August Newsflash #1 and Special Announcement

I've been doing lots of bits and pieces this fortnight. Chapter 5 is outlined and I've been doing work on coding it, I wrote a little character study for one of the Honor Bound characters, and I did some quick fixes on Elite Status: Platinum Concierge which came out last week. (Elite Status: Platinum Concierge by Emily Short used to be called Platinum Package, and over the last few months I did some work editing it and taking it through beta. It's lovely that it's now out in the world!)

It doesn't look terribly good on a wordcount tracker, but sometimes it's like that!

Current wordcount: 180312

Fortnight's wordcount: 6972

Average playthrough wordcount: ...something in the realm of 46000, but I don't have a version that passes RandomTest currently, so we will get an accurate number next fortnight

Behind the scenes:

I read The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor and enjoyed it quite a bit. It reminded me of Filthy Animals, though keeps the campus-novel feel of Real Life - more tightly-knit than the short stories in Filthy Animals, but still very spread between lots of characters. I didn't love every aspect of it - mostly the bits I wasn't so keen on were about how it hung together as a whole - but I really enjoyed the chapters on a smaller scale. Either way I always find his work interesting.

Special Announcement:

Last week I signed the contract to do an extended epilogue for Royal Affairs which will add a a free extra chapter to the game. I'm really excited about it! I was happy with where Royal Affairs ended, but as I made inroads into Honor Bound, I realised that some of the elements left open kind of... needed to be closed when the Royal Affairs PC is so important and it affects the world so much.

I could have added a couple of questions to the intro questionnaire in Honor Bound - but no. I wanted to make it more fun and enjoyable.

So. In this extra chapter which will take place a year after Royal Affairs, your MC will be:

• following up on some of the life plans they made at the end of the game
• going on holiday and having an adventure with their siblings
• hearing or catching up with how their friends have been doing in the meantime

and, if applicable:

• planning a wedding and getting married (platonically or romantically) with Estell's blessing, or eloping... including options to elope with Beaumont/Trevelyan or Dominique/Javi

So far I've made an outline for this, and my goal is to have it released by the end of this year. I'll keep you updated on progress!