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Play the Mask of the Rose Demo!
When we were putting together the Kickstarter, we knew there would be some way of crafting stories to hand in to Mr Pages, and we had some general ideas for the mechanic. Our prototype showed us that there was more potential in this concept than we'd initially allowed for, and therefore we wanted to make it richer. We decided against a couple of other minigame concepts we were less excited about, and instead committed to doing this one well and deeply. Therell be a future blog post talking about this in more detail! We've also expanded the expressive capacity of some of the game's other systems. For example, we always knew that characters would have poses and expressions to communicate their moods, but have moved from having a relatively small set of options for each character to one where head and body poses are separate, and there's now procedural work going on to place the characters in the scenes. These things let us communicate NPC emotional state with more fidelity, show more of the state of your relationship with that character outside of the immediate conversation, and add some visual liveliness to the longer conversations. Character facial expressions and body poses can be hand-scripted to respond to particular moments in the story, but if the author hasn't specified, there's a whole set of default rules. Characters have emotions depending on what social interactions you've just had with them, or (failing that) will fall back to looking happy if you have a history being especially kind to them, or grumpy if you have a history of being especially unkind.
Body poses similarly can respond to the moment in various ways, but default back to having arms crossed if you have a history of being especially bossy and dominant towards them, or having a more spread/open pose if they themselves overall feel like they're in command of a situation. In two-person scenes, there are a lot of rules controlling where characters stand, and again sometimes that's hand-authored, but the fall-backs there can express whether the characters get along or not -- positioning them closer together if they're in love, for example, which is something that can change from playthrough to playthrough Lastly, we initially imagined the effects of protagonist customisation being a bit lighter or more cosmetic, but we found some interesting potential there, and that's resulted in the ability to make player characters who have significantly different styles of social behaviour, whether joky or moody or something else. These are all choices that have brought us to a sweet spot for the games design that will maximise a) how much you can express your character through storycrafting and roleplay and b) how clearly the other characters' feelings and states "read" to you, so that you can see the ways you're affecting someone and have a real sense of their responses to you. We hope youll feel we made the right choice to pursue these enhancements our sense is that our players usually care more about how good the game is than exactly when its done, so weve tried to honour that. We hope you enjoy the demo!
[ 2022-02-10 13:47:10 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today its been exactly a year since Mask of the Rose was funded on Kickstarter. We have a surprise for you, and some news about the release date.
First, the surprise. We have a demo of Mask of the Rose, available right now from the store page!
And look at the shiny new user interface!
Offering a condensed version of Act I of Mask of the Rose, youll be able to explore select locations across the city, introduce yourself to some key characters and encounter Mr Pages in its office at the Bazaar.
At the opening of Mask of the Rose, Mr Pages has employed your housemate, Griz, who has in turn found a few pennies work for you as census taker. The census goes some way beyond the expected (Surface census forms never did ask if anyone in the residence was in love), so youll need to approach conversations with care to find out all you need to know.
Demo Feedback
We are absolutely champing at the bit to see your reactions to the demo! Other than our Steam forums, the very best places to talk about it will be on Discord, our forums, and the Fallen London subreddit.
There are a few things itll be useful to know before you send feedback:
- In the final game there will be a text log, so you can scroll back through conversations
- There will also be audio sliders under Settings
- And of course, there will be saving in the finished game (the final version of Act I will be fleshed out from this version, so carrying choices over wouldnt be possible).
When we were putting together the Kickstarter, we knew there would be some way of crafting stories to hand in to Mr Pages, and we had some general ideas for the mechanic. Our prototype showed us that there was more potential in this concept than we'd initially allowed for, and therefore we wanted to make it richer. We decided against a couple of other minigame concepts we were less excited about, and instead committed to doing this one well and deeply. Therell be a future blog post talking about this in more detail! We've also expanded the expressive capacity of some of the game's other systems. For example, we always knew that characters would have poses and expressions to communicate their moods, but have moved from having a relatively small set of options for each character to one where head and body poses are separate, and there's now procedural work going on to place the characters in the scenes. These things let us communicate NPC emotional state with more fidelity, show more of the state of your relationship with that character outside of the immediate conversation, and add some visual liveliness to the longer conversations. Character facial expressions and body poses can be hand-scripted to respond to particular moments in the story, but if the author hasn't specified, there's a whole set of default rules. Characters have emotions depending on what social interactions you've just had with them, or (failing that) will fall back to looking happy if you have a history being especially kind to them, or grumpy if you have a history of being especially unkind.
Body poses similarly can respond to the moment in various ways, but default back to having arms crossed if you have a history of being especially bossy and dominant towards them, or having a more spread/open pose if they themselves overall feel like they're in command of a situation. In two-person scenes, there are a lot of rules controlling where characters stand, and again sometimes that's hand-authored, but the fall-backs there can express whether the characters get along or not -- positioning them closer together if they're in love, for example, which is something that can change from playthrough to playthrough Lastly, we initially imagined the effects of protagonist customisation being a bit lighter or more cosmetic, but we found some interesting potential there, and that's resulted in the ability to make player characters who have significantly different styles of social behaviour, whether joky or moody or something else. These are all choices that have brought us to a sweet spot for the games design that will maximise a) how much you can express your character through storycrafting and roleplay and b) how clearly the other characters' feelings and states "read" to you, so that you can see the ways you're affecting someone and have a real sense of their responses to you. We hope youll feel we made the right choice to pursue these enhancements our sense is that our players usually care more about how good the game is than exactly when its done, so weve tried to honour that. We hope you enjoy the demo!
[ 2022-02-10 13:47:10 CET ] [ Original post ]
Mask of the Rose
Failbetter Games
Developer
Failbetter Games
Publisher
Coming Soon
Release
Singleplayer Tags
Game News Posts:
37
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🎮 Full Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support
Mostly Positive
(205 reviews)
Public Linux Depots:
- [0 B]
Welcome to Fallen London: a darkly hilarious gothic underworld where death is a temporary inconvenience, the rats talk, and Hell is only a stone's throw away.
Thanks to an unknown bargain, London now resides in a vast cavern under the earth. Down here, the sun doesn't shine, and Parliament has sunk into the Thames. Queen Victoria never emerges from her palace. Cats spy on their owners and whisper their secrets abroad. The fabric of strait-laced Victorian society has begun to fray.
New Masters are in charge. Why are they so… tall? And always cloaked? And why are they so interested in love stories?
The possibilities for personal connection in London are different now. Thrown together in crisis, you might befriend or romance many of the characters you meet, from Griz, your assertive housemate for whom the Fall was a chance to break free of Victorian societal norms, to the infernally well-dressed gentleman at the Brass Consulate with the amber eyes.
Even death itself has a twist here: the first murder victim since the Fall is feeling much better, and keen to see justice done. Unfortunately, as the doctor who treated him immediately before he expired, your housemate Archie is the prime suspect...
- (Re)invent yourself: who were you before the Fall? Who will you be now?
- Create outfits from a selection of clothing and unusual accessories to unlock different story options
- Fall in love with a cast of diverse Londoners, each with their own secrets
- Matchmake among your friends, or seek love for yourself (by any definition you like)
- Write love stories in a delightful minigame, and use them to impress the new Masters
- Pick up odd jobs to earn money and gather resources. How are you at rat catching?
- Solve the first murder since the Fall, with the assistance of the victim
- Discover cosy, mysterious and magnificent locations in a dark and delicious version of Victorian London
- Seek deeper and deeper secrets over multiple playthroughs
Will you be a brilliant matchmaker, connecting friends and rivals while remaining unattached? Or are you looking for lasting love? Perhaps you're open to whatever comes your way? Every major storyline is accessible regardless of whether your approach to love is romantic or platonic.
Use an elaborate, dynamic story-crafting system to create love stories – and murder theories. Are the twists in the tale not to your taste? Then change the motive, the location, even the victim, and see how the stories adapt!
Your past will open different doors for you in London. What was your life on the Surface like? Were your family landed gentry? Or did they own a tailor’s shop, or dabble in the occult?
Your clothing will also make people think differently of you. Your outfits open new possibilities in conversation: be bolder, more commanding, more flirtatious. Ingratiate yourself with London's inhabitants by changing your style of dress – they won't be able to resist you in that hat!
You'll also work odd jobs and collect resources which will open new avenues in social situations. Your housemate Griz has found you work as census-taker for those curious new Masters. Fill your census-taker's notebook with intimate details about your fellow citizens and you'll find you can pursue deeper relationships with them, romantic or otherwise.
Griz
For your fellow lodger Griz, the Fall of London has been a liberation – the chance to throw off her corsets, dump the dresses and be taken seriously in a position that would have been forbidden to her when she was 'Miss Griselda'.
Archie
For your other housemate Archie, the change is terrifying. What is a medical student supposed to believe in when even the laws of death no longer apply?
Harjit
When the Fall struck, Harjit stepped up to help anyone who needed it. Now he’s settling into his role as a man in uniform, but the territory is unfamiliar – and, secretly, he has a missing person of his own to find.
Milton
Milton is the amber-eyed host of a literary parlour with a scalding handshake and a prior address in Hell. He’s an excellent listener, but does he only want you for your soul?
Rachel
Rachel was halfway through her serialised novel when London fell and everything she was writing about was turned upside-down. Her publisher grows impatient. Fortunately (?) meeting Milton has rekindled her passion – for more than just writing.
David
Rachel’s brother, and no fan of Milton, David is also destined to be Fallen London’s first murder victim. When he returns from the dead, you can ask him all about it.
Horatia
For a decade, Horatia has taken in lodgers and turned them into family. Since London fell, people need the security she offers more than ever. So when a man made entirely of clay knocks at the door, offering to pay handsomely for lodgings, she can hardly refuse.
Mr Pages
One of London's new, mysterious “Masters”, Mr Pages has embarked on the titanic endeavour of conducting London’s first post-Fall census! But why are its questions so concerned with the love-lives of London’s citizens? How do people declare their affection, in this fair city? How lasting are their attachments? Might a Londoner take an interest in a very tall, broad-shouldered, cloaked personage that leans towards the chiropterous, hypothetically speaking?
Explore this unique city in glorious, richly rendered 2D. Experience London through three seasons: the season of Confessions, the season of Yule, and the season of Love. Help establish the first Feast of the Rose, a festival of romance that will be celebrated in London for decades to come!
For players of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, Mask of the Rose offers a chance to immerse yourselves in the city that founded this deep, dark, and marvellous universe. And for veteran players of the Fallen London browser game, it marks your first opportunity to visit the city just after it fell. But fear not: Mask of the Rose is an excellent introduction to the universe we’ve been building for more than a decade, and you don’t need to have played our other games first. Come on in. Most things won’t bite, unless you want them to.
Explore the locales, lives, and loves of an impossible city. Exchange bon-mots with devils. Investigate the first murder where the victim can testify at the murderer’s trial. Dive into the sunken ruins of poor drowned Parliament. And if you’re truly reckless, fall in love.
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 20.04+. ArchLinux
- Processor: Intel Pentium 2GHZ or AMD equivalentMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.2+. Vulkan capable
- Storage: <8 GB available space
GAMEBILLET
[ 6132 ]
GAMERSGATE
[ 2625 ]
FANATICAL BUNDLES
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HUMBLE BUNDLES
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