Chrysanthemum Games

Build In Progress - March

Hello everyone! Welcome back to early access/the BIP. As of right now, the total word count for Chapter Six is sitting at 46,000 words, up 33,000 from last month! This update includes the rest of the Hermes & Alekto branch, and about half of the Hekate & Pyri branch. Of course there's other, very "outline-y" stuff to click through after that that gives the general shape of a lot of the rest, too, but that's mostly the same from last month. 

I hope you all enjoy the new mate...

Bonus Content Poll - March

Hi all!

Next month's variable bonus content continues the alternate-POV trend, which is mostly ROs but may occasionally include others. In this case, the poll is all the ROs who haven't yet had a turn, plus Makaria! Just let me know whose perspective you'd like next, and I'll make it happen.

Weekly Update - 03.28.22

Hello everyone!

Here we are, at the last week of the month. It sorta feels like March was at least three months, but sadly I don't have three months of progress to show for it. Still, I got about 8k written this week, and I think I'll be able to push a bit coming down the pike here to the BIP release as well, to get y'all a little more than 31k on the month. 

Anyhow, that is up this week, and I anticipate it will contain the entirety of the "solving the problem directly" bran...

The Moirae's Mirror - March

Hi everyone! This month's Mirror is a detailed preview with some commentary, as I've done a few times in the past.

Chapter Six hits upon a lore point I've had in mind for a while, but never really had the chance to explain. It is, however, suddenly very relevant to the PC's situation. Specifically, this month's topic is the relationship between deities and their worshipers!

One of the branches in the story the PC can take is to travel to the source of their prayers: the settlement...

Weekly Update - 03.21.22

Hello everyone! 

Once again, I'm happy to report that I've made solid progress, to the tune of 7,000 new words. The branch I'm working on, where the player travels to the mortal realm with Alekto and Hermes, is almost done. I'm confident in saying you'll be able to play that whole branch by the time the BIP comes out, and likely a substantial chunk of the next one as well. 

That branch features Hekate and Pyri, and takes the PC to another city in the Underworld, to meet ...

Bonus Content - Charon POV

Hello everyone! 

The RO POV Bonus Content series continues! I specified that this month would be Charon, and the outing to the lake narrowly won for the scene in question. So here's the beat-for-beat mirror of part of that scene, starting just after Charon walks across the water and ending after they show the PC (Persephone, in this case) a little bit of their transformation. 

I hope you enjoy it!

Weekly Update - 03.14.22

Hey everyone!

Another week, another 7k words on the chapter. There's quite a few variations with this one, for minor stuff like whether the PC knows a certain spell, and what outing they went on last time, so at times it feels like I'm spinning wheels through mud to try and get any forward progress, but I really do like the fact that those little details can matter! Needless to say I hope all of you do, too. 

I also had fun writing what I think is the most outrageous part of ...

Q & A - Hades I

Hello everyone! 

The next few months are Hades's turn to make his way through the Proust questionnaire. As always, I have fun alluding to plot points and backstory stuff with these, and I hope you like reading them!

Weekly Update - 03.07.22

Hello everyone!

Jess here, checking in as usual with the weekly progress report. I've written another solid 7,000 words this week, and have begun the scene where the PC goes with Alekto and Hermes to see if they can figure out who was in their dreams and what those were all about. There's some fairly heavy stuff in this part, as human suffering tends to be, but at least in this case, there's definitely something the PC can do about it. 

The structure of this chapter in genera...

Bonus Content - Artemis and Aphrodite Dossiers

Hey everyone!

This week somehow snuck up on me much more quickly than I was expecting. Fortunately, I found the time to get another couple dossiers out, this time for Artemis and Aphrodite. They're sort of a contrasting pair in a lot of ways, but with what I think is an interesting core similarity. (Hint—check out what they're afraid of!)

Anyway, I hope you like these! I might have one more month where this bonus content slot is these mini-sheets, but then it will probably be sw...

BIP - February

Hello all!

Welcome (or welcome back) to the Build-in-Progress. As the Weekly Update mentioned, I've got right around 13,000 words of new stuff for you, though of course the chapter is far from done yet! Still, clicking through it should give you an idea of what's coming up, if you're inclined to know all that ahead of time. 

I hope you like it!

Bonus Content Poll - February

Hey all! Next month's variable bonus content will be a continuation of the RO POV series that kicked off this month with Hades meeting PC.

The next piece is going to feature Charon, so your choice is what scene you want their perspective on. 

Weekly Update - 02.28.22

Hello everyone!

Here we are on the last day of the month. Once again, you'll be getting the BIP and a poll on the same day as this update, and a bonus content in two days. I hope it's all enjoyable. 

Anyhow, the current version of chapter six is about 10,000 words of filled-out content and another 3,000 in additional outline, for a total of 13k. Combined with what it took to finish chapter five earlier this month, I have written around 34,000 words in February. I'm pretty hap...

Weekly Update - 02.21.22

Hello again everyone!

And welcome, to those of you new and returning. I'm frankly a little floored by the reception the last chapter has received; I think it's all still sort of sinking in. That said, I am happily picking away at the next one already; I have quite a bit of it outlined, and about 5k words down already. I'm aiming for between 13-15k before the BIP goes up, so there should be a nice chunk of new stuff for all you early access people this month. 

The first part o...

Bonus Content - Hades POV

Hey all!

As polled, I'm doing a bit of a bonus content series with POVs from the nonplayer characters of certain scenes. You all voted on a type of PC for this one, so I tried to select their choices accordingly! 

This is the 'processional' scene in the prologue from Hades's point of view. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Five is here!

