Larkin has been updated with chapter three routes a+b! There is new content all across the game, including new ui by @nyehilismwriting and art by bree gilliam, plus around 50k words worth of new content.
This update has been a long labor of love and I'm excited for finally others to look at it.
You can play the update here! I hope you enjoy <3
“As the artist mourns his fortune
So the Dynasty falls to crumble,
And the two branches snatch asunder”
You are a recent member of The White Company, a mercenary guild on the far side of the law. Your job consists of hunting artifacts and roaming ruins that the Church has forbidden to mention. One of your expeditions, however, leads you down a path that is much deeper than you ever anticipated.
“The Golden Rose: Book One” is a thrilling 1.2-million-word interactive fantasy novel by Ana Ventura, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Juggle friendships, new alliances, and flames of romance in this epic adventure that will take you to an Europe where History took a different turn.
Play as male or female; straight, gay, or bisexual.
Find romance, friendship, or rivalry with a cast of colorful characters.
Hunt down the thief that stole your forbidden maps!
Fight against bandits and city guards while trying to stray away from the all-seeing Eyes of the Church.
Explore ancient ruins and the cobble-stoned streets of the medieval city of Tarragona. Step into a grand cathedral, a sprawling market, a multicolored harbor, the dark gates of the city, or an aqueduct that no one dares to come close to.
Bond with a stubborn old horse.
Choose to ally with a street urchin or the feral captain of the Guard.
Uncover what is true in a world where denial reigns supreme.
Start to unravel your own mysterious past.
Immerse yourself in a world rich with characters, story, and lore.
Do you believe in Destiny?
- - -
The Golden Rose: Book One is out for you to play!
You can find it at the links below:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1892950/The_Golden_Rose_Book_One/
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.hostedgames.goldenrose1&hl=pt_PT&gl=US
App Store Omnibus: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hosted-games/id1302297731
Choice of Games: https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/golden-rose-book-one/
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I hope you enjoy it! 🌹
IT’S HERE
Case Three: Chapter One (“A Love Story”) is available to play here!
This is a story-driven chapter, so sit back and enjoy the ride 😉
As always, feedback is appreciated. Let me know your thoughts about the chapter - I’d love to hear it!
For coding errors, please let me know which line the error occurs at (ChoiceScript should display it in their error message).
Reblogs, as always, are more than welcome ✨
I was walking through the toy aisle at Target when I found this thing and had a VIOLENT AND IMMEDIATE FLASHBACK to when JP first came out and they had a bunch of REALLY COOL T Rex toys that I would have sold one of my scrawny small-child limbs for but my mother wouldn’t get me one because they were “too violent and also ate people” :(
GONCHAROV (1973) Dir. Martin Scorsese.
People love to talk about the immortality of the machine, but I'm a mechanical engineer, so I know they delude themselves. Most machines are far more mortal than flesh.
How long does a machine last? A car is a very solid machine, expensive, precision designed, and you're lucky if you get more than three decades out of them.
Your enemy is not the flesh. It's entropy. It's the death knell of the energy imbalance. If you want to live as a complex machine you will, by necessity, generate a great deal of entropy until your machine breaks irrevocably.
You want to be immortal? Then don't worship the machine, worship the stone, the forest. Seek that which is either simple enough to never know death or diffused enough to accept every death.
Hi there! I absolutely ADORED your demo omg you cannot believe. Khari is the love of my life just saying...fdjsklaf anyway what are some of your favourite IF's? Completed or otherwise, anything from paid released games, itch.io games, stuff from choicescript etc. :D
hello! <3
first of all -- THANK YOU for the kind words, and welcome to the Khari fan club, we have cookies and carrots <3
as for my favorite IFs; okay this will be a long list so brace yourself! (and I do apologise to all authors for the spam)
Most of those are demos or in development, but nevertheless they are all amazing and I replay them way too often;
Sinners (demo) by @olivewrites-if / @sinners-if - you get to romance a villain, I feel like this is enough to get most people hooked (demo)
Honor Among Thieves (demo) by @leoneliterary - fantasy with some romance and intrigue, and as I am a fan of anything that has guilds (Skyrim w/ thieves guild, Assassin's Creed and the sort) I just love this one
Superstition S1 & S2 (finished) by @13leaguestories - supernatural, found family, powers, romance, angels, demons, hunting; what more to want?
Throne of Ashes (demo) by @13leaguestories - fantasy (but with pretty mature themes), romance; there are houses (MC is from House of Phoenix) and each character is just chefs kiss imo
Unwilling Souls (demo) by @unwilling-souls-if - angels!!!! but they are not your typical "angels"!!!! and there's lots of angst, and it's just awesome
Defiled Hearts: The Barbarian (demo) by @defiledheartsblog - dark historical fiction, romance, some fantasy elements; personally I replayed it 3 times in a row and was never bored once and that says something since my attention span is like 5 minutes at best
Supernatural in New York (demo) by @llamagirl28 - lighthearted urban fantasy with romance; think Supernatural if it was actually good and diverse, it scratches my adhd brain in just the right way, and the characters are amazing
The Bastard of Camelot (demo) by @llamagirl28 - I replayed it 8 times, no joke, and I still love it and it's my comfort IF I'd say; I love the story, the characters, customisation, and the idea behind it all.
