Fantasy Foods Ltd. (WIP) - Updated 25 April

Yes, that’s right! Goodness, you either managed to catch lots of little, finicky details, or you looked at the code. : D Both the invisibility and the argument rely on some very specific choices.

Hm. The general assistant is a sort of secretary and errand person. It’s the one position that you can take if your character has very little experience, or is very young. Wareology is a fine and unchancey art, and it takes lots of training. The person who has done all that training has probably not had the time, money, or inclination (or possibly health and lifespan) to do much baking, engineering, or anything else. Also humans are generally pretty bad at magic.

Ha, maybe that’s it. I’ll let anyone over fifty also be a magic user. ( : 0

Edit: Actually, being able to waretwine, or even warespin, might be a good possible perk for an assistant director. I will keep that in mind. Thanks for the very helpful input!

Your game is charming, quirky, and generally delightful. I also enjoy getting to shoot things.

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If the questionnaire doesn’t ask our favorite ice cream flavor and we can’t sign the form with rainbow colored royal icing I will be horribly disappointed.

Also I can’t stop laughing at how wonderful all your interjections are! (:

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I think my favorite thing is being able to constantly bolt at the slightest noise in the demo. Playing as a skittish character is hilarious to me.

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the game is really really good , i love that “candy” aspect

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Thanks so much for the encouraging words! If anyone is having a good laugh reading Flitted, I feel I’m doing my job properly.

@Shockbolt I’m glad you said something…I hadn’t intended to literally do either, but I can certainly think of a few good ways to work that in, now that you’ve requested it. Thanks for the inspiration!

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“Very well,” answers the director sadly. “Would you like to fill out the paperwork first, or did you have any questions? Or did you want a last look at your contract?”

This sentence is after you say you’re not hungry and he shrugs his shoulders. Him being sad about this seems a little out of place for the scene in my opinion.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hmm, I could certainly change it… Cceur can be a little bit childish about certain things, and he was hungry and wanted to eat. If the MC doesn’t, he feels like he can’t. Plus he feels like trading food for paperwork is kind of a rough go…so that was my thinking here, anyway. He’s a bit Winnie-the-Pooh ish sometimes.

Besides, he thought that someone coming to Flitted for the first time, to work especially, and not trying a single thing offered was rather strange. Maybe if I changed it to ’ “Very well,” the director answers in a peculiar tone of voice.’ Would that serve? He can be secretly sad. Or…I could have him comment specifically if an MC is applying to be head of the bakery and won’t taste anything.

Oh! I apologize I didn’t know he was that eccentric of a character. The wording makes perfect sense if you take into account the above.

Also I’d enjoy him reacting different to a chef character refusing any food. The character I was playing at the time was a down to business male in his thirties.

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@Fiogan

Question: do you happen to be a fan of Dianna Wynne Jones?

The sheer playfulness and whimsy present in your game reminds me strongly of her work - in particular the part where the MC exchanges elaborate pleasantries with the jinn had me feeling like I was reading Castle in the Air again.

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Yes, I very much enjoy her works. My favourites were always the Chrestomanci series, and The Homeward Bounders. Jones, Joan Aiken, Lloyd Alexander, and John Bellairs, all whimsical in their ways, I think, were my very favourite children’s authors when I was younger.

It’s funny you should mention that particular passage with the jinn. I based that sequence on a bunch of research I did on Persian customs in the 1800s and very early 1900s and the Edwardian responses to them (and to some degree, Iranian cultural and language customs of today) with of course the same overly-colourful spin I’m trying to use with the entire work.

If I were going to quote a Jonesian influence in this, it would have been some of the characters who work in the bakery. Castle in the Air and its predecessor weren’t particular favourites of mine because I found several of the characters in them quite exasperating. It’s interesting to hear that her tone has crept into other sequences as well. I hope it’s in a good way, not a too-similar one!

