If you've been with us these last two weeks, it's finally happening. If you're new, allow us to introduce ourselves:

👤 Who are we?

We are the creators behind your favorite story apps: writers, designers, artists, VAs. We've been mostly behind romance matches and stories, but also adventure, mystery, some horror— we've truly touched them all.

💔 What happened?

After 10 years of (mostly) ghostwriting, and forced to progressively shrink ourselves to fit a formulaic model of tired tropes and cheap smut, all we got for our hard work was being replaced by machines. And we also saw our lovely audience (most of which we couldn't even reach) systematically bled dry by predatory micro-transactions in the shape of gems, diamonds, coins 🙄

That's not what we wanted for our stories, our characters, our world. It was never supposed to be like this. So we decided to step out, completely. We were three creators who got together first. Then five. Then ten. Today we are over twenty, and we keep on growing.

🏅 What's our mission?

To create the first interactive story app with truly unrestricted content (Yes, even the sexy parts) No gems, no coins, no diamonds. We're trading the slot machine for a monthly subscription system. And you get to keep the stories, read at your own pace. No more panic of it all vanishing into thin air.

💪 What do we stand for?

NO machines🚫 No formulas. No limitation for the full range of unique, complex human craft. Fair pay for all creators. No pyramid system of value. All artists respected alike.

🚀 What did we launch?

Today we took the very first step by pre-launching our Patreon. The official launch will be on Wednesday 21st.

We cannot believe we reached this day. Yes, there is still a lot of work to do, but it's work we genuinely love. Finally. We dreamed about this and now it's here— it's real, and it's all thanks to you.

🎨 What will you offer?

As we build our world, we want to make your support worth it. We want you to take something home every week. So we're giving you the full novels, character art, concept art, voting polls, channels with authors, your mark into our world, and more as we build up milestone by milestone until the day we can launch our first app.

Our Patreon follows our same philosophy: All story and art content accessible through the lowest tiers, no paywalls, no need to upgrade for richer or 18+ scenes. All for $5.

💚

We knew we weren't the only ones tired of the industry taking advantage of us, all of us. We knew community always wins. And it seems we were right.

Join us on our Patreon today to join our little revolution. The first 50 members get direct access to our raw art drafts and daily writer logs leading up to launch. All subsequent updates and sneak peeks will be posted there. Support us now, tomorrow, or just chill with us!

One way or another, we don't have enough words to express how thankful we are.

Love,

Heartbroken Survivors 💚
Building: Do Not Disturb 1.0

I’m working on an erotic dark fantasy comedy VN (A Sacred Sin), and I’m trying to understand a specific grey area.

The religion is fictional, but its Christian influences are obvious: a central priest character wears recognisably Christian-style clerical clothing and sometimes takes out a cross. Religious satire is part of the humour.

All characters are adults, 18+. In the current material, nobody wears religious clothing during sex scenes, although that doesn’t remove the characters’ religious identities or the wider context.

I’ve read Steam’s published content rules. What I haven’t found is specific guidance on how this combination is assessed in practice, particularly under the broader offensive-content and payment-processor provisions.

For developers who have submitted comparable adult games recently:

• Did Valve flag religious imagery or satire specifically? If so, what changes did they request?
• Did their feedback distinguish between a religious character appearing in sexual content and religious symbols or clothing being used within the sexual scene itself?
• Has anyone received useful clarification from Steamworks support before submitting a build, or were you told it could only be assessed during review?

I’m especially interested in firsthand experiences, roughly when the review happened, and what Valve actually said—as much as you’re comfortable sharing. Examples of games already on sale are useful context, but I’m trying to understand review decisions rather than assume another game’s approval guarantees ours.

Hi everyone!

I've always found the idea of interactive stories fascinating: exploring a world, making decisions, discovering secrets, and seeing how different choices affect the journey.

That's the experience I'm trying to build with Labyrinx.

https://labyrinx.com

It's a free browser-based platform that combines interactive fiction and classic gamebook mechanics with a structured RPG system.

Players can explore branching narratives, make attribute checks, roll dice, fight enemies, collect items, and develop their characters.

But the part I'm particularly excited about is the adventure creator.

Instead of writing code, authors can use a visual node-based editor to connect scenes, create branching paths, configure encounters, and build their own interactive worlds.

The goal is to make creating a playable RPG adventure as accessible as writing a story.

I've published a few demonstration adventures, including a gothic horror story called The Drowned Choir of Saint Veyle.

You can start playing without registering, and creating adventures is free too.

I'd love to hear what interactive fiction and gamebook enthusiasts think about the approach.

In particular, I'm interested in whether the combination of narrative choices and RPG mechanics feels natural, and what would make the creation tools more useful to authors.

Labyrinx: https://labyrinx.com

Thanks for checking it out!

​

I'm working on an indie RPG, set in modern-day Taiwan, and I'd love some advice on the storytelling side of it.

The player arrives in Taiwan with very little money, limited Mandarin, and no established life. They have to find somewhere to live, get a job, meet people, and slowly become more independent.

The world is inspired by real Taiwanese locations and culture, but the characters and stories are fictional.

We're planning a main storyline with a personal mystery that begins when the player encounters two people holding blue umbrellas. Alongside that, we're exploring smaller character-driven stories, optional side quests, and everyday situations that can develop differently depending on the player's choices.

The biggest challenge I'm thinking about is how to make language learning feel like a natural part of the narrative rather than something that interrupts it.

For example, the player might misunderstand something important, learn information from an overheard conversation, or gradually understand a character better as their Mandarin improves. I also want conversations to feel meaningful without punishing players who are still beginners.

