American Royalty (WIP -- Idea Stage)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hi, all! I’m new to the forums, but not new to Choice of Games. I’ve been a fan since the first volume of Choice of Romance came out, and have had a wonderful time with many of the games hosted on this website. I’ve finally decided to try my hand at writing one. At this point, it’s mostly for fun. I’m not sure if I’ll sell it when it’s finished or not – that would mostly depend on whether people think it’s any good, lol. But I thought I’d post a thread here to keep people updated on my progress, and to hold myself accountable enough to work through tough spots!

The basic gist is this: what if, instead of instituting a democracy, George Washington became the king some cried for him to be? How would our country be different today, if instead of senators, we had a landed gentry? Counties and duchies instead of states? What would become of the American dream, if the only way to move up in the world was to wed a noble?

Enter the Ministry of Noble Outreach and Advancement.

When the last of the Washington dynasty died one hundred and fifty years ago, too inbred and deformed to even assume his throne, the nation fell into violent civil war. After nearly half a decade of bloody struggle, the crown tossed from family to family like a rubber ball, the esteemed Hamilton family of New York brought peace to the nation. To ensure that such a succession crisis would never happen again – and to dilute the highly inbred gene pool polluting many noble families of the country – King Phillip Hamilton II instituted a new national policy.

Every year, five of the sixty-one noble families would participate in a program to marry their children off to worthy commoners. These commoners would be selected through a rigorous process, conducted by an impartial panel of judges at the county level, and of the finalists presented to each participating noble, they would be able to have their pick of husband or wife.

An ideal solution, to be sure: provide the common people with a hope of advancement, eliminate the inbreeding and politicking that plagued noble marriages since the founding of the country. In his generosity, King Phillip decreed that his royal bloodline would participate as well; all future queens would come not from the blood of dukes or foreign allies, but from the citizens that worked so hard to keep their nation afloat.

It was a lovely dream, crafted with the best intentions. Sadly, no dream survives contact with reality.

You play as a candidate for the Outreach program, in a year when the hand of the crown prince is on the line. Play your cards right, and you could be the future queen…but make one mistake, and you’ll lose the only real chance you’ve ever gotten. Or, maybe, much more than that.

Can you become a finalist for the hand of a noble? Will you stay true to your heart, or let the judges mold you into the perfect wife? Do you fight for love, or for power – and will you let either be your downfall?

You’ve got one shot. Don’t waste it.

(That’s kind of a terrible blurb, but I’m more just summarizing the idea for now. Will work on polished marketing later. >.> If you couldn’t tell, the idea was heavily inspired by The Selection series by Kiera Cass, as well as the Hero Project on here, lol. I love me my competition stories.)

Planned Features

  • Multiple endings! Will you be a countess, a duchess, a queen – or will you be an unwed concubine for a lord who flouts the law? Your decisions determine your fate!

  • Stats and personality metrics that influence which characters show interest in you, and which let you fall by the wayside.

  • Three male love interests, two female. At this point, the protagonist may only be female, as that makes coding easier and suits the narrative in my head a bit better, but it’s possible that may change further in development.

  • A dystopian modern America, ruled more by cutthroat family drama than by law. Think Westeros in red, white, and blue.

  • (That’s mostly it, at this point. I did say it was my first game, don’t want to get too fancy, lol.)

The first chapter is entirely coded and halfway written. I’ll probably post what I have once I’m two or three chapters in, just to see what people think. Suggestions, comments, constructive criticisms – if you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear them! This is just a hobby project for now, but I’d obviously love to make it the best game it can possibly be. :grinning:

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Don’t throw away your shot at making this game! It sounds really interesting! I love alternate history.

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Love this idea of being royalty

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I do hope you change this later on, then again in a society this conservative I don’t see gay marriage being an option, unless there was a theoretical loophole, such as the marriage laws actually being written in a non-gendered fashion.

Or would possible male mc’s be forced to pursue the/a princess or duchess or something (at least openly)?

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Sounds great. If you could figure out a way to play as female or male that would be better. Sounds kind of like the Choice of Romance game, but you know, 'murica. ¡Washington lo vult!

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I think it’s an intriguing idea. Alternate-History fiction does tend to niggle at me though more than fantasy does. I start picking at inconsistencies and things that don’t seem likely and it ruins some of the fun. BUT that’s just personal taste.

It doesn’t say that these love interests are marriage options. It doesn’t say that they’re pursued openly either. But even if it is, I think it’s easy enough to build an alternate history where same-sex partnerships aren’t reviled (as long as it doesn’t get in the way of your family dynasty.)

Admittedly I don’t know too much about this time period in America. I do remember coming across some essays. Aha! Found the link Sodomy, Sensibility, and Male Friendships in Late Eighteenth Century America So that’s about men and not women, but I’m sure some digging can pull up some similar essays about female relationships.

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Sounds fun. I don’t mind having to play as a girl, and the general concept is interesting.

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You had me at cutthroat family drama.

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Sounds interesting. I’ll check it out when there’s a demo link.

