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The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:04 pm
by papillon
The game has been released! Visit the official The Royal Trap webpage to watch the trailer and download the demo

The rest of this post is now outdated (and irritatingly is suffering an imageshack error of some sort so I actually have to delete some of it just to get this edit to post...)

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Madeleine Valois is a prince's companion. Her job is to guide and advise him, to dress him up and make him look good so that he can land a royal bride.

It is her responsibility to keep him out of trouble - not to let him walk blindly into a political minefield, not to let him get arrested for a crime he didn't commit, and definitely not to let him fall in love with her.

Unfortunately, things don't seem to be going according to plan...

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Madeleine
A clever young woman who takes her responsibilities seriously, so much so that she tends to isolate herself from others.

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Prince Oscar
Madeleine's employer / charge. An easygoing young man with a winning smile and a tendency to believe the best of people.

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Princess Cassidy
A wealthy young heiress whom Oscar is supposed to be paying suit to.

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Prince Callum
The sullen and unfriendly brother of Princess Cassidy.

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Prince Nazagi
Another of Cassidy's suitors, with an ominous reputation.

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Prince Gaston
Another of Cassidy's suitors, a bombastic gentleman.

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So, here you have a rarity from me: a pure visual novel, no minigames, and even more novel-y than most (longer descriptive passages in a special display so you don't have to click-click-click constantly).

It is "low" fantasy in the sense that there are no wizards and dragons, and no world-threatening evil demon armies on the move. This is all about people plotting against people, falling in and out of love, and occasionally trying to murder each other. Maybe. The setting is not exactly Standard Medieval Fantasy. Techwise, we're closer to Late Middle Ages / Early Renaissance. Guns exist, but they're sufficiently awkward and unreliable that most people don't run around with them. Alchemists are still working on how to turn lead into gold, but have found a few other fascinating things in the process. Medicine, at least along the lines of 'drink this and you'll feel better', is eyed with extreme suspicion. And, of course, beautiful men are the order of the day.

I am opting not to label this as otome for the moment because even though there is a female protagonist and there very obviously may be some romance going on, this is not one of those stories where everyone falls madly in love with the heroine at first sight for no reason and can be happily chased into marriage. That, and I have no intention of revealing at this stage which characters are and aren't romanceable. :)

I am still interested in recruiting beta readers, and will be looking for different people at different stages of development - I want fresh eyes on things after I put them through changes! So just because I ignore you now doesn't necessarily mean I'm rejecting you. Applicants should be capable of demonstrating discretion and at least some skill at reviewing / literary analysis (anyone posting just "ooo, mee!!" will be ignored :) ) On the other hand, feel free to post random excitement and ideas for things you'd like to see or not see based on what little information I am making available; I'll probably ignore it but you never know, you might inspire me!

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:22 pm
by Ginger
I enjoy the fact that instead of labeling it otome, you put female protagonist. The art is also very beautiful. I enjoy the setting-- a not quite middle age/Renaissance fantasy. I actually enjoy more text-y games, it reminds me a lot of the choose your own adventure books. I would be interested in being a beta reader, but first and foremost I wish you the best of luck in this game!

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:16 am
by LVUER
I'm still interested to be a beta-tester. I'm a little surprised that it's going to be a pure VN though (I was really sure it's going to be a sim or RPG). Oh well, I hope it's going to have a lot (I mean A LOT) of choices...

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:27 am
by Veniae
Whoa, this looks promising! The art is lovely and the synopsis certainly piqued my interest. I love fantasy and political intrigues, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this project. So, good luck!

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 11:30 pm
by Razz
This sounds amazing, I like that the core romance doesn't appear to center around the protagonist either.

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:01 am
by Sapphi
papillon wrote:Image
Prince Oscar
Madeleine's employer / charge. An easygoing young man with a winning smile and a tendency to believe the best of people.
Image

...I don't have time to beta read, but this looks very interesting (I love period drama) and the art is just lovely. I also like the fact that the protagonist seems so integral to the plot and isn't just there to chase sparkly princes. (Not that there's anything wrong with sparkly princes. Especially not Prince G down there. I had a good laugh when I first saw him because he just looks so... awesome. :lol: )

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:13 am
by Valkyrie
Wow , I love the art. Good luck :D

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:24 pm
by lemuel
Well, Hanako, then thousand years in this new project. It looks very exciting.

If ever you need a beta reader for this game after April 25 (ugh, exams), please do not hesitate to contact me.

I am very good at correcting grammar, and can correctly conjugate Early Modern English well enough. I have some knowledge of Latin (enough to get proper vocatives/imperatives, at least)

My writing style is ponderous and labyrinthine at its worse, but I can write very good parallelisms and octosyllabic poetry.

Lemuel presents himself available after April 25.

Will there be any yuri options? any possibility that the prince is gay?

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:32 am
by papillon
Will there be any yuri options? any possibility that the prince is gay?
I can neither confirm nor deny anything along lines like this at this point in time as the presence or absence of such might constitute large plot spoilers. :)

Given that it's me writing it and my track record it is a safe bet that there is some LGBT content somewhere in the game.

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:07 pm
by papillon
current progress:

The game contains 3,569 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 56,472 words,
for an average of 15.8 words per screen.
The game contains 25 menus.

This brings me to at least a rough draft completion of Gaston's path, which has three endings.

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:31 am
by lemuel
Congratulations!

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:03 pm
by distorsion
About being a beta reader: I would love to be one, and I believe I would be able to do a very good job of giving feedback as to the literary quality, seeing as my father is an english professor who has been teaching me (and using me as a guinee pig for his classes, lol) since I was five.
About the game in general: I really like the preposed setting. As for my impression of the characters, Nazagi is the one that most peaks my interest. Anyone else think Prince Oscar looks a bit young? Also... *sees Prince Gaston* O.O *backs away slowly*

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:38 pm
by EternalDandelions
omg yesh, the plot seem interesting *A*

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:04 pm
by try10
OHOHO this looks really nice. Original plot, nice art and HOT PRINCES!!!! I am so waiting for this! :D

Re: The Royal Trap [Fantasy/Intrigue][Female Protagonist]

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 10:46 am
by Headache
I find the protagonist Madeleine much more beautiful than Princess Cassidy.