specterwrites

[specterwrites]

A Long Overdue Update

Whelp I have some bad news and some news that could be good or bad depending on one's perspective.

Firstly, the bad news: I've been fired. I will need to navigate the hurdles of medical insurance, rent payments, and caring for elderly relatives without a stable income.

Additionally, my Patreon (which I've not updated in quite some time, so this is entirely my fault) was suspended for lack of update and/or inability to verify my identity. As I'm sure everyone can imagine, it will likely be difficult to verify my identity given my pen name is not my legal name. I take my privacy very seriously, and may have to establish an LLC in the near future to deal with legal issues such as this.

I have also been candid in the past on this blog about trying to repair the old laptop on which I wrote most of my, well...everything. I took it to three different repair shops, with every one of them concluded that it is well and truly unsalvageable. There's a small silver lining in that technicians were able to recover its data, so I am not literally beginning from zero (just very, very close to it).

The good-or-bad-depending-on-one's-perspective news is that I will have time to work on personal and freelance projects while I search for a new, full-time job. Last time, it took around two and a half years and thousands of applications, so I do not anticipate anything solid for at least a couple years more.

I ask for your patience during this difficult time in my life. I understand that many people have been waiting for an update to Years for, well...years, but I would appreciate some grace from my readers as I navigate everything.

[specterwrites]

Hey, are you doing okay? You've been silent, and I hope you are doing well, and life is treating you with kindness.

Thank you for the kind words, Anonymous! I'm doing fine -- I've just been very busy. My "day job," as it were, is still writing for a small game studio, and production is ramping up somewhat.

I hope life is treating you well, too!

[specterwrites]

Love the game, love the story, and also the MC's kindness has no limits.

Really great game though, I love it.

Love the game, love the story

Really great game though, I love it.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it. (:

the MC's kindness has no limits.

The only limiting factor is the brutal, imperialist dictatorship! And, er, the UI, apparently...

[specterwrites]

Hey! How are you doing? Any progress with your game?

Hey! How are you doing?

Well, I'm not dead, which might come as a welcome update!

Any progress with your game?

Unfortunately, not so much. A major shake-up at work and the fact that the computer I did most of my writing on started to refuse to turn on mean that I haven't had much time for personal projects.

[specterwrites]

Is it strange that, our of all the characters, I would most likely romance Faceless Guard 11 if he was an option xD

I don't know, the politeness despite being your enemy and the fact that you can actually talk him (?) Down, I just like him xD For now though, I will stick to our strange "Soulmates" :3

Otherwise though, I am glad I was reccomended this WIP on Reddit, it really sucked me in! I quite like it :3

Is it strange that, our of all the characters, I would most likely romance Faceless Guard 11 if he was an option xD

Alas, Faceless Guards only have room for one love in their hearts: whoever happens to be sovereign. ):

Otherwise though, I am glad I was reccomended this WIP on Reddit, it really sucked me in! I quite like it :3

I'm so glad!

[specterwrites]

hii I hope that you are doing well?? how are you?? :)

Thank you for asking! Things are pretty stressful at work, lately, but I'm not dead!

[specterwrites]

Hi, hope you´re well. Just wanted to ask how´s the game doing?

I'm well, thank you. (:

Years is still going, though I can't really say that it's going very fast. My situation at work is still busy, which means I don't have a lot of time to spare on personal proects. Thank you for your understanding! (:

[specterwrites]

Hello there! How are you doing dear author?

I have been exceedingly looking forward to further updates since your last one. "The paths to greatness" was seriously underrated, but "Those reluctant years" is an incredible upgrade beyond any expectations. Are you still working on it ?

Hello there! How are you doing dear author?

Hello! I'm doing fine. (:

The paths to greatness" was seriously underrated,

Thank you! I'm glad at least one other person than myself thinks so!

Those reluctant years" is an incredible upgrade beyond any expectations. Are you still working on it ?

Firstly, thank you for the kind words! I am still working on Years, but both work and my personal life have haulted the once-steady pace I had a few years ago. When I was doing freelance work, substantial jobs could be months apart, which gave me time to write These Reluctant Years on a more set pace. Working in a studio setting is great because of the job security, but it gives me less free time to work on personal projects.

