hpowellsmith

More Honor Bound Setting Details

Teran

Teran is a warm, resource- and technology-rich sprawling archipelago far to the west of Westerlin and Jezhan. A belt of independent islands sit between Teran and Zaledo, some of which have always been separate and some of which seceded over the centuries (the most recent was Dahaika, which seceded around 50 years ago).

While Teran used to be a monarchy, a military coup 300 years ago known as the Teranese Revolution resulted in transferral of leadership to a President and P...

Q&A reminder

Just a quick reminder that I'm going to be posting answers to this month's Q&A by the end of this week. I have a few questions lined up but there are room for more so if you have anything burning you'd like to know, please let me know on the linked post or through the anonymous form.

See you tomorrow, when I'll be posting some more detailed Honor Bound lore!

Honor Bound Newsflash: June 23

Well, it's been a couple of weeks of working hard on Chapter 3! I've now completed the first draft, done some playtesting (both of Chapter 3 and the earlier chapters), and have got a solid outline for Chapter 4. Next week I'm going to start coding Chapter 4. It was quite a challenge to get this next chapter clear in my head, because it's a big departure from the events and tone of the earlier ones, but it's feeling more concrete now.

Chapter 3 is very branchy, very character-focused, an...

Character Intro: Savarel

Full name: Savarel Lopes

Age: 28

Gender: selectable between cis man (he/him), cis woman (she/her) and agender (they/them)

Background: having grown up in a recently-built town in the rainforest, Savarel remained in the military after completing Teranese Service, trained as a medic, and joined a disaster relief team as a medic and, later, as a priest as well. They were recently discharged with honours thanks t...

Small Honor Bound Demo Update

I don't always post when I do early access edits but this one adds various variables and therefore may not play ball with your save slots so I wanted to give you a heads up!

Thank you for the feedback you've given so far, it's so so helpful! And hearing that you're enjoying it is so lovely!

Here's the link to the current early access demo.

Most of the edits I've ma...

Character Intro: Raffi

Full name: Rafferty/Raffaela/Rafaele Claudian

Age: 25

Gender: selectable between cis man (he/him), cis woman (she/her), and nonbinary (they/them)

Background: originally from a coastal village on one of the smallest Teranese Islands, Raffi graduated from Teranese Service five years ago, and since then have had many different jobs: wagoneering, bartending, working as a bouncer, and a brief stint as a clothing ...

Honor Bound Newsflash: June 9

This fortnight I finished coding Chapter 3 and started writing the prose! I also did edits on Chapters 1 and 2. While I was reading through Chapter 3, I deleted about 2000 words of code because it really was a bit too large without enough substance and some of it was repetitive. I was very happy to streamline things and it will help the pacing no end.

I'm just about halfway through writing Chapter 3 now and have done some dramatic confrontation scenes which I enjoyed a lot!

And I ...

Q&A Question Post - June

Hello everyone, I hope you're well! I'm so thrilled to have been able to put up the Honor Bound demo for you, and I hope you've enjoyed it. I've had some really helpful feedback from people already which is an amazing bonus!

Around this time last year, I stepped back from doing Q&As as it wasn't getting questions, but as the Patreon has restarted again and become more active, I thought I'd try it out again.

My plan is to answer your questions in an answer post by the end of th...

Honor Bound Early Access Update: Chapter 1

It's here! Play Chapter 1 now!

Chapter 1 is around 30,000 words in total (longer than the first chapters of my other games!).

I'd love to hear what you think - any bugs or strange behaviour in the game of course, but also about how it feels to play and what you like and don't li...

Character Intro: Matia

Full name: Matia Frasada

Age: 44

Gender: selectable between trans man (he/him), trans woman (she/her), and genderqueer (they/them)

Background: a former Specialist in the Exploration Service, Matia spent most of their adulthood travelling to remote, dangerous parts of Teran scouting for resources and surveying unexplored regions. In the last ten years, though, they've returned to Elene's Prospect to care for ...

