Thank you so much! I just saw this if it is not too late, I’d gladly send you a portfolio!
@Gower Can I ask you about what the title of the game means? and what does it refer to within the game?
I think the title is a reference to a quote in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, in which a pompous, but faithful household steward is accused of being self-righteous by not letting others have fun. Though I have no idea how it works in the game. Maybe the idle rich MC can choose to be self-righteous or the one having the too much fun?
Right–it’s a quotation from Twelfth Night–
Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?
It’s about the idea of balancing virtue and partying, and about how what is appropriate can collide with what is fun. It is a big theme of the game.
Also, there’s a lot of food and drink in this game.
I know this is late but what does commonwealth immigrants mean ? i’m not from USA or from the UK so i’m practically clueless here
IIRC, it means immigrants from countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations (a political organization consisting of almost all former territories of the British Empire).
ooh… this makes a lot of sense to be honest. Thanks for the information @moonfungus
I’ve got a question.
I know this will be a trilogy, and that their is a overall story, a Red Line…
But, my question, are you going to make one big story or 3 story in one story? I don’t know if I make sense.
I’m hoping that the answer is “both.” Each part should tell a particular story that feels satisfyingly closed at the end, but also have arcs that take two games or even the whole three games to complete. I’m hoping to sort of do a big version of what I did in Tally Ho, where there are a lot of smaller self-contained stories that add up to more than the sum of their parts, and which, in retrospect turn out to be facets of a coherent whole.
So while Cakes and Ale is sort of setting the stage for big adventures in the second two games, and helping you create a character that you are going to care about for two more games, it’s also stuffed full of satisfying and complete storylines (which regardless clearly demand to be explored more in later games!)
@Gower 's goal (I believe) is to make each story a stand-alone story that interconnects. This should mean you can play the games in any order you want and have each story stand on its own, but if you do play them from the first to last, you will gain insight and further understanding into the whole.
Ninja’d by the author himself.
Ok, thank you both for clarifying for me.
Well, but the real questions arises: Will there be a male thespian who dresses as a woman dressing as her twin brother at any point in the game?
If not, what a shame, you can keep your game, Sir. Fy foul spirit!
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were. There’s a lot of words, and I wrote many of them last year. I have long ago forgotten what stories are contained within. Be on the lookout and let me know.
Hey
um… if you guys don’t mind i have a question regarding Fitzie. From what I’ve gather in reading the Jolly good calling for beta thread and steam it seems that Fitzie is the “haze” of the group with their seemingly high intelligence and they seem to be enmeshed with the MC (romantically or platonically) or very straight forward regarding their feelings. I wonder if this come up as a problem in the series ? Fitzie also seemed to be undergoing a test just like our Tally Ho! MC to get into the inner circle and in the steam description it did say we can meddle with others and I wonder if we can determine Fitzie’s success in entering the elusive inner circle while being fully aware of it…
Also regarding Fitzie from the looks of it they can be fired … i wonder how the plot would go when one of the game’s main RO is out of the picture ? And HANDHOLDING in CHAPTER 2? Dang, Fitzie moves fast before long I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re going to have a scandal regarding a romanced Fitzie in chapter 5 or in later books.
Also @Gower
How DARE you leave out Marmaduke’s teleporting powers. It makes him interesting don’tcha think?
Edit: Do you think you will add an option for MC to buy a car for “reasons” if you know what i mean
These are all very important questions, and it is probably a good idea to sort this all out, here, approximately fifty days before Cakes and Ale presents itself for your consideration.
Certainly any Cadbury Club servant who would dare to display their intimate feelings to their employer, or indeed demonstrate that they had intimate feelings at all, would be drummed out of that august society at once. The very notion of a servant becoming “enmeshed” has one reaching for one’s smelling salts. Let us pass on from this distasteful notion.
There is no such thing as the Inner Circle. I don’t know what sort of rumors you have been listening to.
I’m wondering that too, as I write Game 2 in this series. I guess I’ll find out.
You go and wash your keyboard out with soap this instant.
Money, alas, is very tight. Further, I feel that interactive car buying has been well taken care of by @Moochava’s latest opus magnum, and I don’t believe I care to compete in that arena. However, perhaps your cousin will allow you to ride in his handsome two-seater at some point.
About what time period is the game set in? I was a bit confused because I don’t remember phones being a thing in Tally Ho (though to be fair I haven’t played it in a while and could have just completely forgotten) but for some reason I assumed it was set in the modern day. Or is this just a completely different timeline where the UK and other nations still exist but things developed differently?
Edit:
Thanks for the answer, I didn’t think to check the Tally Ho store page on steam. Out of curiosity, is this a somewhat more progressive 1934 or are homophobia/sexism/racism still rampant? I don’t recall there being any in Tally Ho, so I’m assuming that if there is any, it won’t play into the story to heavily anyways, I’m just asking because I’m very interested in the setting.
Cakes and Ale is set in April 1934, give or take a year on either side.
Tally Ho takes place somewhere in the vicinity of Autumn 1933ish, as you can clearly see from this advert on Steam.
Actually, let us not consider that advert from Steam. This is a valuable lesson about advertising.
Your question about telephones interested me strangely, and I had my various assistants, graduate students, and eager interns conduct a thorough search of the text of Tally Ho to see if there are 'phones in it.
Their search was fruitful, although I had to discard false positives such as gramophones and saxophones. However, I did note that telephones are mentioned several times.
Notably, the main character reserved the periodot hairstick by telephone–for all the good that did them. There a few other moments. Trina mentions one when you first meet her–though, I suppose, she is young and up on technology.
But the telephone plays a more significant rôle in Cakes and Ale, and by the thirties we already have the handsome cradle and receiver style telephones rather than the candlestick phones with the speaking tubes.
@Gower I don’t know why, but the name “port in a storm” (your future next game) It sounds like about World War II, I think it would be interesting to deal with that topic! in a text based game!
The genre of these games is a pastoral one where, thankfully, the worst horrors and stupidities never rear their heads or even occur to anyone; we are always between the wars; and at the end of the day, everyone is (relatively) kind to one another. There is definitely a dash of tragedy mixed into the comedy if you go looking for it, but they are tragedies of broken crockery, broken hearts, and broken dreams. If you played Tally Ho, you know how it works.
At any rate, I must write Tea and Scones first, before tackling Port in a Storm.
And what better time to play Tally Ho, and decide on your canonical playthrough!
mhm…
Can now potentially express interest in Fitzie if you go on the hotel adventure in chapter two, thus allowing handholding.
HMMMMMM
anyways now did i start rereading the “calling beta readers thread” again I start noticing really forward flirting with the ROs and in the world war era no less
- Fitzie may now give you a hint where to go for romantic scenes while in the cab in chapter five.
You can now ride around on Gilberto’s shoulders in the pool in Chapter Seven.
You can now sing a lullaby to Tabby, read to her, or scritch her head in Chapter Eight if she is in your office before you have to do evaluations of Fitzie
Option to signal “no kissing” to Fitzie in the cab.
- New interaction with Vyv in chapter seven if you wake up next to Vyv.
- Easier to get the waking up scene with Gilberto in ch. 7 if you are pursuing a romantic plot with him.
Additional romantic conversation with Tabby at the press, including discussion of the romance of ligatures.
And @Gower what do you mean by “respond properly” here?
Vyv now responds properly if you are nude on the balcony when Paige walks in.
Besides the out of place flirting in the decade
New clue available for spy hunt at the arena
This sounds really ominous hmmm…