Oscar Arcane

Hi! I'm Oscar (she/they — 37) and I write Interactive Fiction. This blog is dedicated to all of my writing projects.

[oscarwrites]

Projects directory

Hi! I’m Oscar (she/they - 37) and I write interactive fiction and novels. I created this blog to talk about my smaller IF projects that I didn’t feel needed a whole blog dedicated to them, and as a directory for my larger projects as well! I’ll also use it to update you on other writing projects I might work on.

Without further ado, here are my games:

THE EIGHT YEARS REVOLUTION

blog: @eight-years-revolution — demo

genre: high fantasy, political intrigue last update: May 4th, 2023

In The Eight Years Revolution, you play as a young monarch on the run from their country after a revolution broke out. While you hide from those who would do you harm, you gather allies and try to figure out your place in this tricky political landscape.

BETTER OFF

intro post — demo

genre: urban fantasy, mystery last update: February 6th, 2023

In Better Off, you play as a mage, born with natural magical abilities in a country where magic has been prohibited, forcing you to live as a criminal. One day, your unpleasant partner, Roy, doesn’t come back to your shared apartment. You turn to detective Maria Reyes, an old friend, to help you solve the case.

GONZAGUE

blog: @gonzague-if — demo

genre: historical, court intrigue, swashbuckling last update: March 21st, 2023

In Gonzague, you play as the villain of Le Bossu, by Paul Féval. You have secured the title of Prince de Gonzague through ruthless ways and seek out fortune by marrying the daughter of the Marquis de Caylus to put your bloody past behind you for good. Some unforseen revelations might put your plans in danger, however... And the novel I’m currently working on:

SPELLS SEX AND SUN (working title)

tag

genre: fantasy, romance status: drafting book 1, part 3

In this multiple POV story, you follow Floris de Savarre, a young noble whose city-state has been taken over by the neighboring empire and who hides forbidden magical abilities from the imperial and religious authorities; Vallerian l’Amaury, the imperial heir destined to marry Floris’s sister who seeks to amend the empire’s expansionist ways; and the knight Yvain de Montdrac, the prince’s protector and friend who has unshakeable faith in Vallerian and passionately advocate for the forgotten of the empire’s rigid social order.

LINKS

itch.io — Ko-Fi — Discord

[oscarwrites]

Q&A tag game

tagged by @kithj and @nyehilismwriting thanks! <333

Q1. Favourite Character to Write?

It's always the one I'm currently writing lmao. I just love them all, so every time I return to a character, I'm like, I missed u baby. <3 Currently I'm in the middle of a Vallerian pov chapter in my novel project, so I guess that makes him my favorite at the moment.

Q2. Which character surprised you the most?

Characters who have been foiling my plans on occasion would be Felice in 8YR and Yvain in my novel. I can't say I'm exactly surprised, tho, because I already knew these would be characters hard to pin down and that I needed to figure them out as I wrote them.

Q3. Are there characters you worry people might hate?

It's not really based on him having particularly unlikeable features, but I do worry people might not like Floris because he's the most central character and has the most pov chapters in my novel. So, obviously, if people don't like him, it's not going to be a very good experience reading the book lol. And I know he's on the passive side, which some people don't like in a MC.

Q4. Any characters buzzing about at the back of your mind, but have no place in the story (yet)?

Obviously, I've yet to get to write Berhane in 8YR and Lagardère in Gonzague, and I'm looking forward to get to them if or when I do get to them (crossing my fingers).

Q5. Characters who might be better suited for another story?

I hope not, cause that would mean I'm doing something wrong, I think lol. I do think not all the ROs in 8YR are that essential to the story tho. Ajmal and Berhane are definitely more involved in the main plot than Zanetta, Felice, and Armine, especially after act 1.

Q6. Characters you'd want to be friends with?

In 8YR, Zanetta and Armine, for sure, they'd be fun to hang out with. <3 In Gonzague, Nevers is obviously bestie material, and Maria from Better Off is supportive to a fault, so I would love to have them as a friend too. And in the novel, there's Prince Vallerian, who's a sweetheart, and I think I would get along with Floris. There's also this minor character, Maura, who's just very friendly lol.

Q7. Characters you'd avoid IRL?

Gonzague and Peyrolles, for obvious murderous reasons... But I think I wouldn't like being around Yvain either, they're too confrontational for my liking.

