Out of the Blue IF — A Regency Romance

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Out of the Blue is a romance/mystery/fantasy interactive fiction set in Regency Era England for anyone (like me) who is obsessed with Jane Austen and other period dramas, and always dreamed of being transported into that world to find romance and intrigue.

It’s also just a lighthearted project I’m working on to practice my writing skills and get familiar with Twine as a platform for other interactive fiction projects that I have in the works. Definitely a WIP, so characters and plot might change throughout.

Coding | Tags | FAQ

You are a university student struggling to find the motivation to finish your degree as the world seems to be falling apart around you, when you find yourself transported to what appears to be Regency Era England. With no idea how you got there or how you can get back, you are at the mercy of the fates. Given the probability of being classified insane if you reveal your true origins, you decide to feign amnesia. Lucky for you, a wealthy couple decides to take pity on you and take you in.

Will you be able to keep your secret hidden from your new friends, or risk ending up in an asylum? Will you conform to the expectations of regency society, or show regency society what a modern person is like? Will you solve the mystery of how you ended up there and find your way back home, or perhaps decide that you’d much rather stay?

Isobel Claymoore [she/her] | Portrait | Playlist |

Isobel resides at Oakley Estate with her father, who runs the local coal mines. Being the daughter of a man whose fortunes were acquired through trade, she is not widely accepted amongst the higher class society, and her reputation is only made worse by her being an unmarried woman in her thirties. At first glance, Isobel appears to be cold and haughty; a proud woman who has little interest in you, but as you spend more time around her, you might discover there is more to her than meets the eye.

Maximillian “Max” Winthrope [they/them or he/him] | Portrait | Playlist |

Max is the eldest son to Lord Charrington, the Earl of Charrington, and thus the heir to both title and land. He is upbeat, frivolous and a bit of a flirt, and people aren’t quite sure what to make of him. Although he seems to be cheerful and unconcerned, you can’t help but feel like he’s holding something back. Will you discover what lies behind his careless facade? 

Richard Winfield [he/him] | Portrait | Playlist |

Richard is a Captain of the Royal Navy, just returned from the Napoleonic Wars to his childhood home to visit his brother and his wife at their new abode. Though he has made a name for himself, and amassed a sizeable fortune, his deepest desire is to find a spouse to start a family, and build a home, with, but he seems to be caught up on the past. He is suspicious of your intentions and sceptical of the credibility of your story. Will you be able to change his opinion of you and help him move on from his past?

William Taylor [he/him] | Portrait | Playlist |

William is a local farmer who struggles to get by while raising his two children by himself since his wife disappeared. Given that William and his son are the ones who found you and helped you, you feel like you should repay him somehow, but William seems to take an immediate dislike to you and wants nothing to do with you. Will you be able to weed out the story behind his harsh, biting shell and worm your way into his fortified heart?

Clara Amelia Hamilton [she/her] | Portrait | Playlist |

Clara is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Charrington, the Hamiltons of Ainsley Park. She comes from a life of comfort and privilege, seemingly lacking in nothing. Being cheerful and outgoing, she is well liked and generally always surrounded by people, so why does she feel so bored? Will you help her find some sense of purpose in her life, and possibly fill that void in her heart?

Hi there! I'm not entirely sure which of the two templates you're referring to, but I did use StoryInterface for both of the templates 😊

Using StoryInterface allows you to build the user interface entirely yourself using HTML, but it will replace all of SugarCube's built in code, so you'll have to create all the elements of the UI yourself - if that makes sense.

You must include an element with the id "passages" for your story's passages to show up, for example with a <div id="passages"></div> element. Just leave it empty, and Twine will populate it with your story's passages.

Another neat trick is using the "data-passages" attribute to populate elements with content from certain passages. For example, in my first template the StoryInterface contains this element:

class="story-author" obviously allows me to style the element using CSS in the Story Stylesheet, whereas the data-passage attribute is an attribute native to Twine that allows you to populate elements with the content of specific passages. This one has the value "storyAuthor", which means that Twine will automatically populate the <h2> element with whatever content is inside a passage called "storyAuthor" when the game runs.

Other than that, if you're looking to learn more coding, I find w3schools really helpful, it's completely free and you find everything you need there. I also used the Twine documentation a lot. To learn more about how everything works, maybe download one of my templates and play around with the StoryInterface that's already built to learn what everything does? 💁🏼‍♀️

Hope that helps, anon! Have a nice weekend 🤎

Not at all, anon! I, personally, would love to read such a game ✨ You certainly don't need my blessing, but you have it wholeheartedly all the same!

