HTML Completed Looking Back [v1.1] [Nobody Cares]

[Nobody Cares]

Overview:
Looking back is a choose your own adventure / braching novel that has been buzzing in my head for way too long. Finally, I was able to commit it to the page, the digital page that is. It's about Derek Danielson: party animal and casanova. A carefree, fun-loving, quantity-over-quality kind of guy. The kind of guy who is always in his twenties, until he is not.
Derek is now trapped between a messy and expensive divorce, an estranged son, and a job he hates but can't give up. He has by now surrendered to the fact that life has nothing left to offer him and he is now shambling on because that is all he knows. Until two mysterious women drop into his life determined to prove him wrong.

Looking Back is my personal spin on the Young Again genre, with a heavy focus on romance, deep heartfelt relationships, and hot steamy sex. There are three main mutually exclusive love interests, each very different from the others. It is a mostly linear experience, but there are several choices, some are insignificant but most are not. There are three endings, each with a significant variation, plus one secret and relatively well-hidden ending.

Last but not least: this is not a demo, not a season one, not the first chapter of a trilogy. This is a full story readable and playable from beginning to end.
​

Thread Updated: 2023-12-21
Release Date: 2023-12-20
Developer: Nobody Cares
Censored: No
Version: 1.1
OS: Windows, Linux, Mac
Language: English
Other Games: The Queen of Phalli
Genre:

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Installation:

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Changelog:

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Developer Notes:

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[Weird forest Witcher]

So i actualy like games with a lot of story and this seems to be a very good story, so i think i am going to play this, but i also like porn in my porngames, so does this have any pictures or gifs or anything, or is this just text, just text is a bit... well whatever.

 

[Lerd0]

...congratz on finishing the game...
..thx for the share....

 

[rahatuutti]

So i actualy like games with a lot of story and this seems to be a very good story, so i think i am going to play this, but i also like porn in my porngames, so does this have any pictures or gifs or anything, or is this just text, just text is a bit... well whatever.

So, the download is less than a megabyte. So definitely no pictures.

 

[Nobody Cares]

So i actualy like games with a lot of story and this seems to be a very good story, so i think i am going to play this, but i also like porn in my porngames, so does this have any pictures or gifs or anything, or is this just text, just text is a bit... well whatever.

Nope. As it happens I am a terrible visual artist. If you want pics, you got plenty of alternatives. If you want a full story from beginning to end, not so much

 

[Crow Armbrust]

THX

 

[battali0n]

Text Based, Romance, Male Protagonist, Virgin, Milf, Dilf, Lesbian, Female Domination, Male Domination

Is the lesbian content optional, as in my decisions determine whether it happens or not?

 

[Nobody Cares]

Is the lesbian content optional, as in my decisions determine whether it happens or not?

Yes. Why would you want to prevent something of the sort from happening is beyond me, but the option is there.

 

[telotelo]

ngl this is a captivating read, just finished a path (april) in one sitting and it's a pleasant one
the flow somehow feels natural from start to finish, the writing is really on point

speaking of which, there are some things to be pointed out, as well

Spoiler: some of it is spoiler, beware

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the characters offered is really eloquent and not fall into the usual stereotype cardboard
this is one of the strong point, which i really enjoy to read how they become alive through the passages

look forward to see the next story and good luck on your endeavor

 

[JLP603]

Trying this game out and only got up to the start of chapter 2 but I am liking what I'm reading so far! There are typos though. in chapter 1 there were missing letters in some words and a capital letter in the middle part of a word lIke tHis. Found a new one in chapter 2 " earLiar. " found an "\I" too at chapter 2 " warship " should be worship lam. should be lamb. in chapter 3. Uncunny should be uncanny.
When spending time with swanson's wife little is having the time of his life. Missing the name of Ms.Swanson' son. Same with is Is behaving. when she calls to check up chapter.. 4? things way than me. -> way better than me

 

[Nobody Cares]

ngl this is a captivating read, just finished a path (april) in one sitting and it's a pleasant one
the flow somehow feels natural from start to finish, the writing is really on point

One sitting? Holy shit, that is the best compliment you could pay me . Thank you also for the constructive criticism, it is by far the best way to reward my effort. I do this first and foremost to practice my writing and this is the kind of feedback that best helps me improve.

Also, yeah there are bound to be typos. I will slowly iron those out too. Keep in mind this is a one-man effort .

 

[lnppo]

Only played the Sarah route so far but this is really good!
Props to you, Nobody Cares.

 

[UnwrappedGodiva]

I did not know what to expect from this text-only game. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.

I completed the April path in one go, started exploring Isabelle (almost finished now) and Sarah (just started). Congratulations to the author "Nobody Cares": I really enjoyed the writing and the character development. I laughed and I cried.

Here is my feedback, trying to avoid any major spoilers...

