Heather: since you’re on here, I was wondering if you wanted to talk about the decision to write the game as male genderlocked.
As a co-author on Broadsides and AOTC, were you ultimately satisfied with how those stories worked in terms of gender? And if so, what made this story different – why no Joan Watson option?
Sorry if I missed an answer that’s already out there somewhere. And love the game, by the way – please hear the question as friendly curiosity by a (hopefully soon) fellow CoG author! Joel
Can the Winter soldier path be extended? What Woodward did was very dishonorable and I’d like him to pay bigtime.
The other path where you can’t turn back to the way you are and Finch ends you seems like a bad ending at first but when you realize it he did it with love and to protect your honor.
Finch was the only romace I wanted lol it’s like your MC and him are meant to be an unstoppable duo.
I’ve been meaning to ask this how do you hide spoilers? I need to learn this so I can post everything I want without spoiling the good folks.
[spoiler]The coal scenario doesn’t affect the outcome of the invasion, it just makes things easier for the Vlaeskari - by one line of narrative - when they do. If Alexandra can screw things up, and Whitefield is the PM, then the Rising can win despite your failure.
Did you intend for the coal to actually have an impact on things?[/spoiler]
Hey thanks for that. Since I typed my comment I’ve figured out everything except Blood Sacrifice, Deception at the Temple, and Lone Wolf.
To get Walked Away, you accept Woodward’s request to return to government service, then hand in your resignation to him when Finch returns. Make sure you follow through on the resignation.
Looks like no one’s figured out Lone Wolf as yet? Time for another replay
Here is the comic! I used ‘Holmes’ instead of ‘Finch’ because it’s more recognisable but the idea is the same. I figure it’d be easier to hook people’s interest that way
And I agree with @Obsidian, the Winter Soldier path seems like it has potential to be extended, since you’re technically not dead. I know you’re meant to be brainwashed, but maybe the choices could just be limited in some way? I really want to see how Finch would react when he comes back–I’m sure he’d find out eventually, and I’d really like to see the fallout.
I don’t know if you take suggestions like these, but one more thing I would have loved to see was an extension of when the Vlaskis invade Mercia. I’m sure you’re wary of never-ending extensions to the story, and I understand it has to end somewhere, but an option where you and Finch can attempt to resist the invasion (whether successful or not), bringing you back to your nightmares of the prologue would make it perfect, to me.
Thanks again for this game, it’s really something amazing and probably the best couple of dollars I’ve ever spent. Well worth it.
Huh, I’ll have to go back and check that. There were some last minute changes for balance reasons, so I may have lost track of exactly what made it into the final version.
I’d be willing to get into that at some point, but I don’t think this is the best no-pun-intended forum. I’ve been thinking about a sequence of blog posts, each getting into some aspect of the game design - “Monstrous Women,” “Deconstructing Professor Moriarty,” and so forth. Look for them shortly after the new year, probably?
For the moment, I’ll only say that I was definitely satisfied with how the Broadsides gender flip worked out, and I’m very very proud of the gender-and-sexuality neutral world of Romance (which was a huge challenge to design and still make feel medieval). Wanting to try different constraints was just that - doing something different because this particular piece of art seemed to call for it - not any sort of negative commentary on the work I did previously.
If I were to, hypothetically, at some point in the future, do another game in this world, it would be female genderlocked.
I have no plans embark upon any such project at this time, because I’m a little fried right now, plus I have other projects clamoring for my attention. The only thing I’m intending to do in the Gaslight world in the foreseeable future is release patches that fix actual defects.
(The future is a fuzzy place, of course, so that plan could change, but for right now, just bug fixes, not game extensions.)
I think I’m pretty much Obsessed with Finch that I ignore the other two RO, is that bad? Because you know I think he’s the one and sometimes I wish he was real lol
When I found out that he was alive, and doing a mission for Woodward without me knowing, I wanted to punch him so hard then immediately embrace him and shower the place where I punched him with affectionate kisses
For me the gender locked male worked nicely with the story since I think at that age even if it is steampunk, women and men are not equal so it’s historically accurate and it’s not allowed for a woman to join the military or even practice becoming a doctor.(correct me If im wrong because I might be incorrect.)
