Danelak in Noblesse Oblige isn’t technically a gardener exactly, but they’re very tall and buff, and you can watch them be a lumberjack at one point 
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(Late reply, went to bed after my last reply)
Gasp She is tall and can be a Lumberjack? You know it is not about the Physic right? Although I would give up my Kingdom for some Abs… 
It is about the Scandale as well! Kissing the Gardener! Peoples will talk! Tongues will wags! How scandalous!
And the fake fainting…Ah be still my heart, I don’t think that could get old 
Edit: Sorry, was looking for a word I used in my Prometheus story but it escaped me. How did it go again? Oh yeah ‘Sordide Affaire’
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Fortnightly Progress Update
I’ve mostly been working on Honor Bound this fortnight, with a little bit of Royal Affairs expanded epilogue edits (try saying that ten times fast). And I went to AdventureX last weekend, which was a ton of fun and I got to catch up with lots of people I hadn’t seen in years.
It was a bit scary, but very rewarding to put Chapter 3 out into the wild and I’m really happy hearing all comments about it.
I’ve also made an itch.io page for Honor Bound so if you want to keep track of progress there, I’ll be posting fortnightly devlogs there too from 24th November onwards. On the itch version you can still make named save slots, and current progress will be saved if you accidentally close the tab (which constantly happens to me).
I did some edits in response to player feedback on Chapters 1-3, and some edits here and there on Chapter 4 and 5, but mostly I’ve been doing Chapter 6 in which some plot threads are hotting up. I removed some of Honor Bound’s code and got rid of the chapter checkpoints (they’ll be there when the game is released, but they were causing bugs), so the fortnight wordcount looks deceptive. I’ve actually written around 13,000 words in Chapter 6 - hooray!
Honor Bound current wordcount: 238960
Honor Bound fortnight’s (deceptive) wordcount: 6680
Honor Bound current playthrough length: 62349 (this is literally approaching the playthrough length of Creme de la Creme. Already. I have no idea what’s happening anymore)
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I don’t know if you ever wrote something bigger than your previous games, but don’t let the numbers (cause I see numbers, eww) scare you. That’s one thing that can harm one writing (Or drawing for that matter lol). Some stories dictate the length…and not the writer.
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Heh, I don’t mind! Creme was bigger than Blood Money, Royal Affairs was bigger than Creme, and Noblesse Oblige was meant to be shorter, and it is, but still ended up longer than originally intended! I like that it’s a large game, it’s just become larger than I expected at the beginning - but it’s likely because I’ve got more time spend on the game and can dive in and do both lots of branching and lots of playthrough time without it taking an unwieldly amount of time to write. The main thing that’s tricky with the large amount of words is that it takes a long time to do RandomTest now
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Thanks for the public demo and letting us play as a 30 y.o. too which is new to me for IF.
Also, I just wanted to say I appreciate that we can pet the cats if they want to interact with MC.
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hey Hannah! You got any data about the amount of peeps and what age their MC is? Just curious…
Also, just me or too many ‘gray hairs’ at 40? Like…you are aware that Graying isn’t…well it doesn’t always work as in ‘You are X age, you get gray hair’. Some peoples gray early (Had an aunt who did way too early, I think she was in her 30 when she started out of the blue getting gray hair), where my mother for exemple who is super old now…still no gray hair. There are also, cases where traumatic events can send someone in the graying zone early. My roomate (RIP) for exemple, grayed over night when her Gf died.) So uh…yeah.
And someone who is in her 40…not one single gray hair here!!! 
I’d spent a long time writing late-teens and early-20s MCs so I have really enjoyed branching out this time!
Yay! I need to remember to put in more opportunities for that, and for the other animals…
No I don’t! I’d love to hear what age people are playing though. Some people have mentioned that they like playing young and romancing the older characters, but I don’t know how common that is compared to others.
Oh, do you mean it felt repetitive to you? I think it’s not only the over 40s characters who have some grey, but I’ll take a look. My immediate family doesn’t tend to go grey very early but my wife started having grey bits at 17 so I know it varies a lot!
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I’m curious as what age the players are picking the MC to be. Dunno, maybe you can add something to your anonymous feedback thing? I didn’t look at it. Or add a Poll??
Also, not repetetive. But usually, in writing at least ‘Gray Hair’ is seen as ‘Old’. 40 isn’t old. And like I said, not every person will gray the same traditional way. Some would, some don’t.
I always thought the graying was for the 50+ and that is generous.
Mmmh… I was thinking of a lot of my 40+ friends, some of whom have quite salt-and-pepper hair and some of whom had proper streaks of grey even in their 30s. My wife started having individual grey hairs when she was 17 or so. I think Matia is the major character who’s the most grey; Korzha has a sprinkling at their temples. Kass is in her 60s and is someone who went grey early, and Alva is also in her 60s and is combination grey-blonde.
