Crème de la Crème Discussion and Romance Guide (Spoilers Within)

Well… there are standard Safety, Risk and Hazard rules when we are practising or working in a science lab, depends on the nature of the lab, whether it is chemical, biological or electronic lab
Here is an example of the rules
http://www.uft.org/chapters/lab-specialists/lab-safety-rules-for-students
It is to ensure the safety and minimise the hazard while working in the lab…
For electronic lab, rubber shoes had to be wear to avoid electrical shock :slight_smile:
And all sort of jewelries like bracelets and necklaces are not permitted to wear in electronic lab due to their condouctivity of electricity …

Hmm… jewelry, like an earring could work for male mc’s too. Apart from that, you can always leave an extra shirt button undone if you’ve got the physique for it. Lastly, in some silly movies about more contemporary and for some reason uniformed elite (American) prep schools, there’s always one guy who seems to wear his cowboy boots over his pants. So perhaps wearing nice boots in a way that shows them off might be another one for guys. :thinking: One final thing that came to mind is maybe a unique scarf or something like that.

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This game is set in a alternative Victorian age lol no electronic devices and electric stuff in schools and no safety rules. So jewellery and that was like a must between nobles in Spain we have the said Antes muerta que sencilla. that can be translated like Better be dead that look plain and simple

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https://www.gemdat.org/treatment-2.html
Aren’t those irradiated gemstones possess radiation hazard … especially in the old days when they don’t even know how to contain those radiation residue after gemstone irradiation…

Better don’t wear those gemstones in order to avoid potential health hazard :-):joy:

Ooh, I know that feel.

Chapter five seems to be progressing nicely! Unless later chapters are even* more* branchy.

Weekly update: October, Week 4

Week Wordcount: 5333 words
Total Wordcount: 130317 words

What I’ve been doing:

-Writing Chapter 5: finishing the in-depth friendship/romance scenes with the dormmates, and writing the middle section of the chapter. I’m about halfway through the middle at this point.

-Staring slightly at the abyss of branching that awaits for the rest of the chapter, but am conscious that it’ll be worth it for replayability!

-Having some unfun medical things going on and some work disruptions which make me extra pleased about making this much progress. Broke 130K words, hooray!

Here’s a small Hartmann snippet from this week:

Capture

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I miss Hartmann :slight_smile:

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Weekly update: November, Week 1

Week Wordcount: 9344 words
Total Wordcount: 139661 words

Running late on the update, but not for any work-related reason - just had a very busy Friday and weekend!

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that there isn’t a short story/game this month: this is because Chapter 5 has been more time-consuming than expected, and of course it’s important to focus on the work. So I’m postponing it for the end of November, and in the meantime do pop over and visit my lovely moodboard to tide you over till then!

I’m extremely pleased with how the week went: it felt like getting into a momentum zone. When I tallied up the week’s progress, I couldn’t believe I’d got so far!

What I’ve been doing:

-Joining NaNoWriMo on a bit of a whim: my profile ishere if you want to join me!

-Writing Chapter 5: lots of plot! Lots of clique politics! Dramatic breakups! Heartfelt looks! Trying to figure out setting-appropriate words for “making out”! Bonfires!

-Doing some fiddly gosub coding to automate the process of a) whether romantic interests notice you acting romantically with someone else, b) noting whether, after a breakup, you now have no romantic interest. It’s been complicated to do, but will mean it’s easier to write in the long run, and - fingers crossed - will help with bugfixing.

-Gearing up for some steamy love interest scenes. Here’s where I’d love to know: if you thought a CoG or HG, or another text-focused game, dealt with these scenes well, can you give me examples? What did you like about them?

I’ll go first: I thought the the Heart of the House ones were brilliant (though they’re much more detailed than mine will be), and I enjoyed the averted-gaze approach in Tally Ho (at least with Haze; I haven’t romanced anyone else in that one). And I love the pared-down approach in Sunless Sea. If you played Blood Money and romanced anyone, did you enjoy the makeouts or steamy scenes? (They’re fairly spare as far as that sort of thing goes, I think, but I aimed to make them characterful nonetheless.)

