Faerie's Bargain: The Price of Business - BETA CLOSED

Faerie’s Bargain: The Price of Business, by Trip Galey

Wheel and deal your way through a magical market beneath Victorian London! As a part-faerie merchant in the Untermarkt - the goblin market that has existed beneath London since High Queen Elizabeth first forged the Treaty with Titania, Queen of Faerie - you are skilled in dealing in all manner of impossibilities: new faces and voices, silks spun of starlight, bottled time, twists of fate, and other stranger things. When a mysterious business opportunity takes you by surprise, you have the chance to deal in something new: political intrigue. High Queen Victoria sits upon the throne, but there are many who would prefer to rule in her place…

Directions for beta-testing:

Email us, beta AT choiceofgames for access. (This changed several months ago, so take note if you haven’t beta tested in a while.)

Do not send DMs/PMs through the forum mail system, Discord, text message, carrier pigeon, or any other method than email.

When you send your EMAIL, include:

  • the game you want to test in the Subject line of the email.
  • your forum-name
  • your real name (first and last)
  • if your family/surname comes first, please indicate that. I will assume that your given name is listed first unless you tell me otherwise.

Do not email us multiple times about joining a beta. If you don’t email us as soon as we post a beta, you go into a queue. As we post new drafts, we admit more people from the queue. Eventually, we will get to you. When you have been admitted to the beta, we will send you a link, a username, and a password as a reply to your email.

When you have feedback to submit:

  • Return feedback to beta@choiceofgames, preferably part of the same email thread/chain, rather than a new one.
  • Please send screenshots or copy/pasted quotes as often as you can; it helps us track down whatever observation you’re making. In particular, the author may see things that you don’t, and/or the screenshot may contain more information than you realize.
  • If you’re submitting feedback using the Bug/Submit button in the game, make sure you include your handle/name in the body of the email. The Submit button obscures your email address, and I can’t give you credit for feedback if I don’t know who you are.

DO NOT POST ASKING WHAT THE BETA EMAIL ADDRESS IS. The first test to becoming a beta tester is inferring what it is based on the above paragraph.

Lastly, you cannot be testing two games at once. Send feedback on one and you can apply to another.

Tips on How to Give Feedback
I’m looking for “high level” and “low level” feedback. Not mid-level feedback.

Low-level = typos and continuity errors. A continuity error is when a character’s gender flips, or someone comes back from the dead, or you run into a plotline that just doesn’t make sense (because it’s probably a coding error).

For these low-level issues, screenshots are very helpful. If you see a problem, take a screenshot, or copy and paste the text that is in error, and email that.

“High level” feedback has to do with things like plot, pacing, and characters. “Scene A didn’t work for me because x, y, and z,” is useful feedback. “B character was entirely unsympathetic, because u, w, and v,” is also useful feedback.

“Mid-level” feedback describes things like grammar, style, word choice, or the use of commas. As I said above, I do not want mid-level feedback. In particular, DO NOT WRITE TO ME ABOUT COMMAS.

“I had a great time and saw only a few spelling errors,” is not useful feedback. In fact, it’s the sort of thing that results in you not being given access to future betas.

Some examples of useful feedback :
In Choice of the Dragon, you get to choose what type of wings you have: leather or scaled. Someone wrote in and asked about having feathered wings. Great suggestion! Done!

In “The Eagle’s Heir,” someone asked about Eugenie. They said that the romance moved too quickly–because she only appeared in the last third of the game–and wished they could have had an opportunity to meet her earlier. So the authors added an opportunity to meet her and start the romance earlier in the game (in a scene that already existed).

In “Demon Mark: A Russian Saga” several people commented on how the PC’s parents were unsympathetic, so the authors added a choice or two to deepen the relationship with the parents in the first chapter, to help better establish their characters.

Similarly, pointing out a specific choice and saying, “this is who I imagined my character was at this particular moment, and none of these options seemed right for me. I would have liked an option to do X instead,” is also really helpful feedback.

Another useful piece of feedback: if you choose an #option and then the results of that #option don’t make sense. Like, if you thought an #option might test one stat, but it seems to have tested a different one.

28 Likes

New draft! Mostly typo fixes and exposed-code concealment.

This is version 23856

5 Likes

New draft!

Lots of typos, exposed code, and confusing bits fixed; lots of continuity improved. Most notably:

  • in Ch 2, Robyn no longer teleports
  • in Ch 7 (and onwards), you can no longer be in debt and out of debt at the same time
  • If Queen Victoria dies, she does not write you a letter the next day

This is version 23932

2 Likes

New draft! Changelog includes:

  • Fixed subject/verb disagreements with variable-gender characters.
  • Fixed some Compassion/Ambition tests that were testing the wrong side of the opposed pair
  • Wider range of available physical traits for the PC
  • Clarified gender and orientation options

This is version 23958

2 Likes

New draft! Changelog includes

  • More name and orientation clarification; more typo fixing
  • Gove’s gender gets set properly
  • LOTS of recalibration of stat tests. It should now be easier to succeed at just about everything in Ch 1-4, and easier to raise your relationship with your Ally
  • Improved continuity in Robyn’s first appearance.

