Kinda late here, but you’re right. “几个年” sounds Cantonese if I’m not mistaken: “gei gok nin.”
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Good luck!
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Thank you for the note about Chapter 1 continuity—I’ll take a look.
Could you give some examples of where Xingtu’s grammar feels awkward? They have the most Mandarin dialogue and use a few different speech patterns, so I’d appreciate direction on where I could focus my attention.
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@nacarat
Sure, no problem. For example:
“你见过湖怪吗?” you hold up your phone.
Xingtu tsks, expelling air between their teeth.
“没人见过，不过谁都听说过了。你来这几天，青城山上怪事儿很多。夜市里有熊猫吃红薯，月城湖里来了湖怪，一条巨大的鱼｡”
Xingtu talks with their hands, punctuating each sentence with their gestures.
“传说好，有传说就有吸引，有吸引才有游客。但是熊猫毕竟还是熊｡” Xingtu mimes swiping at you with clawed paws. “真有湖怪的话，就真的麻烦了｡”
I think a more “proper” grammar for these paragraphs will be something like this:
“你见过那只湖怪吗?” you hold up your phone.
Xingtu tsks, expelling air between their teeth.
“没人见过，不过谁都听说过。你来的这几天，青城山上怪事儿发生的多了。夜市里有熊猫吃红薯，月城湖里来了只湖怪，说是一条巨大的鱼｡”
Xingtu talks with their hands, punctuating each sentence with their gestures.
“传说好。有传说的地方才有魅力，有魅力的地方才会吸引游客。但是熊猫毕竟还是熊猫｡” Xingtu mimes swiping at you with clawed paws. “若是真有湖怪的话，那可就真的麻烦了｡”
I don’t know how good my Mandarin grammar is in the eye of native Mandarin speakers, but I hope this helps.
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Okay i really like how you wrote this all. The characters are unique in their own way and the style of speech is very interesting. The humour is also top notch haha
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This seems like a cool story! Also, just out of curiosity, can I ask why you chose Sichuan?
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I really enjoyed this and cant wait to read more! 
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Hello @nacarat, I’m one of the testers for your game. Please let me know what I can do to make my feedback most valuable to you - either in format or content. Is there anything specific you want me to focus on?
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There seems to be some sort of trend with this year‘s COG releases, urban fantasy games that go out of their way to be snarky to the player at every opportunity… I’m enjoying this way more than I thought I would
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Have been cleaning up the game for release, hopefully later this week. Some very belated responses and thanks to everyone below.
@Barroth_the_Mage Thank you for the catch—these are remnants of placeholders I made for myself as I was writing the Mandarin dialogue. I’ve since re-written it to be actual dialogue.
@Kanri Please accept my belated thanks! I’m glad the humor works for you.
@dumpling-clouds My family is from the area. Also, pandas.
@Neneka Thank you! We’re looking at a release later this week~
@AletheiaKnights I responded to you via DM but also wanted to thank you publically—I appreciate your attention to detail and willingness to answer my questions. The game’s been made better for your work.
@Sujan_Dhakal It’s a trend I enjoyed writing. I’m glad you like the snark.
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It was a pleasure to work on, and I’m excited for the release this week!
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Oh, wow! This game will be released this week? I look forward to it. And no prob. I was happy to help however I could.
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If all goes as expected, you should see an announcement later today~
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Oh wow! I just recently found this and haven’t really finished it yet but I had to blink and take a second of checking and rechecking cause apparently its going to be released soon wow wow, it’s a very nice surprise to come home to~~ granted I should have seen this yesterday already hah
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And we are live! Teahouse of the Gods is on Steam, CoG, Google Apps, Apple, Amazon…
Many thanks to our WIPeople for your help in making this story what it is, from powerscaling to considering the ethics of the NPC-Player relationships.
@CrushedBerries Welcome, welcome! Please note that the demo chapters will be the most up-to-date, especially compared to the dashingdon beta.
Finally, a question for our fantabulous moderator @Eiwynn: Where does discussion about the published game happen? Should I keep this thread open or close it out and migrate elsewhere?
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Most will migrate the discussion to the game announcement thread after it has been released.
Some authors do keep their old threads open, but most close them, so the discussion stays in one place.
Again, congrats on the release!
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Afterword
On Logistics
As the game’s published, let’s close the WIP thread. @Eiwynn, I’d appreciate your help.
To discuss the published game, mosey on over to the game announcement thread. Other queries can find me via DM here, on tumblr, or in my email inbox: nacaratgamelabs (at) gmail-dot-com.
On Qingcheng, in Truth and Fiction
This is the real-life Qingcheng, on which there are no magical pandas.* The mountain is a part of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China, which is home to a fascinating blend of polarities: internationalism and local quirks, history and modernity, the mundane and the magical.
For a real example of this duality, consider the Wu-Hou Shrine (武侯寺), which honors people from China’s Three Kingdoms Period (220-280AD). These historical figures are the “deities” of the Shrine, which depicts them as enshrined statues inside the temple. They’re also massive, person-sized chibi anime figurines in the touristy areas around the temple. No, really:
From left to right: Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Xiang Yu.
Ancient China is cool and all—I can see why Western fantasy media often focuses on the period—but what about my enormous chibi figurines? The world around us is a fascinating combination of the past and present, the sensible and the absurd, of great and terrible beauty. I wanted to see the complexity of modern China represented in fiction, especially because this world isn’t just fantasy but also a real people, place, and culture.
Bonus photos to help you picture real and fictional Sichuan
All photos in this post are mine. The cat and dog aren’t.
*No magical pandas that the author has met. Magical pandas of Qingcheng, here’s your call-to action! Please say hello when I’m in town.
On Stories and Endings
In word count, this game has the length of 2-5 traditional fantasy/YA novels. Being interactive also gives it compounding complexity. Meanwhile, I remain limited by the constraints of space, time, and availability, so I’m grateful for the work of WIP folks (you!), beta-testers, copyeditors, editors, mods, and countless other supporters (digital + irl) in making this project better. I take full responsibility for the issues that remain and will continue bug-fixing + learning from your feedback.
Once a story is published, it belongs also to readers. The end of my game breaks the fourth wall to validate readers’ interpretations and encourage your reshaping this world into what you believe or desire. After all, I’m just a nebulous online entity who claims to be a dozen (extra large!) rats in a trench coat. I made this and leave it with you, to make your own story.
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Thread is now closed.
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