Project Announcement: Silicon Daydreams

"You can no longer feel at home on the sweltering, neon-drenched streets of Neo Orleans."

Since The Prince is Dead is about to hit one month post-release, I figured I should give an update on what's coming next. I've currently got a variety of smaller projects (Including a plan for a VN,  which will probably go up in smoke rather quickly), but my current main occupation is on another super expansive Twine IF game.

Progress is a tad slower, with university starting and all, but writing is getting done. As such, here's a quick little rapidfire Q&A to give you all the little bits you might wanna know, mostly using TPID as a frame of reference.

So it's bigger, but how much bigger?

Let's put it this way: TPID's first act came out to around 30K words (Twine Count).  The first half of Act 1 of Silicon Daydreams is nearly done, and it's currently at around 28K words. Even if half two is shorter, at the end of this act, the plot branches into three different paths.

So... basically... it's a LOT.

Does that mean more endings? Or even more romances?

Yes and yes! The current outline through the end of Silicon Daydreams has four endings prepared. As for romances, there's a main and a secondary love interest, each with their own dynamics and plots.

So wait, that wasn't a typo, right? Neo Orleans?

Yep. That's the setting. No jokes.

Why...?

It started as a funny joke thing, and I just took to it. Since the plot as a whole gets quite a bit darker, I figured I needed something a little dumb to dull the pain. It's not a hard reason, but something about it just delights me.

So it's darker? How so?

Since The Prince is Dead is a fantasy story, I could just trash 90% of terrible social norms and ignore them outside of specific cases.  Silicon Daydreams, however, is set in low-tech early cyberpunk (and the American South), so it gets grim at times. 

Essentially, imagine your typical cyberpunk, with it's rainbow ensemble cast of all the gays... then imagine a reactionary political movement abusing a power vacuum to instate strict, vaguely-1950s social norms. Throw in some war, trauma, lost love, queer-body-horror, and rising tides of corporate-backed fascism, and you've got yourself a plot.

Please, dear GOD tell me there's fluff to counteract that.

The fluff, affection, and cuddling is all over the place. It wouldn't be a story about solidarity and anti-fascism without the wholesome love. There's quite a bit to stress over, but I need that fluff to cope just as much as you do.

So... what's it about? What are the character dynamics?

Here are some points that can be said without revealing too much:

• The PC is a detective, following the case of an infamous thief called The Songbird.
• They served in a massive, and still recent war which radically changed the way the world around them is structured.
•  Most of their past is a big, messy blob that they rarely talk about.
• The main love interest is a figure from that blob, who has changed greatly, while the other is someone who the PC met during their time enlisted.

As for the other side of "What's it about?"

• It's still lesbians all the way.
• There's approximately 150% more pure concentrated gender at play than in The Prince Is Dead.

I somehow haven't been scared off. When can we expect a release?

This is the part about which I'm uncertain. I've been working on this project for around a month now, but, like I've said, progress is a tad slow. I have no intention of dropping the project, no matter what happens, but it will take some time to complete it amidst college work and mental health considerations. I won't put a date on it, though.

In the meantime, though, I do still intend to put out some smaller projects made in the middle of this one's development. Most of them are simple, fluffy oneshots, but they'll be content and keep me sane.

That's about all I have to say. Hope you all enjoyed The Prince Is Dead, and I hope you'll come around for whatever feral stuff I put out next. <3