[WIP] The Iron King's Heir (court intrigue, medieval fantasy, optionally romantic, 70k+) Patreon Update Aug 14 (+10k)

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It’s early to say definitively, but monthly so far seems to be the preferred routine, so I will likely stick to that if the voting pattern continues. Thanks for the feedback!

In Chapter 2 there’s not really a way to gracefully reject your betrothed, given the context (a feast in their honour with everyone watching, it’s just really not the right place to turn them down gently).

If you do dance with them though, and you haven’t been flirting, it’ll be a pretty polite dance and not so much a romantic on. You’ll have opportunities too to talk to them about the marriage in private, and ways to reject them a little more delicately, as well as other opportunities to have more private romantic moments with the other ROs that won’t affect your friendship with your betrothed so much.

I might rework some of the earlier romantic elements, including the dance scene, down the road but I want to focus on continuing the narrative, so for now it will remain a pretty big punch in the face to your betrothed if you reject them here.

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That was fun! You asked upthread about games similar to this one and personally I think it has Affairs of the Court vibes, with the magic-fantasy setting and the court intrigues.

I was briefly confused as to what happened to Connor, lol. I went to help save the princess and the last I knew was he was in the water and he wasn’t spoken of again, so I just assumed he must have drowned . It wasn’t until the banquet that it was clarified that he’s still alive .

Didn’t catch any pronoun issues while playing a prince so that’s good!

Typo here, I think: “wants to be close power” (missing “to”?)

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Thanks for the rec! I might have enough to start a little community recommendations page at the end now :slight_smile:

I added a note to my to-do to take a look at this. Depending on the MC’s choices it may take some time for the twin’s fate to be fully revealed but I’m sure there’s something I can add so that the reader doesn’t think I’ve forgotten about them.

Phew, slowly getting better :flexed_biceps:

Fixed! Thanks for the catch, and thanks for playing!

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This was pretty good. There was a lot of color and action in the writing to keep entertaining.

Feedback items.

You are weaponless and defenseless, dressed for a celebration, not for a battle, which is starting to look like really bad planning. All you can do is back away as he slashes at you again.

Garrett would probably be offended if he thought you doubted his ability to protect you, but how much do the feelings of one guard matter anyway? The real issue is how the people would perceive it. Despite your harrowing morning, Anaxis is still right: a sword portrays a certain image, an image you may not wish to display at a diplomatic event.

Nobles and Royals typically carry weapons for ceremonial purposes when going to events. A prince/princess with a martial background would likely carry one as a symbol of their rank and power, even if they don’t wear armor.

#On the contrary, he is completely right and I say as much.#No, in fact I pretend to share his sentiment.#Not directly, but I will defend Nora.#Yes, his behavior is unacceptable

Should be a choice to just ignore him and let that be an answer.

“You are addressing your king,” Kind Osdric says in a low, slow tone.

King

In one swift motion, you rise to your feet, draw your sword, and smash it into the table in front of you. The entire table rattles under the force, wine glasses clattering on its surface.The blade lodges into the table’s wooden surface, undoubtedly causing some damage, but you can’t imagine your father caring. You’ve seen him pull similar stunts before, and you both know the value in establishing yourself as a physical force to be reckoned with.

I would probably just slam my fist on the table. Doing that to a sword is likely to break it.

#Their fear. I will remind them just who is in charge.

#Their loyalty and piety. I will remind them of their duty to God and throne.

#Actually, I’d like to choose a different approach.

We could also point to a common enemy and tell them that infighting will merely make them targets for the bigger threat.

This was good. Best of luck.

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Thanks for the feedback! I won’t be able to make any big changes to the sword plot point at this stage but I should be able to incorporate some of these suggestions as I revise Chapter 2 :slight_smile:

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I voted bi-weekly but bring honest, if you think it’s better to do monthly you should do monthly, it’s your project and if there is something I learned is that people finish their projects when it’s doing it in their own terms than in the terms of others.

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It seems that a a strong majority of you would prefer updates monthly rather than weekly, so starting this month that’s what I’ll be doing. I do have one more public update coming out next week but after that it’ll be a few weeks before the next one.

I’m planning to release Patreon updates the second Friday of every month, with public updates four weeks after that. And yes I do have a Patreon update for tomorrow!

More info in the latest newsletter.

