Eep, I really haven’t written for a while.
In my defence, I am in a whirlwind of writing as I finish “Choices: And Their Souls Were Eaten”, write the sequel to “Heart of Brass” (it’ll be a trilogy by the end of next year), and research and write [redacted] for [redacted], which is terribly exciting.
First things first, the Tin Man Games story app formerly known as “Choices: And The Sun Went Out” (after the first story, which I also co-wrote) is now known as “Choices That Matter”. It’s still on iOS and Google Play, and the finished tales will eventually show up on Steam.
So, I co-wrote the first story, “And The Sun Went Out” (from arc 4 onwards)
I wrote the second story, “And Their Souls Were Eaten”
I shall be editing the third story, “And Their Heroes Were Lost”.
All in all, KG Tan and I have made sure our fingerprints are all over all three stories. (For those not in the know, KG Tan is the project head of both “Choices That Matter” and “Miss Fisher” and he wrote rather a lot of “And The Sun Went Out”. He’s the last line of defence when it comes to editing, especially coding errors, and he is a spectacularly gifted person as well as a genuine friend.)
Phill Berrie was the first-line editor for “And Their Souls Were Eaten” and he is the writer of “And Their Heroes Were Lost” (which is seriously excellent!)
So let’s talk “And Their Souls Were Eaten”, since it’s my big beautiful baby. It had forty updates over 10 months, and the final update will come out within days. The final word count is around 377,000 (which is impressive until you compare it to the 15-month “And The Sun Went Out”, which came in just over 600,000 words).
YES in case you were wondering, it is connected to my other steampunk stories (they’re all connected). It takes place in 1836 Europe, well before any of the other stories, and the central problem of the story is different to all the rest.
Whenever I write interactive steampunk, I decide one one version of the story that is the “canon” version—the least contradictory version. When it comes to “And Their Souls Were Eaten” the canon version is as follows:
SPOILER SPACE
- The character is male (or appears to be), and after eating the soul of Charles Dickens they ultimately “become” the Charles Dickens that we know from “real” history (minus the horrible behaviour toward women, because I want to like him and it’s my story dammit). He writes all the Dickens stories just as they exist in our real world. The character might just show up in the novels (as “Charles Dickens”). He certainly shows up in “Stuff and Nonsense”.
- The soulless problem is 100% dealt with and although a few people continue to build anti-soulless towers and to keep an eye out in case any soulless escaped, by the time Emmeline Muchamore (hero of the novels) is causing trouble it’s rare to hear “soulless” or “Great Ones” even mentioned. In fact, they don’t come up in the novels at all (conveniently for those who read the novels but not “And Their Souls Were Eaten”.
- Activated gold is discovered during “And Their Souls Were Eaten”, and a few other magical metals are discovered in the 1840s, before the novels begin in 1853.
Hey! I finished the “Choices: And the Sun Went Out” a couple of months ago and I’m curious about what other endings are out there. I got the ending with Ettione where I manage to save the world. I want to know if there were possible ways characters like Dolores or Wong could have survived or if Moti was really the only option to sacrifice to Gaia. The order I went was Peru, Canada, Japan, Australia, Egypt, Italy, and China, I think, it was a while ago. Anyway, I know this article is pretty old and that you’re very busy, apologizes. I might restart the game just to see another ending. Also, I think “Choices: And Their Souls Were Eaten” was great and I got the Kamenwati ending. That’s all!
I’m always happy to talk about those stories.
Yes, Moti was the only possible sacrifice. It is possible for Delores to survive, but I’m not sure about Wong. If you ended up in Russia, try going to China at the end. I wrote one and Alyce Potter wrote the other (with much discussion between us, and with project head and writer KG Tan). Lots of deaths vary from one endy-bit to the other… both both have a high price.
Hello! It’s me again, the one who commented on this article. So, I finished my 2nd play of “And the Sun Went Out,” last month and managed to save Delores, although I ended up killing Chase in exchange. Thank you for commenting on my questions.
This time, I want to talk about “And Their Souls Were Eaten,” if you’re not too busy. So this is actually my 2nd time I played the 2nd story. The 1st time, I unlocked the good ending where you save the world and both Kamenwati and Mary survived. The 2nd time though… I ended up getting a rare and bad ending where, “You and 1% of players have ended the soulless plague, but Kamenwati had to give his life to kill Queen Victoria.” This ending definitely shocked me since I intended to get the same ending like the 1st time, but go to the Netherlands instead of Austria. When I told my friend, who has played the 1st story, she simply texted “LOL, congratulations on getting the rarest ending.” I’m still kind of shocked since I was emotionally attached to the characters a little haha, especially Kamenwati.
There are only several things I did different from the 1st play, and I would like to know which caused me to get the ending I got.
1. Went to the Netherlands instead of Austria after meeting the suffragettes in France, therefore meeting the pirates for the 1st time.
2. My persona kissed Kamenwati twice instead of once.
3. Choosing a greyhound as my animal instead of a mouse.
And perhaps the most important one…
4. Both times I chose to help in the East End, but I chose to fight Fairy Fay this time instead of saving the water supply the 1st time. As a result, I didn’t kill Lady King-Noel by myself, and instead, everyone at the Soul School did. I failed to kill Fairy Fay, but Mary did.