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I like the dystopian future+The Bachelorette premise. It kind of reminds me of 7 Kingdoms, but that is most likely due to the whole princess aspect. I’m curious about the state of an America where there is a monarchy, especially after a “devastating” half-decade war. Also, will you be able to debunk the entire monarchy and put forth a democracy if you wed the crown prince, or is that impossible? Do the queens even have much power in this America, or simply crowns and a title?

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Possibly true, though unsurprisingly monarchies, particularly if they’re not constitutional ones tend to be less liberal socially than most other states. So that does not bode well for tolerance of same-sex relationships here.
Though exceptions are certainly possible, seeing as how the main society in @Moreau’s “the Myrmidon” is a once both a dystopian monarchy and very much utopian where sex and gender is concerned, compared to even our present-day western society.

Still I presume that even if the overall sexual and gender relations are a pleasant surprise here then as a male character we’d still be expected to openly pursue noblewomen since noble breeding is the very object of the contest, no matter our mc’s preferences and sexuality.

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There’s numerous examples of actual royals, in history, who’re thought to have had same-sex relations. Generally speaking the attitude seems to have been to turn a blind eye to it.

Queen Christina of Sweden for instance! She wore men’s clothes. She never married. She was rumoured to have relations with women. (Also highly religious.)

Ludwig II of Bavaria of course.

Philippe, Duke of Orleans is another interesting case. He openly wore women’s clothing, in public on occasion and was known for having male lovers.(He was married.)

Mentioning those three since I only discovered Christina earlier in the week, and was rereading about Ludwig, and I tried to watch the Versailles drama. (Didn’t get past the first episode though).

There’s numerous other examples that we can pull from history. Royalty has certain freedoms. I think, if writing this sort of story, why not look into the hows and whys, instead of the reasons to just say there weren’t same-sex relationships, because such things are historically inaccurate. (Not saying that’s what you’re saying mind you.)

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Most definitely, however our mc, if male mc are indeed going to be included later on, is very much not upper class or royalty yet and their path to becoming so likely lies through “courting” a princess or other noblewoman who might not take to kindly to our mc’s being more into guys.

This reminds me very much of @Havenstone’s XoR WiP where the upper classes certainly have the freedom to express same-sex attraction and even gay marry, but the lower or at least the very lowest classes very much do not enjoy that same freedom in practice as it hastens their inevitable death sentence and it is starting to be openly condemned for the lower classes by the more reactionary elements of the Church hierarchy there.

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This sounds so fun??? Right up my alley. I can’t wait to see where you go with this.

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Or the woman might be happy and arrange it so he can pursue who he wants while she can pursue who she wants… the author has yet to define if this alternative universe has the baked in Victorian ideals ours does… who knows, perhaps in this alternative, Victoria never ruled…

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I can’t wait to see what you do with this. It looks super promising. How’re you gonna treat the thing with the Prince? Is he even an RO or is it super political? Are there any ROs the MC could cheat on the Prince with if she’s Queen?

I’m looking forward to seeing more about that flouting lord. I’ve maybe blanked on this, but what year is this set in? Like, how modern is this setting relative to ours? Yeah, I was about to ask what @Eiwynn just did. Is homophobia is even that big a deal? (I know it’s still an issue, but yeah.)

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History is not my forte (anything after cities kind of blurs together) but in most hierarchical societies, didn’t lower classes generally have more freedom about who to love, marry or sleep with? I got the impression that a lot of social rules applied to “society”, i.e. the middle classes and up; no one really gave a damn about what peasants got up to, as long as it wasn’t revolutionary.

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Depends on if it is religiously motivated, for example in Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia it is only the upper classes who get away with a lot of technically “immoral shit”, where the religious police mostly practices its brutality on the lower strata of society and that is on top that the lower classes can also tend to police themselves more vigorously for “aberrant” behaviour.
This second point is actually something I’ve experienced for myself, even here in the Netherlands there is much more of a “macho” and homophobic culture in the poorer areas where a lived as a teenager compared to the leafy suburb I now reside in.

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Who to marry? Yes. Who to love? Not so much.
While the elite of a stratified society were usually roped into some sort of political marriage for reasons of state, this certainly didn’t stop them from seeking other companions in pursuit of romantic love, physical intimacy, or simply physical attraction. The best examples include the impressive list of paramours racked up by say, Edward VII, Charles II, or Louis XIV. Likewise, the nobility (or at least, noblemen) often openly kept mistresses, and indulged in sexual libertinism which quite often shocked the common folk.

Likewise, in more modern times, the non-heteronormative sexuality of the rich and powerful has always been given more of a pass by moral authorities because wealthier partners had the resources to be discreet. In the early 20th century, public washrooms were often the target of inspections and surveillance because they were commonly used by working-class gay men for sexual encounters. Meanwhile, those wealthy enough to afford some level of privacy in their homes were left mostly unmolested.

And yes, I do have my eye on this one.

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As usual @Cataphrak puts it much more succinctly than I do, but yes that is the essence of it.

Seeing what the mc is supposed to be doing in this game it is rather likely that they could in fact be weighed and judged on the most restrictive standards applying to both classes, eg. be expected to be monogamous and faithful in a political marriage, while the proper “noble” partner is not held to such standards. :unamused:

Of course the concept for this game also made me think of this from the Assassin’s Creed series:

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