The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - An affair of the heart (WIP) (Ch 5: 10 Nov 2023)

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - An affair of the heart

Chapter 5 is out now! :sparkles:

Play as your version of Sherlock Holmes in this romance detective game!

Make an enemy of a friend and a lover out of an enemy. Solve the case of boredom. Have a pet bird—and best of all, play as a romantically and emotionally stunted genius detective!

  • Explore London in the late 1800s

  • Solve murders, hunt criminals, and possibly catch a thief

  • Have fun adventures and tender moments with characters you know and love

  • Form deep relationships, whether they be friendly, antagonistic, sexual, or romantic

  • Choose your Sherlock’s name, appearance, personality, and vice

  • Play as a man, woman or non-binary

  • Romance men, women, or both

Demo link: https://dashingdon.com/play/dionapersson/demo-the-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes---an-affair-of-the-heart/mygame/
The demo is around 140 000 words—and I would guess ≈ 40 000 per playthrough?

The character creator is extensive. I recommend skipping it and choosing a preset character if customisation is unimportant to you.

The possible relationships

John/Jane Watson - Dependable, kind, and loyal—a partner and a friend. The human embodiment of a golden retriever.

Gregory/Grace Lestrade - Sexy workaholic grump with a poorly hidden heart of gold. Will make sure you get home safe.

Irene/Irwin Adler - Charming scoundrel, clever schemer, and colossal schmuck. The flirty and fun rival of the century.

Hamish/Helena - This terribly haughty person of illustrious personage needs your help with a case. The gentleman/woman of your unachievable dreams.

Stats

Roleplay however you want, change up your personality depending on the situation or your mood.

*Personality stats are only for roleplaying purposes and won’t lock you out of content. The four skill stats are for investigation and action purposes (are introduced in chapter 3). They are primarily static, and depending on logical or illogical use can affect gameplay.

The next update

Ch5 — quite soon on patreon!

The story and demo are subject to change. Foreshadowing is hard.

Feedback is very welcome.
It could be that you dislike a word I use somewhere—or everywhere. A sentence you find very unclear. An error. A place where you would like more or different choices. An idea of something to add to the character creator. A paragraph that is too long or too short. I would love to know. Please share your thoughts. :heart:

Specific feedback and questions (read only after having played the demo)

Ch 5 questions:

  • How do you feel about L now?
  • How is your MC doing?
  • How do you feel about the buildup of where we are now and where you think we are going?
Copyright

The books are now in the public domain in Europe and the USA! :partying_face:

Warnings

Warnings: Alcohol, mentions of drugs, mentions of eating disorder / binge eating, mentions of self injurious behavior, gambling, mentions of smoking, cruelty, swearing, murder, blood, death, pain and suffering, mentions of abuse, unstable or unhappy mental states / depression. And 1800s era behaviours and dialogue which might be inappropriate for today. (if you think I missed any, please let me know!)

Some art I made in photoshop of the characters:

Paintings of the characters (only the men done so far)

//The paintings are one of many of my own “headcanons”, but certain features—like skin colour or ethnicity—won’t be expressed in the game so that people can build their own idea of the characters. If your ability to imagine the characters in a way that you would prefer is hindered by seeing them illustrated then I suggest you do not click on these.

Male Watson

Male Lestrade

Male Adler

Hamish (male H)


Now with a Tumblr! :purple_heart:
Discord link: An affair of the heart - a Sherlock IF game
Now with a Patreon! :sparkles::heart:

1243 Likes

Is this the Great Fire of London ?
Cause this WIP is straight up fire

117 Likes

For copyright issues: are you absolutly sure that they can be extended both to the stories that the character? A publisher once tried to sell some old and obscure Mickey Mouse comics (so bad that even Disney would pretend they never existed) and they got sued because the stories where in the public domain for real, but not the characters.
Last: I’m not an expert either but I’m almost sure that you can’t call it anymore a fanfiction if you plan make money from it

8 Likes

I am quite unsure of the legal aspect tbh. But where I live the copyright is passed, so worst case scenario i would have to self host the demo perhaps? And I don’t plan on publishing anything or making any money (if ever) before all copyright has passed :slight_smile:

7 Likes

I am also not a lawyer, but I’m reasonably sure that if Neil Gaiman can win a Hugo for a Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes AU novella, nothing fazes the Doyle estate.

30 Likes

You can do whatever with Sherlock you wish. He’s bona fide (I watched O Brother Where Art Thou recently, sorry). As long as OP avoids using elements from a story done by some other company or author that’s more recent than the OG novels, it’s no issue.

40 Likes

Is there a specific reason as to why there can only be one body detail ?
I’m definitely not asking this because I want to create the ultimate Hunk/Babe/Hottie Holmes

21 Likes

I’m loving this already! Can’t wait to meet Watson :smiley:

12 Likes

Haha, well, I supposed I could allow more :sweat_smile: but it’s mostly there so other characters might comment on it. Perhaps see it more like your best feature, which doesn’t mean that you don’t have many or all of them :slight_smile:

15 Likes

:heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

7 Likes

Sounds awesome! Surprised you don’t have James/Jenny Moriarty or Sebastian/Selina Moran but otherwise a nice selection of ROs.

(Or Mary/Michael Morstan!)

14 Likes

I loved the demo, it was very interesting and fun to play! It definitely staved off my boredom. Your way of writing is solid and engaging, and also easy too understand for someone like me who’s not a native English speaker (crime-related ones or detective stuff are often quite difficult to read in my opinion)

Will surely keep my eye on this game. Please keep up the good work!

Edit) I was also amazed by how detailed and polished the character customization was. And how you flesh out the characters. Mad props to you.

14 Likes

:smirk::smirk::smirk:

8 Likes

I am so glad you had fun! :blush: And thank you! (I am grinning IRL now!)
And it’s so great to hear that it was easy to understand. I had really no idea if people would like/get how it was written :slight_smile: Thank you!!!

7 Likes

What’s the female version of Athelney Jones? :rofl:

5 Likes

Haha, good question. Athena, maybe? (Would probably not have them as a romance option anyway though haha, so they wouldn’t need to be gender flipped :slight_smile: )

5 Likes

Omg!!! I loved the demo! I had so much fun playing a female holmes :laughing::heart: keep it up~ I cant wait.

8 Likes

I LOOOOOOVED how this was written! Great style and incredibly engaging, right from the start. I’m sure it helps that Sherlock is so well known, but too many WIPs start off with a huge lore dump before they get to the hook, whereas this one gets to the interesting stuff immediately.

It’s also neat to be able to create our own version of Sherlock, even just going through the description of the different possible vices was VERY interesting, and I appreciated the variability. Oftentimes the harm of behavior like not getting out of bed are underplayed compared to other bigger, flashier unhealthy coping mechanisms, even though it can also be incredibly damaging. I can already tell that this is going to be a game that deserves multiple playthroughs, there’s already so much to see!

17 Likes

Great game :blush:. Can’t wait to more. Also can you adjust the title image so it can invert color in dark mode

2 Likes

A regular day in the life of My Sherlock with experiment vice and his best friend Watson:-

download

46 Likes