Dear Darjeeling [Tea & Coffee][Romantic][Conversational]

[Steamgirl]

My Cup of Coffee
Dear Darjeeling

Short Interactive Story
Sequel to The Trouble with Earl Grey





Dear Darjeeling centers around a new crisis.
The Grey family and their company, the Tea Cooperative, are on the brink of bankruptcy.
Without the Tea Cooperative, Café Latte will pass to your nearest cousin - who wants to turn it into an opium parlour!

Can you save the Tea Cooperative and Café Latte?
Can you untangle the Grey family from Miss Hemlock's clutches?
And what role does Miss Darjeeling play in all of this?

Word Count Aim: 15,000

Support this game on Patreon and get a discount!
This is a SEQUEL to The Trouble with Earl Grey.

This topic may contain SPOILERS that will
RUIN the first game if you haven't played it!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Premise
The Grey family and their company, the Tea Cooperative, are on the brink of bankruptcy. This is bad news for Café Latte, as the Tea Cooperative as you're a 5% shareholder! If the cooperative goes down, a condition in the will of your grandmother triggers - the café will be passed down to your cousin, who wants to turn it into an opium parlour! To make matters worse, Earl Grey is in poor health and in no state to save his company, while Master Grey announces his engagement to the dreadful Miss Hemlock, whose underhand tactics are destroying the family and their company!

Setting
The whole game is set at the cafe. The café itself is located in Teaside, Lemonshire, in a kind of pseudo Steampunk/Victorian world.

Recurring Characters (From The Trouble with Earl Grey)
Latte - The café owner, nameable by the player, is a likeable member of the local community. Various people seek out their help.

Earl Grey - The Earl is a regular who likes a strong coffee. He has been married to his wife for 37 years.
Lady Grey - The Lady also visits Cafe Latte regularly. She likes to read romance novels.
Maria Darjeeling - Miss Darjeeling works for the Greys. She often picks up takeaway coffees for her masters.

New Characters
Master Grey- The son of Earl and Lady Grey. He is engaged to Miss Hemlock and likes to play football.
Miss Hemlock- The daughter of a wealthy merchant. Engaged to Edward Grey.

Interaction Dense
Anyone who is familiar with my style of writing will know I like to pack in plenty of choice and interaction. This game follows a similar format to the previous one, but this time the interview process is split over 2 separate interviews with a persuasion scene at the end of each one.

Endings
There are a few endings, one happy, and the rest varying degrees of miserable. The aim is to unlock the happy ending, rather than unlocking every not-so-happy ending, although some of them may be amusing if you're really into it.

Shiny New Things
Compared to the first game, there will be some shiny new things:
- More facial expressions for each character (the previous game had 3: neutral, angry, and happy)
- More sound effects
- More music (depending on Patreon support)
- A CG for the happy ending
- More CGs (depending on Patreon support)

Current State
Design: 100%
Writing: 30%
Programming: 15%
Art: 57%
Audio: 70%
Polish: 0 %
Bug Fixing: 0%

Total: 38%

Future Releases
This is the second game in the My Cup of Coffee series. I plan to do 3-4 more. Some of these will be free releases like the first game, and some of them won't be.

Thanks for reading!
Here are a few questions if you've got time...

1) Would you like to be a tester?
2) Did you play The Trouble with Earl Grey?
2 a) If so, what aspects from the first game would you like to see in this one?
2 b) If you could change 1 thing about the first game, what would it be?
3) Do you think $2.50 is a fair price for Dear Darjeeling? Why? If not, how much do you think it's worth (if anything)?

I love honest feedback and won't hold any criticism against you, even if phrased indelicately!

[Mad Harlequin]

1) Would you like to be a tester?
2) Did you play The Trouble with Earl Grey?
2 a) If so, what aspects from the first game would you like to see in this one?
2 b) If you could change 1 thing about the first game, what would it be?
3) Do you think $2.50 is a fair price for Dear Darjeeling? Why? If not, how much do you think it's worth (if anything)?

I love honest feedback and won't hold any criticism against you, even if phrased indelicately!

1. Yes.
2. You know I did!
a. More intrigue and more adorable tea- and coffee-themed characters and places---which you appear to be offering!
b. I'd probably give Latte (and therefore the player) the chance to choose how to form an argument in addition to what she'd say. Actually, these games could be a great help in teaching people about the basics of rhetoric.
3. That's very fair, IMHO. It might even be worth more, depending on how much more the game offers.

[Steamgirl]

b. I'd probably give Latte (and therefore the player) the chance to choose how to form an argument in addition to what she'd say. Actually, these games could be a great help in teaching people about the basics of rhetoric.

