So the very first time I went through this demo I encountered a scene that I have never been able to find again. During the scene where you are handing out blood drive flyers with the team the MC had a full on panic attack and fell over at something Farrah said related to needles. I thought this was great cause so few multi-part stories that have something which can traumatize a character have ever really developed that. It’s nice to see how the trauma of dealing with Murphy is affecting the MC in different ways. But there’s the thing, I have been through the demo a dozen times, at least, and only ever encountered this scene the first time. I have tried to figure out why but no matter what I try I can find it again. But all this has me curious as to how many scenes I am missing!!!
Doing a quick skim through the code for Ch. 05, it looks like if you choose ‘#Sigh and look at own stack of flyers. “Not as well as I hoped.”’ And your MC’s ‘murphytrauma’ status is set as either ‘traumatic’ or ‘buried’, you get that particular scene.
One of my favorite things about Wayhaven is that focused attention to detail that means you can go through a playthrough mostly choosing the same choices, but deviating even just slightly allows you to have a different experience. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Mishka and her dedication to making sure every playthrough of Wayhaven feels unique even if you’ve gone through it tons of times.
Progress Report —Update 01/April/2022
So, I totally gave into temptation and did writing this week, hehe! 
Ohhh, it was such fun writing Tina, Verda, and the MC for this part! It flowed sooo easy! Though there is a little bit before it really starts with the LI that also had me chuckling to write those parts…
And I must have been seriously enjoying myself because I was whizzing through it!! Though I suppose it was easier, as I wasn’t trying to write for 5 different scenes within one (like I was writing for the Verda and Tina dinners to include the individual love interests), so that helped it move on a pace.
I do have some love interest scenes to do after this part, but I think, even with those…I might actually have Chapter 11 finished next week!!! Aaahhhhh! Oh man, I love SO much about the different versions of this chapter, but I will be happy to bring it to a close, lol.
It’s social media days next week too, but still, I’m really on a roll, so I think it’ll be possible!
I did also realise this week that I wanted a new hidden personality/emotion stat for the MC to go in, so I went back through what I’ve done on Book Three and added that in to choices where needed. It won’t track from Book One or Two, but it wasn’t really something that needed tracking then. It’s definitely only something that will be more relevant from Book Three onwards and will hopefully help even more to add to individual plays as well as pack more of an emotional punch with characters!
Next week is going to be a busy but majorly successful one! I can already feel it, hehe!
Hope you all have the most fantastic weekend! We’ll be offline as usual, so I’ll update you again next week! <3
Progress Report—Update 08/April/22
So it was a busy week of writing and social media last week!
The Spring Scenario Specials for Patreon were a blast to write! A couple went where I wasn’t expecting, but that just makes it all the more fun, hehe
Those will be:
’Lightning’s got nothing on you….’ - 7th April (Farah/Felix Spring Special) — The MC learns something new about vampires, as well as Felix/Farah specifically… puns may be involved.
’Soaked Through’ - 14th April (Mason/Morgan Spring Special) — The rain seems to wash away Mason/Morgan’s usual grump—something more shocking than the sudden storm the MC and Mason/Morgan find themselves caught in!
’Tempest’ - 21st April (Adam/Ava Spring Special) — Adam/Ava finally decides to take some advice from the MC, though leads them both into a situation that feels hauntingly familiar…
’An Echo of Thunder’ - 28th April (Nate/Nat Spring Special) — The sudden storm dredges up remnants of memories Nate/Nat prefers to keep buried, and it quickly shatters their usual calm.
Around social media, I did manage to get in some writing. Chapter 11 isn’t finished like I’d hoped, but it definitely will be early this week! It’s partly because I want to rewrite a scene in the Tina and Verda branch which is going to be a lot better than what I currently have!
But yeah, that’ll be done this week, then I’ll do my first round of edits on it and can finally let that rest, hehe!
The chapter is already quite a bit over 100,000 words, and I still have a bit to go on it, so there’s a lot of content for you guys to enjoy with this one! I really hope you enjoy it! It’s been a beast to write, but I LOVE so much in it!
Me and Nai also worked on some upcoming things for social media, which will be super fun! Some more looks into the town of Wayhaven itself and things like that. It’s been really interesting picking the best parts of the town to focus on!
Due to this extra though, I didn’t manage to fit in as many asks as I wanted, so I made the decision to save those to drafts for next month. Instead, I will be posting some sneak peek snippets of Book Three for you guys…
I hope you all had the most amazing weekend and I’ll update you again soon! <3
I wish I remember who it was, but someone in the “ROs You Hate” thread was talking about the “assumed heterosexuality (my words, not theirs)” of TWC. Meaning that TWC is sort of written under the assumption that you are playing a woman with a male UB, with some of the details not making full sense otherwise.
Interestingly, there’s a story detail that, when this demo was made, heavily pushed the assumption of a female detective/male UB or any other m/f (and f/f, actually) relationship. But, due to the whole thing with time and social progress being made, has ended up sort of fixing that plot hole for Sera.