I was also just thinking of posting an ‘in-progress’ update even though I’ve no playable sections to add to the alpha just yet. So, here it is:

I’ve written another 25,000 words or so, but I’m in the middle of coding a big sequence that hangs together. I decided to let characters pick their work experience and hobbies on the employment questionnaire, and belatedly realized coding appropriate amounts of work experience for ages sixteen to sixty-six takes a long, long time. Not to mention the research on chandlery in the Edwardian Era, or particular aspects of titles for the peerage, or all the other little details I’ve wanted to capture properly. So I’m working away steadily in order to get to my daffodil-robot, but it’s a slow process.

And I’ll share a new picture too from Flitted’s artist, E. Lewis Martel. This is the possible head-of-bakery, Pedr Widden. He’ll be key in the first few chapters, except for MCs who are themselves the head bakers. He’s a plentyn newid, a changeling.

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Definitely in a good way. :smile:

I’ll admit I jumped on the bandwagon after the Studio Ghibli film, then after finishing the novel promptly devoured the other two in the series (What can I say, I like haughty women and bookworms and the MC of House of Many Ways was both). The rest of it’s on my reading list.

The head baker has a sassy stance. Good to see you’re making steady progress. :+1:

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And, a new update! I’ve put the change log on a page of its own, accessible from the stats page, for people who are curious about these sorts of things.

Basically, though, this update includes the addition of a little over 30,000 words, filled with ice cream and backstories. And an automaton’s head.

If anyone wants to go through and test out the backstories, if you choose to be 66 years old the game lets you pick several more job and skill experiences. Essentially, you get an extra job and skill to add to your background for every decade of your age.

As always, feedback is most welcome. Even though I’m nearly at 90,000 words, I’m about halfway through the first of four parts of the game. (Scope creep, what else is there to say.)

In other news, I’ve fleshed out several details about the plot, set the background of a few of Fantasy Food’s employees, and, in the process of writing the backstories, managed to build most of the game’s cast.

Number of bookmarks made during research = 200. Number of websites or books used during research = approx. 600. So, I hope it feels suitably Edwardian despite being very much a fantasy.

And finally, another gorgeous illustration by E. Lewis Martel. This one is of Gwyredd Ywenfridd, who has surprised me by starting out as a bit character and ending up one as of my favourite characters to have around the place when I’m writing scenes.

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I say, I did so very much enjoy this little trip to Fantasy Foods Ltd! As with those scones and biscuits, I can barely refrain from asking for more, though I shan’t give in to such basic behaviour. I do, however, hope you shall continue to give us these scrumptious sentences and paragraphs, for I can barely restrain myself to gobble it all down. :blush:

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Back to one of my favorite WIPs. :sunglasses: (under-appreciated, imo)

And geez, your game is dense. It’s taking me awhile to explore all the different choices. xD

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Better the game being dense than I. ( ;

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Seeing anti-gravity apricot made me enter my own flavor as Plutonium Plum.

Also I love everything about this game.

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Again another interesting and bloody brilliant WIP escapes my notice. The light hearted nature to your writing bring this work to life, and oddly enough a slight weight gain. Please keep uo the great work!

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You’re ahead of your time; plutonium wasn’t discovered until 1940. The engineers will love you! There’s also an Easter egg in one of the ice cream flavours, although not that one. Maybe I should make it give bonus points in technical . . .

And thanks, everyone, for the kind comments! It makes all the endless hours of researching telephone operators and hydroelectric generators and the cut of Edwardian coats feel quite worth it. It even makes up for the ridiculous amount of coding I decided to put into the backstories. (Note, I must be more careful when planning these things in the future. On with the plot . . . )

I’ve stashed three poets, two of this era and one from a few centuries before, in this update (two badly mangled quotes and one in-the-style poem). That was fun. I like mangling Tennyson.

@faewkless I added the ability for humans to learn magic! You have to be rather on the older side though. Thanks for the suggestion! I had fun incorporating it. And all the consequences. ( : 0

Does anyone have any thoughts on the backstories? Or a favourite? They’ll come into play in the next several chapters, and I plan to have several of the characters in them turn up in unexpected places.

Also, I’m curious, has anyone figured out the tune for that awful telegram?

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So what happens if we chose to be 66 and have all the backgrounds… Because that’s basically my plan at this point.