Hey everyone!

The official announcement will go out on tumblr soon, but I just wanted to let you all know that the entirety of chapter five is now ready to play. You can find it at the regular build on Dashingdon. As always, I'll update the BIP at the end of the month, this time with whatever I manage to have done on Chapter Six between now and then.

In the meantime, I hope you ...

Weekly Update - 02.14.22

Hey everyone!

I wrote my proverbial butt off this week, managing uh... I think around 13k words? Point is, Pyri's outing is nearly done, and with it the chapter. Look out for a public release of the whole thing around tomorrow or the next day! Then it'll be on to outlining and getting started on chapter six, heh, which has some plot developments I'm excited about. 

It feels good to finally be turning that halfway corner (or what I hope is the halfway corner) with the first bo...

Art Commission - That Way!

Hey all! 

The fantastic fastforwardmotion on tumblr drew Hades and Makaria for me! They do indeed have matching braids, and Makaria definitely did her dad's. I sort of envisioned this as during some sort of pretend game, where of course he's happy to ferry the hero of the story wherever she wants to go, since there's no villain this time. :)

Monthly Q&A - Alekto III

Hello again everyone!

We're back with the last installment of Alekto's Proust Questionnaire, in which she discloses a few more hints about a significant backstory point. Next month, Hades is up! 

I hope you're all having a great week. :)

Weekly Update - 02.07.22

Hello everyone!

It's been a steady first week of February for yours truly. As some of you in the Discord server are aware, I've finally been able to commission an art piece again, and that's going well, so those of you in bud tier and up should get a very cute art drop pretty soon. Also up this week is the last of Alekto's Proust questionnaires. 

I've made about 7k words of progress into Pyri's outing scene, and it's shaping up pretty well so far, I think! I'm eager to get th...

Bonus Content - Hera and Athena Dossiers

Hey all!

This week's bonus content comes in the form of two short dossier entries, one for Hera and one for Athena. I thought it would be neat to share with you a bit more info about some of the people the PC can have backstory connections to. 

I hope you like them. :)

BIP - January

Hello, early access friends!

Here we have this month's BIP, with the back half of Alekto's outing and the entirety of Hades's, for a grand total of 32k new words. I hope you enjoy it; hopefully soon I'll have a way to do early access that doesn't involve needing to play through the whole game every time, but it might be a little bit before I get around to it. 

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the new stuff. Feedback is welcome!

Bonus Content Poll - January

Hello again everyone! It's me, spamming my own feed, and possibly your email. Apologies if that's the case!

Anyhow, this month's bonus content is probably going to be some form of 'RO POV' exercise, and I'd like you to choose the type of PC that's featured in it. If I do these regularly the options will shuffle a bit, so don't worry if your favorite sort of character isn't on here already. :)

Weekly Update - 01.31.22

Hi all!

Several things have fallen together on the last day of the month this time around. First is this weekly update, and then in about an hour, you'll see the bonus content poll, and then finally at noon US Eastern Standard Time, you'll see the BIP go up if you're in Bud Tier or above. 

I managed 8k words this week, for a month's total of 32k. I have exactly one outing left to go before the chapter is done—Pyri's, which should be pretty fun, as it takes place in a sectio...

Moirae's Mirror - January

Hey y'all. 

I was thinking of using the Mirror this month to experiment with RO POV, but it's only sort of that. This is something of a conditional missing scene from the game, one that triggers only if the PC has shown particular reluctance to be in the Underworld. It takes place between Hekate and Hades, and shows off a little of their dynamic in the process. I hope you like it. :)

Weekly Update - 01.24.22

Hey all!

Another week, another solid 7k. The good news is, I can see the shape of the end of the Hades scene now, and I think I'll have it done by the end of January, leaving me with only the Pyri one to go before the chapter is ready for release! This should make mid-February a plausible target to hit for chapter release, which is exciting. 

Thanks for bearing with me as I get this very long chapter written, heh. 

There's a Moirae's Mirror due out on Wednesday. I'...

Bonus Content - Tutelage

Hey everyone!

I'm back again, this time with a promised bit of interaction between Hekate and Hermes. I had a lot of fun writing this one; in general doing pairs of characters interacting with each other to get a better sense for the individual bonds has been really interesting for me. There's how I think they'll interact, and then how it actually comes out on paper, and sometimes they're pretty different!

Anyhow, I hope you like this one. :)

Weekly Update - 01.17.22

Hello again everyone!

New week, new 7k words in FoA. I'm pretty happy with the fact that I managed to keep up such consistent progress this week, because it's been one of those that just feels like it drags forever and everything is a challenge, you know? It started with me being contacted by what I thought was a legit employer, who interviewed me and offered me a respectable wage for work I could actually do... but then I did my due diligence and figured out it was all a scam.  2022-01-17 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post

Q & A - Alekto II

Hey everyone!

We're back this week with the second of three parts of Alekto's Proust Questionnaire! She's got one more part to go next month, and then we'll be hearing from Hades. 

It was a pretty interesting set of questions for her this time, I think. Some she knew the answer to immediately and answered in the usual terse way, while others opened the way for a bit more reflection. 

Anyway, cheers and have a good week, y'all. :)

Weekly Update - 01.10.22

Hello again everybody! Welcome to those of you who are new, and welcome back to those who are not. :)

I continue to move along at a steady clip with the chapter; another 7k words this week put its total count at 96,000 words. I think it will probably hit about 120,000 before I'm done—as the character interaction stuff always does, these outings have turned out longer than I expected. But I'm getting close to done with Alekto's, at which point Hades and Pyri are the only ones left. The...