One thing that I enjoyed very much is that during most of my first playthrough I shared Derek's doubts about the true motivations of Cristabella and Stella, and to what extent they could be trusted or not. I also did not know for a while if I was supposed to play Derek as a nice guy, or as a pervert, or if I could choose freely without risking a premature end of the game. This uncertainty kept things interesting.

I was wondering for a while about what was the point the D&D sessions but as I read through the scenes I started enjoying the interruptions, the players breaking out of character, and the DM desperately trying to keep a coherent story. And of course, like letoleto mentioned above, I laughed at the scene containing "Why not? It’s just a game, we are all having fun here. Aren’t we?" followed a bit later by "What can I say? Balthasar is so charming, he’s got twenty charisma."

I found several typos and some minor inconsistencies in the story. Some of these typos seem to be the result of a global search-and-replace gone wrong: "I took some pills earLiar", "nights are getting colder and loneLiar", "We met earLiar", "even deadLiar", "Some are, of course, silLiar than others.", etc. The HTML file contains 12 occurrences of "Liar" with a capital L and only three of them are correct: ""Liar." I accuse her." (C9IS13), "Isabelle invites her closer, caresses her perky tits and pulls her chin up. "Liar." She whispers." (C11IS6), and ""Liar." She keeps her eyes low." (C11IS18). All other occurrences of "Liar" should be "lier". There are also 7 occurrences of "Big-Deal" instead of "big deal". One or two of these could remain capitalized for emphasis, but the others should probably be written simply as "big deal". There are also two passages in which Cristabella is written "Christabella" with a "h" (C3S2 and C10SS10). I found many other small typos but I am still compiling the list per passage. I will send it by MP in a few days once I am done proofreading.

Regarding the minor inconsistencies, they are mostly about player knowledge vs. character knowledge. In CYOA games with multiple branching paths, it is not easy for the authors to keep track of what each character is supposed to know about the other characters, especially if some scenes along a main path are optional. There are a few examples of that in this game: in the first chapters Derek learns more or less directly (depending on the interactions with Stella) about April's hidden activities. But she does not know that he knows. Later, when playing April's path, Derek talks about that casually with her and I do not remember reading that they discussed first what each other knew. When playing other paths than Isabelle's path, late in the game Derek calls Isabelle by her first name although nothing indicates that he is supposed to address her like that. There are also a few passages with other characters such as Sarah or Emily in which they suddenly seem to be closer to Derek or in which Derek seems to know about their sexual preferences even if the explanation for that is found in scenes that are not on the path that you have played.

Thanks for this nice game!

 

[Nobody Cares]

I did not know what to expect from this text-only game. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.

I completed the April path in one go, started exploring Isabelle (almost finished now) and Sarah (just started). Congratulations to the author "Nobody Cares": I really enjoyed the writing and the character development. I laughed and I cried.

Here is my feedback, trying to avoid any major spoilers...

One thing that I enjoyed very much is that during most of my first playthrough I shared Derek's doubts about the true motivations of Cristabella and Stella, and to what extent they could be trusted or not. I also did not know for a while if I was supposed to play Derek as a nice guy, or as a pervert, or if I could choose freely without risking a premature end of the game. This uncertainty kept things interesting.

I was wondering for a while about what was the point the D&D sessions but as I read through the scenes I started enjoying the interruptions, the players breaking out of character, and the DM desperately trying to keep a coherent story. And of course, like letoleto mentioned above, I laughed at the scene containing "Why not? It’s just a game, we are all having fun here. Aren’t we?" followed a bit later by "What can I say? Balthasar is so charming, he’s got twenty charisma."

I found several typos and some minor inconsistencies in the story. Some of these typos seem to be the result of a global search-and-replace gone wrong: "I took some pills earLiar", "nights are getting colder and loneLiar", "We met earLiar", "even deadLiar", "Some are, of course, silLiar than others.", etc. The HTML file contains 12 occurrences of "Liar" with a capital L and only three of them are correct: ""Liar." I accuse her." (C9IS13), "Isabelle invites her closer, caresses her perky tits and pulls her chin up. "Liar." She whispers." (C11IS6), and ""Liar." She keeps her eyes low." (C11IS18). All other occurrences of "Liar" should be "lier". There are also 7 occurrences of "Big-Deal" instead of "big deal". One or two of these could remain capitalized for emphasis, but the others should probably be written simply as "big deal". There are also two passages in which Cristabella is written "Christabella" with a "h" (C3S2 and C10SS10). I found many other small typos but I am still compiling the list per passage. I will send it by MP in a few days once I am done proofreading.

