Amazing song! Absolutely fitting for Fitzie! 
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What, no Yakkety Sax (also known as the Benny Hill song)?
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Hahaha that one is very Tally Ho (the burglary quest or catching the…was it geese? I need to replay again, that game is so fun)
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Peacocks?
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That sounds right!
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Popping in for a February Update!
I’ve just finished debugging Chapter 7e, which means that…well, it means I have one more long chapter 7 left, one more short(ish) Chapter 7, and the finale, Chapter 8. Chapter 7e is with my tireless editor now.
The Chapter 7 that I’ve just finished is the one completely devoted to Fitzie. Each Chapter 7 has one of the five love interests at its heart, so you can spend a lot of time and go on adventure with them.
Tabby’s chapter is 117,000 words; Gilberto’s is 189,000; Vyv’s is 311,000, and Fitzie’s ended up 448,000.
This trend makes me a little nervous to start writing Starling’s chapter.
But I suppose we’ll see. I’m just starting the process of sketching the broad code skeleton and the major hubs and choice nodes and stuff on paper and intend to start coding everything out in earnest next week if I can clear these student papers off my desk. They just keep coming though.
I’ve updated my patreon demo, including a fairly intense Fitzie scene towards the end of Chapter Three. This on a day that I’ve also written a short story about Parsnip. (those are links that go to my Patreon. They are meant solely to entice, if you will forgive me.)
I’ve also updated the public demo with two paths through to the middle of Chapter Two. This section, strictly for characters who are driving to their aunt’s house, will now include the adventure of the Flat Tire and the adventure of the Cheese Sandwich Van, and will give you a look at a few more of the important characters in this game.
We stand at 3.25 million and I am staring at 4 million. It is squinting its eyes at me. A bead of perspiration rolls down its temple. Not everything is about numbers and word count by any means–far from it–but at a certain point it becomes ridiculous and I have to acknowledge the absurdity.
I will update the first post in this thread, as usual, with more info as I learn of it.
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Gower…… what are we supposed to say to this? You are terrifying in your productivity
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In a very entertaining way with words, I might add.
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In honor of the first year anniversary of the Noble Gases Patreon, I have an extensive two-part Q&A right here and here.
In addition, I have the first part of a game design article called “How to Break Down Doors” which you can sample right here.
These are all perfectly free articles that talk about not only what it’s like to run this patreon, but also things about the Jolly Good series as a whole, as well as some game design/writing issues that I think are of general interest. I hope you enjoy!
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I am extremely pleased to be able to announce that there is a release date, and a most fascinating change.
Because of the extreme length of Jolly Good: Tea and Scones, (approaching four million words now) it will be released in an unexpected, but I hope, exciting fashion.
It will come out in three parts, and the parts will be subtitled “Day 1,” “Day 2,” and “Day 3.”
Tea and Scones: Day 1 will release this December, and include two prologues, and Chapters 1-4. This will be a bit longer than one million words.
Tea and Scones: Day 2 will release in summer 2027, and include Chapters 5-6. This will also be a bit longer than one million words.
And Tea and Scones: Day 3 will release December 2027, and will include Chapters 7a-7g and Chapter 8. That will be, let’s say, two million words. Or so.
Day 2 and Day 3 will be sold as DLC to Day 1, so eventually, it will all be one seamless product. (I will also have the Cheats and Hints DLCs that I had for Cakes and Ale available when Day 1 comes out, making it literally Day 1 DLC. I will update those DLC for Day 2 and Day 3.)
Day 1 will be a satisfying unit, and it should feel like it ends on a reasonably closed cadence until Day 2 comes out; I’ve been working on making sure the breakpoints between the Days feel smooth.
I can’t even tell you how excited I am to get this in front of you.
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Congratulations!
Is this because of all the play-testing before release will practically take a year to do?
Will the 3rd novel be 8 million words?
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Oh wow how exciting, I’m very pleased to hear that Day 1 will be out in December! Eeeek!
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I’ll let someone else chart out the geometric increase in word count from Midsummer (200k) to Tally Ho (629k) to Cakes and Ale (1.2 million) to Tea and Scones (approaching 4 million) to the eventual Port in a Storm.
But in general, we don’t talk about Port in a Storm yet. If I think about that too hard before I finish the end of Tea and Scones I’ll go mad.
It is because Tea and Scones was just too long for the app, it seems!
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Will we have saves between the Days?
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You will definitely be able to carry over progress by saving between Days. I believe that the save for Day 1 will be implemented once the Day 2 beta approaches its end.
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I think splitting it into more manageable sections is a good call, by the way - each release will be a hefty doorstopper in itself, and coming out all at once would be more challenging to take in (and to beta test, I imagine)
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I will give the credit there to CoG staff; I resisted it mightily for a little while, but then I saw the wisdom of it.
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Thanks for the update and I’m glad we’ll be able to read Day 1 soon in Dec which is sooner than I expected.
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For reference, I actually did sit down and do some number crunching, I don’t think you want me to post all the mathematical formula crap I had to do but like, 9,8 million to 10.8 million is the rough estimate I got from about 20 minutes of work
Yeah, that sounds about right. I think I’ll try hard not to let that happen so that I can finish in my lifetime…
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