For this week’s public CoGDemo I have:

  • Started revising Osdric’s speech
  • Added a restore checkpoint option which should bring you to the start of Chapter 2
  • Added a neutral reaction to Mirabel getting blood on your betrothed’s gift in Chapter 1
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For the public CoGDemo I have:

  • Updated the stats screen and included an appearance section
  • Added an option to skip character creation
  • Started work on a toggle “repeat mode” that echoes your last choice to you before continuing the narrative
  • Made a small adjustment to make it clearer to dutiful heirs that other dance partners are available on other playthroughs

The new choice repetition mode is experimental and a bit of work on my part, so if you use and enjoy it (or hate it, or want it changed a bit) please let me know! You can toggle this on and off in the stats menu. For the next public update all of Chapter 1 will have the choice repetition mode added and I’ll be making some polls and gathering feedback more proactively then, but feel free to let me know what you think ahead of that.

Moving forward I’ll be posting one update a month.

Next Patreon update: June 12
Next public update: June 5

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Alright, I see the potential here, will keep tabs on this one.

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I just completed my first play through. These are my thoughts.

  • I wish there was prologue or something similar at the beginning. Since it seemed a bit too abrupt.
  • The general pace seemed slightly faster to me. I couldn’t fully immerse in the environment because of that.
  • The tyrant character seems less tyrannical to me at least. There are many mentions of him being Big Bad Guy but we rarely see. I wish we could actually see those in upcoming updates. Also the attacks just made him lose his image even further.
  • Is there like any lore wise reason for absence of siblings? Will it be mentioned in future? Because I kinda expected kings to have many heirs.
  • The banquet scene appears lot ‘choreographed’ if lack of appropriate term. I know it is super early draft, I just wanted to mention that it lacked a natural flow.
  • Also is this low fantasy setting? I thought it was just medieval, until magic was mentioned. If so shouldn’t royals have some magic? Or at least defense against magic?
  • The only typo I found was on chap 2. When Nora reminiscence her childhood. “She insisted on coming, you know.” I think it should be He instead of She.

Regarding the characters I would say it is very early to comment. Also I truly appreciate adding story mode, I know it is quite difficult and extra work. I know this is early draft and will be changed a lot in upcoming updates. The main thing I am looking forward is environment/ immersion. Because I believe it may adjust the pace of the story. Good Luck :+1:

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I can’t say I disagree at this point tbh :sweat_smile: at this stage I won’t be making any more major changes to Ch 1-2 but I will say I intend to slow Ch 3 way down to give players a bit more space to breathe. I also have some ideas for slower moments to add earlier on but that’ll have to wait for now, I don’t want to get stuck on these chapters forever.

I definitely want to include more tyrannical moments in future chapters :slight_smile: depending on who you talk to at the banquet you might get some more glimpses into his policy and why the people hate him so much, but I agree I want to show more of this in the main storyline.

I’d say it’s low fantasy but tbh I’m a little fuzzy on the distinction between low and high. Picture more LotR level magic rather than something like HP. Like magic is definitely a thing, it’s an important thing, but it often comes in subtle forms. I’m modeling a lot of it after real medieval beliefs/legends, so entities like witches are a thing (and a bad thing) and protection from them could come in the form of things like relics and prayers, or even folk remedies (like, say, iron :wink: ).

I’m working on a short story for Patreon members that should make the magic system a bit clearer. And of course as the main story progresses some of these things will get more fleshed out.

Fixed! Thanks for catching that! And thanks for the rest of your feedback. I may not be making big changes to Ch 1-2 at this point but it’s helpful hearing some of these issues as I move on to Ch 3.

EDIT: I forgot to answer one of your q’s!

Yes there is! It’s mentioned early on that MC’s mother passed some time ago, and Osdric isn’t actually royal by blood so there’s not really the same pressure for him to produce heirs with a second wife.

There are also some backstory reasons why MC doesn’t have much in the way of uncles/aunts/cousins who might claim the throne, but that’s to be revealed at a later time :slight_smile:

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So our father was only the king by marriage?

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Correct. I haven’t hinted at this very well yet in the current draft but it’s clear in the short story I’ve started sharing on Patreon.