Regarding the minor inconsistencies, they are mostly about player knowledge vs. character knowledge. In CYOA games with multiple branching paths, it is not easy for the authors to keep track of what each character is supposed to know about the other characters, especially if some scenes along a main path are optional. There are a few examples of that in this game: in the first chapters Derek learns more or less directly (depending on the interactions with Stella) about April's hidden activities. But she does not know that he knows. Later, when playing April's path, Derek talks about that casually with her and I do not remember reading that they discussed first what each other knew. When playing other paths than Isabelle's path, late in the game Derek calls Isabelle by her first name although nothing indicates that he is supposed to address her like that. There are also a few passages with other characters such as Sarah or Emily in which they suddenly seem to be closer to Derek or in which Derek seems to know about their sexual preferences even if the explanation for that is found in scenes that are not on the path that you have played.

Thanks for this nice game!

You sir, made my day! Thank you so so so much

I look forward to your PM, it would be a great help.

 

[a4-insert-binder]

This was a truly well-written story. I did not expect to enjoy a text-only game, but your writing is quite good.
I played through I believe all the content and found the four endings and their variations.

Spoiler: Ending Spoilers Included

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I look forward to your next game.

 

[Turtleguy007]

That was a good read, you should try your luck in dedicated writing forum like royalroad or scribblehub if you haven't already.

 

[Nobody Cares]

This was a truly well-written story. I did not expect to enjoy a text-only game, but your writing is quite good.
I played through I believe all the content and found the four endings and their variations.

Spoiler: Ending Spoilers Included

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I look forward to your next game.

Thank you so much for the feedback And also thank you for pointing out the bugs. I will iron those out right away.

If you can spare the time, consider leaving a review here for the game, it will help others find it (just hit the score on the Top right of the page). Also, if you liked this game you may enjoy my other project which is still going.

Have a great day

 

[Ocwil]

Great read, only there was alot of "says (s)he", instead of the more used "(s)he says". But im unsure what is correct in English since it is not my primary language. I just found it odd since I've never seen it before.

 

[Nobody Cares]

Great read, only there was alot of "says (s)he", instead of the more used "(s)he says". But im unsure what is correct in English since it is not my primary language. I just found it odd since I've never seen it before.

It is rather archaic. I tend to write in an exaggeratedly classic/outdated style, most of my favourite novels happen to be close to 200 years old.

 

[UnwrappedGodiva]

I look forward to your PM, it would be a great help.

I am still working on the list of typos. If I do not manage to send it later today, then it will be on Friday. Sorry for the delay that is caused by two things... Firstly, I wanted to complete all paths and their main variations before spoiling myself by reading the source code of the game. Secondly, I am still working on my secret weapon: a "linter" script that goes through a Twine/Sugarcube file, analyzes all variables or widgets, checks for missing images, and extracts the text of all passages with variable substitutions so that the plain text can be run through a spell checker and grammar checker. I started developing that script for the game "Sluttown USA: Hometown Corruption" by AmusingOddity and now I am trying to adapt it to "Looking Back". This game is a bit simpler because it does not use widgets, it does not have hundreds of variables, and it includes only one image, but it is also more complex because it uses constructs such as <<replace "#question">> that my script cannot handle yet. I am still working on that code...

Before using my script, I played through all paths and I think that I have discovered another minor inconsistency:

Spoiler: Minor spoiler

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Now that I have seen the endings for April, Isabelle, Sarah and their variations (Stella), I am even more impressed by the writing in this game. I thought that replaying the game on a different path would lead me through pretty much the same scenes with only a few minor variations such as changing the names of the protagonists, but this was not the case at all. Of course there are many scenes in common, but there are also many long scenes that are unique to each path. Each chapter has unique variations for each character, and some common events are played from a very different perspective.

"Looking Back" is one of the few Twine/Sugarcube games that are worth replaying several times from the prologue to the epilogue(s). Thanks for that!

By the way, I share the same concern as Ocwil regarding the usage of "says (s)he" instead of "(s)he says". This archaic style works well in a fantasy setting, but I found it rather disturbing in a contemporary story that mentions Ferraris, computers and mobile phones. When I started playing this game, I was tempted to report all of these archaic expressions as grammar problems because they slowed down my reading and my comprehension of the text, until I got used to it. I am glad to see that I am not the only one who was confused by that style.

Although my script is not ready yet, it has already generated a few warnings while analyzing the HTML file:

Warning: variable $Stellascene1 is never used: <<set $Stellascene1 to true>> in passage "C2S88".
Warning: variable $C2S8a is never used: <<set $C2S8a to false>> in passage "C2S8", <<set $C2S8a to true>> in passage "C2S8a".
Warning: variable $C2S8c is never used: <<set $C2S8c to false>> in passage "C2S8".
Warning: variable $corrution is updated but never initialized and never used, defaulting to zero: <<set $corrution +=3>> in passage "C7AS3b".

The first three warnings are not important and can be ignored. The last one shows that the variable $corruption is misspelled as $corrution in passage "C7AS3b". I do not know if this typo in the variable name has a significant influence on the game because the corruption is modified by a larger amount elsewhere, but it should be fixed anyway.