The King's Hound (demo) by @kal-down / @the-kingshound - I am a sucker for Arthurian Legends, and I'm a sucker for fantasy and historical fiction in general, and it's written so well I want to cry every time I replay it
The Abyssal (demo) by @theabyssal - you get to play as Death what more can someone want??? and it gives me god of war / mythologies vibes, so I of course replayed it over 10 times.
Water to Blood (demo) by @veirsewrites - vampire MC who owns a nightclub, I'm sorry but this is all I needed to be obsessed. it reminds me of the show Lucifer, but it's also so unique that I happily replay it all the time.
Blood Moon (demo) by @barbwritesstuff - werewolves. that's all. that's the tweet.
Absentia (demo) by @absentia-if - I'm a sucker for crime stories, and this had me hooked from the start, and I love how complex each character is.
Exile (demo) by @exilethegame - dark fantasy with pretty mature and violent themes; replayed it so many times I'm ashamed to admit the actual number.
A Mage Reborn (demo) by @mage-parivir - I've been replaying it religiously since November of 2021 so yeah, I'm obsessed, and not even sorry. Fantasy games are my jam.
Speaker (demo) by @speakergame - one of the first IFs I played I think, and I still adore it to bits; it's written so well, and I adore the detective-supernatural vibes.
Ballad of the Judgement of Night (demo) by @nikkefort-dev - it was one of first 5 IFs I ever played, and I can safely say it's one of my absolute favorites; I adore the themes of angels/demons and 'fallen ones'.
Citadel (demo) by @bouncyballcitadel - medical drama; didn't know I liked medical dramas but now I do, and I'm in love with this IF in its entirety. also made me realise I'm gayer than I thought.
Villain's Promise (demo) by @villains-promise - fantasy with romance and betrayal, that's all I need for my soul. also in the first 5 IFs I ever played, and still love it.
Wolfwater (demo) by @carrs-universe-if - first IF I ever played, got me into IFs, and I love it to bits. Psychological thriller/body horror with some supernatural themes.
The Ballad of Devil's Creek (demo) by @devilscreekballad - western with romance and angst, and unlike all westerns it's actually diverse and inclusive so of course I love it.
Larkin (demo) by @larkin-if - vampires, hunters, and general Midnight Mass vibes; I'm here for it.
These Crimson Strings (demo) by @thesecrimsonstrings-if - MC is an ancient vampire who meets their long lost (dead) soulmate reborn as someone 'new'; the angst is amazing.
A Tale of Crowns (demo) by @ataleofcrowns - no joke replayed it over 10 times, loved it every single one of them. Fantasy with some court intrigue and amazing companions.
I have more but the list is already so long, I don't want this to be dismissed/blocked as a bot message or something kjfhfd
I know it’s not the 9th in most places in the world, but it is in some! And I’m impatient 😆✨ anyway—one year! Isn’t that amazing? Time flies when you’re having fun 😅 Thank you all for giving me such a warm welcome to all this 💖 without your support and kindness, this would have remained a small little writing exercise 😳
As thanks for sticking by me and the game, I wanted to give all of you something. But as the new chapter 3 and 4 update isn’t done yet, I had to do the next best thing! I’ve updated chapters 1 and 2 with a little over 6 thousand new words, which feature content such as:
Extended Lestrade sandwich scene
Ask Watson about Lestrade
New price if you win the heads or tails game 😉
Steal Lestrade’s flask?
Multiple new choices and edits to make it easier to play a soft bickering Lestrade relationship 💖 (if you still want to be yelled at, make sure you make them mad before gloating rudely or obliviously)
And more!
I hope you like it and have a great weekend! ❤️
Cozy academia
Demo
Have at it!
Shenanigans aside, as previously stated this update includes just over 170,000 words, which covers Peyton, Peidyn, Abelyn, and Anadora’s Romance, Platonic, and Friendship Routes (where you can still see their scenes without being on their specific path).
The update will have Broken your save files so make sure to start a fresh game.
Update Notes and Details Below:
There are now four accessibility settings, some old, a few new.
The Unicode Hints, and Panic Switch you should all be familiar with by now. The Script Display and Weights and Measures Switches, not so much.
There is a full explanation in the demo, but in brief:
The Scripts Display switch gives you the ability to swap between using Old English letters like the wynn Ƿ, and using the standard Roman Alphabet. It also changes the display of certain words to match their pronunciation with a British English accent. Since I'm well aware that only a minority of my readership have such an accent I've also included a rough transcript of each word using the IPA on each of the word's journal page.
The Weights and Measures switch allows you to switch between the in story measurements system and the metric system.
All the accessibility switches can be accessed at any point during the game from the Stats Screen Menu.
There are gaps present in the Stats Screen Journal Pages. I ran out of time and brain power before the release deadline -_-
I'll try and get a mini patch out by the end of the week to fix this.
I hope you all enjoy reading the new update, and as always feedback and bug reports are much appreciated.
Now, unless any major bugs emerge in the next 30 minutes or so, I'm off to collapse in a heap.
Have fun everyone!