I also loved the secrecy of your relationship with Finch since queer love is a taboo in the society, it add some risk and excitement, the thought of what might happen to the two of you if you got found out.
I think you’re right about the gender inequality for that period, vocations like medicine and military service were male-only. Women were meant to keep out of the political sphere of society in general.
I don’t know if you’ve read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories, it sounds like you haven’t–I’d really recommend them if you think Finch is great, I think he’s essentially based on Holmes, small nuances aside. Granted there isn’t the romance in the stories (not really) but people read them in anyway so perhaps you could too. The stories are narrated by Watson (the character the MC in this game is based on). If you read them you’ll recognise all the references as well, and some plot elements will be familiar Watson’s reaction in the canon story is priceless haha.
You’re right I haven’t read Sherlock Holmes, I have the house of silk by Anthony horowitz but I haven’t read it sorry the reviews and my friend told me the original was better but there’s no medium in our country to read the works of arthur conan doyle it’s not available except for ebooks.
Bad news aside I saw your comic on tumblr and it’s awesome, that path was the most emotional in the story @dissembler
By the way this bothered me so much How did Woodward acquire a light eating army? Surely they didn’t kidnap Sun touch people from Mercia because Christopher Taggart will know, they also cant get light eaters from vlask because that may spark a war. So was it done because of the special champagne that can turn you into a light eater and the only reason for you to be included and brainwashed was because you exposed yourself?
Albano’s earlier work for CoG is similarly set in contexts based on highly gender-unequal historical periods, but isn’t genderlocked.
When she gets around to those blog posts, I’ll be interested to read more about why she decided not to use one or another of the setting-tweaks that characterised those earlier games.
I should mention that there were people, myself included, who felt that the gender-and-sexuality-equal setting of Choice of Romance (not so much Affairs of the Court as a whole) led to a fair amount of fridge logic - that the Anne-Boleyn-by-Jane-Austen aspects didn’t work properly when replacing power dynamics driven by gender with power dynamics driven by age and social class. This is not to dish on Heather and Adam, since the game (and AotC as a whole even more so) was quite good, but it illustrates the difficulty of removing gender dynamics from a genre or setting where they’re normally seen as necessary.
This has been a super-addictive game and I love the whole world and concept. But… I have played through it several times and still haven’t come across Woodward’s secret army – or the Winter Soldier set-up. What am I missing? (Ok, I admit, I tend to choose the lawful good choices every time, but even when I try to choose the ones that are less optimal (imho), I can’t get to the Woodward sub-plot.)
Anyway, I do hope more games like this appear. I am a sucker for historical games, particularly when the author has been very careful about keeping to a decent amount of accuracy to the time period/literature.
If you always play as a good guy it’s no wonder that you’ve missed it You have to choose to become a light-eater in Chapter 3*, then come back to your senses and choose to turn yourself in to Woodward.
Edit: *Might be Chapter 2 actually, forgive me I’m not able to check right now! Anyway it’s when you get the branching faction paths.
Thanks! I got that achievement. I also ended up trying to give up to Taggart, and that was more… satisfying?
My only problem with the game now is that I’ve memorized whole screens because I have played it a good seven or eight times through (in about a week), and I do wish there was an option to change some of the cut scenes depending on what your choices had been. (For example, if you choose the leg injury at the start, it would be nice to have the running option disabled, etc. Or if you chose the facial injury, to have some social issues meeting Grace and/or at the Salon…) I know that’s asking a lot on top of the excellent game story we have, but it would help keep the game fresher when you do replays. I do commend the author for getting the ambiance and language so spot on, and this is only a problem if you are me, I suspect.
I’m still trying to figure out some of the achievements, and I don’t think I got any of the hidden ones…
I did expect Pierce to come back at some point, just because it was such a dramatic prologue, and I would have loved to have seen how he reacted to our good doctor’s various choices.
and I’d like him to pay bigtime.
I’ve been thinking about a sequence of blog posts, each getting into some aspect of the game design - “Monstrous Women,” “Deconstructing Professor Moriarty,” and so forth. Look for them shortly after the new year, probably?
Watson’s reaction in the canon story is priceless haha.
the reviews and my friend told me the original was better but there’s no medium in our country to read the works of arthur conan doyle it’s not available except for ebooks.