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Judging by his title the “Iron king” I would guess they were purged :melting_face:

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No comment :wink:

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For me, it’s one thing if the author has a specific character in mind as the protagonist. Like, if you imagine the protagonist as a straight woman and only have male LIs, more power to you. But when there’s already a lot of choice when it comes to the protagonist, it does make me squint when they have to be straight. It feels more like the author isn’t comfortable with queerness as opposed to writing the story from a specific point of view.

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I don’t understand these complaints, as long as the author isn’t actively being homo/transphobic(Cough cough, aura clash) then I don’t think anybody has a right to complain what the author is comfortable writing. If you don’t wish to play a straight romance then don’t play, there’s tons of queer optional wips.

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When it comes to these types of royal-focused stories and if the protagonist is canonically straight, I see it less as the author being “uncomfortable” with writing a queer romance, and way more likely that the MC is going to get pregnant/impregnate an RO.

Also, even if the author has a lot of choices in the story, not writing a queer MC doesn’t mean anything. They might have just known their limits, or wanted to put a lot of focus on the plot, characters and making sure that choices actually matter. So writing a same-sex romance might have needed way more attention (especially in a seemingly traditional world with a literal royal MC already set to be married) than they could handle.

Like, think about it. Your betrothed will always be the opposite gender for heirs, so right off the bat the author has to deal with a possibly bi-MC who likes both their betrothed and the same gendered-RO (that’s one route with several different ways it could go even without poly–which is its own coding headache). Or maybe your MC is gay/lesbian and now there’s a closeted route that can either be friendly or hostile with your betrothed. That’s not even taking into account the same-sex RO your MC likes! Because then you have several ways that could all come out… they might be in denial, or they want to run away with you, or they get jealous and start making a mess at court, or they’re closeted and hostile about these feelings they don’t want, or they’re ashamed and feel guilty for feeling such a way about their Prince/ss.

But that’s just one route–not including all the messy feelings that come from the betrothed themselves–imagine having to do that with three different characters with different personalities and dynamics in the royal court. That’s a lot of writing for a single person in their first game, and it’s not including if you have feelings for more than one RO.

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All true things! Well, whether or not I know my limits is tbd I suppose lol, I like to think I do though.

Thank you for taking the time to write this out. It’s easy, even for authors, to forget how challenging it is to add in new game/romance elements and do it well, and I appreciate the reminder.

Even adding in the option to play as a prince (MC was initially envisioned as a princess) introduced a whole new set of challenges when trying to keep the game feeling grounded and realistic in a medieval setting. I wanted to make sure your gender choice actually matters and affects your character without it mattering too much so that you can still enjoy the game either way. I’ve had to sacrifice some realism to make it work too.

End of the day though I didn’t have a good story reason not to give you a prince option and as it turns out, over half of you report playing princes so I think it was a good call. Doesn’t keep me from daydreaming from time to time about how much easier things would have been if I had kept the MC gender-locked though :joy:

I also sometimes wonder if I’ve already included too many romance paths, but each RO was chosen for a specific purpose in mind that serves the central theme: how we relate to power and authority.

Bottom line: I know I can’t please everyone, all I can do is my utmost to tell this one specific story in the best way I can.

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It’s update day! This one’s a little small but next one will be more substantial.

For the public CoGDemo I have:

  • Added a hand ax option (for the purpose of dramatically throwing across rooms of course)
  • Continued revising Osdric’s speech scene
  • Added two new checkpoints (one in each chapter)
  • Finished adding a choice repetition mode to Chapter 1
  • Fixed a few player-reported typos

Next Patreon update is planned for June 12, with the next public update four weeks after that.

Let’s talk about the choice repetition mode

It’s fully integrated in Chapter 1 now! This means that if you go to the stats screen you can toggle the option to have your last choice repeated back to you in italics before continuing the narrative. This is an experiment on my part and I’d really like to know how it’s received by players because it’s a lot more work than I expected to incorporate it.

Which means…poll time!

So what did you think of this mode?

  • Used it and loved it
  • Used it but would be fine without
  • Used it and didn’t like it
  • Didn’t use it, but I’m interested in trying
  • Not interested
  • Liked it but want it tweaked a bit (please share your ideas)
0 voters

EDIT: oh my word I forgot that I included two modes lol, here’s a follow up question: if you used it and enjoyed it, which version did you pick/like better?

  • Used the dialogue mode only
  • Used the full choice repetition mode
0 voters
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