8 Oct Newsflash

This fortnight I've been working on Chapter 2 of The New Thing, and Chapter 6 of Royal Affairs. Has it really been two weeks since the last Newsflash? It's gone by in a ... drumroll ... flash!

Royal Affairs wordcount: 142,882 words
Royal Affairs average playthrough: 40,962 words
Total Royal Affairs wordcount progress: 1928 words

The New Thing wordcount: 23,494 words
The New Thing average playthrough: 11,117 words
Total New Thing wordcount progress: 12,470 words

What on earth is that?! Over 14,000 words around my day job? I'm incredulous.

Chapter 2 of The New Thing has been a delight to write. In it, a new romance interest shows up! And you can get to know them, plus the other two, better. Though this game is heavily focused on relationships and romance, I've taken great joy in having the romance interests be disastrous in a variety of ways. Chapter 2 is my opportunity to showcase some aspects of their disastrousness and tell the player "this is what you're signing up for with these people".

Chapter 6 of Royal Affairs has been on the other end of the spectrum. You're having your one-on-one (or two-on-one) friendship or romance hangouts with people you're getting closer to, they're opening up more, and feelings are expressed. Or emphatically not expressed, if you're a character who doesn't like feelings!

In practice it's involved a lot of writing feelings, denial of feelings, kisses, and (gasp!) an intimacy scene for one of the characters (you can guess who it is if you want; there will be two in Chapter 6 but I've only written one so far).

I also spent some time adding an option for the MC to be grey aro; Sneak Preview subscribers will be able to access that currently, and the public version of the Chapter 3 demo will be going up on October 14th.

Behind the scenes:

If you want to get into the Royal Affairs zone, do you fancy listening to this playlist? This is what I almost always listen to when I'm writing that project. I make new playlists for each one - here's my one for Creme de la Creme, and this is the one for Blood Money.

Non writing:

I have been massively getting into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine recently. Much of it holds up really well! I remember only the tiniest amount of it from watching during the 90s so it's quite a delight.

Sneak peek: one (1) kiss. A Beaumont kiss! Chapter 6 is the first time you can kiss them in the game. I hope you enjoy!

Also, to celebrate the fact that I got New Thing Chapter 2 to my editor ahead of time, here is a tiny snippet of it. I plan to put some or all of Chapter 1 up in early November so brace yourself!

Cutting room floor: this was a bit of a wrench, and cutting this section is a reason why my Royal Affairs wordcount progress isn't higher. But I'd given myself a ton of work by including one branch where you're hanging out in public vs other branches where you're in private. It quickly turned into a nightmare to keep track of and make sure everything flowed. HOWEVER, this fancy restaurant segment will most likely be repurposed later in the game, because who doesn't like fancy restaurants?