Stars Arisen Developer Diary

Attacking an author by providing non-actionable feedback and using destructive words to turn it personal is something we do not allow.

If I see this happening, in this thread, I will issue suspensions.

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Itā€™s time for the last character trivia post, so hereā€™s Harper! (Or at least the last of the romanceable characters, who knows what I might do in the future.) Some of this information is already available in Chapter 5, so some of this might be less new if youā€™ve done his scenes. Even then, though, some of it only comes up in pretty specific dialogue branches, so you wonā€™t necessarily have seen it all.

  • Harper is 27, two years older than the PC. He was 5 when the rebellion ended, and only remembers the very end of it, as he might bring up to you in an earlier scene.
  • Harper probably has the biggest family out of the main characters (though with that said, there are a fair amount of non-plot-relevant Grimaldis around too, as I mentioned in Nataliaā€™s post earlier). Heā€™s the middle child of five siblings: older brother Robin (36), older sister Sorrel (34), younger brother Sterling (26), younger sibling Prudence (19). Sterling and Prudence show up in-game several times (though itā€™s also entirely possible to never meet them, at least so far), Robin and Sorrel arenā€™t around.
  • The theme I (and I guess their parents?) used for naming the siblings is that all the names are nouns, but nouns that refer to different kinds of things. In order: animal, plant, profession, metal, virtue. I have no particular reason or deeper meaning for this except that I thought it was kind of fun.
  • Harperā€™s parents are his mother Ayame (56) and his father Valentine (57). Ayame is the one whoā€™s the daughter of Saki Yara (77), the inventor of the printing press who was once imprisoned by the Sorceress. In my notes Saki has a wife named Opal (also 77), though she hasnā€™t come up in-game and I donā€™t know if she will. Ayame also has a few siblings, who themselves have more children, and Robin and Sorrel are also married with children. (Sterling and Prudence are not.) (Nor is Harper, sorry if you were expecting an exciting plot twist.) As I said, big family, and many of these people are involved in working on the newspaper and/or developing and distributing printing presses in some way. To again touch on earlier discussions about surnames, most or all of the family keeps and passes on the last name Yara, because of how well-known it is.
  • You can meet Saki in-game at one point, if you werenā€™t already aware. Sheā€™s much more interested in inventing than anything to do with writing or with the newspaper in general. She supported the rebels during the war and was happy to let them use her press to print their anti-Sorceress pamphlets, but wasnā€™t at all involved in creating those pamphlets herself. In that sense, the Sorceressā€™s rage against Saki that led to her imprisonment may not have been the most productive thing the Sorceress could have done, but she wasnā€™t exactly thinking clearly at that point. Saki was captured and imprisoned around three years before the end of the war, and the Sorceress had been hunting her for a few more years before that.
  • Ayame was the one who started the Comet, a couple of years after the war. (I looked back at the actual text of the game and thereā€™s a line where Baz kind of implies that Saki was the one who started the newspaper, but that is now wrong and should probably be edited, it was definitely Ayame.) Baz worked as one of her writers more or less from the beginning. They were already acquainted from having revolutionary contacts in common during the war. Ayame didnā€™t fight in the war, but she was directly involved in writing and distributing the anti-Sorceress pamphlets, unlike her mother. She managed to avoid imprisonment, though she and her family did end up having to go into hiding around the end of the war, as Harper can also mention in-game.
  • In the present day, Ayame still technically runs the newspaper, but she and a lot of the family are more involved in selling printing presses abroad and starting up other newspapers than anything that happens in Kelestri. She and Valentine travel to various places getting presses and papers set up, and Sorrel, whoā€™s a lawyer, often accompanies them to help with the legal side of things. Robin is also abroad, but heā€™s the only one of Harperā€™s immediate family who isnā€™t directly involved with the family business. He is technically a painter but spends more of his time traveling and enjoying himself. His siblings are not terribly impressed with him, for the most part.
  • Back in Kelestri, Harper is the one Ayame left in charge of the Comet, both financially and editorially. I canā€™t remember if Iā€™ve said a specific date for when this happened and Iā€™m not going to dig through the whole game right now, but Iā€™ve determined that Harper mentions something about ā€œa couple of years agoā€ at one point, and thatā€™s good enough for me! Certainly he was only in his early-to-mid-twenties at the time, but had been involved with the paper for basically his whole life and Ayame considered him more than responsible enough.
  • As you may or may not have seen in-game, Sterling operates and maintains the actual printing press and occasionally serves as Sakiā€™s assistant, and Prudence is a writer for the Comet. And also some kind of amateur investigator determined to get to the bottom of every suspicious happening in Kelestri, with varying levels of success and official approval from Harper. (Unofficial approval from Harper is a somewhat more complicated question.)
  • Harper, Sterling, and Prudence have always been closer to each other than to their other siblings, who are a fair amount older. (Prudence is also a fair amount younger than the other two, but has never let that stop them.) Because the rest of their family was also often occupied with important business (their parents and Sorrel) or off being irresponsible somewhere (Robin), Harper also tended to step into the role of looking after Sterling and Prudence to some extent. With that said, the three of them do have a number of ideological disagreements, which can be seen in-game.
  • In terms of where the rest of the family is when theyā€™re abroad, the world outside of Kelestri is something that could still use a fair amount of development. Theyā€™ve certainly been to Tieri, the city-state the PC claims to be from, as well as Kaara, another nearby city-state mentioned a handful of times in-game. I imagine that Tieri and Kaara are part of a group of loosely-affiliated-but-politically-independent city-states across a bay from Kelestri, but I havenā€™t named any of the others. I think most of the traveling they do is around there.
  • Harper has known Baz since childhood, since heā€™s always been involved with the newspaper and heā€™s a friend of the family as well - almost an honorary-uncle sort of relationship, interestingly enough. (Baz had some complex feelings on watching a child fairly close to the PCā€™s age grow up.) They are very genuinely fond of each other, but Harper is certain that Baz has some hidden agenda and Baz is well aware that Harper knows a bit more than he should, if not enough to have posed any real danger to his plans yet. Harper can tell you a little more about one particular moment relating to this dance of theirs in Chapter 5.
  • When Harperā€™s writing in the journal he carries with him, itā€™s in a shorthand not commonly known in Kelestri (he learned it from his mother), both so that he can write fast enough to keep up in conversation and so that it would be difficult for anyone else to read them. The notes are much more for his own information than for any stories he writes for the Comet. (And he also just likes to keep his hands occupied while heā€™s thinking.)
  • Harper has various connections with the other characters, mostly through his family and the newspaper: Renard and Nobu are also family friends from the war, and of course have been coming up in the news since then. Harper and Em knew each other growing up, though thereā€™s just enough of an age difference that they didnā€™t particularly hang out or anything. Harper also knows Ravenna through covering her political career, though they werenā€™t really acquainted before then. As you may have noted at the end of Chapter 3, Harper and Natalia donā€™t really know each other - theyā€™re certainly each familiar with the otherā€™s reputation, but theyā€™d never met before then. Itā€™s possible Harper might have encountered Ariel Grimaldi several years ago - they might have been willing to speak to journalists while they were still in their more legitimate arguing-with-the-Assembly phase, but not since the Reminders went underground. Harper would have been a bit too young to take the lead in any interviews/etc at that stage, but he might have been around if his mother or someone else was doing one. Heā€™s often around.

