The Beast in the Castle (WIP 09.25.16)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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A Beauty and the Beast retelling.

Paupered by your father’s poor luck and decisions, you eke out a living in the shadow of a Sorcerer’s castle. Strange things begin to happen-- there are sightings of a beast in the forest, and one of your father’s ships returns after being lost for two years. One dark night your father takes shelter in the Sorcerer’s garden and plucks a single rose.

You know the rest. Don’t you?

This game features a genderlocked protag with an extremely malleable personality-- after all, any tale will change depending on who tells it. Explore a mysterious castle, discover long last magic, find a future for yourself, fall in love, and find out who’s really the beast in the castle.

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Current demo is just the prologue. I’ll need a lot of your input if I want to do this game right. I want the MC’s personality to change how the story is told, so if you guys gave me summaries of how your characters feel about things, or give suggestions for different types of personalities, that would be a great help.

I want to put a big thank you to Fawkes here, because this was basically her idea (lol) and without her this wouldn’t exist. Also she’s just wonderful so there! :rose:

The Beast in the Castle

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Progress Log

09.14.16 – Demo release
09.25.16 – Prologue complete

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FAQ

Q: Can I be a boy in this game?
A: No, you can only be a girl.

Q: Can I be a trans girl?
A: Yes, you can! The protagonist identifies as female.

Q: Can I name the protagonist?
A: Probably not.

Q: Can I customize her appearance at all?
A: No, not really. It doesn’t really matter, so it isn’t included. What she looks like is up to you!

Q: What is the beast’s gender?
A: The beast’s gender is selectable once you reach the castle. It’s gender does not have to do with it’s physical appearance.

Q: There are names floating around, and I don’t know who they are?
A: There are three main characters other then the protagonist and her family-- The beast, the Sorcerer and the Lady. They’ve been named in the thread, but not the demo. Rosha is the beast, Khalid is the Sorcerer and Laliya is the Lady!

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Seems intresting, cannot wait to play but unfortunately…gotta go to school so you’ll have to wait for my opinion KayKay.

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I love it SO much! Wonderfully written and the perfect amount of suspense.

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I really enjoyed playing this little snippet! I’m always a sucker for fairytale retellings like this and I’m a fan of the WIPs you’ve posted here before, so I’m really looking forward to seeing this continue! It didn’t seem choppy to me, though I might have to play a couple more times to really get a feel, but so far it seems to flow fairly well!

Keep up the good work, I’m really looking forward to seeing more!

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@moonwalkerdragon Good luck with your school day! :eyeglasses:

@Hope_Kibo Thank you so much! I’m glad it’s suspenseful. I love writing atmosphere haha.

@NorWal I, too, am a sucker for fairy tales. I feel like creepy magical forests are my signature around here, haha. I’m glad it doesn’t seem choppy, at least on the first play. I get so hung up on stupid stuff when I write CS, like… “This page is longer than the next one, oh nooo!”

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This is so good! Can’t wait to read more. The suspense is killing me :slight_smile:

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I stopped reading when I found had to be stuck being a girl :sweat_smile: would rather play as my own gender but it sounds like a fun story so I hope for the best.

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@Freykaa Thanks a bunch! The next update shouldn’t be too far away. I have school and work and stuff, but I’m a pretty fast writer…

@OracleD3 Someone didn’t read the description… :wink:

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Lol I just read the plot and thought “oh this should be a fun read” :sweat_smile: too bad I’m not a girl would have liked to read this and put myself in my MCs shoes not high heels :joy:

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can we choose what monster the beast most resembles

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I really like what you have so far, wonderfully written :blush:

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Okay, I’m definitely hooked!
This is really good and I’m excited to see where it goes :heart:
I enjoy the dynamic between the sisters and each of their personalities and bless you for the malleable personalities, I live for it! :kissing_heart:
And I guess this is obvious but I gotta ask still, is the Beast our only RO or :wink: will there be others? :kissing_closed_eyes:

And here are some typos I found while playing!

[spoiler] The crease between the owner’s brow grows deeper as the week goes on. Her shoulders slump when she has to turn down the few customers you recieve.

Sina startles, dropping the mending into her lap. Yiana is hunched over the table, tired and irratable.

