September Newsflash #2

I've had a much bigger proportion of my time spent on writing this fortnight, and I'm honestly loving getting back into things! I don't expect to write as much as this every fortnight, but it has been really wonderful to take a good run at it.

Here is a song from my Honor Bound playlist to listen to while you read.

I've been working hard on Chapter 5 of Honor Bound, as well as doing some polish and fixes on Chapters 1-2 thanks to player feedback. I'm delighted to have Chapter 2 out for everyone - by the way, if you're subscribed at £6 or above, you can play on both versions and have double the save slots; I keep them both up to date even when they both have the same chapters up.

Chapter 5 is not the longest chapter of the game yet. It will be by the end of next week. There has been plottiness and characterfulness and connection and arguments and tension and kisses and very delicious food descriptions.

Current wordcount: 218531

Fortnight's wordcount: 31480

Average playthrough wordcount: 54934 (more than Blood Money!!!)

Behind the scenes:

I have been reading All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes. I am a big fan of Bad Things Happening In The Snow - see also my deep love of David Kagjanich and Soo Hugh's The Terror - so this is going well.

And I went to see Barbie! I enjoyed it a ton, particularly the music and a moment that had me absolutely cackling in the cinema.

I put up a couple of old IFs on my itch.io page on a whim as I realised I'd left them off by mistake - Heretic Dreams which is about someone who ate a god and leads a mining party into disaster, and Teeth and Ice which is about a selkie reclaiming their skin. People are enjoying them, which is really lovely! I first published them in 2016, and Heretic Dreams was the first ever new IF that I was paid for, so I'm really delighted that they're getting a new lease of life. You can play a bunch more of my short IF for free over here if you haven't before.

I also took part in the Bring Out Your Ghosts game jam and laid one of my long-dormant IFs to rest: Valentine's. It's an unfinished sequel to my completed games Aquarium and Thanksgiving. Aquarium was the first IF I ever finished!

For obvious reasons I've been thinking a lot about my past work, and archiving, and possibly revisiting some of my old IF. There is another sequel to Aquarium and Thanksgiving that exists, with the protagonist at age 29, which I'm strongly considering putting up as it's at an almost-done state. I playtested it a couple of times and I think it's pretty solid, though I hadn't looked at it in many years.

Sneak peek:

Here is a little something from Chapter 5. Apologies for the lack of indents; Patreon is deceptive in making it look like it'll display OK when pasted in, but then irons it all out:

${varenn} meets your gaze, then lowers ${var_theirs} to the desk once more. You're intensely aware of how long ${var_their} dark eyelashes are. $!{var_they} @{var_pl stand|stands}, and you stand at the same time, and you are suddenly

*if ((hb_pc_height >= 1) and (hb_pc_height <= 3))

facing ${var_their} chest, and when you look up

*else

facing ${var_them}, and

${var_they} ${var_dont} seem to know where to look.

*fake_choice

#I hold ${var_their} gaze directly.

#My throat catches, but I can't look away.

#I start to say something.

#I look away.

*if (not(var_romance))

#I can't help how I feel about ${var_them}, even if I don't know what will happen. [Start Korzha Romance]

*gosub_scene worldstate var_romance

*gosub place_desk

#I step back. I don't want whatever is going on here anymore.

My favourite bit:

I have been enjoying going into a bit more detail about how the PC's injury recovery is going. Now that the characters know the PC better, they're noticing more when the PC is or isn't well, and I really like being responsive to it like that.

Happy September, everyone! I hope you have a lovely weekend.