@flowersloveoranges Thanks! I’m trying hard to make it work, but I need all the help I can get, so if you ever have any suggestions for making the asexual paths more consistent, please do let me know.
@LadyCass Thanks for taking the time from your own writing to play my game! It seems like our games have some things in common (female protagonist, interaction with legendary characters from mythic history), which makes me really happy. I love your game’s premise and can’t wait to see where it goes.
Well, my friends… I’ve had a major change of heart.
I’ve been saying for eight months that I wasn’t going to post Guen part 2 until the whole thing was finished. The main reason was that I thought it would be more enjoyable to play the whole thing all at once. I originally told everyone that I hoped to finish part 2 by the end of 2014, though I usually followed that up with “if all goes well.”
Does all ever go well? It didn’t for me. In July I got very sick and couldn’t write much for weeks and weeks. I’m back to normal now, but I lost a lot of time, and now I’m not sure when part 2 will be finished.
I also did a word count a few days ago, and discovered that the first HALF of part 2 (scenes 1-7) is 117,200 words, while all of part 1 is only 76,600 words. Once I realized I’d written that much, I thought, “Hm; maybe I should get some feedback before I write another 100,000 words.”
So I’ve uploaded the first half of part 2. I hope the lack of narrative closure doesn’t drive anyone too crazy. (Though I guess if it does, maybe I’ve done something right?) Please let me know what you think, and thanks as always for reading!
I must be dreaming… you really made my day with that post… I’m sure I won’t be able to stop playing now until I discovered every possible way and consequences of my choices. Thank you so much… It feels like an early Christmas gift, hehe. ^.^
So excited to find out how the romance of Guen and Morgana continues now.
@FinalFantasyFreak and @attolia My thanks to you both for posting… there should be a word for the weird emotions one goes through right after posting an update, just knowing people are out there playing, and wondering what they think… “nervous as hell” might cover it. So it’s nice to be reminded that you’re excited about the game!
Also, since it’s been 2.5 hours and the link has 30+ clicks, and nobody’s posted about a major problem with the fast-forward thing, I’m really hoping that it’s working okay!
First of all, the story and flow itself is gorgeous, you described all perfect in few lines.
But the overall feel after only a play through is this is not my Guen, this is a passive shadow of her, or suddenly she has become in a Disney princess in the kidnapping? But you give me a good mental rpg exercise thinking what my Guen did to turn one guy over the other and was AWESOME. But i only post it if you want. Great start, need more seductive evil.
@poison_mara Thanks… and that’s exactly why I wanted to wait until I was finished with part 2 to post it. Guen spends the first half being dragged around without a lot of agency. If you played all the way to the end, I hope you could see that the second half will not be like that – whatever path Guen chooses, she will be able to take charge and make things happen, in different ways to suit her personality.
Ah of course when I have internet access the computer decides to not let me play Part II. Oh well, guess I’ll have to let the anticipation keep building til the internet works.
I want to suggest hippie kill all the sheep and give them to poor people in my name. First to show french we have enough sheep to just give them to nasty commoners also that up popularity for me.I want to seduce both kidnappers. Suggesting that I could widow, I could be a great ally queen for french. And the stupid my husband is and a powerful could help them conquer goals and orher Roman territories. And about my giant friend explain that a widow me could give him a throne also a wink and a flirt could do great. What can i do to get sword? I am a tactical dark magic but i wanna sword!!!
@poison_mara hahaha Okay, those are not bad suggestions at all. I’d be curious to know what other readers would think of an option to seduce one of the kidnappers, given their personalities and the situation. Does that seem plausible/desirable to anyone else?
You will be able to get the sword, if you make it a priority. A dark magic Guen can keep it and use it as a power source for spells. You will also, as has been hinted, be able to recruit Meligaunt.
Since Meligaunt wants the throne of Britain and is crazy enough to think he should/could have it, the idea of Guen offering to marry him is an interesting one. There’s just one problem: if Arthur dies, the story will be over. (Sorry, but I can’t write seven whole books with a completely different plot / main characters. Arthur can die in part 7, I promise.) So, like a lot of the very cool-sounding evil plans you’ve suggested, I don’t see how I could make that work and still have a story to tell.
I know you always want to kill the main characters and take over immediately, and I personally have no problem with that, but 1). I can’t do that and still have a plot, and 2). If I offer the option to do it, Guen will always fail, and I don’t want to frustrate the reader by offering Evil Plan after Evil Plan and having them all fail.
So I’m totally open to having more evil options (and I hope it’s obvious that more evil options are already planned for the second half of part 2); I just need them to be things that won’t derail the overall plot.
edit: I do understand that you’re suggesting lying to Meligaunt, and not necessarily actually marrying him. So maybe that’s something that could work somehow, but I feel like it opens up the question of “What if my Guen actually wants to kill Arthur and marry Meligaunt? Why can’t I?” to which, there’s the above.
Oh dear, telling Arthur that my Guen wasn’t interested in men has to be the best reaction I could’ve ever hoped for. I couldn’t stop laughing! Especially when she told him to ask Lancelot about it.
@jeantown yeah, i was totally lying to the sheep giant . My Guen knows kill hippie would take long time so she wouldn’t try something reckless. But i want a chat with Morgana explaining her that i hate hippie, but i fake for good of the kingdom I already criticized him with her. I think that help me to overcome him make Morgana loved me and start like less his brother.
Just replayed part 1, about to start part 2. Found a typo while talking to Morgana before the battle where Guen fires the rocket - I told Lance not to kill anyone when he came to the tent, but when I tell Morgana what I said, the line is missing the first quotation mark. Small typo, but thought I should mention it. ^_^;
Oh my, you should warn before doing things like this! My brain wasn’t ready to take such an awesome update. Now I have to forget sleep and go play again and again. Best.thing.ever.
Thanks a lot for the update, congratulations for the more-than-100.000-words-half-of-part-2. You are amazing! I will try to give feedback later, for now I just want to enjoy the game.
Just played through and I am SO impressed with what you posted so far. It was great to see the characters again, especially Lance and Morgana.
I have to admit that I loved guilty and angsty Lance a little too much, haha. I also really enjoyed their love scene and how later Guen had to option to manipulate him into acting how she wanted when sending him after Arthur, or back to Camelot.
Loved everything about Tida; I wasnt expecting that at all!
@snappingcookies Oh, I’m so glad you liked that part! I was a little nervous because I wanted Arthur to seem clueless without being offensive. I wanted to include that conversation way back in the first draft, but it’s taken me a long time to figure out how to make it work without having it take over too much.
@poisonmara I will keep thinking about it and see what everyone else says… As for talking to Morgana, you’d have to be very careful about it… she’s not exactly ready to stab Arthur in the back just yet, so you’d have to start slow with a whisper here and an insightful observation there…
@othergrimm Thank you! I’ve changed it in my local version, so it will be fixed next time I update. Part 2 will probably have many more things like that. I’ve had a lot of time to polish part 1, but for part 2 I haven’t even bothered to run spell check yet because it’s a huge pain filtering out coding language. Please let me know if you spot anything else.
@Tehani Aw, do try to get some sleep; the game will still be there tomorrow. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
@attolia I’m very, very glad to hear it. That last bit where Guen tells Lance what he’s going to be doing was rather satisfying to write. It’s a sign of things to come. As for Tilda, I just wish I had the time to make her a romance option.
Aw, do try to get some sleep; the game will still be there tomorrow.