Hi everyone! I’m JJ Laurier, but most people around here call me Jess, so feel free to do the same. I usually use they/them pronouns, but she/her is also fine.
I’m an interactive fiction writer/indie game developer, and thus far I’ve published two games, Fields of Asphodel and Diaspora. At the moment, I’m working on FoA's sequel, Blood of the Living, and may or may not be sneakily developing another project or two in my spare time.
This blog is mostly a place for the occasional update, asks, some art or reblogs, and all of that. I happily take questions, but please read the Ask Policies linked above before sending anything in. It may also behoove you to check the FAQ associated with the game you're asking about (listed with the game below, if there is one), in case the answer already exists.
I’m also on Patreon, if you’re interested in more frequent updates, bonus goodies, and various levels of early access to my projects.
I track the tags ‘asphodelgame,’ and 'chrysanthemumgames' but if you want me to see something it’s probably safer just to @ me.
Welcome to the blog; stay as long as you like!
Project descriptions under the cut.
Steam || Play Store || App Store || Released 5 September, 2022
Forced into an arranged marriage with the God of the Dead, only you can decide what to make of your new life. Befriend misfit deities, repel giant attacks, find the culprit behind the river goddess’s mysterious illness, and use your powers to nudge Fate in your favor! Decide what kind of deity you want to be—whether you’ll answer prayers, how you’ll develop your powers, and what role you’ll take in governance.
Fields of Asphodel is a ‘cozy’ game—not an action-packed adventure or dramatic soap opera, it focuses on daily life and developing relationships. In fact, FoA lacks mechanical stats at all, relying instead on a system of traits and roleplaying. The romances are very light and slow burn, particularly in this first installment, and there’s a heavy emphasis on consent and self-determination, as well as platonic relationships.
Demo || Forum Thread || FAQ
Blood of the Living continues the story of Fields of Asphodel, consisting of six distinct routes, one for each possible RO/PO, as well as subplots focused on the Player Character and their family. As the PC grows closer to their friends and potential romantic interests in the Underworld, they will quickly find themselves tangled in those characters' stories, even as they shape their own development as a deity, and how their relationship with their blood family moves into the future.
Steam || Google Play || App Store || Released 6 August, 2026
Forced out of your ancestral home, your people must sail to the south, where only your vanished father has ever been. But even after you've found a place to live, your problems are far from over. A mighty empire controls the nearby coastal city, and the local raiders want it back. You'll need to find your place in the conflict, seal an alliance, track down an ancient artifact, and fight for your right to belong.
Diaspora is a project I started with my friend Vince in about… 2016. At the time, it was my first interactive fiction, and in some very important ways, it still is, even if not the first to make it over the finish line. For the most part, it's classic, even dated, by IF standards, with numerical stats, personality bars, and so on, all nestled in the context of a low-to-mid fantasy game about exploration, adventure, and some culture clash.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
The other day, I was listening the song "Surface pressure" from "Encanto", and I couldn't help but think "That's so much an Alekto song". Seriously, I think that song fit her pretty well.
Oh, a song rec! Honestly, the vibes are pretty spot-on for her, too, down to the fact that she has sisters and wants them to rely on her. :)
Happy sixth anniversary to the start of Fields of Asphodel!! What an incredible journey you've been on, and im so grateful for this game (ive only had it for a couple of months, but life would be wayyyyy more dull without it, so im forever grateful)
Thank you so much for all your hard work, both here and with botl and everything that will come after (or came before, ive bought diaspora and can't wait to play it 👀) I hope you have a wonderful day 💕
Thank you!
Sometimes I forget just how long I've been doing all of this—especially on a release week like this, I can only see each individual 'tree' in front of me, and forget the rest of the forest is even there, so to speak. But it really has just been a story of putting one foot in front of the other until I got somewhere.
I'm thrilled I've been able to share it with so many people who have enjoyed what I do, and I'm looking forward to my next steps, too. :)
falling back onto my seph-hermes habits (likely place for me to be frankly) for @chrysanthemumgames 's 6th anniversary, went back and forth trying to figure the what, and rifling through various fine art references. i settled on klimt's the kiss, which is the very obvious inspiration!
was thinking about doing something big and blowout-y for only the release, and leaving the anniversary, since i feel like i'm all over the place right now. buuuut i realised this will very likely be the last 'foa anniversary' while a book is still being written, i am very wistful and bittersweet about it all. in the end, i wound up opening a document and thinking, 'no, i've got to do something!'
if it's not obvious from literally everything i do, i very dearly love this IF. cheers to you jess, for all your hard work in the last few years, and the love you pour into how you write this game, giving outsiders their own little place in the underworld :)
Today is, in fact, the 6th anniversary of me starting FoA, and I don't have anything for it except to say that I'm still making my way through writing the epilogue of BotL.