If there are any other characters or topics youā€™d like to see trivia posts on in the future, feel free to let me know! I cannot promise to get to them promptly, but I do enjoy doing them.

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You kind of broke my heart with thatā€¦

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Baz/Harper scenes could be really interesting, but various plot reasons make it difficult to actually get them together in a scene. Going to have to see what happens with that going forward.

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On further musing and to follow up on some stuff from above, here are some thoughts on middle names:

  • Vivian does not have one, as mentioned
  • Emā€™s is Sacha: this is a distant etymological reference to their grandmother, the famous playwright Alissandra Marden (Sacha and Alissandra are both variants of Alexander)
  • Natalia was given the middle name Serafina, as a means of carrying on her motherā€™s family name (Serafin) when Grimaldi was the surname that gets traditionally passed down, but she no longer uses it since her parents split up.
  • Ravennaā€™s is Roshni, this is more to do with her parents liking alliteration than for any specific family members. (Her sisters Malina and Sitara probably have M and S middle names.)
  • Harperā€™s is Makoto. Linguistically, in-world, this comes from a country called Sokumo, where Harperā€™s ancestors immigrated from several generations ago. (Possibly Sakiā€™s parents? Iā€™m not fully decided.) Sokumoā€™s not one of the nearby city-states like Tieri and Kaara, itā€™s farther off than that. Iā€™m also not decided as of yet on if Makoto is a family name or comes from something else.
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Kudos for all that world-building. Even if most of those tidbits never get mentioned in-game, you can tell how much effort went into it.

Iā€™m looking forward to finding out how those other countries and city-states will react to the Sorceressā€™ return. Swaying Kelestriā€™s opininon about her is one thing since the MC can directly affect the people there, but Iā€™m guessing most of the other foreign powers wonā€™t be too happy about her return. Say goodbye to coffee, Kelestri.

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Iā€™m not sure how much interaction with other countries will find up fitting into the span of the game just because everything going on in Kelestri itself is so complex, but thatā€™s definitely good to know that youā€™re interested, and Iā€™ll see what I can do!

(not the coffee)

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Hmm, so for the demo I had great fun imagining my PC as a conceited autocrat, convinced that she and she alone could lead Kelestri to greatness, ideally with her eternal and immortal consort(s) at her side.

