choicescript
Turncoat Chronicle is now in open beta!
After nearly five years, my fantasy intrigue text game Turncoat Chronicle is now officially in open beta, undergoing the last round of testing and editing before being submitted for publication.
Writing the game has been a long process, from its conception as a villain-centered story in April of 2018, to the first round of feedback for chapter 1 in June of the same year, through several rewrites and round after round of private testing. As I put the final touches on the game’s epilogue, I had to revisit old code, written years ago and left untouched since then. I received valuable feedback that allowed me to improve areas of difficulty that I hadn’t anticipated but also reassured some of my other concerns.
At this stage of writing, I’m incredibly proud of the game that I’ve created. I’m happy to share it with my readers during this beta period, and I hope they can love this little story as much as I have done, for the past five years.
Version 0.11.1 of Turncoat Chronicle can be played here, or through the official development thread, where feedback can also be left.
New Game: The Flower of Fairmont
I’m very excited to publicly announce The Flower of Fairmont, my newest game project. Fairmont is an epistolary, interactive text game written in ChoiceScript.
Taking place in the fictional mountain town of Fairmont, and with an atmosphere inspired by 19th century England, the game’s plot unfolds through the protagonist’s letters to her father and various other correspondents. By documenting her adventures, either through letters or in her private journal, the protagonist can investigate the town’s mysteries, nurse relationships both platonic and romantic, and plan for her future ambitions. Fairmont’s mysteries unfold gradually throughout the story, some more personal than others.
The Flower of Fairmont is a work-in-progress. You can play the demo chapters here, or read more about the game’s world and characters on the official forum thread.
Return of the Revenge of 2019
It’s been a long time since I updated this blog. Life is full of twists and turns, and sometimes new priorities have to override preexisting obligations. I spent the latter half of 2018 focused on my two ongoing projects, Turncoat Chronicle and an unnamed novel. I chose to prioritize those works over reviews and blog posts. Then I had a long stretch of time where my day job had to take priority, and even finding time to work on my game was a challenge. Once I had reclaimed my writing time and started making major progress on the game again, another thing popped up. And so on, so life goes.
Lately, though, it occurred to me that it was time to post a small update on my recent writerly activities. During May and June I have been hard at work on both the game and the novel, while at the same time planning ahead for what my next ChoiceScript project might be. I examined and discarded a large number of promising ideas, which is why I am holding back on discussing the details of the current idea, at least until I’m certain that it’s taken root.
Since February, Turncoat Chronicle has been undergoing a closed beta testing process. Both feedback and changes resulting from it have been extensive. Some of the comments were expected, others less so. Revising and expanding chapter two, the meatiest section of the game, has also helped me rethink the structure for chapter three, which will require further revising when I get back to it. Readying the next beta version is my top priority at the moment, and to that end I’m working full-tilt on the second half of chapter two, including the much-anticipated romance scene.
In other exciting news, I’ve relaunched my Patreon account in order to support the process of developing games with ChoiceScript, which can be quite lengthy. My Ko-Fi account remains active, as well.
Intrigues and Influences
Since last May I’ve been working intensively on a new interactive fiction written in ChoiceScript language, titled Turncoat Chronicle. My previous attempt at writing a ChoiceScript game did not go well, but with a year’s worth of writing experience I decided to revisit the draft of the old game and re-spin it into a new story, told from a different point of view. Restructuring the narrative gave it a new lease of life, and my strict adherence to limiting the scope of the story means I have great hopes of completing it in a reasonable time frame.
Like the game it spun out of, and like several of my other writing projects in progress, Turncoat Chronicle occupies a complicated fantasy world, alien to our own, but without magic and religiously agnostic. Its setting, the kingdom of Koth, is known within its own world as a militant and battle-ready nation. Despite this, combat does not form the bulk of the story’s plot, nor the game mechanics. It lives in an uncomfortable subgenre, where talking typically solves more problems than stabbing: political fantasy.
Hazel Gold 