[kithj]

1349. Plague has arrived in your small, secluded village in the mountains. Many pray to God for mercy, including the people of your village. But generations of isolation have sustained older traditions. An older god. The Pale Lady, once known as the White Wolf, protects your village from accusations of heresy, and has shielded your people from violence and war for as long as you can remember. All she asks for in return is a dreamer - once every ten years. When she sends her knights into your village after a long, uncertain silence - in which many of your fellow villagers have died or fled - some are hopeful that, at last, your punishment has ended.  Chosen by the Pale Lady, you are whisked away, up the mountain and into her grand keep. But even inside the high walls of Wolfenstone, the plague lurks, along with an infectious hunger like you've never felt before....

art by @fat-rolls-frictions

Dream Eater is my entry for Queer Vampire Jam 2026! Set during the outbreak of the black plague, you play as a young woman from a small, isolated village vaguely situated in southeastern Europe.

This is a (mostly) linear game, with three romance options (in order as pictured): Yoss the knight, the Pale Lady, and Una the bloodmaid. It's currently playable through the end of Part I of V. Content warnings are included in the game.

Play it here!

[nyehilismwriting]

In Sanguine Veritas

Ten feet from you, ten feet and thirty years down the path, she stops. Lifts her head. You can hear her breathing. See, delirious and ecstatic, the flutter of her pulse in her bared throat. She's taken off her scarf, sweating in the frosty air, and her shoulders heave. Camphor and ambergris, the smell of the wet, dying earth. A hint of smoke, of sulfur beneath. You lick your lips, and watch her yellow eyes narrow.

Thirty years after disappearing in the night, a body finds its way home.

Content Warnings:

Blood

Plague

Entry to the 2026 Queer Vampire Jam!

[oscarwrites]

For valentines day here's a romance-y little snippet from the novel, with the usual disclaimer that it's a first draft and possibly subject to change:

Senhor Floris reacted to the contact with a thrilling little sigh. The thought of catching it with his lips caressed Yvain’s mind pleasantly. He captured the imagined taste of the physician’s tongue, locking it away in his thoughts to revisit later.

[oscarwrites]

Drew a bunch of outfits for Floris and here are most of them (I'm keeping the underwear one and the costumed ball one for myself for now lol)

[oscarwrites]

A little update to say I finished drafting part 2 of book 1 of my novel project. At the moment, it's 138k words long. Hard to say if part 3 and 4 will be as long as part 1 and 2, so I could be halfway through book 1 or a little further (that's my guess anyway). Fingers cross, I can finish draft 1 of book 1 this year.

[oscarwrites]

I might as well give a little update on the novel writing while I'm here: it's been going pretty steadily for the past couple of months. I'm 128k words into the first draft of book one and about two chapters away from finishing part 2.

I expect part 3 and 4 to be a bit shorter, since the pacing will be faster, but I could be wrong lol. So hopefully that means I'm halfway through the book or nearly there.

If everything goes well (which, with my fluctuating mental health I can't fully count on), I may be able to finish this draft this year. Gonna cross my fingers.

[oscarwrites]

I found gonzague and the eight years revolution while wandering around on the internet in the past few days and I wanted to let you know what an absolute delight they both are. I know your focus right now is on your novel instead of IF and I wish you all the best with that, but I do hope that someday the wheel of fate spins you back to one or both of these projects, as they're not just some of the best IF I've ever found in terms of writing but also in terms of design. Gonzague in particular turned me into a series of shrieking exclamation points as I got into a screaming fight in the rain with my best friend (I am in love with him) over his secret wife (I am trying to marry her) (I read their correspondence) and then IMMEDIATELY banged our other best friend out of spite. No notes, most ideal sequence of events that I have ever encountered in any text based roleplaying game. What I loved about gonzague (aside from everything) is how utterly human it felt. Both "giving in" and "resisting" actions were natural, authentic, and generally free of narrative condemnation, and I was able to mix the two freely and feel that it delivered a consistent, continuous character. Yes, a person might do this. Yes, you can see why a person might do this. Different combinations describe different kinds of people but always people. "Immoral" choices felt true and sometimes necessary as much as taking the "right" road did. It's just... a really well rounded and emotionally truthful game and I'm so psyched that I found it. Both games are also superbly designed and formatted. The use of a character sheet (with updating stats and relationships!), the ability to toggle on and off cues that give you meta information about the choice you're making, the back button in gonzague (I LOVE the use of a back button. It's so rare and it makes it SO much easier to explore different dialogue trees without having to start a run over from the beginning or constantly save and load), the ability to set your pronouns, gender, and title individually in revolution (really the way you handle personal identity in general is so incredibly thoughtful and well executed), the different stat paths in revolution... these are just SUCH well crafted games with clearly a ton of care and thought put into them. They're a delight to play and I'm grateful to you for sharing!

Ouagh, what a compliment to receive on the first day of the year. Thank you so much, it's really thoughtful and I'm so glad you feel that way about my games. I truly do hope the pendulum will swing back to me writing games again in the future because I do love each of them.

When it comes to stats, character sheets, etc, I can't take full credit, I took inspiration from the IF I've played myself, but the writing is all me so I'll take the compliment on that lol.

I'm especially touched about Gonzague because it goes right to the heart of what I was trying to accomplish with their character. I wanted them to feel human regardless of the path you choose, I didn't want them to be cartoonishly evil or anything like that.

Thank you so much and happy new year to you and everyone who's been following my games. :)

[oscarwrites]

Last portrait for now, this time of Floris other love interest, Vallerian.

[oscarwrites]

Today I reached 100k words on my novel project 🎉

[oscarwrites]

After Floris, I started working on the design of one of his love interests: Yvain.

[oscarwrites]

I'm still working on my novel and making steady progress, but I decided to slowly work on reference sheets for some of the characters as well. I started with this portrait of the mc, Floris.

[oscarwrites]

Finished chapter 8 today! It was a rough week but we made it. This one is roughly 5,3k words of scenes I did NOT expect to write. Big cows are involved.

[oscarwrites]

after re-reading the 8 first chapters of my novel, I gotta say that big cows scene is my favorite so far.

[oscarwrites]

A little update on my novel project: after a few months not touching the damn thing, I'm slowly returning to it. I finished chapter 9 and 10, concluding the first part of book 1.

Right now the draft sits at about 60k words, but there's still a very long way to go.

[hpowellsmith]

@oscarwrites this is from such a long time ago, I think this draft has been sitting unfinished for about 3 years ago, so sorry! Better late than never... I hope...?

I talk a big game about avoiding scope creep but I am no good at it. I'm just not! I lay out careful lines, like in Royal Affairs I went "I'll have fewer clubs for the PC to join than in Creme! that'll mean less work!" or "I'll have fewer love interests" or in Honor Bound I went "there are no clubs in this one! that means I'll write less!"

Then I spread out of them like a cat expanding in a box.

I think if the writing is bringing you joy and you're enjoying the rabbit hole you're going down, go for it and run wild. The obscure bits of the game that you think no one will care about but YOU care about will bring people a ton of enjoyment when they find them.

If you're realising that it's feeling like a dreadful slog, especially if you're partway down a branch and thinking "oh I've got three more of these branches to do", you could consider trimming. Maybe making each branch shorter, or merging two together.

Or you could do something like "this scene is going to have 3 choice sets in it per playthrough, I'll make sure each choice really counts". It can still be hard, though, when you realise there's an extra choice you feel really good about.

For writing habits, I find that setting timers helps. Getting started early in the day, or whatever time of day feels fresh. Using browser blockers or putting my phone in another room.

As for multiple projects, I've done that a few times and am doing it right now. Figure out whether you're someone who likes switching between things in quick succession, eg one day on one project, one day on another, or with longer intervals, eg one month on one project then swapping. That'll help with keeping your brain in gear for each one. In general, I would recommend sticking with a single project, but some people thrive on multiple ones! So it's really about discovering what works for you and not getting too stressed if you end up needing to change that up.

I hope that's helpful, and thank you for your patience for this very long wait!

[nyehilismwriting]

The air shimmers, heat-sick, sterile, red-red light from the sunset fading purple and filtered through the glass, and you're reminded of transfusion bags, of the urine-yellow quality of saline in plastic. You breathe out again. "Do you really think I wanted this?"

Project Hadea: Chapter Five, part two is now available to play! Featuring:

A trip to the hospital

An awkward conversation (or two)

This game is rated 18+. This section contains descriptions of surgery, injuries, medical horror, and (discussion of) bodily autonomy violations.

Word Count: 90,000

Demo | Project Introduction