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Werewolves: Haven Rising had some good steamy scenes a little more explicit than Heart Of The House, but really well written

Heart of the House was pretty steamy, so I imagine Haven Rising must be a sauna! :smiley: I’ve seen people saying good things about the romances and it’s sitting on my phone, so I’ll shuffle it up the to-play list…

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Heart of the House was more flowery because of the setting, Werewolves didn’t need to be so i guess this is why i liked more, but i only romanced 2/3 lis, but i remember the mc had a steamy dream with the ro and a steamy scene so

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For Heart of the House, the Oriana romance scene is the best i had ever read , that was very detail and lengthy …

In addition , the romance scene with Evelyn in Slammed ! Was also well written …

However, for a heart warming unique intimacy romance scene had to be with Maria Agustina in Tin Star … it wasn’t anything fancy but the scene where Maria Agustina staring and waiting the MC outside the Marshal office was very unique and elegant , the way she said " a promise ? As in a vow ?" Was fill with noble sentiment , that was the chastest romance i had ever read … i am wondering whether Hartmann could mimic a chaste romance like Maria Agustina ?

Awww, that’s sweet! You can have asexual romances with all the love interests except one (with a character who hasn’t been introduced in this thread yet).

Some info about Hartmann behind the spoiler tag: Hartmann’s romance may go in a noble direction, depending on what sorts of choices the PC makes and how they deal with Hartmann’s quirks. Hartmann’s under pressure to marry up, so the PC has a bit of a challenge to get close to them romantically, but I could imagine someone developing a very “proper” romance with Hartmann. Equally you could nudge them towards being more rebellious. (Or try to ruin their reputation, if you feel that way inclined.)

Edit: I should try to romance Oriana sometime… I’ve romanced Dev and Reaves and they were both fantastically written.

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Deathless also had nice scenes like the one with Ashleigh, they didn’t even specify anything, but the word play was very in character, so what feels natural with some characters won’t be withh others, i do see some of your characters into more passionate things and other liking things slow and tender

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Yeah… what interested me of Hartmann is her/his noble attitude , i think it would be lots of fun when Hartmann bring MC back to her family to meet parents , like whether we could impresd them … and it might be even more intriguing if MC could engage with Hartmann in middle of the game, because it can test the MC commitment and loyalty during the course of story … Like if MC continue to flirt with other RO will result in a scandal and tarnish the engagement … example if one of RO wants to kiss MC, MC will be given choice to reject or accept the kiss… and it happens Hartmann is watching the scene from far away, so if MC reject the kiss, it would make Hartmann more commit to the engagement , or else she could break it off :-):hugs:

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Are you hoping to sell this? Seems like authors are successfully testing the boundaries of what app stores will allow. I like, and used to think JimD perfected writing schmecksy scenes that gave you a good idea of the goings on but worded vaguely enough to get through sensors. They were definitely satisfying as a relationship consummation.

I haven’t gotten there, yet, but screenshots look like Werewolves goes WAY further. Maybe that’s the new standard? I haven’t seen any readers complaining about the explicit nature.

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@HannahPS
Actually i think the Oriana scene in Hearts Of The House is way more “revealing” than werewolves haven rising :slight_smile:

Yep, the project’s under contract as a Choice of Games game. I won’t be going as explicit as Heart of the House or what I’ve seen of Werewolves: Haven Rising so I want to strike a balance between that and fading to black. In Blood Money I had a bit of detail, but not loads - as this is more romancey than Blood Money, I’m experimenting with different levels - though as @flocktrops says, different tones will work for different characters (different strokes for different folks, heh).

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Weekly update: November, Week 2

Week Wordcount: 6329 words
Total Wordcount: 145990 words

What I’ve been doing:

-Writing Chapter 5: can you believe how branchy this thing is? In Chapter 5, I’ve gone from an average playthrough to total wordcount ratio of 0.2 to 0.17. I’m looking forward to Chapter 6 - very nearly there! - where the branching will be a little calmer.

-Writing lots of makeouts, steamy scenes, and friendship fun, as well as experimenting with NPC-NPC romantic relationship development and potential polyamorous PC-NPC-NPC triads. The latter two are things I haven’t done before, so am looking forward to seeing how players find them!

-Going to AdventureX and exhibiting Blood Money which, well, it’s not Creme de la Creme but I certainly talked about Creme de la Creme a bunch and it was a very intensive working weekend. Managed to do some writing on the journey down too. The experience of watching people get absorbed in playing something I’ve made was both surreal and very powerful. Definitely recommend putting yourself out there if you have a game you want to show off at a narrative-game-focused event.

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Out of pure curiosity, this is chapter five out of how many, total?

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