yet, here they are, singing their heart out in a dinged out bar, the rest of the patrons too busy wasting away to hear their soul hum.
Underneath all that magic, however, it's clear that the passion in their eyes has dimmed, giving way to cynicism. With long years passed, still living from gig to gig, they feel that the years yet to come will be even longer.
Will you be the one to realize their potential?
---------
Let me know about any spelling errors, grammatical errors, story inconsistencies, incorrect information/interpretations, coding errors, and choice suggestions/feedback in a google form I haven't implemented yet. Feedback is always appreciated.
This is so beautiful to see. Honestly. The messages are so sweet and as someone that has spent an ungodly amount of time on dashingdon this warms my heart immensely. 💖💜
Tag your fav writers especially those who have had demos on dashingdon because this needs to be spread!
Ok, so. I went digging a little and I found the post on COG where the creator says that they'll be shutting down the site at the end of the month. This is due to many issues from the site's age. You can find the extra details here.
I don't know what this means for other dashingdon games, but I'm hoping that the authors will be able to salvage their data before the month ends. I would hate for any game to suddenly be erased from the internet, so I can only hope that most of them manage to get it done.
Since I haven't published to dashingdon yet, Iced is fine. However, this means that I'll have to look for a new platform to host my game. I could switch over to cogdemos, but I dislike the way it's formatted as a player and how the saves are done, so I'm considering transferring to itch.io. This means that I'll have to reconfigure the code I have right now, as well as learn a whole new program. I'm sure this will work out fine, but this means that it will delay progress yet again due to all these new changes I need time to accustom myself to.
With that being said, everything should go smoothly. This is just another bump in the road I'll get over. Don't worry about me.
Itch.io authors, please tell me what you use and how you find it for someone who is not very code savvy plz and thank u 🙏🙏🙏
Just dropping in real quick just to say that I've engaged in a fist fight with my assignments and I am losing. Hopefully I can pump out 10k words next week since that's my winter break 🤞
I know it's New Year's Eve but still. I'm thinking of doing these end-of-the-month updates since it feels like that's a good interval to do status updates without it being too frequent/infrequent.
Iced has been coming along well, although I've severely underestimated how busy this time of year gets so I'm not confident that I'll be able to push out a demo in January. The assignments are winning and thinking about them all at once makes me implode. I'm really sorry about pushing the release once again, but it just doesn't seem possible right now. I don't want to make any more promises I can't keep, so I'll see how February turns out and let you know by then!
Chapter one snippet below the cut. Can you guess who it is?
----------
You pull, only for the door to swing with more force than you've put in. The smell of shampoo makes you freeze, the man suddenly in front of you following suit. The minty graze of his breath against your cheek lets you know just how close you were to crashing into him. At this proximity, you can see every lash on his widened eyes, and the near-invisible difference between the dark brown of his iris to the shrunken pupil within.
----------
It's the male version, sorry!
This is one of the descriptions of how you can meet the RO for the first time. I was super excited to share something that I couldn't help myself. Enjoy!
Uh hello again. That's me, who watched the match by accident.
So about this. I drank a few cups of mulled wine, and then I somehow ended up on an ice rink. It was amateur hockey, I think, but still, it was exciting to watch :)
Oh 😭 the magic of alcohol I guess?? More power to you for somehow ending up there either way lol
Recently I accidentally watched a hockey match irl and now I'm desperately waiting for this if
My work here is done.
On another note, I know right?? Hockey is super fast paced and exciting, especially at the higher levels. It's fun! I'm glad to know you're excited for this IF as I am lol. What kind of hockey match did you go see because how do you even watch a hockey match on accident? 😭😭
Don't be sorry. It's chocolate covered strawberries! I tried to find the exact photo I pulled off of pinterest and got the exact image but with a different filter on.
Just dropping in real quick just to say that I've engaged in a fist fight with my assignments and I am losing. Hopefully I can pump out 10k words next week since that's my winter break 🤞
ligurrio is an 18+ interactive fiction that features, but is not limited to; strong language, drug and alcohol usage, mental illness, graphic descriptions of blood, gore, violence, and explicit sexual content. please be advised of these topics and take into consideration your health before reading.
you're an operator of the memento, eldermire's supernatural law enforcement agency, but it wasn't the position you once hoped to have. as a fresh-faced recruit you excelled in your training and gained the scrutiny of your peers as a model agent, aiming for the highly regarded position as a handler, but instead you were chosen for the role as an operator; one who assisted the handlers on their assignments. that's all you would ever be in the eyes of the agency; a replaceable backup. until one day, your assigned handler and their partner disappeared off the grid with no trace, and the position of handler was now all of a sudden given to you, not a soul batted an eyelash beyond welcoming you into that role with an eerie smile and encouraging pat on the shoulder. with a partner to call your own and assignments to suddenly fulfill as if it was your role all along, it felt like the agency had something to suddenly cover up and you intended to get to the bottom of it, even if it meant going against the agency's demands and discovering something that might lead you down a path to ruin.
🗡 customize your character's appearance, personality, pronouns, sexuality and more.
🗡 assume your new position as a handler and with the help of your recently assigned partner; uncover the truth behind the unknown disappearance of your fellow agent.
🗡 become the unfaltering handler you've always dreamed of, or withdraw from the overbearing rise of attention both good and bad.
🗡 romance one of three love interests. (one nb, two gender customizable)
ALL RO'S ARE PLAYER-SEXUAL.
NEHIRI ⸺ THE SCRYER.｛ M/F/NB ｝
“the caress of these waters will never mend my desolation that feels cavernous.”
child of the deep waters and seer of the dark, nehiri serves the agency tasked with the purpose of ascertainment, be it individuals or locations it matters not. though they speak with a listless tone, their tireless longing for true connection remains forlorn.
MORITH ⸺ THE SERVANT.｛ NB ｝
“the heart shall always ache to feel the infectious pleasure of hatred.”
a lover of the esoteric and humanistic poison, morith is the ever-faithful servant to a dead and nameless deity. they stalk the halls of the agency unceasingly. one of the very few curse-eaters residing in eldermire, they're an unsettling enigma to many.
SINAHT ⸺ THE SHADOW.｛ M/F/NB ｝
“your secrets taste like naught but ash upon my tongue.”
a spectral hellhound, an amalgamation of obscure memories that do not belong to them. sinaht's work efficiency in the field is every handler's dream, but their volatile nature leaves little to be desired. revenants of an unknown past haunt sinaht, perpetually luring them to damnation.
