Interview: Forever Searching

If you counted up all the play-by-post games that are currently being played across the world today I imagine that a huge proportion of them are spin-offs from Star Trek or Star Wars, and many more based on popular TV series and films. When I first created OngoingWorlds for a place to roleplay, I imagined lots of people creating Star Trek games and only a small proportion of games set around a unique idea.

I was very wrong! Looking at the current games, many of them are rich and imaginative stories based around a unique idea, and such great ideas too! I’ve already done an article about the games Terrifyingly Yours and Zombie Apocalypse 2, which were really interesting. This article is going to be all about a new game called Forever Searching, which is an ongoing mystery set in a creepy fictional town called Moonfall Valley where weird things start to happen.

Forever Searching was created last month by Izzy (see her profile here). I asked Izzy a few questions about her game.

So what is Forever Searching all about?

The idea behind Forever Searching is that there is the base character, Ida Clarke, who comes as an outsider to a new town and discovers interesting people along the way, who themselves have had odd experiences with the town.

You said you’ve never heard of a play-by-post game before, so what made you create one?

I enjoy writing as a hobby and when I found out about play-by-post games I thought that it would be nice to hear the ideas of others when given an active base story.

In your game’s description you say the townsfolk of Moonfall Valley are keeping a secret, is this a mystery you’ll reveal to players as they post or are you open about the mystery right from the start?

The secret will be revealed as they post. The idea behind this is that the members can also build up their characters to whatever the secret may be and at the same time be just as surprised as their characters may be when it is revealed.

What would you do if one of your members writes something that takes one of your mysteries in a different direction? Would you carry on or would you dismiss their post?

If one of the members wrote in a different direction to one of the on-goings in Moonfall then I’d probably carry on, trying to include some of the ideas from the post to steer it back in the other direction.

The description of your game and the profile picture sound like your game is a horror, but you’ve listed your game in the category sci-fi, is this a hint towards where the storyline is going?

It is a hint. Although Moonfall Valley is supposed to be creepy the secret behind it, and things that may happen are more likely to be linked to sci-fi events.

You currently have 3 other members. How do you get others to join your game?

I have put one advertisement on one of the sites suggested by Ongoing Worlds, but I’m not sure if that’s where people are hearing about it from.

You have been giving awards to your members, how do you think this affects their involvement in the game?

I think they enjoy being noticed, I know I do, and makes them feel like they are still fully involved in the game, and not straying from the main story-line.

Thanks very much Izzy, I wish you the best of luck for your game and I’ll make sure to keep reading to find out what happens next!

If you’re interested in joining Forever Searching, see the game’s homepage here and click ‘join’.