And we are up to a frightening 600k words now, not quite 10% through my outline of chapter six! And so, a few answers to some burning questions.
In Tally Ho, there are three distinct stages for romance–1) where you express interest in a romantic partner; 2) where you “lock in” a romance path; and 3) where you and your romantic interest mutually decide if this is working, and if so, what comes next. In Tally Ho, these three stages roughly equate to chapters 1-4, 5-7, and 8+epilogue.
My notion is that for the three games in this new series, each game will be one of these stages. So in this first game, you will be free to explore some romantic paths (if you choose to have a romance, of course) but you will not be locked into a particular path at all, and there will be no “failing” to romance in this book. You may seriously turn off your preferred partner in game one, but you’ll have ample opportunity to do something about that in Game 2.
And yes, there will be quite a few obstacles, including, perhaps an aunt. But I am sort of hoping that by books 2 and 3you look back and say “wow, I created my own obstacle there.” We’ll see how that goes.
The main character has a fully formed family background. You are the nephew/niece/close relation of Lord Cholmondley Featherstonehaugh, an earl, who lives with his sister, your rather finicky Aunt Matilda. You also have a cousin Marmaduke, Lord Cholmondley’s only son. You are the disappointing one in the family, on account of your scandal, but to be fair, they all thought you were rather shiftless before that, too.
@Gower Just please Don’t make the game a forced SLOW BURNING romances. I mean I don’t like when to make all go slowly That means lost character agency and forced player to be a shy blushing Virgin afraid of even say hi to everyone that could be a possible romance. I am tired of the Scarlett O hara syndrome novels have that things people live in Medieval times and touching hand is how babies are made.
Slow stages and deep dialogue exploration are great. But let player do crazy things and choose if want be coy or not and flirt like a maniac or be romantic or sarcastic. Also scenes where we can know possible romances personality before lock in romances. Sometimes happens that you loock in a character and then PLOT TWIST CHARACTER CHANGES IN MODE ASSHOLE and you end with a npc you despise while game says how much in love you are.
My intention is to start all three games with the option to simply choose the important choices from the previous games rather than rely solely on saved games. So it might ask “did you recover the ostentatious jewel from the hotel?” or “where is the punchbowl?” or “Did you and Tabby have a night of passion behind the old printing press?” and then you can just start from there.
This is the first time I’ve heard this type of save system in a COG game:thinking:and it’s definitely intresting . But, @Gower If you don’t mind, maybe at the beginning of the books maybe you can ask the player if they want to import the choices you made in the previous book into the new book or they want to simply choose the important choices. This is just my opinion about the save system since some players might prefer to load their games into the new book but, this is just my opinion so you can just discard it, if you wish to do so
I agree. I hope to have the option to import, directly choose important stuff, or just randomize. But that’s all stuff I’ll worry about when Game 2 comes around. I’m so neck deep into this game that I can’t even think about the later games!
Could i ask for a pet? or even if only a cat in place I could give food and pet even if has no more dialogue or scenes. Seriously I will give premium meat to kitty and pet it everyday. Even if There are only two lines associated with it… I love cats.
I think pet is a good idea; imagine the hilarity that will ensue as our chaotic MC tries to take care of their pets and how our servant will end up taking care of it.
My voice is in favour player agency so both sides of coin assertive and submissive or a mixture of both. Is key to a choice of game with focus in romance
Needed a second read to realize that hence why I deleted my post.
@Gower I wonder how long do you plan to make this game. 600k words sound already pretty impressive, will this dethrone Choice of Rebels (I think that’s the longest CoG so far)?
You still on game @Havenstone I am sure you will beat @Gower in any of your saga volumes But I will cheer both of you as both are awesome. And is a big win for comunity having you both.
I have no clue! When I talked to Jason and Rebecca about this project originally, the notion was to write it as a trilogy specifically so that I could make each individual game closer to 250k or so. (It’s obviously financially smarter for the author to write three 200k games rather than one 600k game if you can manage it…) Clearly that plan is out the window.
Maybe this will end up 800k? 900k? I can’t quite tell. But my only hope is that Jason and Rebecca have patience with my long-windedness and propensity for creating lengthy and indulgent plot paths and long, long conversations with characters…
I am known for being grumpy and everything but is encouraging the passion authors and company have here. Compared with I have seen outside. For instance in a Spanish if company forum They directly asked fans to solution to MAKE GAME MORE EXPENSIVE CHUNKING a game already made for sold separately. It was the most unethical post i have ever seen. Think i have never seen here both in Cog and in Hosted. There is true there is game with some IAP but they are volunteer I usually bought to helping sustained authors that bring us good games.
Still @Gower don’t be silly and if you think You could add some IAP to game that have sense do it as you deserve the money for your hard work. I am easy to please add a cat and I am sold
. But, 
But I will cheer both of you as both are awesome. And is a big win for comunity having you both.