Okay, “botched Amber job” has officially entered my Neathy vocabulary. XD
This was so much fun to finally get to sit down and watch; it made me happy to see other Fallen London players getting the jokes and references I was setting up. A writer can’t control how a reader reacts to what they make, but it is really really gratifying to see when your intentions click well. Also your combined laughter is really infectious; watching this put me in such a good mood.
You’re correct about how the randomized element works; it’s assigned right after the player clicks to Start a new game on the main menu. It sets values for each of the three books, which picks one that pages wants as a gift, one which pages would NOT like as a gift, and one which it already owns. Pages’ art changes based on that last one, and a different book will be hanging from its belt.
I love that you both had a wager on the outcome of this playthrough! It makes me want to make more games that people can have a friendly competition with! That might be silly to say when, you know, two-player games are super common. But I make visual novels, so there usually isn’t any PVP! XD Sorry that this had to be a game with the end message of “Win conditions are subjective,” when you directly needed a binary win/loss for your own fun style of play! I’m going to be pretty busy with other visual novels for the foreseeable future, but if I make another game with Pages, I’ll let you know about the possibility for a rematch! 😁