So as some of you may remember, I have been working my way through college and it has been really overwhelming 😕. I needed the money though, and I guess some part of me just wanted to show I could be independent. But it has been rough. I finally broke down the other night. K suggested that I should quit my job and that he’d support me financially. He’s brought this up before, but I was afraid of being completely dependent on him or feeling like I would be a burden if I quit. Idk if that makes sense 🤕. My stubbornness was making it hard for me to agree, but today I accepted his offer and quit my job. I feel like a giant weight is lifted off of me now.
I know this sharing finances thing is pretty standard for couples, but rn I’m just feeling like dead weight. Ugh 😑. I could really use some advice…
December is upon us! It is now truly winter (in the northern hemisphere), and National Novel Writing Month is over. I hope everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo had as much fun as I did. This year, I used the month of November to focus on two projects in parallel: my ongoing work-in-progress, Turncoat Chronicle, and a brand-new short story.
Speaking of Turncoat Chronicle, I am currently working on the final scenes in chapter 4. When I am satisfied with them, I'll put up a call for beta testers through the game's development thread. Testing will be done through the COG forums, so if you're interested in participating, you'll need an account.
Once the beta test has helped me locate any glaring errors, whether of code or of continuity, I will make the entire game public, for a limited time. This will help me get a wider range of feedback on the different paths within the game, especially on combinations of choices that I didn't anticipate. I hope that patient players will enjoy this period of open beta before the game is ready to be submitted for publication.
I'm looking forward to it, and I hope you are, too.
I’ve been super busy lately with school but I wanted to give some updates and tell you guys about the wedding 🤠. I’ve been dying to get it all down in a post!
In February we went down to the courthouse in the afternoon (we had to schedule this ahead of time) 💒. I wore a white dress but I didn’t get a really extravagant one because it wasn’t a huge fancy wedding or anything lol. It was a little short, a little simple. Sharon Tate and Priscilla Presley were my style inspirations 💐! I tried a 60s eyeliner look but kept the rest of my face pretty simple ☺️. I’m not the best at make up but I’d say I did a pretty good job! K had gotten me these pretty light-blue high heels for my “something blue” and I loved it! And the morning of the ceremony, he surprised me with gold earrings to complete the look. I am really so in love with this man 😭💕. K looked amazing in his suit (he looks amazing always but 😄). The kids were dressed up so cute 😊. I was so happy and the pictures we took came out great! I think they are technically our first “professional” pictures together as a family which really makes me so happy .
After the ceremony we went to an amazing restaurant together, then back to the house (our honeymoon will be taken after my semester finishes 👀). I can imagine a wedding day with anyone else would have been so stressful but with K it all went so smoothly and it was truly the best day ever 🙌! I fell asleep in Ks arms that night and felt like the luckiest girl in the whole world! 💕❤️💕 Thanks to you guys again for being so supportive!!
This week Pesach begins, and I will be spending most of the holiday week with my family. Before that, I intend to push a small update to TC, version 0.11.2., if you will. This update includes some small improvements to scenes in chapters 1 and 2, to make existing scenes more dynamic and engaging. Even though these are small changes that will probably not affect anyone's endgame, I hope you enjoy them.
After the holiday, I will make a last round of tests and bug fixes, to make sure that the game is as polished as I can make it before submission. Once the submitted files have been received by Hosted Games, the beta version will go offline.
So the wedding is scheduled for Feb 24th 💒. We decided that we didn’t want a big thing, so that day we’ll just go down to the courthouse, and afterwards go out to eat as a family 🍝. I never imagined that when I got married, it wouldn’t be a huge party but I like how intimate and stress-free this will be!
It's October, which means time for holidays, at least for me. On the con side, that means that I've been busy with holiday gatherings and have not gotten as much writing done as I would have liked. On the pro side, since I'm currently working on the holiday masque scene, it's a wonderful excuse to tell you a bit more about the summer solstice in Koth.
Summer solstice is the longest day of the year, due to the interaction of the sun with the earth's axial tilt. For the sake of convenience, the solstices and equinoxes in Koth's world work the same way that they do in our world.
Madara's religion is syncretic and based around the three Disciples, once minor messengers subservient to more senior gods. In Koth, the most venerable of the three is Ariel, the god of war and also the god of the sun. This is why Koth's flag has a winged lion on it, which is Ariel's symbol. Because the summer solstice is the longest day of the year, it's naturally become a holiday dedicated to the god of the sun.
Solstice celebrations in Koth can be extravagant. Special foods prepared for the holiday are usually very sweet or very spicy, sometimes both. In the cities and in some wealthy noble households, red and gold banners are used as decoration. Otherwise, people mostly decorate with red flowers, like poppies and clovers.
The oldest tradition, however, is the Masque of the Sun. This ancient play, which recounts the mythological tale of the sun disappearing and reappearing, has had countless variations over the centuries. Early versions were taken quite literally as the story of the sun god traveling to the highest mountaintop to force the goddess of the mountains to end winter. Contemporary versions are generally regarded as fables or allegories.
The Masque of the Sun is first mentioned in chapter 3 of Turncoat Chronicle. In chapter 4, you'll have the option to view the masque for yourselves. The MC, as a royal, has a major part in the play.
I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into the world of the game. Now, it's time for me to get back to actually writing the masque scene which, naturally, comes in several different variations. I'll be back again in November with a new update.