But as always, your art is beautiful and everyone should look at it.
Hi Jess! Long time no see! Just got the email that Diaspora got its official release. I read the header of the email and thought it sounded super familiar from a while ago in the old discord. Thus, it was only natural that I rummaged through my memories and wound up here to congratulate you on the release!!! AHHH!!! CONGRATS!!! I’m sure you (and also Vince) are super stoked to have finished and published it. A job well done I do say. That’s all, just wanted to say congrats on the release!!! Sorry if this should’ve been posted on a different blog, this was just the one I remembered you from and I haven’t touched tumblr in what feels like ages. CONGRATULATIONS!!! THREE CHEERS!!!! 🎉🎉🎉
Hey, thanks everyone. I'm excited to have it out there in the world for people to play again, and I hope you all enjoy it.
No worries about what blog you sent to, by the way; this one is for all my projects, really, and the actual Diaspora one is mostly archival at this point, so no stress. :)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
currently rereading book 1 and realising perseus is mentioned as slaying cetus during the orpheus and eurydice chapter— and he also shows up in book 2, before he slays medusa, when i think traditionally he kills cetus on the way back. maybe a small contradiction, but maybe you would want to know? i don’t remember if this is mentioned in book 2, so apologies if it is!
i find the idea of a slightly younger perseus saving andromeda very sweet, and i do like their story a lot, and the idea that in botl/foa, perseus’ challenges with medusa-cetus happen out of order. an interesting way for him to feel like he can slay medusa, and in fact “should” do it, because beginner’s luck worked for him once before, in an entirely different situation.
i hope i am not overstepping by pointing this out! i love both books to death, and that’s not just a pun! have a lovely day :)
Ah, I forgot I'd referenced him in book 1. I think my original plan was just to have Cetus be in the Underworld, and for future!Perseus to have another monster to fight during the rescue, or something like that (it's so long ago that I don't really remember my own thoughts).
Unfortunately, having already done it doesn't make too much sense for this Perseus; a big part of why things go the way they go is because this is really his first outing doing 'hero' stuff, and he's pretty desperate in part because of that.
I'll have to look at tweaking all that; thanks for letting me know, anon. And I'm glad you've enjoyed the books! I hope you have a good one, too. :)
Rereading and thinking, with Iasion dying during what I believe is the Trojan War, what year of the war were you picturing? The skirmishes at the start, or when it all starts to heat up (and finish) at the end? Does he have any thoughts on, or has he met any of, his legendary commanders? Thank you for the lovely IF!
I deliberately left all of this somewhat vague, because it really isn't important to his story, and I know a lot of people have interpretations of those characters that are very near and dear to them, which means I didn't want to have to set anything in stone that didn't need to be.
I do imagine, though, that Iasion dies a little closer to the end of the war, and that he has indeed at least encountered a few of the more well-known characters. He was involved in the first place because he like a lot of people owed Agamemnon. (Not because he took the Oath, as he was never a suitor of Helen, but for the more mundane reason that Mycenae was the most powerful of the Greek kingdoms, and they were allies.)
Iasion has never been keen on war or violence, but he believed himself obliged to answer a sincere call for help from an ally, and also that refusing would be not at all a good thing for the future of his own kingdom/people, so he joined. This of course is a cobbled-up version of things that's not meant to be true to the vague timeline of the myths (there are some people running around at the same time that really shouldn't all be doing their stuff right now), but it's what I came up with to give everyone a storyline that worked.
In the settings for both the first game and BotL, there's a line that say "Erebus is currently ON." I've always wondered what exactly that means, since there's no way to toggle it off, and Erebus is something in-universe, rather than a game setting like NPC initiative and tone indicators.
Hey anon,
There actually should be a way to toggle it off—I just misnamed the variable in the stats screen. It's a bit more diagetic than some of the other options, to be sure, but because it's possible for the PC at any time to 'disconnect' from Erebus for any purpose except emergencies, the toggle is meant to be there, to represent them choosing to do that whenever they want (and, indeed, the games, especially BotL, sometimes reflect whether or not the PC is connected to it).