The 1st time I played this game, Victoria had a soul. I’m absolutely confused at what I did the 2nd time to cause her to not have a soul, which triggered this bad ending. I’m really sorry for the ranting, but I’m very curious and shook. I do wonder what all the possible endings are.
Ok, I restarted the arc, but only changed one thing. I chose to kill Queen Victoria myself instead of letting Kamenwati do it. I was expecting my persona to die and it would be a bad ending, but, wow, it was actually a good ending. (You and 1% of players have defeated the soulless, killed Queen Victoria, and fallen in love with Kamenwati.) I’m completely confused on how Nox saved the persona and helped them live, but I’m not gonna complain. Did Nox use witchcraft? Is the persona actually dead and this ending is just a dream? I actually like this ending more than the common happy ending where Queen Victoria is alive. Overall, it was a FANTASTIC story. I never knew there were other endings, I enjoyed it just as much as “And the Sun Went Out.” I do still want to know what all the possible endings are though, haha. ^^
Thank you so much for these comments, and especially for saying them straight to me…. because KG Tan (ie co-writer on “Sun Went Out” and editor & project head on everything) showed me the comments on someone’s fan-fiction and clearly you were there because I read those comments and almost cried that you care so much for my beloved Kamenwati!
I’m actually in hospital at the moment so it’s all the more precious (I had an operation last month—which went great and has already improved my health a bunch—and now I have an infection, but it’s under control and I’ll be home soon. I’m not in pain, in fact I’m sitting up ready to do some writing!)
There are two ways for kamenwati to die. The first is if he kills a soulless Queen Victoria. The second is if the player basically screws over France, then assigns Kamenwati to save France (it’s devastating, btw!)
The Netherlands may be relevant because different people have different skills. I can’t fully recall the details sorry :/
Something you should know: If you get the sparrow animal, there are a couple of possible scenes of flying with Kamenwati.
There is an excellent thread for fans of the games over at https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/choices-and-their-souls-were-eaten-fantasy-steampunk/20125/58
If you read through it, you’ll find the possible endings for both of the two completed games. There’s another thread just for “And Their Heroes Were Lost” at https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/choices-and-their-heroes-were-lost-contemporary-plus/28835
Please tell your friends they’d be most welcome there. The forums are super friendly and diverse, and you and your friends will probably like my Hosted Games “Scarlet Sails” (magical pirates). https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/scarlet-sails/#utm_medium=web&utm_source=ourgames
Plus all my steampunk fantasy universe games are linked under the ‘steampunk’ heading in this blog. They’re all in the same setting as “And Their Souls Were Eaten”, which is chronologically first, but set after the soulless issue has been successfully resolved. “Mademoiselle Brunet” is an inspiration to the main character in my print novels at the climax of book2: “Silver and Stone”.
That should keep you busy!
Ah, thank you so much! I’m glad that you’re doing well and I will certainly check those articles out. Although I wasn’t interested in the 3rd story at first, I did play up to the latest arc and I appreciate how strong the persona is and the action in it! I’m definitely gaining interest in it, though I am curious about who the love interests are (as much as I love fighting scenes, I’m a sucker for romance haha.) A friend theorized that they are the Canadian woman and the Aussie man. Anyway, thank you again for the useful websites~
In the third story, the love interests are different depending on choices you make!
Us writers are incredibly honoured to hear about “Choices That Matter” fanfic. (For legal reasons I can’t read it, but I gather your disqus friend wrote an Etienne romance which I am definitely in favour of, always!)
I got a full chest end. I do remember hearing that Charlie had died, but at what point does the protagonist eat Charlie’s soul? Why? Also, why pose as Charlie instead of himself? How is it possible that the protagonist is still alive? Does eating Nox’s soul have something to do with it?
If the protagonist goes to the Soul School right away, and has annoyed Nox, Nox eats Charlie during her first full moon transformation (in order to teach the protagonist to treat her with respect/fear). As he dies, Charlie asks the protagonist to eat his soul. (If he does not die at that time, I think he dies in Arc 10.) After the events of this story, the protagonist finds themself writing Charlie’s books, so they ultimately take his name as their pen-name (whether male or female).
The reason the protagonist survives hanging at the end is absolutely because of Nox; she has learned to alter both her own physical form and the protagonist’s form, so she quickly sends the protagonist into an unconscious state and once they’re declared dead (she briefly stops their breath and heart) she is able to take them out of the city.
Does that make sense? (If so, congratulations.)
I absolutely adore “And their souls were written”. Genius story. I am trapped in a place with no books (absolute horror) and I am so engaged in the story, I haven’t slept for two days. I also write steampunk and adore this take on the genre
Thank you so so much! It managed to NOT win an Aurealis Award last night, so your note is beautifully timed.
I absolutely adore “And their souls were written”. Genius story. I am trapped in a place with no books (absolute horror) and I am so engaged in the story, I haven’t slept for two days. I also write steampunk and adore this take on the genre. Honestly, good job.
PS Are you Australian? There’s a new steampunk festival in Nimmitabel (1.5 hours south-ish from Canberra) on May 5-6 (is that sat-sun?) this year.
LOVE LOVE LOVED the sun went out!!! I’ve probably played it 20 times to find the nuances and different endings, and there is one particular ending I know exists but I cannot for the life of me seem to make the choices to get there! I just completed their heroes were lost. The ending sort of came up on me suddenly and I’m wondering if I did something wrong. I’m going to see what happens next time. Thanks for these!