I think i found a little error it seems like no matter what height i choose Beaumont will always be a little shorter than me i’m not sure if this is intentional or not but if it is that’s kinda funny lol
5 Likes
Thanks for spotting that! Must be a holdover from before I added the MC height choice. I’ll fix!
6 Likes
Also i want to ask if the demo is going to be updated or is it finished?
1 Like
I may put Chapter 7 up publicly before beta testing, but it depends a lot on my schedule this week! If I do, it’ll probably go up in the next few days.
17 Likes
I already posted this on Patreon (plus an extra spoiler about something special you can do in the late game…), and so, to spread the word wider: I have one (1) functional draft of Royal Affairs written!
Currently it’s at 323000 words total and 69000 words playthrough - the longest playthrough of any of my CoGs! Both are going to climb during edits and beta, so I’ll be very interested to see where it lands…
Next up is circling round and starting on the big batch of edits from the document I mentioned above. Then it’ll go to my editor, and THEN once I’ve done revisions based on her feedback, it’ll be time for the full beta test. Whew!
24 Likes
I spent the day after posting the above busy doing edits; when I’m done I’ll post a list for those interested. But before I do that here’s a tale of woe: when balancing my stats I discovered that in one chapter, one of the stats is currently tested four times as many times as the least common stat, making it 4x more powerful. I’d been more judicious about earlier chapters, and throughout I’ve been careful to balance how hard it is to reach high scores, but there’s no use having a high score if you can’t use it in choices.
RIP Appealing and Authoritative. These edits are going to cut them down to size.
Moral of the story: don’t end up like me, track how many times you’re testing stats before you have a full first draft!
19 Likes
No, not my Appealing and Authoritative! The character I’ve been using has those as his highest stats, with Eloquent a distant third.
Maybe that explains why things seem pretty easy for him, though.
8 Likes
Never used authoritative much for my prince mc, appealing is one of his core stats though, together with entertaining and underhanded.
5 Likes
Yeah, Appealing has ended up outstripping all the others through the chapters in terms of power level, with Authoritative fairly close behind. I’m really pleased I spotted it! It’s a bit of work now which will mean I can focus elsewhere during beta. Plus it’ll make sure I’m covering more tonal bases for MC personality.
10 Likes
As long as my “Princess Grace” character can function, everything will be awesome.
Thanks for sharing your pearls of wisdom; much appreciated. 
6 Likes
My character was more about being social and open, that entertaining stat being the core of his personality but the appealing one was also up there in use, so mine will get a hard reset for the next demo/beta testing/final game.
2 Likes
Well, after putting my nose to the grindstone for the last few days, I’ve submitted my full first draft! Since I posted above, I added 10000 words. It’s been a bit intense!
Among other things I evened out those stats I mentioned which meant adding a lot of options, giving more flexibility for what actions MCs can take or how they’re feeling which is always a good thing. In the beta, some of the stats will also be renamed for clarity. Plus there will be more aromantic-specific chat, and in general reduced fail states in conversations which are meant to have a chilled-out tone. (Also a funny side effect of this - Beaumont is somewhat less hostile! I realised that in some of the failures they are more mean than I intended - they’re meant to be prickly and sometimes difficult, but not horrible 
)
27 Likes
Thank you for having brought me so much joy and developing my EQ with CdlC. And also providing the hope that with enough luck, the Universe will bring me my own Prince Rosario.
(1) Please could you give us an indicator if you’re publishing RA in the first half of 2023? I’d pay now to get the game!
(2) Please tell me the MC gets to sleep with er Javi at some point to which Javi would be hating himself for not having opened up to the MC earlier!
1 Like
Thank you so much, I’m really glad you enjoyed Crème and are looking forward to Royal Affairs!
Javi isn’t interested in sleeping with people, but you will get to see how they feel about the MC as the romance develops. I’m not sure on release dates - the draft is currently being reviewed, and once I’ve done my edits it will go into beta testing, then copy editing, and then will be released. But I don’t have much sense of how long each step will take I’m afraid!
10 Likes
Damn you Javi! Imagine the royal babies we could be producing!
On another more scandalous note there were times in CdlC when I was playing through just to see the maximum number of characters I could sleep with. I think it’s basically 4 if you go with Blaise, Max and Delacroix and another one, I usually chose Florin!
4 Likes
Woohoo! Didn’t see it before but I’m so glad to hear that one of my favorite characters is ace. Looking forward to a potential “same hat” moment with my asexual MC. 
4 Likes
Ahh wonderful! Yes, you will get some extra chat with Javi about that 
4 Likes
I was talking about gender-selectable NPCs elsewhere and remembered that I asked something like this previously; I’d love to hear what people think now!
How do you like to choose gender-selectable characters in this game?
- Randomised at the start
- Set all to male
- Set all to female
- Set all to nonbinary
- Choose as I encounter the characters
0 voters
Do you keep the same gender configurations on later playthroughs of this game?
- Yes
- No
- It depends on the character
0 voters
What gender feels most “right” for Asher in your playthroughs?
- Male
- Female
- Nonbinary
- All feel right
0 voters
What gender feels most “right” for Beaumont in your playthroughs?
- Male
- Female
- Nonbinary
- All feel right
0 voters
What gender feels most “right” for Dominique in your playthroughs?
- Male
- Female
- Nonbinary
- All feel right
0 voters
What gender feels most “right” for Hyacinthe in your playthroughs?
- Male
- Female
- Nonbinary
- All feel right
0 voters
What gender feels most “right” for Javi in your playthroughs?
- Male
- Female
- Nonbinary
- All feel right
0 voters
What gender feels most “right” for Trevelyan in your playthroughs?
- Male
- Female
- Nonbinary
- All feel right
0 voters
And an added write-in option… what, if anything, informs your choice about what gender to select for the characters in this game?
9 Likes
This is a weird poll…
I don’t get the 1st, and the rest lol
What do you mean by ‘What feel right’?
What we like…or what we think like…‘Hm, I wonder if X was supposed to be a dude? Cause sure like hell…X feel like it should have been one instead of a woman’?
2 Likes
Well, considering I picked on vibes alone, I guess I’d have to be honest and say my cultural upbringing and preconceptions/subconscious beliefs about gender?
I generally pick male for the person my MC is romancing in most cases, and sometimes NB. Almost never female, just based on my personal romantic attraction because I’m sort of a self-insert player. I like to switch it up just for variety when I’m not romancing the character though.
I like the option to choose when you meet the character because it is a giant neon sign of “THIS PERSON IS A ROMANCE OPTION” so I’m not referring back to the description or accidentally falling in love with someone unavailable.
7 Likes