Their Majesties' Pleasure - HEART'S CHOICE - BETA CLOSED

Pursue love and glory with unruly royals, seductive Fae, and rogue assassins in this epic romance set in a kingdom on the brink of war.

Unleash your inner rebel as you transform from humble guard to royal accomplice. Protect a headstrong princess and fun-loving prince on exploits into a city that comes alive at night, and adventure into a forest full of magic, demigods, and Fae. Ensnared in intrigue, your choices mean the difference between tentative peace or war on two fronts. You might become an emissary for the Crown and earn your knighthood, or decide your loyalties lie elsewhere and turn spy.

As the kingdom flirts with doom, love becomes your rock. Will you win the heart of a thrill-seeking princess enthralled with the Fae? A pleasure-loving prince entrenched with enemies of the Crown? A Rogue King who runs the city’s finest night house and leads an army of assassins? A demigoddess who holds court in the Darkwood? Or a Fae prince whose warrior instincts are as honed as his skills as a lover?

Which wilful royal will win your warrior heart?

This is a Heart’s Choice game. The PC is gender-variable, and the ROs are male and female. It contains several explicit sex scenes and has a three-pepper rating on our spice scale.

Directions for beta testing:

Email us, beta AT choiceofgames for access.

DO NOT POST ASKING WHAT THE BETA EMAIL ADDRESS IS. The first test to becoming a beta tester is inferring what it is based on how we describe it above.

Do not send DMs/PMs through the forum mail system, Discord, text message, carrier pigeon, or any other method than email.

When you send your EMAIL, include:
• the game you want to test in the Subject line of the email.
• your forum-name
• your real name (first and last).

Please indicate if your family/surname comes first as well. Beta testers’ names are listed in the game’s credits, which are accessed with the “About” link you’ll see within the game. If you don’t want to appear in the credits, or you want to be credited under a name other than your real one, please let us know.

Do not email us multiple times about joining a beta. If you don’t email us as soon as we post a beta, you go into a queue. As we post new drafts, we admit more people from the queue. Eventually, we will get to you. Some beta processes last longer than others, and it may take up to a few weeks to reach the front of the queue.

When you have been admitted to the beta, we will send you a link, a username, and a password as a reply to your email.

When you have feedback to submit:
• Return feedback as part of the same email thread where you were admitted. Copying beta@choiceofgames on that email is the best way to make sure your comments are seen as soon as possible.
• Please send screenshots or copy/pasted quotes whenever you can; it helps us track down whatever observation you’re making. In particular, the author may see things that you don’t, and/or the screenshot may contain more information than you realize.
• If you’re submitting feedback using the Bug/Submit button in the game, make sure you include your handle/name in the body of the email. The Submit button obscures your email address, and I can’t give you credit for feedback if I don’t know who you are.

A few more notes:
• You cannot be testing two games at once. If you are already testing one game, send in feedback on that game before you apply to another. If you apply for multiple games at the same time, you will likely be admitted first to whichever game has testing slots open up first, and we won’t be able to admit you to the other one until you send in your comments for that one. (From an admin standpoint, it’s easiest if you don’t apply to more than one game at once – applying to multiple games makes it more likely that we’ll miss admitting you to one of them.)

• If you’re admitted as a tester but realize you won’t be able to send in feedback for that game, please let us know! You won’t be penalized in any way - we’ll just take you off the list of testers for that game. But if you sign up to test a game and don’t send comments or withdraw, it will affect your chances of being admitted to future betas.

• There’s no standard length of time for a beta testing period to last, and we usually don’t know exactly how long a game will be in beta when it opens. The best way to know how long a beta will be open is to follow the thread for updates.

• It’s fine to send multiple feedback emails, but if you have a lot of quick comments, it’s easier to keep track of them if you bundle them into one email.

Tips on How to Give Feedback

We’re looking for “high level” and “low level” feedback. Not mid-level feedback.

Low-level = typos and continuity errors. A continuity error is when a character’s gender flips, or someone comes back from the dead, or you run into a plotline that just doesn’t make sense (because it’s probably a coding error). For these low-level issues, screenshots are very helpful. If you see a problem, take a screenshot, or copy and paste the text that is in error, and email that.

“High level” feedback has to do with things like plot, pacing, and characters. “Scene A didn’t work for me because x, y, and z,” is useful feedback. “B character was entirely unsympathetic, because u, w, and v,” is also useful feedback.

“Mid-level” feedback describes things like grammar, style, word choice, or the use of commas. As I said above, I do not want mid-level feedback. In particular, DO NOT WRITE TO ME ABOUT COMMAS.

Be SPECIFIC in your feedback. General comments like “I had a great time and saw only a few spelling errors,” is not useful feedback. In fact, it’s the sort of thing that results in you not being given access to future betas.