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What is the age bracket of your MC in Honor Bound?
- Late twenties
- Thirtes
- Forties
0
voters
Does your MC’s age match your age in real life?
- Yes
- No, it’s younger than me
- No, it’s older than me
0
voters
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Regarding the ages, though I’m a few years younger than the MC it still feels close enough that I feel like I should be put off by the 20 year age gap. I mean, that’s a lot, especially given they’re not much younger than my actual mom. But I’ve noticed that I don’t seem as uncomfortable with it in fiction as I am in real life, at least not when I’m the younger one, weirdly. A major game came out recently with an RO who’s about 41 and I really liked her too (though the MC is so ambiguous that it doesn’t matter) despite how she was clearly a lot older than me.
I’m happy that it’s actually a relevant thing in the game, coming up when talking to Matia when starting the romance, and I think that plus just how comfortable and safe your stories are helps make it feel less awkward and dangerous.
Just to ask while I’m typing, is there any specific choice currently implemented that’s necessary to allow the Matia/Korzha poly? Or will that be able to come through naturally/later? Asking since I’m getting locked in with Matia early but I don’t want to close myself off. I get worried about missing poly stuff in general since there’s more going on with variables and choices.
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I can’t vote, because I can select only one option, and I vary between playing MC at 30s and 40s.
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I’m so pleased, and it’s really delightful that it feels comfortable - that’s definitely what I’m aiming for, and there are various points where the older characters mention it/act a bit differently if you’re in the younger bracket, and Raffi does too if you’re in the older bracket (Savarel will probably with an MC later too, but so far it hasn’t felt as relevant).
So far the only way of missing out on polyamory is doing one of the “I’m definitely not interested in this person” choices but nothing else that happens in Chapter 3 will affect anything adversely.
@LiliArch that’s nice to know!
I’m fascinated to see that late-twenties seems to be older than a lot of players, if I’m interpreting accurately. And that typo is going to haunt me forever 
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Not one of the official fortnightly update whatnots, but just to pop in and say that I’ve drafted Chapter 6 - yay! My version of the game is now just over 250,000 words long and is a bit longer to play than Crème de la Crème! Edit: that puts me at halfway through the draft!
Chapter 6 involved a bit of sorting-out of plans as I shuffled a few things around - some plot bits are better suited to a later chapter, and I made some other plans which will also come to fruition when I’m writing down the line in a couple of months - but it’s also ended up being a lot of fun to write; there are some job-related decisions and quests which will shift later chapters a lot depending on the player’s choices, and the chapter also includes:
- Someone getting stuck on a roof
- Scandalous dancing
- Crying
- Use of a church for both its intended and unintended functions
- A pile of (fake) bones covered in (fake) blood
- A cauldron of curry
During next week, I’ll be doing plans for the next chapter which feels… a little intimidating as it’s going to be quite action-packed, but we’ll see how it goes!
I need to do a few tweaks to earlier sections too, but I haven’t decided whether to spend much time doing that at this point, or whether it’d be better to do it once I’m further through the draft. There have been a few comments about opportunities for the PC to express sadness/frustration/anger or general mental ill health about their situation; it’s a bit of a tightrope as I want to give room for stoic PCs too, or ones who are genuinely feeling sanguine about their situation. Today (on my version rather than the online one) I added some mental strain to the descriptions if you’re also experiencing moderate or high pain; I’m thinking about adding more opportunities to talk about it more with other characters, especially ones who are observant/nosy. Buuut, I also want such a conversation to feel natural and not “forced”. So it involves a bit of thought.
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were onions involved? what about the kleenex? are they okay?
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S-Savarel? 
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@E_RedMark no onions (except in the curry), but there is cedar oil involved.
@RenataC heh 
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I’m not being dramatic but if you can’t end up with denario in the end then i lose hope in all love 
Haha but honestly its refreshing to be able to play an mc that’s on their thirties as not many IF’s give the older mc options so thank you for that 
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I’m so glad you’re enjoying playing an older-than-20s MC! I’m having a lot of fun writing the different ages and how characters respond to them.
Denario is… a whole thing. It’s complicated. Hopefully you will have some hope by the end 
Since you are a fan, here is an excerpt from a later chapter:
Denario crosses his legs, resting his elbows on his knees. “I hoped,” he says, “there’d be another option. But it’s not like the military forgives easily.”
MC picks dialogue option: “If they forgave, they’d be weak.”
Denario shrugs, not looking at you. “We could do with not everyone having to be strong,” he says.
He falls quiet and watches the river. The breeze is so light that the water barely looks like it’s moving. He absently picks a blade of grass, then another, then flicks them away.
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