I'll try to get a fixed pushed for that soon, here; I've just got a few other things I need to handle first. :)
July was about what I expected for progress—I did actually end up finishing Chapter Ten just in time for the end of the month update on Patreon, but I'm not releasing it publicly quite yet.
Basically, I'm going to bundle its public release with that of the epilogue, so you can read the end of the story all at once. I anticipate this will happen sometime around mid-late August, so keep an eye on the blog if you'd like; I'll be sure to let everyone know when I have a firm release date.
After that, well, I'll be taking feedback and trying to beat the first draft into the kind of thing that won't cause a professional copyeditor retinal damage. Then: submission!
But all that's a little farther away yet. I'll be back soon to say more, I hope. Until then, I hope you all have a lovely August.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
i read that ask about makaria calling pc mom, and my headcanon is that makaria would say it in the most offhand kind of way. like makaria would run off to her lessons and go, “bye, mom!” as she runs out the door. and now poor pc is choking on her drink and can’t breath. or they’ll be walking past each other and makaria would go, “hey, mom!” and suddenly pc is falling face first onto the floor bc her brain glitched and she forgot how to walk
Felt the 'can't walk and process at the same time' right in the chest, honestly.
But yeah! Supposing Makaria had the inking that it'd be okay, I could definitely see her dropping a name/title change very casually, whether that be with a 'mom' or 'dad' or just using a nickname for the PC that they liked. :)
Okay, so I know when the PC goes after the people who attack Laüs, and the LI/FI (love interest/friend interest) is like, “Be gentle about it.” But it seems like PC’s reaction is pretty tame in the first place. I was curious to know if there was an option that leads to the PC like absolutely losing their shit, just full on God-Mode. but before they can actually do damage, the LI/FI is able to calm them down? Kinda like in the beginning with the court. But if not that’s totally okay too!!! I am more than content to HC my normally calm and friendly PC snapping. (I have yet to decide on what their god-form would be, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.)
On a side note, I also wanted to say how much I love this game!! It really is cosy, so well written, and I am so glad I found it. Hope you’ve been doing well!!
I'm really glad you're enjoying it, anon!
In trying to find the moment you describe, I'm not quite sure I've landed on what you meant, but if you're referring to when the PC is advised to use a 'light touch' or be careful in how much magic they draw from a source other than themself, that's not because their reaction is too extreme or anything, it's literally just because using too much magic that isn't their own might have consequences they don't intend, and might do more than they want to if they're not very deliberate with it, so it's almost the opposite of anyone thinking PC has snapped or flown off the handle, so to speak.
It's possible a caution about being moderate with the attackers shows up in another part of the chapter I can't find right now, but if so, the intention is just for the characters to be trying to remind the PC just in case, rather than reacting to anything they've actually done or said so far. Everyone knows this is a situation that could get highly contentious, emotional, or difficult to handle, and the reminder is just a way of letting the PC know they are present, willing to help, and well aware of the risk of things deteriorating quickly.
If something appears that isn't in line with that, I'd welcome the feedback, particularly if you have a phrase that seems to be discontinuous with what the PC is actually doing! I tried searching 'be gentle with it' but I take it that was a general paraphrase, because it doesn't appear anywhere in the chapter.
There aren't any options that lead to the PC 'losing it' in front of the other characters, though they may do some version of that if they pursue the attackers first, alone with Nikos, and are not therefore somewhat 'moderated' by the presence of the others.
BWUUH?????? YOU WRITE DIASPORA? HUUUUUUH??????????
Indeed, two nickles is not a lot, but weird that it happened twice. I like to think I have a wide range of genre and character-type interests, but perhaps there are some things that Keep Coming Back(tm).
Mostly an accident in this case, and also probably a lack of self-awareness. -_-;
Had to do a triple take. I had no idea you were the same author! :O I loved Diaspora so much back then and I was rooting for it to be finished over the years. Absolutely estatic it is coming to steam. Congratsss!! Very excited to see all the characters again and see how it all ends.
Thanks, anon, that's really sweet. The outpouring of support has made me realise that a lot more people have actually read the game at some point than I thought!
Some parts of the ending have proven a bit... divisive, but I do hope that overall it turns out to be enjoyable when you get there. :)
No more than is already there is planned for the game at the moment. I might consider trying to find somewhere for it in edits, but it just didn't really organically come up anywhere but in the scene with Herakles, so most likely not.
I do apologize if that disappoints.