Well, thank you so much for not forgetting about my game after all this time, and for still adoring the premise! Sorry for the long hiatus though, sometimes life just hits you like a freight train, ya know? lol. But I’ll take it as a big compliment! 🤎

I was… not doing well when I started writing this story, and that’s actually what inspired it to begin with, especially the mental state of the MC and the idea of being plucked out of the real world and disappearing into a fantasy world. We’ve all been there, right? If anything though, I hope the mental state of the MC comes across as relatable and realistic for those who have experience with it.

And lmao, you might not be far off with the asylum or bonfire if your tattooed up punk trans female mc entered the chat 👀👀 

I’m actually doing a lot better these days though, and I’m slowly starting to pick up some of my creative hobbies again (like writing!) and actually enjoying them! Thank you so much for the well wishes, I hope all is well with you too 🤎 I peeped at your blog and couldn’t help but notice that you’re from Denmark 👀 So that means we’re basically related, welcome to my family!

I'm sure I've answered this or something similar before, but let's do it again.

Isobel: 2 - basically immune, but respects the attempt to get their way by strategic tactics lol. Will indulge if it's something she's inclined to give/do, because she's amused, but otherwise... nice try 😏

Max: 10 - weak af, will always indulge, would basically do anything to make mc happy or laugh or smile. total himbo, hopeless case 🥺

Clara: 5? - she knows this trick herself lol, so she's not really moved by the puppy eyes themselves, but if it's something that would make mc happy or smile, she will always indulge anyway, because she wants to make them happy and smile!

Richard: thinks and pretends like he's a solid 2, not at all moved, but is actually a 6, bless him. will grumble about the puppy eyes, but will most likely indulge the mc, unless it's something out of his comfort zone or something he really doesn't want to do

William: oh god, not the puppy eyes! he's well acquainted with the puppy eyes, he has children, so he has to be immune, because he has to say no sometimes, but how can he say no when they're so cuute? a solid 7, will probably indulge, just please don't do it too much in front of the children, or they'll know he's a total softie who can be tricked by adorableness

😭🥺😭 lookathimsocuuute! I need a dog!!

*actual footage of me rising from the dead just now*

thank you so much for asking, anon, and for thinking of me randomly <3 it's been a hellish year, and i'm honestly not sure how i'm doing at this point lol. i'm alive, but i feel like an empty shell of a human being, with no goals and no passion, and worst of all; no creativity left. like a deflated balloon 💀 but i'm alive and i'm trying, that's gotta count for something, right?

i'm sorry for being so inactive on here for ages and ages. i try to work on the game whenever i can and feel called to, but those moments are rare. i lost my passion for all things creative almost a year ago, and i thought it would be back by now, but it's really not, so i'm starting to wonder if it will ever return. maybe i'm just not that person anymore?

don't mind me though, i'm just having a mid-life crisis lol. i hope you, anon, and all my other followers are doing splendid though ✨🤎 i wish every single one of you all the best from the bottom of my heart!

not very well, to be quite frank, but thanks for asking, anon! i think no one is expecting an update anytime soon at this rate. my track record is quite honestly abysmal. 0/5 stars, would not recommend. poor customer service and late delivery 👎🏼

no, but seriously, i have been writing some, don't worry. i've just been extremely lacking in creativity, motivation and inspiration for the past... 14 months? and i also moved and started a new job in june, which has been extremely hectic. so all in all a very bad combo for game making and writing.

but i haven't quit this project yet, i promise. there will be an update one day, probably in the new year, though you may find that some things have been cut or changed.

it really helps to know that some of y'all are still interested in the game though, so thanks so much to those of you who still interact and send in asks and such ✨🤎

Hi there! ✨ Sorry for the late reply, I've been trying to figure out what tutorial I used back in the day, but I'm not entirely sure which one it was. I think I may have used this one ? it looks familiar, but I definitely made some personal changes, so my setup doesn't really look like that anymore.

My project has incorporated sass and grunt to make the project easier to work on, and this tutorial uses gulp which I'm not familiar with. I was toying earlier with releasing my project setup for twee, or do a tutorial, but then @manonamora-if did such a wonderful project setup which you can find here, so I figured mine would be superfluous.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help though, anon. Using twee with my setup has literally changed my life and made it so much easier, so it's definitely worth pursuing 🤎