The mayor recieves a message from the Sorcerer on rolled parchment tied with silk.

He was nearly home when it happaned. [/spoiler]

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@OracleD3 Aw man buddy, just because the protag is female doesn’t mean they’re in high heels. But it’s your choice to only play dudes, so have fun with those :relieved:

I… haven’t thought about it. Once you get to the castle the beast is mentioned a lot. It’ll probably be easier on me if it has a set appearance, but I do like this idea. I’ll think about it.

@Lizzy Thank you very much!

Don’t you worry, babe. There are three RO’s-- the Beast, the Sorcerer and the Lady in the Water. Sorcerer is a dude and Lady is… a lady. But you can choose the Beast’s gender!

And also there’s, like, the theme… about who’s really the beast and stuff. So technically, yes! Only the beast is romancable haha.

I’m glad you liked the sisters, because I enjoy writing terrible people. And thanks for the typos! I don’t spell good.

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I hadn’t dared to hope :cry: you have just made me sooo happy with this! :smile: :heart:

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Gender locking the protagonist to female does take away a potential part of your audience, my bigger concern is that we’ve seemingly got to play the damsel-in-distress with what you describe as an “extremely malleable” personality here. If I do play the rare female character I usually want her to be strong and stubborn, or even dare I say it a power hungry bitch. The stereotypical Disney princess is about as far removed from that as possible.
Ironically I have far less problems with playing distressed dudes, should the plot warrant it. Of course being who and what I am does play a role in it and I generally prefer playing male characters.
Although taking something away from the recent discussion on trans options perhaps the maleness doesn’t need to be biological here, maybe for someone really wanting to transition their body the sort of magic that changed the Beast would potentially be of interest?
Then again perhaps I’d better leave the arguments for trans or nb characters up to @Bagelthief or @LanaRose.

Of course I’m also a bit sad you didn’t choose to continue your old WiP. :cry:

Still as the author you know best and if you decide that female and girly girl is the way to go here then that means this project isn’t for me.

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NB BEAST… NB BEAST

like, like, lion (many old versions have the beast as a lion and it is one of the more popular versions), or dragon (dragons are staples of fantasy, lmao, also a few old versions had some sort of scaled draconic-goblin beast), or wolf (the oldest version of this tale [not really beauty and the beast as we know it now but what most likely inspired it] is called “the silver wolf”), or boar (a popular one when what would become the modern tale was first released) , like, a set few possibilities.

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Oh, I know. I’m doing this because I write for myself and I… really love girls.

When I say malleable, I mean customizable by you. So far in the demo you can be ambitious, kind, a bitch, bitter, irreverent, a pushover, and a bunch of other shit. And if someone wants more options all they’ve got to do is ask :relieved: While I’m definitely going to let people be a Disney Princess you can find your own ways out of your shitty situation-- and fuck people over in the process :wink:

I purposely gave the MC an option of of planning a way out, even before we get to the castle, because I didn’t want people to think she couldn’t. That being said, I didn’t plan on this game being an escapist fantasy, so one of those options is really shitty.

On the flip side, there will be slight damseling since the protag has to go to the castle whether she wants to or not. I’d change it if I could, but that would require writing a whole extra game haha.

I said it’s genderlocked, not sex locked. I’ve got plans!

You know it! :sunglasses:

And ohhh, ohhh you’re convincing me. It took me a million years to pick between a dragon beast and a wolf beast. Maybe I’ll give three options and describe them sparingly…

Lmao, who am I kidding I am the queen of purple prose.

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I’m chill with this. The kid says they like girls, so write some girls. So long as there’s non-optional trans (or nb) characters in the game, I’m chill.

You’re taking away from the conversation the worst possible thing that you could have taken away. That transgender = wanting to physically transition. It doesn’t. Being transgender may include wanting to physically transition, but it isn’t the be-all end-all and some trans folks, binary or otherwise, just don’t want to do it.

I mean, the game doesn’t assume you’re a cis woman at the moment anyway, so I found it alright. It’s only bare bones after all.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

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I love that sort of theme. :heart_exclamation: And fairytale retellings. This sounds so good.

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Nothing brings my eyes to tears like the bitter tang of loss, and seeing regret as faces of people loved :relieved: I’m a sponge for drama :wink:

Love it.

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