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(+2)

I do thank you for your feedback, and I don't intend to belittle your experience, but I am going to put some perspective around what you are saying here. I am going to think about this and consider some sort of warning for the future (more on that below). I'm also going to point out that the warning page says this, "Be advised that some triggers may be missed (but never intentionally), and if you read ahead, you do so with this acknowledgment."

This is the first I have ever received a suggestion to add stalking or sexual assault to my warnings. I do not take this lightly. I have thousands of readers (both here and through Tumblr) and this has never come up before.  I don't know if you regularly read Interactive Fiction in any capacity, but it may not be for you. It tends to be very immersive, especially since most is written in 2nd person like mine or sometimes 1st person. If it is difficult to have a separation between yourself and the MC, it can be jarring when things are outside of your control. I would not recommend IFs to anyone that may be impacted like this.

To start, what I read from you makes me very worried if you are okay. I am worried because I have found that you've injected your own context around several events, and I cannot help but see a pattern that is alarming. I am concerned for you as someone who has worked in social fields and as someone who has experienced traumatizing events. I don't know where you are located, but here in the States there is a hotline for assault survivors. 1-800-656-HOPE 

With that stated, and I apologize if the above is out of line…

The reason there is no warning for stalking is - there is no stalking. The MC will end up pursued by villains as part of the main plot, but is not stalked.

  • Yarrow is Oswin as a child. He is canonically one of the MC's closest friends whom they have warm feelings toward. He is not avoidable because he is a plot device and a pillar of the MC's formative years. This is nonnegotiable, you do not get to choose distance with him as a child because it is part of the plot. Yarrow is not a stalker, he did not do any harm to the MC. Considering this, I believe you are interpreting the text far beyond what is both written and intended. Since you have interpreted Yarrow as such, you're applying that to Oswin as well.
  • Now, with Oswin, I understand how he comes off but he does not stalk the MC. In fact, he goes to great lengths to avoid them for years, which is what causes a rift between them. He's overly protective and a mother-hen, but he does not surveil the MC like that. Canonically, the MC is upset at the loss of the friendship.

The plotline cannot diverge from him. So, I am sorry if you do not like him as a character, but that is just how the work is written. He was written that way from the start and that's just how it will be.

I cannot control your personal interpretation of the text. I will note that when you say your MC would think Yarrow did something to them at the stream - they wouldn't. I know this is your MC and you are free to headcanon a lot, but this is not one of those things that is up for interpretation. Your MC's backstory is pretty set, they were extremely close to both Yarrow and Aster, that would not be a logical conclusion for the MC to make in that context. Simply, your MC would not be afraid of Yarrow because this is the set background I have laid out. Yarrow never hurts the MC and the MC would never assume that Yarrow did anything to hurt them. The MC and Yarrow must be very close as children, because his plotline after he is grown is to apologize for the fact that he stopped being their friend and became so distant and moody. He also must remain connected to the family because he's important later.

If you are afraid of him, I cannot control that, and I am sorry for anything you've been through that makes you feel this way.

The stuff you commented on the sexual assault is completely off base and you have applied massive assumptions to what Oswin is doing or has done. I do not appreciate this. I take SA extremely seriously, and I would never write such a thing that wasn't skippable and came with a string of warnings. There is zero, and I mean zero, sexual intention or actions taken by Oswin, especially here. Canonically, Oswin is not a sexual person unless engaged by the MC during flirtatious moments and later in the game by player choice. Again, I cannot control your assumptions and headcanons or those of the thousands of others who have read this. 

You are filling in massive amounts of unwritten context to come to these conclusions. If you decide to read and assume stalking and assault, that is on you and not something I can warn you about.

Oswin is a person of model character in this world. I'm going to pull the author card here as well - he's a man of great integrity. I wrote him that way because so many men I have known in my life, lack this integrity. The MC's parents even see this. In fact, they are the ones who trust him the most to keep MC safe. They trust him implicitly to never harm the MC and when they are ill, he is trusted for good reason to stay close and help.

All of the main ROs are listed and explained on the itch page, save for the secret one for obvious reasons. Though I am sorry that Emre broke your MC's heart. There's been a number of readers who really liked him as well (and some who really liked his wife too).

Over and over I am seeing that you are assuming your MC needs protection from Oswin. These are things you have inserted into my work, not me. You have very much painted your own traumatic story using my setting and characters as the backdrop.

**There will be no warnings for stalking, bullying, or sexual assault (psychological or otherwise) in the context you have outlined, because these are things you have headcanoned for your own character. I will speak to other authors and some of my readers whom I trust to give unbiased feedback about if some other warning may be adequate. Perhaps simply warning that Oswin doesn't go away.**

If you cannot read without inserting these things into my story, then I would rather you didn't read my content. I do not just disagree with your take, I find it insulting because you are corrupting  my story and characters into something heinous.  There are despicable villains in this world, but Yarrow/Oswin is not one of them.