Upcoming plans for June

Just a quick heads up that the monthly Patreon payments will be restarting on June 1st. I'm going to be putting up the early access Honor Bound demo on June 6th for Sneak Preview subscribers, and continuing with the Newsflash posts and early access to the character intro posts for all subscribers. For those who are on the Cameo Star tier, I'll be restarting the month counter and will be in touch about your character once you've been paying for that tier for 4 months.

Thank you all so mu...

Honor Bound Newsflash: May

This fortnight I finished my draft of Chapter 2 and started planning and coding Chapter 3. Here is a song from my writing playlist that I've been listening to!

Chapter 3 is turning into an absolute beast. I keep saying this, but each chapter I make is turning out larger than I expected... I'm nearly at the end of coding it and it's already nearly 10,000 words just with code ...

Character Intro: Varenn Korzha

Full name: Captain Varenn Korzha

Age: 41

Gender: selectable between cis man (he/him), cis woman (she/her), and agender (they/them)

Background: Korzha grew up in the capital of Ravella, one of the largest of the Teranese Islands, and has not been in touch with their family there for many years. They remained in the military after completing their Teranese Service while also doing a part-time Biology degree at...

Character Intros: Fiore and Catarina

As parent and child, Fiore and Catarina are strongly linked, and their relationship with each other is tracked as well as your relationship with them as individuals. In order to get very close with Fiore, you'll need to have a solid relationship with Catarina too; Fiore won't want to be close with someone who isn't kind to their daughter.

Fiore:

Full name: Honored Fiore Roldan

Age: 35

Gender: selectable between trans...

Project Hotsprings Newsflash

I'm going to try to get back into the swing of doing these twice a month, as it helps keep me accountable about what's going on and I do like to share and track things!

Since the start of April, I've been working on Chapter 2 of Honor Bound. It's a chunky one!

Current wordcount: 87948

Average playthrough wordcount: 23388

Behind the scenes:

This fortnight I've been preparing a lot of Patreon early access character...

Upcoming Plans and New Project Announcement!

Dear subscribers, thank you for your patience while the Patreon has been lying fallow. I'm going to be restarting payments and regular updates on here from June because... drumroll... I will be putting up a brand new early access demo on June 6th.

And while you wait, here is an early announcement for what that new demo is going to be!

Honor Bound: book 4 in the Crème de la Crème series...

2023-05-09 18:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Royal Affairs is out!

I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but Royal Affairs is out!

It's been such a journey, and I wanted to say how grateful I am for your support. I appreciate it so much, and when times were tough it was incredible to know that you were looking forward to my work. Being able to spend money on things to help me work better, like a chair and desk that mea...

Royal Affairs is out next week on March 30th!

And to celebrate, here's a small story about one of the Royal Affairs side characters, Fabien. He's an old friend of the PC's mother, the queen of Westerlin. Here's a moment many years before Royal Affairs during which he, the PC's mother, and the PC's father graduate from university.

*

Inside, the Gessner graduation party's still going strong. Students and their companions and families spill into the lamplit summer evening, their laughter rising over the gardens. Full glass in ha...

PATREON HIATUS ANNOUNCEMENT

If you are interested in subscribing: please be aware that £6+ subscribers can view old bonus content and Q&As here, but there is currently NO EARLY ACCESS CONTENT HERE.

Because Royal Affairs will be released soon, I have taken down the Patreon-exclusive early access demo today and have paused all billing from February 2023 onwards until I have a futur...

Royal Affairs Portrait Commission

To celebrate Royal Affairs being out soon, I'm considering commissioning a portrait of one of the main characters. I don't know when it'll happen due to artist timings, but I wanted to let you know first so you can fill out the poll before I make it public. I'd love to hear who you'd like to see!

Edit: poll is now open to all!

End of Year Roundup: 2022

Thank you so much for your support this year. Between various health things (positive and negative), big (positive) family milestones, and work changes, it’s been quite the rollercoaster. It really means a lot and I so appreciate your patience when I’ve needed to dial things back or slow down to deal with burnout.

The biggest thing this year was releasing Noblesse Oblige <...