This is version 23972

2 Likes

New draft! Lots and lots of story updates in this one.

Changelog includes:

  • More typos and pronoun confusion fixed, especially with regard to Maurlocke and Turen’s pronouns
  • Conversation partner’s name actually set in every scene, so you’re no longer talking to or about ‘abc’
  • More background on the various guilds and orders in Ch 1-3
  • More scenes with Anhfhlaith and Ethelfleda, especially early in the game (More of both coming in future updates - stay tuned!)
  • More options for a compassionate/sincere playthrough
  • in Ch 6, Ethelfleda is no longer surprised to hear about Tock’s attack if she already knows about it
  • You can now come face to face with a disembodied head.

This is version 23986

2 Likes

Can’t wait to test it again.

Emergency new draft! Fixed a rare but crashing bug in Ch 11 - please update your files accordingly!

This is version 24002

1 Like

New draft! Another bunch of typos and pronoun-variable errors fixed, especially Turen’s pronouns.

Also, if you were one of the people who reported opposed-pair stats going the wrong way, thank you! Those should be fixed now.

This is version 24017

1 Like

New draft!

Fixed a loop in Ch 2 where you could just endlessly hang out with Eli having the same conversation.

We’re also working on tracking down that bug in Ch 7 where your debt is supposed to be cleared, but isn’t registering as having been cleared. More soon!

This is version 24042

3 Likes

New draft!!

Changelog includes:

  • SO MUCH RECALIBRATION. All tests should be easier to pass now, especially opposed-pair stats.
  • Finally (we hope!) fixed that debt bug in Ch 5-7!
  • Fixed a series of bugs that were preventing some of the romance scenes from appearing.
  • There is now a glossary that defines the stats and gives some more information about the world.

If you’ve played before, please take another run through to see what’s different.

Coming soon: much more about all of the various intrigue factions, more interaction with your supernatural ally (including more romance!), more Yuvraj, and more compassion!

This is version 24101

2 Likes

Wow, that is impressive progress/bugbusting! Congrats, will line up new full plays!

New draft!

Changelog includes:

  • Lots of clarification about who knows what when and how.
  • Many more typos fixed; many pronoun errors corrected
  • More physical descriptions of characters throughout
  • Wider range of options in how you approach romance, including the gender of past partners
  • ch 4: fixed continuity regarding Robyn’s article: it now correctly states what you actually told her, and doesn’t say that she wrote about ‘abc’
  • ch 6: Gove remembers if you’ve been rude
  • ch 12: fixed continuity about who (if anyone) has been killed; and which alive person is in charge when the PC is talking to them

Coming soon: more Yuvraj, more politics!

If you have already played, please give it another runthrough to check on all the continuity fixes!

This is version 24130

2 Likes

TONS of story edits, continuity updates, and debugging! Changelog includes:

  • Fixed formatting of glossary
  • Filled out Tock’s backstory
  • More interaction with Yuvraj throughout
  • Clarified continuity and usefulness of the letters from Luthais in Ch 1 onwards
  • Clarified how inheritance works,
  • More interaction with ally/friend/lover in Ch 7
  • Ch 9 continuity fixed, and generally reworked so that betrayal is not inevitable and there is more interaction with your potential lover.
  • Improved continuity in the princess getting turned into a dog
  • More on getting Anhflaith or Ethelfleda crowned at the end of the game, and improved continuity regarding the use of the vial in that plot
  • Slightly more likely that Gove can die, thus increasing the likelihood of big feelings in Ch 13

This is version 24359.

We’re coming down the home stretch, so if you’ve played before, now is your chance to play again to see what’s been fixed and changed!

New draft! Changelog includes

  • Lots of typos fixed; lots of pronoun errors fixed, especially with the neopronouns
  • Lots of text clarified
  • Further debugging the romance paths to ensure that you always get directed towards at least one scene with your RO (if you have one) in Ch 7
  • squashed another instance of Queen Victoria coming back from the dead
  • the achievement now correctly says that you install a puppet ruler on the throne, not a pupper. (It was a good pupper, though! 15/10, would rule the faerie realm again.)

This is version 24387

4 Likes

New draft! A bunch of stat recalibration - the most noticeable change is probably in ch 12, where it should be much easier to either attack or defend at the gala. We may also be making headway on the difficulty level (and bugs?) of getting out of debt in ch 5-7. So if you’ve tried to do any of those things before and failed, please try again!

This is version 24403

2 Likes

New draft! Changelog includes:

  • Many more typos fixed!
  • Deleted now-obsolete references to several NPCs who no longer exist or whose names have changed, and deleted other text that was confusingly left over from other drafts.
  • Ch 2: If you’ve already talked to Eli or Klentz at the party, the game now really and truly remembers that you’ve talked to them.
  • Ch 6: If you tell the person you’re visiting who Tock is, they now remember.
  • Ch 8: Tock’s arm no longer randomly falls off and reattaches.

This is version 24407

2 Likes