Awww…that game was cute and sad. 
Poor Delacroix. 
Of course I still hope we’ll get a teasing peak into Max’s life outside of Gallatin too sometime. 
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Hey I am really enjoying the game so far. Delacroix seems like this goth chick with this sad past but for some reason I’m drawn to her. I’m not sure exactly why.
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@Fitzroy, I’m working somewhat in the dark because Chrome is behaving OK on my computer, but based on this thread it could be to do with your adblocker, or the browser’s cookie settings. You could try enabling cookies if they’re not enabled currently, or temporarily disabling your adblock/scriptblock?
@idonotlikeusernames, @Pauly51, thank you so much! I’m really glad you enjoyed!
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@HarrisPS Disabled add-block still didn’t work. It did work on Microsoft Edge so I got the teaser anyway 
so unless someone else has the same problem I’d consider it resolved.
Strange, but I’m glad you managed to access it in the end! 
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Weekly update: February, Week 2
Week’s Wordcount: 5910 words
Total Wordcount: 231K words
Slightly late, but better late than never! Over this weekend I went to a Gender and Narrative Games conference which was fascinating, and gave me a bunch of food for thought. Seeing academic discussions on games like Mass Effect and Love Island The Game is excellent, and one of my favourite bits was playing a brand new group game by Porpentine (an IF pioneer; if you’re not familiar with her or haven’t played With Those We Love Alive please do) live in a lecture theatre, which was a fantastic and surreal experience.
Anyway.
What I’ve been doing:
-Making Trello boards for organising my work on this and other projects; I record everything I do but tend to plan week by week with an eye on the deadline rather than being able to see easily just how much I have left to do. I like organisation, very much.
-Writing Chapter 8, which is still going pretty nicely and smoothly. It’s the spring holidays! I’m currently writing an idyllic horseriding experience! I have dearly enjoyed writing both festive mealtime descriptions, and coming up with names for all the horses. Soon I’ll dig into a very plotty and spoilery set of scenes which involve investigation and ferreting around in secret. Or openly, if you want; there’s room for marching up to someone and saying “oi, what’s this oddity going on?” Of course, whether you’re secretive or direct, there’s still ample room for amusing failures…
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I loved Blood Money so was keen to play this as soon as I saw it, and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed in the least! It’s fantastically well-written and beautifully paced.
I really like the range of skills and the role-playing they allow within the setting. My poise is already through the roof and for a klutz like me this is wish-fulfillment of the highest order! I’ve also yet to come across a choice which lacked the option I wanted to stay in role and this is quite an achievement in itself.
The characters are great and I can already see that the real meat of the story will be in your relationships with the other students. The dialogues crackle with appropriate flair and the flirting really feels like flirting (I’m currently engaged in an affectedly languid and nonchalant pursuit of Blaise…).
REALLY looking forward top playing the later chapters!
EDIT: Just noticed you have linked to additional teasers on this thread. I’m going to take a look at those right away.
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Ahhh, thank you so much for the compliments about this and about Blood Money! I’m really looking forward to taking a proper look at Ironheart too! I’m super glad you’re enjoying Creme de la Creme and the characters - now I’m further through the game, it’s definitely a challenge to have so many major characters to have shenanigans with…but a lot of fun as well. 
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You’re welcome!
I was impressed by the number of major characters you juggle but thought you did an especially good job of introducing them them gradually during the opening train journey. By the way, I know Harry Potter is kind of a lazy comparison to make and you’re certainly doing something very different here but I couldn’t help wondering if this segment was meant as a little nod to Rowling?
Also, Blaise is clearly an RO but I was intrigued to see they aren’t listed with the others on the stats page. Is there a reason for this?
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Ooooo if you have a conference report you want to post in a new topic, I’d love to hear more about who was there and what you saw. I’m looking forward to attending SFWA (Nebulas) in May and NarraScope, a new conference in June.
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Meeting characters on the train was somewhat inspired by HP and the Philosopher’s Stone, I think (though it feels so long ago now that I can’t really remember) - I like how a lot of the major players get introduced in quick succession but it doesn’t feel too overwhelming! I wanted to have a bit of breathing room before getting to the actual college and a journey seemed like a good way of doing that.
Blaise is sort of a love interest, but they don’t appear as much as the other ones. I’ve hummed and hawed about having a visible relationship bar for them, wasn’t sure because of them being antagonistic, and wavered a bit because I wasn’t sure what information it would add. But then I suppose it not being there raises questions… it’s something I need to ponder a bit more I think!
Ooh I will! And I hope NarraScope is amazing. I would LOVE to go, but the travel is a bit prohibitive - I’m hoping some of the talks get recorded because it’s entirely my jam.
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Weekly update: February, Week 3/4
Fortnight’s Wordcount: 8975 words
Total Wordcount: 238K words
Is it week 3? Is it week 4? February’s shortened days have got me all flummoxed. Either way, I’ve been busy as heck.
What I’ve been doing:
-Writing Chapter 8, steaming through investigative plot.
-Testing and polishing Chapter 8, which involved surprisingly few typos. Hooray!
-Revising Chapters 7 and 8, which involved some juicy additions such as more Karson, and the ability to choose a peer to tutor during exam season (previously it was based on your stats) to help or sabotage their fortunes.
-Planning Chapter 9: and here we are now! At this stage I’m looking very hard at my outline and figuring out what can be cut to make sure these later chapters flow well for pace and unfolding of plot. It’s one thing making an outline with blithe disregard for the practicality of the thing, and quite another to put it into practice and realise that I need to think about the feasibility of making it!
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Ooh, yes, that’s what I like to hear.
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Weekly update: February, Week 4
Week’s Wordcount: 2736 words
Total Wordcount: 240K words
What I’ve been doing:
-Planning Chapter 9 and sorting out what to cut, what to include, what to shuffle around.
-Coding Chapter 9, which is nearly done! I’m looking forward to writing this one - there are lots of Clique shenanigans and fixing your sights on your life ambitions…
Expanding the teaser to include the first half of Chapter 2! Please do have a look, and let me know what you think - especially if something doesn’t make sense, how you felt when playing through, and whether there are points where you’re not sure what a choice is testing.
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The game freezes here, at the beginning 
And it happens with both options.
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looking at the code my guess would be it hiccups at all the gosubs, be it an accidental loop or just the amount of back and forth.
Also, only the last *if/elseif has an *else, dunno if that’ relevant
Should be fine now, it was just that I’d not uploaded the Chapter 1 file - sleep-deprived mistake. Enjoy!
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So does the teaser now include half of chapter two? Because I just checked and it only said it contains most of chapter 1?
Yep, it does hasn’t been updated. Sneaking out with Max was a really cute segment.
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