FOREVER GOLD @forevergoldgame - Tumblr Blog

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PLAY - EPISODE 3 OUT NOW!

Welcome to the official blog for Forever Gold.

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I’m replaying the game and I noticed the sprites looked different in snout mode. Maybe I just didn’t notice the red patterned fabric on D’Angelo or the straight clip in Pegasus’s hair, but it got me wondering, did you change the sprites? Or is it just reverse Mandela effect?

If you played the demo (or have been following Dan's art for a while), you probably remember D'Angelo's older overcoat design, which didn't have red on it! He got some new hair and a wardrobe overhaul for Episode 1, to better reflect his character and army rank/birth status. So that one's not imagined.

Pegasus's hair clip, on the other hand, has been present all along - but only in her snout version!

We don't usually change outfits or accessories much between snout and human designs, but occasionally we run into a situation where altering a detail looks better/clearer. Usually it's just something like how a shirt collar lays, or the size/shape of a bit of jewelry, but on rare occasions it'll be a more notable swap. Pegasus is one, trading her hairband (in human mode) for a hair clip (in snout mode). If I recall, the reason behind this particular change was due to her snout version being modeled after a Portuguese Water Dog, and Dan wanting to keep the breed's forward-flowing "bangs" on her design.

-LS

#answered ask #character design questions

Hello again! We have another small update for you. The next one will likely have more to chew on, but for now I figured I'd let you all know where we're at with the next episode!

After Episode 3 released, we had to pause for a little while to a) get some Real Life Stuff squared away and b) flesh out & interrogate what we had previously roughed out for Episode 4 in our planning docs. Taking an episode from a premise to a series of playable events always involves some changes and caveats to the original idea, but we're pleased to say that the process has gone a lot smoother than Episode 2 & 3 did! We caught the big snags in our plans much earlier, so we've avoided the grief associated with major rewrites. And, in the process, we've devised some quicker and more efficient (and fun) methods for developing story segments and troubleshooting ones that aren't hitting right. There's a lot of work left to do on it, but I think Episode 4 will be a good one with plenty for readers to look forward to.

Since we were occupied with firming up the episode blueprint, we've let our askbox sit untended for a while. We'll get back to answering those soon, but until we get around to that I want everyone who has sent us feedback or interesting questions to know we appreciate your commentary! It feels crazy good to see you all talk about our story and speculate and pick favorite characters, not to mention the few people we've seen liveblog or stream their playthroughs and the extremely precious bits of fan art!! You're also always welcome to @ the blog or use the #forevergoldgame tag if you'd like for us to see something you've said or made! :)

-LS

#dev update #small update

cobwebears

been playing @forevergoldgame and im just so in love with the characters and world building i had to draw something

#WAH THIS IS SO COOL!!#thank you for playing and doubly so for feeling compelled to draw something!! you made quincy look legitimately badass #and licorice's big eye is so intimidating when vertically oriented like that... good compositional choice there #fan art #was so excited to see this in the notifs I tripped over myself showing LS

I had so much fun this Chapter but i did manage to die once which reminded me that Quintrell Canonically experiences all of the deaths. my counter is at 10 now and i‘m wondering if there are going to be concequences Depending on how many times you died someday or if that number is just for the player

I can't tell you how your death count will or won't effect the story down the line, but I will say this:

While many deaths are optional, many are not. The player only has so much control over the amount Quincy dies, since he often stumbles into deaths with little or no notice. So it's not really a "skill issue" it would make sense to write a punishment for - no need to worry about being shunted off into some involuntary Bad Ending Path because you died a bunch at the lustration ceremony or something.

-LS

#answered ask

Something I am still not sure I quite understood is how the nobles are the only ones with the ability to conduct meur, like is there a specific reason why commoners can't do it? and can commoners somehow be enobled, or do all nobles trace back to ancient lineages, like if a commoner was given a relic could they conduct?

Also, speaking of conducting, Black meur has been spoken as a great evil and stuff but seems extremely powerful, are there any plans for the protagonist to wield it, even in desperation?

If you asked the church, or traditional wisdom, they would say Nobles can do meur and commoners can't because Nobles were chosen by The Architect and commoners were not. If you asked someone more science-minded about it, the answer would be "the ability to conduct meur is an inborn trait inherited from a Noble parent."

"What happens if a commoner tries to conduct meur" is something we'll get into in more detail later, but until then I'll say this: the best and most common outcome is that nothing happens at all. The worse and more rare outcome is that The Architect smites you for your hubris. Or, in more secular terms: the strain of your attempt injures you permanently or kills you outright.

