Fantasy Foods Ltd. (WIP) - Updated 25 April

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Shooting the safety valve[/spoiler] is a pretty big stretch, but this is a story not a technical manual so it’s probably fine [spoiler]You’re probably not going to cause an explosion doing that unless whatever’s inside the tank is explosive in air - maybe a fire, but not an explosion.

I’m excited about the will-o-the-wisp extract you were using as a working fluid. It would have different thermodynamic properties than water, potentially more useful ones. If it has a lower vapor pressure you can increase the turbine’s heat higher than it would be safe to if you used steam. Higher heat and could increase power and efficiency. I couldn’t get a clear picture of the system setup from how you described it in the story though.

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Okay, an engineering post, and we’ll see how far that research takes me.

A fire might not be so bad, especially since I consider a character who would choose those methods of solving problems also that one character who always start fires. Of all kinds.

That was actually the fuel they’re burning. The not-water they’re using for the steam is another magical substance, a sort of rainbow-hued liquid that I pictured with a lower boiling point than water, thus allowing the machine to use less fuel to create the steam. It’d also cause less heat related stress on this old model of steam engine. It’s stable and nontoxic, with good heat transfer properties via convection …unlike the will-'o-the-wisp extract. (:0 If you choose to be the engineer, you’ll find that the previous engineer quit abruptly and left a lot of ‘experimental’ equipment laying about - hence this first little disaster the MC discovers so abruptly.

I did go ahead and change the wording a little bit when you’re looking at the machine, trying to emphasize which is fuel, and which is working fluid (that’d be the stuff behind the sight-glass). I’m hoping that will make it more clear which is the working fluid and which is the fuel for the boiler. Those changes will go up on my next update, in a few days.

This machine is just a low-powered steam press, used for pressing sheets of dough, pastry, so forth…so it really doesn’t need to be particularly high powered, I would think, just non-toxic in its emissions, or at least well vented, and preferably reliable. The technology is generally borrowed from in and around the Edwardian era, so this steam engine is a simple reciprocating single-action machine linked to an equally simple press.

I can definitely think of some applications for a machine that is geared towards raw power rather than conservation and basic bakery tasks, though. I was looking into various experiments using mercury as a working fluid, for exactly the reasons you’re mentioning. The problems were apparently heat transfer, toxicity, and expense. If there was a substance that solved at least two of those problems…hmm, interesting thoughts! Thank you.

Now, to think through why a start-up, Edwardian tech bakery might want an extremely powerful steam engine. Of course, there’s always the classic answer… to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Anyway. We’ll see.

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There’s no condenser, just an evaporator/boiler? (You don’t recycle the working fluid by cooling it down in a condenser and letting it drip back into the tank?)

For a steam press, you’ll want the working fluid to have a high vapor pressure but be liquid at room temperature. High pressure = less fuel burned and less gas vented each time you use the press. If it works the way I think it does.

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Something about this made me fall in love with it. It was like i was in an interactive discworld novel

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I really loved this! I can’t wait to see what you end up doing with it. It felt like a fairy tale mixed with steampunk with a dash of Terry Pratchett (which might be the best combination ever?).

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Thanks so much! I hope the plot will deliver. : D

@Crotale No, a lot of the early models didn’t have a condenser (inefficient, I know), and this one does not as well. Besides, I think it may be a property of the particular magical fluid they’ve chosen to use which makes a condenser impractical… Now, high vapour pressure would be something more like the ammonia-based closed Rankin cycle turbines, right? If I recall correctly, high vapour pressure is more volatile and more dangerous…Maybe this sort of thinking doesn’t suit an engineer character very well, and if so I should fix it, but I had pictured the company heading towards lower-powered, safer machines. Saving energy, fuel, and lives all in one fell stroke. It’s astonishing how many BLEVEs happened in the early days of steam power, particularly in the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds…

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That was exactly what i was thinking! I wouldn’t be to surprised to see luggage and Mort just waltz on by in this :smiley:

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“Innovations: Does fixing your door latch with a paper clip count?” hehe xD

“Meanwhile, a slim, red-haired woman buried behind a stack of papers is desperately addressing someone who doesn’t seem to exist.”

Omg xDDD this is adorable. I love how quirky the story is!

I’m really impressed with the writing, but this is to be expected. :smile: I also really appreciate how many choices we get. Would you consider adding relationship meters to the stats page? I always like those.

Here is a typo I found:

“The fiery creature slowly out of the oven, nodding politely at you, and walks off in a trail of red, smoking footprints.” (it looks like a word is missing after “creature”)

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@Samuel_H_Young Thank you! I appreciate the encouragement. It’s very motivational.

Cerys there is one of my favourite characters.

Regarding the relationship stats, I’ll think about it! I was thinking I’d leave the character relationships as clues in dialogue and other text, but I’ll at least consider it. I find it so much more realistic to be left guessing as to what others think of me. (Wouldn’t relationship bars be useful in real life? Goodness.)

Thanks, good catch! I’ll fix that. Shame on the salamander, not putting up a good slither for me.

And then some new things!

I’m working hard on the scene where you meet the director, so this stands at about 25,000 words at the moment. I’m hoping to finish that in the next couple of days, and then on to formally meeting the rest of the staff.

And, I have some art! There will be pictures for each chapter header, plus a cover illustration. I’m working with the very excellent artist E. Lewis Martel (warning, gallery contains disturbing/violent/creepy/mildly explicit content), who also did the cover for my other WIP. This one features a stylized option of the way we imagined the MC.

545×900 231 KB

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Bogus I must say why can’t I have a enchanted coat enchanted bcz I happen to be a excellent wizard toke language in college as a baker . . . Nice job!

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@Kazekage Thanks for reading! So far, my plan is to give the MC very limited (if any) access to magical abilities. So, no dice enchanting your own coat, apologies!

Same thing with the languages - Flitted is quite loosely based on the technology, culture, and opportunities of the Edwardian Era, so the place you’d go to learn baking is definitely not the place you’d go to learn languages. I do find it funny how many people really seem to want to know those fifteen languages. I guess I better give ‘language correspondence course’ as an option during the MC’s free time. (:0

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@Fiogan It’s some find very hard to deal with disappointment!

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And, a proper update!

Including:
-The first meeting with your new director
-More opportunities to shoot things
-The chance to start an argument with an improbable candidate
-Paperwork
-International divinely powerful entities, angry dragons, language school, and beans (depending on your career path, these)
-The first possible ending (Yes, you can reach it from halfway through chapter one)

The game is over 50,000 words now, but you’ll likely see around six thousand in a single play-through.

I also have a second piece of art from the illustrious E. Lewis Martel, this time of our director, Mr. Cceur Mawr.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/rlaikxwd8bokves/image_cceur.jpg

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I rate 10/10 Narrator is too cheeky and stole all of my stats.(Except giving me 99 impetuous)
Would argue with narrator again.

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I’m glad you think so! Also, spoiler tags please, if you wouldn’t mind. ( :

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I have question.
How can we get our MC to be 16?

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Ah, that depends on your position. If you’re the assistant director, you have to be close to thirty years old, at least, or Cceur wouldn’t have taken you on for the position. And for an engineer or a baker, you have to be an adult. For the section heads, he’s looking for at least a few years of experience on the job. For a general assistant, though, sixteen is just fine! And thank you.

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Will we ever be able to be a ware-folk?
(Cast magic and the like?)

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Cast? I wasn’t planning on it, at least outside of any wares that might be connected with baking, engineering, or otherwise working at Fantasy Foods. And I kept the main character human because there are already so many other variables that coding is taking me quite a while…hence why a read-through is 6000 words out of 50,000, give or take a few. Did you have anything specific in mind?

And, use magic? Oh yes. In fact, you can already use some magic by accident.

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did you mean the turning invisible with our magic coat because that made me happy because I desire to experiment and see what else our magical mackintosh can do

It just seems that being able to make wares and cast might be useful for a general assistant for when anything goes wrong with our current wares.