Some examples of useful feedback:

  • In Choice of the Dragon, you get to choose what type of wings you have: leather or scaled. Someone wrote in and asked about having feathered wings. Great suggestion! Done!
  • In “The Eagle’s Heir,” someone asked about Eugenie. They said that the romance moved too quickly–because she only appeared in the last third of the game–and wished they could have had an opportunity to meet her earlier. So the authors added an opportunity to meet her and start the romance earlier in the game (in a scene that already existed).
  • In “Demon Mark: A Russian Saga” several people commented on how the PC’s parents were unsympathetic, so the authors added a choice or two to deepen the relationship with the parents in the first chapter, to help better establish their characters.
  • Pointing out a specific choice and saying, “this is who I imagined my character was at this particular moment, and none of these options seemed right for me. I would have liked an option to do X instead,” is also really helpful feedback.
  • If you choose an option and then the results of that option don’t make sense. Like, if you thought an option might test one stat, but it seems to have tested a different one.
52 Likes

New draft, v35028! Typos and other small fixes.

1 Like

New draft, v36471! Fixed a loop when talking to the queen, plus an achievement adjustment.

1 Like

New draft, v37348! Changelog:

  • typos

  • testing thresholds adjusted

  • stat rewards adjusted

  • added com_galen (and com_queen) option to ch 7, line 1143

  • changed rel_ rewards to com_rogue, com_galen, com_queen: ch 7 lines 1831 and following when committing to the prince

  • added com_rogue and com_galen variables to ch 8 lines 931-941

  • if com_galen or galenlover true, player is directed from queen_stolenkiss to galen_stolenkiss in ch 8

  • added backstory in ch 1 line 71 so PC already knows the prince and princess, and the heirs recognize PC. Also tweaked name prompt and response in later question about training with Julian to reflect previous acquaintance.

1 Like

New draft, v37349! Typos and other quick fixes.

1 Like

New draft, v37737! Various typo and continuity fixes, and worldbuilding adjustments.

1 Like

New draft, v37759! Ongoing typo and continuity fixes and worldbuilding adjustments.

2 Likes

New draft, v38229! Changelog (spoilered more for some slightly NSFW references to sex scene changes than plot reasons):

  • fixed all typos/errors reported thus far

  • fixed Geoffa discrepancies (hopefully I got them all this time)

  • made it easier to choose Julian and Javier, or Galen and Edenia, at very end (as long as one is com_ and the other rel_, the player has romanced both and can choose both at the end)

  • added more prep to m|m sex scenes, looked over nb descriptions and made a few changes there

  • added discussion with rogue about his relationship with Julian in ch 3

  • made sex options with Julian/Rogue in ch 3 easier to accomplish (no rough play required or mentioned, though it’s still plenty spicy)

  • ch 3 line 1535: added a no-penetration scene in threesome w/ rogue (no penetration for PC, though Rogue & Julian have sex)

  • made turn-on mention of Julian and Javier in ch 7 only available if there is an active romance with them

  • reworked chat/sex options with Rogue & Prince in ch 3, and Galen in ch 5, so conversation happens before offer of sex.

  • increased stats: free_ug & sov_wild.

  • increased rep_ug stats

  • added choices to end scenes to acknowledge other lovers.

  • added a bit to Galen/Edenia wrap-up scenes to acknowledge PC is still in touch with Julian and Lissa, fulfilling their duties as a knight (if knighted), and spending time with other lovers if any.

  • added no_prince etc. variables to ch 3 at Cabaret so romantic options are hidden if true.

This beta will likely be wrapping up within a week or so - please send any remaining comments in as soon as you can!

7 Likes

New draft, v38260! More typo and error fixes, plus added stat descriptions.

The beta will be wrapping up by the end of this week - please send in any remaining feedback as soon as possible.

A few people have been asking about chapter headers. Every COG and HC game will always have chapter headers by the time of release, but they’re sometimes added during or after beta depending on when they’re ready. :slightly_smiling_face:

4 Likes

New draft, v38279! More typo and error fixes, plus various adjustments to early character interactions based on feedback.

Keep sending in final feedback!

4 Likes

New draft, v38285! More typo and error fixes, plus new content with Edenia and Javier in chapters 5 and 6.

We won’t be able to accept feedback after Friday, and the sooner you can get your remaining comments in, the better. Thanks to everyone who’s been testing the game, it’s exciting to see how popular it’s been!

4 Likes

New draft, v38294! Changelog:

  • Typo/error fixes

  • adjusted PC names in ch 1. Xavier is quite close to Javier, as one reader pointed out.

  • made it clear Queen will take treaty to Beaodeth to sign if beao_sign = true (Beaodeth will not leave Wilds)

  • added top option for m/m in galen edenia threesome ch 5 line 1555

  • added m/m options in galen scene ch 8

  • Added acknowledgement of visit to Rogue at beginning of ch 7 with Prince.

  • Added a bit in Galen/Edenia endings to acknowledge PC’s treason if they chose treason or wildsfight paths.

4 Likes

Another update with a bugfix, v38295! Specifically fixing a coding issue in chapter 3 that meant there wasn’t an option not to get involved in an intimate scene with the prince - that was definitely not intentional.

4 Likes

The game is heading to copyedit this weekend, so the beta is now closed. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in feedback - this has been a really popular beta, and we’re excited to see the game out in the world!

8 Likes