So, no, commoners cannot be made Nobles by Vestur's definition. They can marry into status by marrying a Noble (as seen with Lady Nephthei's husband), but that doesn't make them a "Noble" in the Vesturian sense. All of Vestur's true Nobles can trace their lineage to someone who was identified as having "Noble blood" (read: capable of conduction) during the Tri-Kingdom's founding.

As for black meur and our protagonist... well, who can say what the future holds?

-LS

#answered ask #worldbuilding #re: what we have planned regarding quincy and meur... if you know you know

hey there, been playing part 2 of the story (slowly catching up to part 3), and just wanted to say I love the world you concocted thus far. It feels rich and unique, and I'm having a blast navigating the story with Quintrell. Also, didn't expect to like Kaitos as much as I did, but there's something very endearing and soothing about his attitude (at least, from an audience perspective). Best of luck for the rest of your project! <3

Thanks! This project is a labor of love and insanity, and we're thrilled that you all are coming along for the ride.

(I also didn't expect to like Kaitos as much as I do! In much, much earlier drafts of the plot he held quite a different role, but he grew on me as things developed. In a funny way, he's kind of the most normal guy in the Convoy... a heavy burden to bear when everyone around you is a high-tension eccentric looking to change the course of history.)

-LS

#answered ask #ls art #c: kaitos

okay, lots of things about this game stand out for me and make me very happy, but for berevity's sake i'll only say two:

the first and more general: as a black person, seeing a cast nearly entirely populated by people of color makes me. so fucking happy. even as someone playing in snout mode, it still makes me happy when i look at the alternate art. genuinely, it's so nice.

the second and more specific: rare is it in a choice based game that a major choice doesn't have an option that immediately jumps out as the one i want. usually it doesn't take me very long at all the choose the option i find best/most in character and stick with it, but chapter 3's major choice had me deliberating quite a while.

usually when it comes between what i want to do (dam go boom fuck the monarchy) and what i 'should' do (install viscount blah blah whatever) i immediately go for what i want however i actually ended up choosing installing a viscount bc i just could not find a way to justify it to myself. still trying to be a rebel ofc but good job at making it such a hard decision that feels compelling regardless. seeing jim look at me like that did make my heart ache tho.

On the first point: Although Vesturians don't really have the same concept of race we do, (they're too busy inventing other lines along which to deny each other natural rights) the intention is that all characters are readable as unambiguously black.

(Hopefully it shines through even when they're dog-people instead of people-people. The dogs, too, are blackity black black.)

The second: Anyone who has written something with branching paths can corroborate that balancing a set of consequential decisions is hard. This goes doubly when it isn't supposed to feel like there's one clear answer. I can't comment too much because I don't want to show our hand, but! Both LS and I are happy to hear this episode's choice had people thinking on what felt like the right thing to do. (Or, what felt like what their Quincy would do.) Often times you can't know how something will go over until you've hit "publish"!

-Dan

#answered ask

forevergoldgame

hello! im so happy to be playing your game but i had to ask if theres any way to make the lag less apparent? i tried playing in offline more and lower the animations but it's still quite slow, like the frame rate is off somehow. is this a me issue? could i do anything about it? thank you for your hard work either way! love this writing and this art

Huh! This is actually the first report we've gotten about genuine game lag (as opposed to internet connection/image load times, which isn't within our control). Without more information, I can't say for sure what the issue is, but an older browser or a low-memory mobile device could be the problem.

Optimization is a tricky thing on our end because we can only test the game on devices we own ourselves and we only have so many phones and computers between us. Next time I open up the game for updates & bugfixes I'll see if there's any more lag-reduction options I can implement, though.

-LS

forevergoldgame

Pushing out a typo & misc bugfix update today! One of the fixes I made was to the existing lag-reduction settings (Reduce Animations & Turn Off Text Animations): visually, they worked, but on the back-end, I accidentally left some of the animation-handling scripts still running. So, devices were still doing all the footwork to make the animations work even if animations were turned off, haha...

If anon (or anyone else who experiences in-game lag) is reading this, give the newest version a look and let me know if there's any improvements.

Also, anyone who had problems with Pegasus and Karlie taking double guilders from the player should be reimbursed when they load their save in the latest version. (I keep forgetting how my own money-handling scripts work! Oops!)

-LS

#minor update #bugfix

So what happened to Quincy and D'angelo mother? I would assume she's dead; so how and when did she die? How did she get along with her husband?

You are correct! Archduchess Capitoline is dead. The Codex states this in passing, but aside from that, the story hasn't given her much mention. We've plans to explore her character in time, so I won't delve too deep into the details here. Instead, I'll relay a bit of in-universe public knowledge.