Itā€™s looking good for Tara Aos so far, I must say.

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I love this game. great plot, great worldbuilding, great characters.
I like how thereā€™s many choices and scenarios where the MC can strengthen relationships, etc.

My favorite RO is Vivian

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Hello all! Chapter 6 is now available in the demo! Hope you enjoy it! A few notes about it:

-Chapter 6 is just about as long as Chapter 5, and has a lot of moving parts. In particular, there are a few scenes where you might be interacting with different characters depending on your previous choices. So in addition to any other feedback you have, if you see any places where charactersā€™ names/pronouns/etc seem to suddenly switch or someone else pops up out of nowhere, definitely let me know about that, with direct quotes or screenshots if possible. (Spoilery notes on the particular scenes and characters to look out for with this: Em and Natalia in the tunnels - you can be there with either or both of them. Renard and Ravennaā€™s speeches at Foundation Day - some of their text overlaps, some of it doesnā€™t. Either Harper or Ravenna can come to your house with questions at the end of the chapter.)
-Iā€™ve still been focusing mostly on moving forward with writing right now, so aside from minor necessary edits, not many changes to the earlier chapters have been implemented yet, but I do have various things that have been suggested here in mind for the future. The biggest thing this impacts is probably Em and Nataliaā€™s relationship - thereā€™s still really just the one opportunity to boost it early on, so the pacing and difficulty thresholds related to it are still pretty weird. My current plan is to get farther along in the game to get a better sense of how their arc winds up overall (I have some things in mind, but the structural details are still in progress), then go back and make the beginning flow better. So that plotline might stay weird for a bit, but I definitely appreciate people still testing it!

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Oh, yes. Iā€™m so happy to see an update to this. Iā€™ve now played through all of chapter six, and it was a lot of fun. I chose to run as a delegate, not seeking to take over the city, and reveal the secrets of my upbringing to Em, Natalia, and Harper. A couple of suggestions:

  • When talking to Harper about Baz, I think it would be nice to include a choice along the lines of ā€œBaz isnā€™t my uncle, heā€™s my father, I donā€™t know who my mother isā€ sort of deal, even if it wonā€™t convince him. Half way revealing the truth.

  • Iā€™d recommend an option for spending time with both Natalia and Em in the middle(?) of Chapter Six. They had a pretty good relationship and they were both in the tunnels with me (which was after that option, I think), so I donā€™t think I missed a path, but I suppose itā€™s possible.

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Regarding Harper and Baz, there actually is a choice along exactly those lines if you talk to Harper in Chapter 5 instead of Chapter 6. Choosing to spend time with Harper or Ravenna in Chapter 5 opens up some pretty different versions of the end of Chapter 6 - Iā€™d recommend trying it out if you havenā€™t yet! And if you want to put Harper off your trail, you can tell him something very similar to that there. There are different things you can unlock when you spend time with each of the characters in Chapter 5 - I may do some revisions to hint at some of those more. The end of this chapter is sort of the breaking point in terms of revealing your identity (at least before the ending chapters, there will be more you can do with it there but at that point things will have kind ofā€¦escalated), so itā€™s kind of all-or-nothing.

Regarding Nat and Em, Iā€™ll keep that in mind! You didnā€™t miss anything, the social scenes at that section of this chapter are all solo. Iā€™m not totally sure if Iā€™ll add a scene with both of them there or not - you do already have the tunnels for time with both of them this chapter, I do want some time to get to know them individually in addition to together, and there will definitely be more scenes with both of them going forward, especially as the potential romances there develop more. Also, at a certain point, this chapter is already extremely long, and I canā€™t always add everything Iā€™d like to, especially if itā€™s another whole scene. (For context, just chapters 5 and 6 together are 225,000 words - thatā€™s as long as some whole games, and it doesnā€™t even include the first four chapters.) So, to summarize: I also want more Em/Nat scenes, they will definitely be there going forward, but they may or may not be at that point in this chapter specifically. Iā€™m also probably going to need to add at least one more scene with them back at the beginning of the game, to give more chances to influence their relationship, so there will be more with them in various places.

Really glad youā€™re enjoying, and thanks for all your helpful feedback!

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Iā€™m sorry if this has been asked already, but since the wip is now 6 chapters do you plan to have a save system? itā€™d be nice for replayability

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Not committing to anything yet, but Iā€™m not opposed, and I agree it could be useful in a game of this length. Depends on what I can work out with the code, and might not be implemented until the full game is available.

Polite request not to rehash any save system arguments here (which you are not at all doing now, no worries) - I run the COG support email, I assure you Iā€™ve heard them. :wink:

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Wow, exciting Stuff and Things! THOUGHTS:

  • Not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but spending time with Viv in chapter 6 (reading lesson) sends you back to the free time options. Since the option to select Viv again isnā€™t disabled, I assume this isnā€™t by design? Although, it would be very nice to have the option to teach Viv to read some other time, because it feels mean to leave him out in the cold just because I wanted to go smooch someone else!
  • Revealing your identity via newspaper feels veryā€¦ anti-climatic. Iā€™m sure the actual drama will come later, but I admit I was expecting something a bit grander than ā€œthis kid claims the Sorceress is alive and they are her kid, allegedlyā€. Itā€™s especially funny if you wanna go the wrathful route - I canā€™t see a lot of conquering tyrants terrorizing the population via interview in the society pages. Itā€™s perfectly suitable for the more modest or modern MCs, but Iā€™m hoping the prideful and traditional MCs get a chance for their bombastic reveal at some point? Or I guess you could just keep hiding right up until mom gets back and then go, hey the queen is back and Iā€™m her kid, time to bow suckers.
  • Super excited about being able to find the stars, but Iā€™m a bit confused about what happens if you donā€™t stay to investigate the door. If you stick around the narration explicitly states the MC could find the place again later for further shenanigans, but if you donā€™t itā€™s unclear if this will even be an option. Does that mean if you donā€™t choose to stay at that junction, youā€™ll have to find a totally different path to the stars later? (Not a physical path necessarily but a different plot branch)

UNIMPORTANT THOUGHTS:

  • Love all the new romance content! Viv is so adorably awkward, Harperā€™s ā€œlove letterā€ is fantastic, Em & Nat are both swoon-worthy as usual despite still lacking in self-care, Rav made me laugh especially because of how chill she is about the reveal. Canā€™t wait to announce to my parents Iā€™m marrying someone they hate, thatā€™ll be the real dramatic climax of this game.
  • This is a bit silly, but I remember you can steal a book from the tower while climbing it, but Iā€™m not sure what happened to it? What if it was momā€™s diary??
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The Vivian loop thing is a bug - thanks for catching that! Uploaded a fix just now. As for more opportunities to teach him to read, I donā€™t know that thatā€™s likely to come up again, at least not as a full scene - there might be opportunities to reference the idea in passing. Social scenes like that tend to be unique to the moments where theyā€™re presented, and they do force you to choose what your PCā€™s priorities are to some extent. Also, see below re: upcoming escalation of the plot - itā€™s going to get harder to fit in quiet scenes like that one, though not impossible.

Regarding the newspaper thoughts, the reason you donā€™t immediately get an opportunity to do something more dramatic with the reveal isā€¦the rest of what happens at the end of the chapter. As that development might suggest, weā€™ve reached a point where things are pretty much just going to keep escalating going forward, which means you should have plenty of opportunities to be dramatic about pretty much everything you like, including your heritage.

Regarding the Stars, Iā€™m not going to go into much detail about it due to spoilers, but yes, you can find them later even if you didnā€™t confirm their location. Also due to the events at the end of this chapter, tracking down the Stars whether or not you got that info is one of the main focuses of the next one. Having their confirmed location makes it easier, not having it does not at all make it impossible.

The book you can steal from the Towerā€¦is basically flavor text, and I donā€™t have any grand plans for it. I can certainly put in an explanation of what it is (which will require me, uh, figuring out what it is), but itā€™s not going to be key to any major plot developments. It is not, alas, your momā€™s diary. :joy:

Thanks for all your comments - super helpful! Also, loving the romance content is never an unimportant thought :smile:

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Just finished the demo, I was actually very surprised because of how many personality check there are and how it can greatly change our relationship and I love it. Iā€™m quite disappointed when the book isnā€™t our mom diary because I thought we can discover some ā€œfeminineā€ sides of her when she was still a human. This is the third game on COG that I need to have a plan for it, which choice should I take, will it affect our relationships or not, which main stats should I focus on and is there any choice that can cause conflict between them, how can I maximize our profit while still have a good relationship,ā€¦ so sometimes it can become very confusing for me :grin:. and is there any reason why you donā€™t add save system ?

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Guys. Guys. Love the speculation, love engaging with the world of the game, I am in no way asking you to stop, but you grab the book off a freely available shelf of a frequently-used library thatā€™s mostly open to the public with minor restrictions. If the Sorceress had a diary and it had been sitting on the shelf of a public library for twenty-two years, someone would have noticed. :laughing:

Re: save system, answered that a few posts above.

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You forgot that there are plenty stories with a situation where our main character just randomly pick something from a merchant, mysterious person, antique shop,ā€¦ and turn out, it is a powerful artifact that can change the whole world. So it isnā€™t really strange for a book in a public library to be a diary from a fallen goddess :joy:

Just like Heroes of Myth Iā€™m very much enjoying Stars Arisen perhaps even more so. This is the most fun I had playing as a manipulative, power hunger lawful evil character in a while. And Iā€™m loving how cute and awkward Vivian is.

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