Newsflash: Dec 31

Royal Affairs wordcount: 170,071 words

Happy end of 2021, everyone! I will personally be happy to see the back of this year, but there are some really lovely things that I can take forward and feel good about such as: some nice family news, a lot of positive gender developments, an unexpected new project (Noblesse Oblige has been such a breath of fresh air that has helped me feel more inspired with Royal Affairs too!), working with awesome people on something I'm really excited about, and more.

Writing

My intention to be an indolent Regency gentleman for the holidays has partially succeeded in the most charming of ways; I've spent time recuperating from burnout (and getting a vaccine booster), and have also found renewed energy to write, which has been lovely! I've been almost entirely working on Royal Affairs Chapter 7, which is over 21,000 words long now, plus some small Noblesse Oblige edits (mostly clarification of choices plus some reshuffling of the name section so you can choose from Jezhani names to reflect your mother's origin).

In Chapter 7 of Royal Affairs, the bit I've just been working on is an awkward lunch with you, your closest friend/romance interest, and Fabien. For a lot of characters it's awkward! I have a lot of fondness for writing meet-the-family situations.

I've also - hopefully - fixed the pernicious savegame bugs in Royal Affairs, so it will squash that particular save issue. Depending on variable changes, I can't guarantee that they'll work every time going forward, but at least that problem's sorted out!

The Javi Bonus Supplement story will be a bit late, I'm afraid, as the holidays and the vaccine booster have put me a bit behind on everything. I'll do my best to forewarn better about delays in the new year. But when it's ready I'll put it up, and hopefully you'll enjoy it!

Also if you haven't seen it already, my guest appearance on the Talking Simulator podcast is out! It was so lovely to chat to Jordan about Crème de la Crème and interactive fiction!

Non writing

Being in a very rural area is lovely! Even if it's raining, I just love being in the fields and woods, and seeing all the birds. The place where I live is pretty suburban (though with a nice amount of green space) so it's lovely to be out and about in the proper countryside. I've also been watching the Christmas Prince and Princess Switch trilogies for the first time which was a very joyous and ridiculous experience.

Next up

I'm aiming to complete the Royal Affairs Chapter 7 draft during the first week or so of January, and hopefully will get some playtesting done - the more I do, the better it gets, and I always notice points of improvement. I'll also be putting up the Javi Bonus Supplement as soon as I can. There will also be the usual monthly Q&A posts, plus the regular newsflash posts.

I'll also be putting up Chapter 2 of Noblesse Oblige for Early Access on January 3rd, and then public access on January 17th!

Best wishes, everyone. Whether or not you found 2021 hard, I wish you all the best for the coming year!