Of course not, I thought it could have come up in a PC/Hades "fluffy/vulnerable" moment or in a patreon story/drawing! But I'm curious 😁 does he have wings or a tail? Does his face change a bit besides the sharper teeth?
And do you have in mind a God/Goddess form for Demether, Hestia and the others dodekàtheon?
Last question I swear! 😂 In some myths/authors Dionysus becomes/is one of the twelve, do you think, that given time, PC could become that powerful/worshipped etc?
Well, one of the nice parts of this not happening on screen is that I can leave a lot of that to interpretation. :)
I never really settled on any one concept, but a few ideas I've tossed around include trying to figure out exactly what I think qualifies as 'titanic' size and how much of it the second/third generation that would eventually be the gods inherited, how many horns is too many horns, whether he'd just outright 'die' (i.e. heart stops, breathing stops, etc,) or sort of be half-mottled with the early stages of rot, or whether some bone would be exposed, and so on.
Honestly, I think unless and until I really need to decide, I'm perfectly happy to let everyone have their own ideas.
Demeter, Hestia, et al certainly have different forms, but as with everyone else I didn't really bother firming exactly what they'd look like. I did have a distinct image of Hestia's hair turning into fire in hers, and I'd want to do something kind of 'life smothering itself' with Demeter. Like choking vines, carnivorous plants, something in that vein. Again, though, nothing definitive.
Zeus's beard and hair turns into clouds, though. That much I do know haha.
Most such forms are meant to have at least a hint of the eldritch, creepy, or just unnecessarily aggressive about them, because they either hail directly from or are inherited from a time of primal power and warfare, as far as the history of the gods goes. As they get more distant from the influence of the Titanomachy, such aspects might lessen, but at least a tiny bit of something not pretty and not subtle never goes away.
As for the Twelve, well, they're typically known as the Twelve Olympians, as I recall it, which is a bit of a problem for a PC residing at least half-time in the Underworld. But certainly, given time and investment in the mortal realm, they could become something equivalent. It would certainly take some doing, though, and may ruffle some Olympian feathers in the process. :)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Hello!
Your Hades is very calm, rational, polite, and tries to avoid confrontation. However, is there anything that could really set him off? Perhaps an attempt to harm his daughter? Persephone? Any inhabitant of the underworld? I don't mean he'd simply be upset, but genuinely angry.
I feel like I've answered this before, but it was a while ago. Anyhow, the answer isn't particularly unusual I don't think. Obviously Hades can get angry, and generally the way to do it is harming the people he cares most about, or treating them poorly.
He'd definitely also be upset about harm to anyone in the Underworld, as those are the people under his protection, but of course how personal the anger was would depend to a degree on how close he was to the people in question.
The person who can most easily make him angry without actually doing/attempting/threatening any of these things is Zeus, though actually he doesn't often use the most reliable trigger for doing so, which is speaking poorly of their mother, because Zeus doesn't really want to do that either. Still, even without that, they're brothers, and for better or worse they're very good at getting under one another's skin. Poseidon too, of course, but in some ways he's actually intermediate between Hades and Zeus, so he's sort of less likely to upset either of them, whether accidentally or on purpose, on a normal day.
But onto what I meant... So, the title seemed familiar to me, and considering I'm a "one canon playthrough" kind of player who plays hundreds of games, I actually keep a notepad document for every single IF I play with all of my choices listed in it. And so, I checked my IF memo folder, and I indeed had a document started for it. Apparently, I played through the prologue and chapter 1 quite a long time ago (last modification is in february 2024), but I can't remember at all what it was about (and reading the small synopsis for Steam doesn't help). It's probably because I wasn't far in the story, but I'm now curious about why did I stop... was it a time where I was in a small IF hiatus and forgot to go back to it? Or maybe it didn't have any more public chapters? I think it'd be weird if I couldn't get into it and just dropped it, so I'm inclined to think it was something else, but damn I'm confused now...
No, I don't have actual questions, I just wanted to share my big "huh...?" moment! Makes me actually excited to read it now and hopefully understand what led to this! At least I won't have to wait long!
That is a 'huh' kind of situation. I'm not really sure what might have interrupted you, either, mostly because I remember very little about the timeline for getting this game made other than that it was way too long and included some hiatuses that spanned... more than a year each, at least.
So I'm not much help on that front, but I do think it's cool that you keep a record of all the games you play! Maybe I should start doing something like that. My memory's a sieve sometimes...
