That may be the part where you have to have the right stat to get a positive response. I remember my character was able to compare Hyacinthe’s performance unfavorably to one they saw at court, but the relationship increased anyway, I suppose because having enough Authoritative meant that Hyacinthe thought something like ‘The heir is probably right that I can’t hold a candle to professionals who perform for Her Majesty. At least they didn’t completely trash my performance!’
3 Likes
There’s a lot of stat check in both this game and creme it’s one of the few things i’m not a big fan of even tho i love these games. I feel like it’s too much and really restricting
1 Like
The first time I played, Asher was male, and since I connect the name with maleness (or, rather, don’t remember ever seeing a female character with the name), that seemed to be the most fitting gender for them at the time. After that, they appeared often as NB in my games, which is why I’m now more heavily leaning toward NB in my personal headcanon. No definite opinion on all the other characters.
As for my gender selection: I rarely choose all-male, all-female, or all-nonbinary casts even if it’s the only gender my MC is attracted to. I either prefer to randomize or choose their gender as I encounter the characters (usually aiming for different gender combinations).
1 Like
@eldensalkeld thank you, that’s really interesting to hear!
@Kelly_Seastar that makes sense, I tend to do that when I play too though I sometimes change it up.
@Nyahaha101 ah I know what you mean about wanting to change the norm, it’s fun to see a male character who’s a polished, demure dancer which might tend to be seen as a “female” role in the real world.
@KZV I’m considering implementing something like setting one or more gender and others being randomised, so that there’s flexibility without interrupting play experience with the gender question. It isn’t something I’d thought of before these conversations but I quite like the idea.
@Eiwynn the concern about gender variety is on my mind after talking more on this topic. as mentioned above I’m considering having the chance to set individual genders at the start and randomised those that weren’t set, so that players can “tailor” things to a preference while not feeling like they’re controlling everything. I believe Tower Behind the Moon had an option for this? It would be most useful for players who are familiar with the characters who might be bored with clicking through gender questions on the fly, I think.
@Cingulum_diaboli that makes a lot of sense! I’m almost wondering about making a system where it automatically does an even spread… but that might be getting too much into the weeds.
@LilTzimisce I hear you on nonbinary genders, and I’m aware that the way I’ve generally done it isn’t perfect; I find exploring gender in a more indepth way in writing (especially with gender-selectable characters) a little tricky to navigate because of my own gender stuff going on and wanting to do it “right”, whatever that means. I’ve been surprised by the results skewing in one direction or another because when I write I don’t have any gender in mind 
@Phenrex you’re right, that one doesn’t make sense. When I do my edits I will poke around with those choices for more clarity! @FabricSeat yeah when you’re successfully mean about the performance Hyacinthe’s basically like “MC is telling it like it is with brutal honesty, I’m even more determined to improve now!” which is maybe not a healthy attitude but is how Hyacinthe thinks - at least at that point.
@Uyen_Le I hear you, I have been reducing some of this in edits and aiming for clarity as much as possible. There are always going to be lots of stat checks but I’m working to make them more intuitive (such as changing the one mentioned above!)
@feurio Oooh, interesting that it shifted! and it sounds like a lot of people are preferring variation, which is interesting too!
edit: Oh, by the way! If you haven’t seen it already, Royal Affairs has a provisional release time - February 2023. Of course this isn’t set in stone and will depend on time for review, beta, and all the edits but how exciting is that! I’m sorting out my screenshot images for the Steam page this week… it’s all feeling a bit more real now!
19 Likes
I only romance male characters, so that’s what I would usually choose for them haha xD For any non-ROs, I’d choose based on vibes, or just go all male if I’m not sure on f they’re ROs or not
1 Like
Today among a bunch of other things (including my sample scenes for the Steam page, and giving the MC input into whether Beaumont and Trevelyan get together) I’ve put together another way of setting the genders before the game starts to avoid interruptions. it’ll look like this:
Then you can choose individually:
After Asher, it gives you the option to randomise everyone else:
I like the idea of saying “I don’t mind what genders everyone is but I want an equal spread” but the effort may have diminishing returns. If I have some free time I might poke around with it.
25 Likes
I can’t wait for the release!
I think I’ve just exhausted most of the great games out there with nice RO options, having gone through Blood Money just a few days ago.
Is there a chance any of us would get to play a longer version of the demo/be engaged in Beta testing?
1 Like
Thank you so much, I’m really excited too!
I don’t think there will be a longer demo before beta; I hoped to put one up but I ended up being so busy with edits that I didn’t have time. BUT I will be sure to post on here as soon as the beta testing period starts!
4 Likes
It was a lovely unexpected effect of discussing the gender choices for the characters! I hadn’t considered doing it that way before but it made so much sense when it was brought up 
I’ll probably use it when I next playtest!
It can be so nice to do a little deep dive into how people feel about a single aspect of a game… I should do it more often next time round 
Edit: I forgot to mention, I got my draft notes this morning. So I will be working on revisions for the near future in preparation for beta testing!
7 Likes
Yeah - CldC was my first CoG when I first started. It made me apply to Oxford and hope that my life would turn out as such. Lol XD.
@HannahPS Please tell us you’ve got a third instalment on the back burner! Aha.
I’ve always thought Dominique was basically Delacroix. And Javi’s basically a mashup of Gonzalez and Blaise.
2 Likes
Aw, that’s lovely that CldC was your first CoG! I applied to Cambridge back in the day but bombed the interview 
I have some ideas about other games in the same setting but not anything set in stone yet. Noblesse Oblige was a nice palate cleanser from a school game but there’s a lot of decisions to be made about premise, plot etc so I’ll see how things go…
I feel like Dominique would think Delacroix was very cool and edgy, but Delacroix would be driven to distraction by Dominique and get very annoyed by them!
2 Likes
Friday update - I’ve been working on draft revisions and decided to check my wordcount. It’s currently 383000 words! Three weeks ago it was 323000, I can’t believe it!
The last couple of days, I’ve been going through my edit notes.
Amongst corrections, general tidying up, and “admin” (such as closing off a character’s romance if you started a romance but it never became committed, then you went for someone else) I am taking a broad look at the big picture before beta and looking at what could do with a little more attention.
Currently my highest priority is fleshing out classroom stuff a bit more, at least around the edges. Vere, Pascal and Clemence are the main teacher characters but at the moment the impression is that they’re basically the only ones there, which isn’t what I want to convey! There are also some fairly important conversations with other major characters that happen in branches, mostly when going on dates in Chapter 6 (such as Dominique talking about non monogamy) and I want to move them to make sure players always see them if they’re spending time with that character. It’s a bit of a juggling act though, because if I wanted, I could shuffle things around or add to it forever!
32 Likes
That’s a good move really Hannah as since the moment you can ask Beaumont at the start if there are other teachers at the Academy, who the other teachers are is totally downplayed and no other name or info is ever given so indeed making the Academy feel a little more like a living place would do the game good.
The characters and the World interpreting your desires to enter a poly relationship is fun, perphaps as you are royalty parts of the public could also get a hold of that gossip and have their own reactions to your romantic life(perphaps even the MC’s mother getting a wind of it?) , being under public scrutiny can be a fun fact for an interactive novel to play with.
1 Like
Agreed! Partly because of there being some stops and starts when writing the early-mid sections of the game, I ended up narrowing in on the three main teachers and not thinking so much about others, and was focusing a lot on the Leadership classes; but I do see places where I can expand a bit, especially earlier in the game to set the tone, and I think a little will go a long way. When difficulty balancing, I noticed that at the moment it’s very difficult to get high grades, and adding some more classroom time will give more opportunities to increase grade scores.
Yes, I’m figuring out some bits and pieces about that; my current plan is to focus on discussions with the ROs for now, and see what comes up in beta testing and when I playtest. The sequences about how much the Queen approves of the MC’s romances are really complicated and sometimes feel like they’re held together by ductape so I want to be cautious about adding too much to them before getting more player feedback on what’s there but I’ll see how it goes.
8 Likes
Looking at that gender quiz again, I’m really interested in the results. I didn’t realise that people would choose as they encounter the characters so much, so I think I’m going to expand on the character descriptions a little before bringing in the pronouns, so that there’s a bit more information before making that choice.
And in general based on these results I can unscientifically say that everyone is quite skewed to one gender or another except for Beaumont.
Asher: 51% male
Beaumont: male/female fairly evenly balanced
Dominique: 41% female
Hyacinthe: 50% female
Javi: 49% male
Trevelyan: 46% male
I wonder if it’s a coincidence that all the taller characters have come out interpreted more often as male?
6 Likes
Funnily enough, I know Javi is supposed to be tall, but I can’t help but imagine them as the smallest of the characters.
9 Likes
They have small dog energy despite being a tall dog!
No I must not spend my Monday listing the characters and what type of dog they are.
Look at this and tell me it isn’t Asher though.
16 Likes
Could you at least tell me if any of the characters is a pug? So I know which one I want to romance? 
(Although, now that I think about it, never mind. My ideal dog may be a clingy extrovert who wants all the attention, but my ideal man is pretty much the exact opposite.)
Personally, my asher is always female unless i romance them i tend to choose the childhood/best friend character to have the same gender as me. Also i really appreciate having the option for height and it actually got references in game i have a huge thing for height diffrences so it doesn’t really matter how tall the character or what gender they are i will make sure that my mc is the shortest lol
5 Likes