Capitoline was the sole survivor of a tragedy which left her the last in her Noble lineage. While she survived the ordeal, she was left without means to prove her own identity. And so, to her chagrin, she was pronounced dead anyway.

In adulthood, she would right this misconception, and successfully regain recognition as a Noble. Alas, her second chance at life would be cut short when she died giving birth to Quincy. (What a way to go.)

Quincy struggles to imagine her as a real flesh-and-blood person, and D'Angelo has only fleeting memories. They both know the facts, but their father's emotionally constipated grief has offered them little insight as to what Capitoline was actually like as an individual.

-LS

#answered ask #ls art #human mode

-LS

#answered ask

Can you drop a hint who other character we might have as a confidant? 👀👀 I had thought Lucas and Imani would be only ones, considering they are Quincy's oldest friends

Well, when we were building out the original infrastructure & planning for this feature, we wanted to give enough flexibility that the confidant could be "any party member." That said, we're not sure whether we can promise every party member can be Quincy's confidant. Some party members simply have more time with Quincy than others, and some need more narrative finagling for a close friendship with Quincy to feel organic.

We want to give players as much freedom as we can for who Quincy feels close with, but it's possible there will be party members who won't be confidant options simply because some planned story arc didn't end up giving as much narrative space for a bond to develop as we thought it would.

So, I guess what I'm saying is: there is no need for hints here. Make friends and see where it leads!!

-LS

#answered ask #confidants

Question about Vestur's calendar: why are the years counted how they are? As in, is there a reason (like a historical event) behind the start point/year zero/[whatever it's called] being where it is, or was it just a situation akin to "let's start counting years from this random day specifically"?

Oh, good question! This is one of those rare instances where there's not really a worldbuilding basis for this choice; the number for the story's starting year was just picked to help evoke an analogous real-life time period. They're not meant to be counting forward from the crucifixion of Vesturian Jesus or anything specific.

(Though, now that you mention it, there are a few distant-past events in our secret worldbuilding document that would make sense as a turning point for establishing a new calendar! Maybe at some point one of them will get officially canonized in-story as the start of Vestur's modern calendar.)

-LS

#answered ask #worldbuilding

do you entertain silly little asks?? if so, i would be eternally amused to find out how Quincy would react to being in southern attire (so bright..so loud..)

We do! (Though if something is drawn and who draws it will depend on whim, topic, and schedule.)

I think more than the loud patterns, it would be the feel of Southern attire that really torments Quincy. There's so much silk, for one, and for two, WHY COVER ONE ARM BUT NOT THE OTHER? The incomprehensible fashion rules would be the gaslight on the cake, though - what do birthdays and compass directions have to do with picking a shirt???

-LS

#answered ask #ls art #art #c: quincy #c: kaitos #human mode #character ask

Loved the new episode! It was so enlightening to see what life for the common people was like and their struggles. The addition of optional quests was also a lovely way to learn more about the world. The Northern Kingdom just keeps getting more interesting the more I read about them. I always look forward to Imani telling more stories and it was so interesting seeing how a story from the demo came back and how much it changed from back then. I also adored seeing new sides to the members of the Convoy as well as the new characters introduced this episode. I loved them all! Ngl, the scene where you helped birth a kit made me a bit emotional. I've seen art of other characters we haven't met, like Lamonte. Will we get to meet them later into the story? The art was gorgeous, as always, especially the little "epilogue" at the end of the chapter. I loved all the illustrations the update had, it adds so much life to the story. Btw, I noticed a few errors, like Imani repeating a dialogue line when comforting Quincy about the contract he made and a red error message in place of the evidence he's supposed to present when explaining his decision to the convoy. The only thing I could think of during my lecture was when I could leave and go back to playing the update. Definitely one of my favourite games on itchio. Amazing work as always and it was 100% worth the wait!

Happy to hear it! The comments we receive from you all after each episode mean so much to us. We're very grateful to have readers willing to give Forever Gold their time and thought! (And we're always touched to learn that demo players are still keeping up with the project! The story, characters, and the game systems have all come a long way since then.)

On bugs: I should be pushing out an update sometime this weekend that addresses these issues & some of the other bug reports we've gotten. (Luckily I've only had one report of a softlock, which is an improvement over past day-1 releases, haha.)

On characters who appear on the blog but haven't been met in game: if you see their face around here, they're destined to turn up in the story down the line! Some of them were unveiled early because rewrites moved their introductions further into the story than we initially expected, others are here simply because we've been drawing them since before the demo was made and didn't feel like feigning secrecy after the fact. By our current schedule, you'll be meeting these two soonest: