Guides · 2 min read
Interactive audio romance: stories where you answer back
Most audio fiction is something you overhear. In these stories he waits for your answer.
In an ordinary audio story you are a listener. In an interactive one you are the other half of the conversation. At certain moments the voice stops, asks you something, and waits. What you answer decides what he says next, and sometimes how the night ends.
How you answer
Moonvale uses three kinds of answer, chosen to feel natural rather than like a game menu:
- A reply. He asks a question and you tap one of two or three answers, the way you would answer a message.
- A slider. Some questions are not yes or no. "How tired are you?" gets a slider, and he reacts to where you leave it.
- A keypad. A few stories ask you to remember something, like the code to his door. Get it right and the story opens up; get it wrong and he handles it, kindly.
Some questions have a short countdown, shown on screen and announced to screen readers. If you let one run out, that is an answer too: he will notice you went quiet. The others simply wait for you.
Do choices really matter?
Yes, within honest limits. Each story has two or three endings and a handful of decisions, and different answers lead to different scenes and different endings. These are short stories, not open worlds, so the branches are few and carefully written rather than endless. The story page shows how many endings there are and which ones you have found.
Why it feels different
Being asked changes how you listen. You lean in a little before each question, and his reply lands harder because you chose what he is replying to. It is a small mechanic with a large effect, and it is the reason we built Moonvale around it.
Try it
Two stories are free in full, no account needed: Last Train, which uses all three kinds of answer, and The Keeper. For the others, the opening is free up to his first question; answering him needs a plan.