Although TWC is written to be sort of generically located, its Englishisms make it a bit clear (at least to me) that it’s based in England. One of the pretty big plot points in Book 3 is the fact that the Detective is expected to donate blood. However, when this demo was posted in Sept 2020, gay men in the UK could not donate blood–at least not without a several month deferral as we do here in the US. This sort of important plot detail would be absolutely impossible to have for a gay or bisexual male detective who’s sexually active with men. But because the UK legalized gay men donating blood without deferral in 2021, by the time this game comes out, it won’t be a plot hole anymore. Well, at least if you imagine TWC being set in the UK lol
Just thought that was interesting 
Interesting you say that about location, the whole mayor and agency thing made me think the USA the story seems very western stereotype for me. Speaking of the book being assumed Hetero from the post ignores the fact that many countries in the EU especially like my own country of Poland don’t have those restrictions. I didn’t even know such restrictions existed until I read about donating blood with the NHS.
The book as you say is ambiguous with location and I feel it’s just an excuse to hate on it by using something as trivial as blood donation restrictions to homosexuals directed from the posters country. Especially considering if you’re making a fictional world might as well not have the discriminatory laws in place that shouldn’t be there
I’m a little confused why you’re saying I’m looking for an excuse to hate on something when I’m just making a comment about the UK and blood donation rules? Specifically about how the rules were amended and it ended up making something make more sense. I love this series–I am actually literally playing the book 3 demo again right now, and have 90 hours across both games–and thought it was just a little fun fact. I don’t really appreciate the implication that I’m trying to hate something just because I comment on a valid, minor critique that ended up becoming fixed.
I didn’t mean you but the poster in that thread you mentioned. It seemed to me that you said they’re point was among other thing about blood donation restrictions making the story seem assumed hetero. I was merely saying it seems weird considering that many other countries don’t have those restrictions and the location of the story isn’t directly mentioned
They did not comment on the blood drive and were discussing the game overall, that was only my own observation that I realized tonight.
This game is very popular in countries where English is the main language, but in many of those countries, donating blood is still very complicated for gay and bisexual men:
I thought this was a good opportunity to bring that up through the context of a game we all enjoy, since it’s a major plot point in the game.
The MC always refers to Rebecca as mum instead of mom, and there are couple other words that suggest it is in the UK
@RedRoses I think you have a interesting point! As someone who’s country allows for everyone to donate I didn’t even notice this.
I think, maybe sometimes it’s best to not rationalize laws and other common things from where the reader or the writer lives, it’s a story, a fictional world - that belongs to the writer and we are marly here for the ride.
It would be impossible to write in all the implications and laws from all the countries, and cultures and so on…it’s probably best just looking at this world as it’s own alternative universe. A Wonderfull and mysterious world where everyone can donate blood.
I personally feel like it exists in a world that is a mix of UK and US.
And at the end of the day…isn’t it to the persons own perception of the situation, it’s their personal feelings (struggles) - which not necessarily translates to a «plot hole» or a heterosexual POV.
But it’s important to talk about this things to see all the perspectives from other people to maybe change ones own or just learn something new.
Definitely. Like waiting in a “queue” (in the US, we just say “in line”) or mention of a “car park.” The first time I read “car park” (as opposed to “parking lot” or “garage” as we say here) my sarcasm kicked in and I envisioned this pretty green park with benches where you took your car for a nice picnic…
I actually like the little British-isms, even if they catch me off guard sometimes.And it’s fun to picture my very Russian (from her dad’s side, obviously) detective with a somewhat strange-sounding, unidentifiable Russian-British accent.
As a russian, I say that the British accent is a fairly strange thing to imitate. I get the overall idea, but it still feels… really, really whack to make yourself sound like that. My throat really struggles with several noises, I have no idea how to pronounce th and w (w and v are the same sound in russian, в) and before I got into western part of the internet, I had no idea that there are several things that are considered americanisms.
I generally don’t get the difference. All I know is that British english uses way more Perfect tenses than American english, but words are real hard to discern. Is this one british, is this one american, why can’t I stop imagining Lays lying around a salmon when someone says “fish and chips”.
That is the dumbest thing ive ever seen. They actually ban healthy people from donating blood? Really?
Yep. Used to be banned but like the chart says, they changed it about 2ish years ago. (USA) which was always kind of dumb bc they always test the blood before sending it off to be used and stuff lol
oh yeah, the delightful consequences of the AIDS crisis 
I think I know the reason for the assumed heterosexuality. On one of her YouTube Q&A’s (I think) she said that the series was originally a regular novel with a female MC and male love interests (with the love triangle route as the love story). When she decided to make it a choose your own adventure, she figured people would want to choose who they are and who they romance
However standard police having service pistols is a very American thing.
I thought that the story is in England or USA because most of the stories (books) i read are. (Also i have no idea how, and if, detectives work in my country.)
This is going to sound funny, but I picture the story taking place in different countries depending on which of my detectives I’m playing as. Like Lukas is just so American that I picture it taking place in the US, but when I play with Areylia I picture it Ireland, and I picture Cat’s route in England.