The goal is for someone to genuinely enjoy the story and world, with language learning happening naturally along the way.

I'd love to hear from people who enjoy writing or playing interactive fiction.

How would you handle branching dialogue when the player's language ability is constantly changing? And what would make you personally invested in a story like this?

I'm especially interested in ideas about character development, meaningful choices, and mysteries that unfold through ordinary interactions.

Hey guys i have made an interactive game available on your nearest desktop www.vishwaguru.live

Hi everyone! I'm a solo dev from France, and I just released Damage Control, a choice-driven narrative game for mobile.

You play Alex, a talent agent, you manage clients (a singer, an actor and a travel influencer) but they keep getting into trouble: a leaked video, a contract trap, a scandal about to break... You handle every crisis from your phone, and every choice you make changes your clients' careers and lives.

The tutorial is free (no ads) and one purchase of $3.89 unlocks the full game.
The game is available in english and french.
About 2-3 hours for a full playthrough.

I'd really love to hear some feedbacks on the writing and how the branching feels!

app store link · play store link

I’m aiming for something that feels less like a traditional game interface and more like an actual piece of old computer software: a clunky operator terminal, an in-world operations manual, environmental logs, and a lonely, slowly unfolding mystery.

Hi there,

I did a small project and I wanted to share it, but also make it more famous as it needs people to show the potential!

I wanted to see what internet would write together as a story, so I did www.internetbookproject.com, an open initiative from one word to infinite branch possibilities.

We currently have 42 different branches, but anyone can write its own.

We welcome anyone with any idea, just curious to see what internet can make and do together! The worst as the best!

Duris split from Sojourn in 1995 and has been about one thing ever since: a permanent war between the good and evil races, with full player killing almost anywhere in the world.

On Wednesday 28 October at 06:00 UTC (09:00 GMT+3, 2 am US Eastern) we wipe everything. Every player, veteran or new, starts from level 1. No gear, no levels, no guilds. The first kills, first artifacts and first racewar wins of the new era are up for grabs.

What it is: a dark-fantasy Diku with a two-sided racewar, full PvP, a huge world of zones and quests, ships you can sail and sink, crafting, guilds and guildhalls, and artifacts that have to be fed on the blood of enemy players or they vanish.

What’s new: a rebuilt C++20 engine with TLS, GMCP and MCCP, browser play, and the whole codebase open source on GitHub.

How to play:

• Browser: https://duris.sbs
• Any MUD client: mud.duris.sbs port 7777
• Discord: https://discord.gg/adXajEAmk

Veterans, round up your old guild. New players, this is the one moment nobody has a head start.

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

https://fungamery.com/covid

I wrote this online free gamebook in 2020, but there were many who did not want to play it, because it hit too close to home. Perhaps now it could be enjoyed more? in this gamebook adventure, it is the year 2025 and Covid has mutated to the point that everyone is required to wear a full-fledged body suit for protection. You can choose to be on the side of the government or on the side of the anti-suiters. What will you choose? 🦠

Please let me know what you think of this gamebook. Your place automatically gets saved and you can come back later. Also, if you like the story, please subscribe! 📬

Hello everyone,

I am looking to hire interactive fiction writers who can create original content on a new platform. All writing instructions and documentations are ready for anyone to start writing.

This is for a new platform with no content (except some test stories), so I'm looking to build a listing of 10-12 original stories to kickstart with.

These stories will be posted under the original writers' accounts on the platform, but because there is no incentive to write on the platform today (zero readership), I am trying to hire instead.

So far I have tried to find talent on upwork and fiverr, but I end up getting people who provide generated material. This is not something the platform is looking for, or even allows.

Am I looking in the wrong places? Is this the right place to ask for help? If you could point me in the right direction, I'd be grateful.

EDIT: I have received good amount of interests from authors here, and I am working with some of them already. If I did not reach out to you already, please note that I will be in touch again for the next wave (we need a lot of stories).

I recently released The Stranger Next Door, a bilingual interactive mystery about five neighbors in the same apartment building.

The central idea is that no single character has the complete story. Each perspective reveals different information, motives, and contradictions. Players can compare what they learn across the five viewpoints and gradually piece together what happened in Room 301.

It mixes interactive-fiction storytelling with detective investigation, psychological horror, digital clues, and multiple endings. The game is available in English and Chinese.

I'm sharing it for people who enjoy stories where the truth emerges from conflicting accounts rather than one reliable narrator.

Play free here: https://nana4ever.itch.io/the-stranger-next-door

Donations are optional. I'd love feedback on the narrative structure: did switching between perspectives make the mystery more compelling, or did any clues feel too difficult to connect?

Hello everyone, this is my first story, created based on the old Xbox game Phantom Dust. I've updated the experience, added a one new mechanics and added a new Picture

V. 0.1

Have fun with it

I was writing an interactive story in Arcweave and hit the 50MB project limit. Didn't feel like cutting images, so I spent a while building my own thing instead.

It's called arcmin. You import your Arcweave export (project_settings.json + assets folder), keep editing it locally, and play it. No account, no size limit, works offline.

It has the node graph, variables, branches, covers, undo/redo and a play mode. It can also export for the Arcweave Godot plugin. It doesn't do everything Arcweave does, but it covers what I needed.

Made with Rust and egui. Mac, Windows and Linux builds are on GitHub, though I've mostly tested on Mac, so Windows/Linux bugs are likely. It's not affiliated with Arcweave.

https://github.com/Emincmg/arcmin

If you've run into the same limit, or there's something you'd want in it, tell me. Happy to hear it.