Interesting idea and has given me some inspiration already! Could you expand a little on what you mean with an example?

[csky]

I really enjoyed My Cup of Coffee so I'm looking forward to this. Good luck.

[Mad Harlequin]

b. I'd probably give Latte (and therefore the player) the chance to choose how to form an argument in addition to what she'd say. Actually, these games could be a great help in teaching people about the basics of rhetoric.

Interesting idea and has given me some inspiration already! Could you expand a little on what you mean with an example?

Well, according to Aristotle, there are three kinds of appeal in rhetoric: logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos appeals to reason and truth. Pathos appeals to emotion---what effect on the audience does the speaker want to have? Ethos is the moral standing of the speaker as viewed by the audience. We use all three of these to make convincing arguments.

Anyway, I think you could do something with your Tea & Coffee series based on this. I know there's an RPG Maker game called The Logomancer that replaces traditional RPG battling with discourse. I still have to finish it, but I was a few hours in the last time I played and I remember having fun.

If you're confused or want to learn more, there are a ton of resources out there that probably explain it better than I can.

[Steamgirl]

Progress has been made on Dear Darjeeling, but finishing it before the end of the month (including testing) is going to be a bit of a squeeze! Still, I'll do my best!
As you can see, amongst other things, I've changed the layout slightly and made it widescreen. As per suggestion from a helpful reviewer, I have added a portrait in the bottom left corner to make it easier to know who is speaking.

[Steamgirl]

Aaaaand the placeholders for Eward Grey and Modesty Hemlock are in!

[pocari]

Beautiful! I played the first game and I really enjoyed it! Can't wait to play this one too!

1) Would you like to be a tester?
A: Yes! tho I never beta-test before so maybe no.. orz
2) Did you play The Trouble with Earl Grey?
A: Yes! And I really enjoyed it!
2 a) If so, what aspects from the first game would you like to see in this one?
A: Maybe a reminder about the character? like the player list down on a notepad the character likes and dislike after the interview or whatever information you get.
2 b) If you could change 1 thing about the first game, what would it be?
A: Nothing!
3) Do you think $2.50 is a fair price for Dear Darjeeling? Why? If not, how much do you think it's worth (if anything)?
A: I think the price is fair!

Also, for the sprite of Edward, I think you should make his shoulder a bit wider.

[Steamgirl]

UPDATE: Re-plotting the plot / moving release date
I got to about 60% through writing the story... and realised that no matter how hard I try, the pieces of the puzzle don't quite fit. On top of that, the scope ballooned - with at least 6 additional locations (which means new backgrounds), and 5 new (really minor) characters. I don't begrudge doing that, but most were only going to be on screen for a short scene (eg. the train station, while they talk to the station master for 2 paragraphs) and the story was not quite working - felt forced.

So I am back to square one. Except not quite because I can probably salvage some of what I've written already. I am not changing the character's motivations or the background story - the WHY stays the same. But the HOW is going to change a bit. On top of that, I've decided to give Latte very clear motivations for getting involved in the central conflict - "to make the customer happy" is too weak. It felt like the player was tagging along for unconvincing reasons. It's a BIG RISK because I'm stepping away from Latte as a "blank slate" - Latte's goal and motivations may not be in line with what they player will want. But hopefully they will be understandable enough for the player to want to go along with the ride.

So where am I at now? I have taken a high-level view of the story and am plotting it top down. That means I'm starting with everyone's GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict), and adding Latte's GMC too. Then I will put in "the inciting incident", plot points 1, 2, and 3, the and the resolution and fill in the scenes in between. Once that's in order, writing should go pretty quickly. But I don't think releasing in August is going to be possible, if I leave time for testing etc. I don't feel comfortable releasing a game until I know most (if not all) bugs have been caught.

-----
@pocari
Thanks so much for your thoughts! I love the idea of having some kind of reference about the different characters, so I will something like that to this game! Also, I think you're right about Edward's shoulders. He's pretty sporty, so it would be good to reflect that.

[Steamgirl]

UPDATE: Plotting done! Writing resumed!
I've finished re-doing the plot and it's really tight now. I've got my scene outlines and I'm back into full-on writing mode!
Patrons on Patreon get a sneak preview snippet from the first scene.

[Steamgirl]

UPDATE: 30% writing done, CG in progress
The writing for Dear Darjeeling is slow but steady. It's great to see things take shape!


I've also made good progress on the CG for the game. An in-process preview (bigger than the image above) is available for for patrons.