And yes, Oswin is around for the entire game. This story is not just about the MC, it is about all the stories around them as well. Oswin and all the ROs are also main characters.

Works like mine are flexible, but not every detail can be; it's not possible. There must be a supporting structure to make choices from. I have to give the MC some form of background so they feel like a person, and that will include characters the reader doesn't get a say in.

Deleted 108 days ago
(+1)

I am very glad to see you have a good support network, and as long as you are truly okay, then I won't press that issue. I have no personal vendetta against you or for addressing your concerns, but I do care if you understand this from my perspective as well.

I think I understand what you're saying, but I'm also, again, going to have to pull the writer card. This doesn't just come from my personal opinions, I actually do have some formal education in writing and editing. The first chapter is the background. There is only so much you can cover in any book or IF without going on too long and losing a reader's interest. The first chapter is set up for the rest of the book. Some of the detailed context of the MC's relationships come into play as the IF goes along. They share stories from the past and such. The text directly tells the reader that the MC is friends with both Aster and Yarrow. The MC seeks them out eagerly right after breakfast. This is your setup, that is what tells you as the reader about their relationship. The reason it is immersive is because I do not cover details needlessly or in excess. When a text tells you what you need to know, the reader is meant to take it and run with it. I do not write paragraph after paragraph of details on people or even the setting. Your mind fills those in. This is a stylistic choice. I personally do not want to read 10 pages of context, so I don't write like that.

Your MC seems fine with Aster, but there was about as much information given about him as there was his brother, yet Yarrow is still the one painted with doubt.

The response choices in the first chapter are to shape your character's personality. None of them are geared toward changing the relationships MC has with their friends. Your interpretation is that there would not be "blunt" responses if not for this. Some people are just blunt, or stoic, or serious. That's what these choices are capturing in the background.

I will repeat this. There will be no options to distance the MC from Yarrow ever. It is not necessary by my design. He is a plot line. He carries the story forward as an adult. As a child, you cannot choose to be distant and as an adult, your MC is mature enough to have emotional distance without being unnecessarily rude in the world's context.

You've again applied what you know of stalking behavior towards Yarrow. Again, Yarrow is a child here. He is older than the MC, but he is still a child here and the MC literally grew up around him and Aster from day one. This is also directly explained in the text. You do not need  background stories because it is spelled out literally for the reader. They have been almost like siblings and great friends all of MC's life. They simply would not ever feel that Yarrow was doing anything untoward. 

Yes, Yarrow AND Aster will have a reluctance to be apart from MC because they are the best of friends. There's a connection of companionship and love between ALL of them. You cannot apply adult behavior to children.

What I'm picking up from the rest of your response is that you have contextualized these things about stalking and sexual assault because you do not agree with how I set up the MC's background and the setting. That does not track for me. The way I have set up the story is focused. I do not waste words and your time as the reader. I specifically tell you what you need to know and who you need to know it about. I do not spend tons of time setting up the world because you experience it as you go so you can imagine the specifics yourself. And I am right to assume you can do this just fine and conclude that the setting is medieval fantasy. You came up with that on your own without me going into pages upon pages of redundant explanation for you to get that.  I don't need to justify my style to you, that's not what this conversation is about. Every author writes differently and the style that works for IF isn't the same that works for short stories or traditional novels. You said yourself that what I've done is immersive, that's the goal, so it seems my style works just fine for that purpose.

Your notes on the setup still do not track with how this brings you to come to paint Yarrow/Oswin as you do. If the text directly tells you that he's a friend, you should not require tons of background or extra stories to headcanon the appropriate context. I have not described it, I have defined it. There are some childhood anecdotes through the other chapters, but that is all I can offer on what you want.

It's not for me to determine for you, but reading what sort of topics you tend to avoid makes me think this IF won't sit well for you if you were to continue. The warnings list does cover some of the topics you avoid, and there are unskippable dark things the further in you get. Some really rough things happen to the MC back to back. No matter what you decide either on my work or someone else's, just put your peace of mind first.

I will be starting a new project soon, but I don't know if it will suit you (also, still for you to decide). My style will not change, though the MC's background will have more of an impact on the story I write so there will be more details out of necessity. I intend to explore more traumatic backgrounds for the MC in the next one. The story will revolve around what happened to the MC in the past.

Thank you for your time and response. If you decide you'd like to reply, please feel free to say what you need to, but know that I may not respond. I feel I've said my part and explained my take well enough, so I'll not push you. I don't want you to think I'm trying to convince you of anything, I just want to give perspective on my end.

All the best!

-Lunan

Deleted 107 days ago