I work on it when I can, but you can imagine that a few hundred or thousand words added here or there spread out over the course of months isn't going to make as much of a dent in the remaining work as having the majority of daylight hours to devote solely to finishing Years.

[specterwrites]

Don’t know if you’ve already answered a question like this, but I’m curious to how the ROs would ask MC to be their valentine?

I love this game by the way; every time I play it, I find this new piece of dialogue. It’s crazily detailed!

Don’t know if you’ve already answered a question like this, but I’m curious to how the ROs would ask MC to be their valentine?

Lázaro: I think he would find the whole concept somewhat silly and forego asking, but he'd accept an invitation from an MC.

Belvidere: Artfully asked in gilded calligraphy inside a box of the finest Mainland chocolates.

Prudence: She would just ask -- no room for bashfulness in this squad!

Blythe: He would "ask" very imperiously, like: "You will be our valentine." And then he would expect MC to do something for him (without doing anything in return, of course).

MC1/MC2: Up to the reader, though I don't see a Sovereignty-supporting MC1 to lower themself to speak with MC2.

I love this game by the way; every time I play it, I find this new piece of dialogue. It’s crazily detailed!

Thank you very much -- I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[specterwrites]

Hello! And a happy New Year to you, dear author! I've been enjoying your WIP for quite some time, and I must say that you have a fantastic talent for writing, and your story just gets better and better with time, keep it up! I was wondering, would we be able to kill our brother, if we played as 100% loyal to the sovereignty cause? I mean, our father is certainly not very happy with him, but I see that if our character wants respect from him, we must deserve it, and it seems like a perfect case f

Hello! And a happy New Year to you, dear author!

Happy 2023 to you, too!

I've been enjoying your WIP for quite some time, and I must say that you have a fantastic talent for writing, and your story just gets better and better with time, keep it up!

Thank you very much -- I'm glad you've enjoyed it!

I was wondering, would we be able to kill our brother, if we played as 100% loyal to the sovereignty cause? I mean, our father is certainly not very happy with him, but I see that if our character wants respect from him, we must deserve it, and it seems like a perfect case f

Oh, no! It looks like the Faceless Guard got you mid-sentence for spreading treasonous thoughts about a fine, upstanding member of the Sovereignty!

In all seriousness, though, yes -- I do think Abner III will have a chance to get what he's given, as it were. Whether or not this results in his death will be up to the player, I believe, but l try to treat non-player character arcs the same way I treat player characters. That is, there are some story-mandated things that have to happen and might be advantageous if you're taking advantage of a privileged position in society, but even the most well-positioned person cannot act like a complete irredeemable mooch and expect to get out of conflict completely unscathed.

Even if he makes it through the revolution alive, let's just say that it wouldn't surprise me if he were found sometime later shanked in an alley or """disappeared""' by the Faceless Guard for having a smart mouth.

[specterwrites]

Hope you have happy holidays!!!

Thank you -- I did!

[specterwrites]

Hey, how are you doing lately? Hope you have happy holidays!

I've been busier with work than I expected, but otherwise I'm well!

[specterwrites]

hii! just came back to this if after i first encountered it a while ago and i just wanna say that this still definitely has to be one of my favorite interactive novels i've ever played! the world-building is amazing and generally just adore everything about it <33 also, not sure if this has been asked already, or if it's brushed upon ingame (replaying after i send in this ask!), but what's the fashion like in the mainland?

i just wanna say that this still definitely has to be one of my favorite interactive novels i've ever played! the world-building is amazing and generally just adore everything about it <33

Thank you very much -- this is kind of you to say!

not sure if this has been asked already, or if it's brushed upon ingame (replaying after i send in this ask!), but what's the fashion like in the mainland?

It's mentioned a little bit, but mostly when describing characters for the first time. There's a big contrast between what people would wear in Central City versus the Colonies, mostly having to do with availability of materials and dyes. The Colonies have a lot of agricultural resources (a bunch of land, lots of fresh water, etc.) and plenty of industrialization (particularly with factories in Gensburg), but for the most part the Mainland intentionally keeps trade uneven between themselves and the Colonies.

