September Newsflash #3 (Patreon)

Well, I have had some stumbling blocks this fortnight, mostly in the shape of my child getting sick, then me getting sick - I had an ear infection which laid me out up for a week. But I'm feeling better now, and am back in the zone.

Here is a song from my Honor Bound playlist and one from my Royal Affairs playlist to listen to while you read.

I finished drafting Honor Bound Chapter 5, which I'm so pleased about! It has some kisses, and plot, and people being stressed out. I also went back and added some things to Chapter 3, which £6+ subscribers will get to enjoy on October 3rd, and general bits and pieces here and there in the earlier chapters too, mostly more flavour about responsiveness to choices about the PC's backstory. And adding in some more mentions of cats.

I have also been planning and coding the Royal Affairs expanded epilogue, and have almost finished coding it today. There's a tricky bug to do with whether you've got a romantic partner or a friend with you at a particular moment, but I'll sort that either over the weekend or next week. It is quite an experience going back to my final chapter, which is 72,000 words of me writing while without worrying too much about referring back to it later, and sorting through it to check all the ways in which the PC and NPCs can end up in the same or different places, all the variations of what the PC is doing in a year's time, and so on. But it is a blast returning to the characters, even in code form, because I get to think about how they respond to different situations again and what they've been up to.

If you remember from August, there is a wedding involved in this epilogue! Today, I have been figuring out what outfits the PC can wear. My hours whiled away on the weddingdress subreddit can finally become useful!

Honor Bound current wordcount: 228878

Honor Bound fortnight's wordcount: 10347

Honor Bound average playthrough wordcount: 55745

Royal Affairs expanded epilogue: 8988 words

Behind the scenes:

I playtested Bali B&B by Felicity Banks, which is set to go into the IF Comp on October 1st. Do check out the comp when it goes live - there's always a wide variety of free games to play and you have a decent chance of playing something by someone who will make it big later!

I have been enjoying Baldur's Gate 3 a huge amount. You may not know that when we were teenagers, my now-wife and I made modded NPCs for Baldur's Gate 2 which were our very first interactive narratives, so the series means a huge amount to me. More about all that here and here. I was a bit nervous at first that I wouldn't love BG3 - but I do. Hooray!

I reread Slow River by Nicola Griffith, a gritty lesbian scifi thriller about Lore, the child of family of ultra-wealthy science magnates, and her kidnapping. It's a hard read in many places but is absolutely excellent.

Sneak peek:

Here is a bit from Chapter 5 in which you can visit Savarel's house. A long one this fortnight!

The Elene's Prospect vicarage is a tall, old building close to the church and rather overshadowed by it; the garden is plain compared to the shrubs and flowers around the church, and the wrought-iron vines curling around the gate serve to make it look a little neglected. When you head inside, the hallway is low and narrow. Although it opens out to a decently-sized living room, the room is stuffed with bookshelves and sideboards which are laden both with books and ornaments: porcelain figurines, decorative plates, a ship in a bottle. The walls are covered with photographs and illustrations, and one large painting on one wall of a herd of horses running across a field.

@{(hb_religion_belief = 1) In the bay window is a splendidly ornate shrine|The bay window is dominated by a huge shrine} to Elene, gilded in bright gold. Savarel lights the candle and murmurs something briefly, then sits you at a small round table and heads upstairs to change clothes. After a few minutes ${sav_they} @{sav_pl return|returns} in ${sav_their} ordinary clothes and @{sav_pl busy|busies} ${sav_themself} in the kitchen to make lunch. It's adjoined to the living room; its floor is patterned with floral tiles of varying shades of brown.

[...]

"So," ${sav_they} ${sav_say}, "you can probably see why I wanted to have this house used by someone. I'm not here much—it's not really home."

*fake_choice

#"Don't you feel settled here?"

A wooden hippopotamus sits on the shelf beside Saverel with a ferocious expression. Savarel gives it a pointed look. "I don't know. I forget how long it's been now. It was last summer that I came here, so—I suppose I should. Everyone still sees me as new, and I guess I feel like that too."

#"Do you miss what you were doing before?"

Savarel's fork clinks against ${sav_their} plate. "No," ${sav_they} ${sav_say} quickly, then @{sav_pl wince|winces} and

*if hb_background = 2

${sav_say}, "You know what it's like. I really loved helping people, working in a team—we worked very well together—but—no, I don't miss it."

*else

${sav_say} more lightly, "I was in a brilliant team. I do miss seeing them. And helping people, obviously."

#"It doesn't look much like you."

A wooden hippopotamus sits on the shelf beside Saverel with a ferocious expression. Savarel gives it a pointed look. "I don't know where to start, clearing it out. The Church says I have freedom to do what I want with it. But when I spoke to Tedesco they said it would be a shame to lose all this history. So I left it."

#"Do you really think the bandits @{(ch5_bandit_outcome = 1) will|would} get much out of this place?"

A wooden hippopotamus sits on the shelf beside Saverel with a ferocious expression. Savarel gives it a pointed look. "More than I do," ${sav_they} ${sav_say}. "I don't want anyone to think I'm ungrateful. I'm so glad to have this posting. But I swap between here and Ozera so much, and I don't know where to start clearing it out. When I spoke to Tedesco about it, they said it would be a shame to lose all this history. So I left it."

My favourite bit:

I won't post the exact text because I think it'll be more fun to play in game, but I wrote a bit about talking to Denario about being trans (if you want to), and I really enjoyed showing him being excited for the PC even if you've had a tense time. I love showing trans characters sharing solidarity and I also love showing cis characters not only not being weird about it, but being pleased for the trans people in their life!

On Sunday I'm going to make a public post about what you can expect on here during October. Happy September, everyone! I hope you have a lovely weekend.