Magical Diary: Wolf Hall (Early development thread)

[Oki]

I'm stoked. One of the best parts of the game was new people: new things. I'm so excited to learn about someone who didn't get any screentime. Also, a snake! YAAAS! I'm super stoked!!

[Foelhe]

Aw yeah.

I was pretty wary about Damien being an option - didn't like him the first time, didn't expect to like him the second - but going in forewarned and trying to take him on sounds like it could be worth it. Look forward to seeing where that goes.

Can't wait to get a chance to play this thing.

Edit: Oh, hey, that's interesting. A perfect American wizard. I'm guessing Gary's British in this game, or is he from somewhere else? Could be interesting to get some culture clash in with our magical traditions.

[Lathtal]

Oh, a new character? Interesting indeed...

[MillaMaxwell]

I am so much more excited about this game now! (And I've been pretty excited to begin with, haha.) Knowing about Damien's trustworthiness ahead of time should make for a really different feel from his route in Horse Hall. I'm also excited to see a different perspective on Ellen and a whole new character. Oh, and I love that they're all from different halls! I wonder if there's going to be a love interest from Toad to complete the set...

[FantasyFan]

Oooh, I love Barbara's design!

[crystalsilverwood]

wow, this is really coming all together! It looks really great! Love the profiles and the sound of a new character.

[hanako]

[hanako]

So a long time ago someone asked about being able to romance Grabiner this time around. My response, as best I recall, was something along the lines of "No - but the protagonist will have a very different relationship dynamic with him than HorsePC did."



RELUCTANT PARENTAL FIGURE GRABINER.

(Yes, part of that may still sound slightly mysterious because I haven't actually explained who WolfPC is to you yet! But hey, giving you a moment to wonder about it...)

[phoenixgirl]

I wonder about the backstory behind the PC.

[Hoosha]

WolfPC is secretly Mary Sue disguised with magic!!!!

[Tomo-chan]

Wow, I didn't pop in the forum for a while, and there are all these new reveals !
Since I don't know anything about Barbara I'm not as excited about her as I am about the other romances, but I look forward to meeting her.

And the thing about the protagonist hiding his true identity is great ! One of the things I thought was a shame about Horse Hall was the lack of an overarching plot. It felt like the romances were very self contained and it was overall a story about going to an exciting school, making friends and dating. Which is fine ! Great even if that's what you're looking for. But I love mystery plots (or reverse mystery plots, since you are the one hiding something...) so I am all the more hyped for the game.

Now for some speculation on the MC... We don't know a whole lot about the wizard society (and I've forgotten what we learned) it's not that easy to guess why he would want to hide his true identity. On top of this, Grabiner is helping you, so you probably don't have nefarious intents, unless you are hiding them from him.
I see several reasons :
- He is from the Otherworld (sorry if that's not the right name), so masquerading as a human either to avoid stigma or carry out a secret mission.
Unlikely because while it's possible for Grabiner to be friends with a non-human family, I don't think he would go along with the masquerade.
- He is from a family that was ostracized from the wizard society due to heinous crimes, so he's hiding either because he wouldn't be allowed to attend or because he would face bullying.
- He is only hiding something like his place in the family. For example, his older brother who was engaged to a rich heiress died, so his parents are disguising him as his brother to get the heiress.

I don't have any more guesses. What do you all think ?

[Wakuseino]

My own theory has always been that WolfPC got into trouble due to mixing magic and technology, like how Ellen did in the previous game. This also allows him to add to the world-building, as while we were told that mixing magic and tech is super bad, we never actually got a straight answer on why, and the WolfPC would be a great way to get that answer. Either way, since doing that seems to be considered super-bad by everyone in the know, it gives a very good reason why WolfPC would need to conceal their identity.

[MegaZeroX]

My theory is that it is because he is super famous, and Gary just wants to have a normal experience rather than one of a celebrity.

[hanako]

First rough draft of a Kickstarter video:

https://youtu.be/SPndU-TeL0M

(Don't share this outside the forum please)

It's not final - I probably want to redo the timing on the opening, and I may want to swap the romance and secrets bits near the end to match the music pace better (narratively it makes more sense to save that to the end but musically it's louder first and then quieter so), and I'm not totally sure about the dark corners for text... was hoping to have text with the action instead of separate like the Horse Hall trailer so things would move faster, but it may make it look too messy. Just trying things right now.

Either way, this wouldn't be the final GAME trailer, but as the game is still in development there are limits to how much I can show, many things simply don't exist yet.

Still, there may be some interesting tidbits tucked in there.

[FantasyFan]

I just want to say that the trailer increased my excitement for the game.