This is partially due to their superiority complex (as in they don't think the backwater peasant Colonials deserve nice things), partially due to a deliberate effort by the Sovereignty to horde resources for themselves in the seat of their empire, and partially due to the fact that it's a big, expensive pain to ship goods across the Sea for months at a time, especially when the merchants on the Mainland cannot guarantee their products will all be sold at a profit in the Colonies.

That's all to say that Colonial fashion tends to be more conservative than Mainland dress, with more earth tones, less saturated colors, and less exposed skin. Textiles are made from natural fiber -- think wool, cotton, leather (if synthetic materials exist I think they would only be available in the highest fashion houses of Central City). Some of this style is out of practicality, as it's a lot colder in the Colonies than it is on the Mainland, and people are engaged a lot more in physical labor, which limits their ability to be flashy with clothing. There are obviously some exceptions, though they are only really found among the nobility (like Belvidere) because those are the only people that can afford cutting-edge fashion.

The Mainland, particularly Central City, you might think of as a sort of Paris-analogue, especially during the mid-nineteenth century. For the most part very gendered, though there are always outlying trend-setters. Men in hats, waistcoats, jackets, trousers, old-timey facial hair, etc. and women in various cuts of dresses for whichever occasion. I imagine that, like in our world, patterned, printed textiles are very fashionable, as are big, outrageous hats with feathers and flowers pinned into ladies' hair. Basically, if you walk into a noble's party in Central City, it should look like a crinoline and fancy hat factory exploded.

Apologies for the essay -- I took a fashion history class a million years ago in college, once, and it's been a pet interest of mine ever since. I hope this answers your question, Anonymous!

[specterwrites]

heyo!!! i just want to say that i love your games and im a big fan thank yu!!

Thank you very much for the kind words! I'm glad you like my games. (:

[specterwrites]

how u doin lately

Pretty well, Anonymous -- thanks for asking! There has been a chaotic period of a few months at work, but I'm starting to see some metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel, as it were, to work on Years.

[specterwrites]

I find it difficult to say this thing from your novel Too Different, because it's been almost two years (which I apologize), I thought you must be aware of this that I found an (Android) bug and says: ch1 line 1069: Invalid Option; conflicts with option "Do you know- Did... did you ever meet my mother?" on line 1060. This is really embarrassing!

This is really embarrassing!

I agree, Anonymous, though I don't think it's especially embarrassing to me. (;

This is probably the most common bug I've been notified about either through e-mail or Hosted Game's internal bug reporting service (which, just as an aside, you should use instead of messaging me on a third-party platform like Tumblr).

It is a result of pirates extracting the code of games (almost exclusively on Android because of the ease of doing it), copy/pasting everything into a text processor, setting all the variables to "true" without regard for context or function, and uploading the files for the public to download from one of numerous shady websites.

This specific bug pop-up occurs because one of the aforementioned pirates set all the potential values for the main character's mother to be "true", which breaks the entire thing because the progression of the game is triggered depending on which background you chose for your mother (the first land you travel to is always the one your mother came from).

My first game, The Paths to Greatness, gated different characters behind player choices, and was similarly broken by pirates setting all stats to unobtainable levels. As a result, for people playing a pirated copy, it was like reading all four different versions at once, which would understandably be confusing... I would just rather people not express their confusion with low reviews expressing that everything is happening at once -- it does work, I've done hours of play-testing, you just have to buy it through official channels.

I understand that there are certain economic hurdles that may prevent people from experiencing my games legitimately, but I cannot address an issue that arose only after a middleman stole my work and distributed it in a way that it wasn't meant to be played.

[specterwrites]

Hey, just wanted to know how you were doing and/if when to expect the new update! No pressures though, just love the game!

I'm doing pretty well -- things are very busy at my day job, as it were, still.

A lot is going to happen within the next chapter(s), which is part of the reason it's taking so long. As things wrap up, especially in a text-based multiple choice game like Years, the effort and words kind of accumulate because of the compounding influence of a player's choices coming to a head before the ending.

I will say that both sides want to end things with one big, decisive victory, and that a whole lot of preparation will take place before anything even resembling that can happen.

No pressures though, just love the game!

Thank you very much! (: