Unconventional Interest
A downloadable game for Windows
DESCRIPTION
As Captain John Konnors, embark on a suspenseful narrative adventure to save the galaxy. After many thrilling adventures, you just have to launch the final assault on the Xarroghan homebase and put an end to enemies of the U.F.S.G. once and for all. That’s it! Saving everyone has never been so simple and straightforward. Explore your spaceship and chat with your trusty squadmates, always here to support you! Just avoid taking any unconventional interest in unimportant characters.
Please note this game features: strong language, allusions to sexual activities.
ABOUT
Unconventional Interest was developed during the Queerness and Games Jam 2023. The game exists in two versions: Unconventional Interest - Unity Prototype and Unconventional Interest - Twine Version.
Unconventional Interest - Unity Prototype is a first-person exploration game prototype. Its narration and mechanics are simplified and it features a shorter version of the events of Act 1.
Unconventional Interest - Twine Version is a text-based interactive story that you can open and play with your browser. It features the full narration of the game (Act 1, 2 and 3) as well as branching dialogues with characters, more dialogues, more interactions with the environment and more developed narrative mechanics.
CHARACTERS
KNOWN ISSUES
Unconventional Interest - Unity Prototype
- This version features only a simplified version of Act 1's events and only linear dialogue with Cindy, Richard and the Gear Broker. If you wish to experience the full story, you can play the text adventure Twine version.
- You cannot actually launch the final assault in this version of the game.
- 2 typos (Cindy and Gear Broker dialogue).
- Some dialogue lines with the Gear Broker are too long and go over the edges of the screen.
- When playing with a controller, the camera may be slowly drifting upward or downward. It is less often the case when playing on keyboard.
CREDITS
Unconventional Interest - Unity Prototype
Game Director:
- Alexis "Drad" Chevalier (https://dragon-roar-at-daybreak.itch.io/)
Game & Level Designer:
- EthiopianPolice (https://ethiopianpolice.itch.io/)
Programmer:
- EthiopianPolice
Writer:
- Alexis "Drad" Chevalier
Character sprite artist, logo and marketing artist:
- Polaris (https://polarisart.itch.io/)
Composer & Sound Designer:
- Dunkboy Hotmail (https://dunkboyhotmail.itch.io/)
Unconventional Interest - Twine Version
Game Designer & Writer:
- Alexis "Drad" Chevalier (https://dragon-roar-at-daybreak.itch.io/)
Writing feedback & Proofreading:
- Dunkboy Hotmail (https://dunkboyhotmail.itch.io/)
- Polaris (https://polarisart.itch.io/)
- EthiopianPolice (https://ethiopianpolice.itch.io/)
SPECIAL THANKS
Thank you to jHomps for his scholar advice during the conception of this game! (https://jhompsgamedev.itch.io/ )
Download
Install instructions
Unconventional Interest - Unity Prototype
- Download the .zip folder
- Extract the files in the folder of your choice
- Launch "UnconventionalInterest.exe"
- We recommend playing with a controller
Unconventional Interest - Twine Version
- Download the HTML file
- Open the HTML file with your browser
Comments
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This was fun to experience, and I always love games that you can technically finish in like 30 seconds if you want to 🤣 Like sure, it's assault time, let's gooooooooooooooooo!
But also I think this was super clever, and tbh I appreciate that the romance scene I found wasn't detailed (I always feel awkward when they are lol, not that that's a judgment against them). It also felt very Star Trek-y lol due to it.
And it's super cool to have the two versions of it! And it was cool checking out the different endings and exploring that story.
- ✨Beth
5 out of 5 stars for the queer space lizard, would romance again
Thank you, glad you enjoyed this very important feature <3
Sweet! I do love how it's not just a sci-fi themed romance thingy that happens to feature a lizard guy, but the unconventionality of it is a central part of the game.
I'm partway through the Twine version currently. The spaceship interiors look nice, but I didn't really want do download all those megabytes just to get less story. At the same time, I'm glad the graphics are here on the game page to provide some extra immersion either way. Maybe you could sprinkle in a few screenshots within the Twine game as well to give the players a better feel for their surroundings? It can be more fun to leave things up to imagination, but a glimpse of a location here and there could really help set the mood, I think.
Okay, I went through the whole thing. It definitely feels like a game that deserves to be even bigger than it already is. Plenty of good writing in there, though some parts did feel like they squeezed too much plot into too little space. The moment right after contacting HQ in particular seemed to have a lot of personal stuff and intergalactic politics mixed together very rapidly. Didn't always feel natural, and some of it was deliberately invoked by the meta-videogamey theme which I enjoyed, though it wasn't always as clear cut. There were a few parts I felt like I would've written differently, but those are just details. The story as a whole is great.
(I just replayed with a different path, and found something that feels like it crosses the line from odd phrasing to an outright error. A phrase "BoredAlien" shows up, differently capitalized and punctuated. It would've been an appropriate deliberate placeholder at the start, but it wasn't used anywhere else, and at that point it seemed less apt than ever.)
Hello! Thank you for all this feedback :>
I totally hear you on the final Act, I wish I'd have more time to work it a bit more and have the player-character spend more time with the crew and go through the changes they are going through. I agree I use the meta-videogamey stuff quite often to justify character reasonings but it has been an ever-evolving balance throughout writing (in the first versions it was VERY meta and we wanted to tone it down) and some readers found it resonated well with and commented well on the "Follower mentality" npc follwoers might have in these kinds of games. But yeah I hear you! I often see big and reduce the scope along the way, and this project bears several traces of that.
Regarding using images in Twine, I thought about it but in the remaining time we had (very little, since we realized late that we wouldn't have the full game in Unity) I had to focus first and foremost on the written experience and making sure all variables would work well. I'll think about it for future works! (And will also look into Ren'Py for more visually appealing projects)
I'm happy you enjoyed the story as a whole in the end :> Thanks for playing it!
(I corrected the typo you found, indeed it was a relic of the "non-Twine" script that was used by the programmer :) Thanks!)