#polgannon

So my sister is very into Polgannon and got several of us to play it (she had already completed a solo playthrough). She wrote a monologue of the culprit's final interview, complete with accidental confession, and did a dramatic reading for us once we'd finished. It's amazing and hilarious and I asked her if I could share it with the fandom (she's an extremely offline person). Here it is!

POLGANNON ENDING SPOILERS UNDER THE READMORE

I last wrote an update for progress with my ‘new’ Polgannon project over two years ago.  Blimey.  Well, there’s been a lot of progress.  I have more or less rewritten the whole thing.  The central mystery remains but the characters have been fleshed out considerably, the plot thickened, the setting developed and, I’m pleased to say, I’ve successfully incorporated (I think anyway) most of the things I wanted to include in the original plus added some new material.  I’m now at the stage of trying to put it into its final form which is another mountain to climb, not least because I am going to have to learn lots of new skills.  The idea is this is eventually going to be a commercial product though the finish line is still a long way off (and maybe I’ll never get there).

There have also been some unexpected outcomes to this work in the development of two smaller side-projects.  These are the Fairplay Mysteries and a second set of mystery stories which don’t have a name yet (maybe Second Chance Mysteries?  Not sure but see below).  The Fairplay Mysteries developed as I was trying to work out how to make Polgannon’s mystery work: that is to say how to get the interactive story elements to work to allow the ‘reader’ to choose the path they take through the story. The Fairplay Mysteries are like short stories but are also puzzle challenges.  I have already got the firm outlines for four of them with two of them more or less fully written.  The first few of these will be free to play as I use the project to work out in detail how I am going to get the story systems to work.  I think eventually I might use these to ask for support as I develop Polgannon which is a much bigger project and more time-consuming and, frankly, I’d like to have a little income to support me while I do it. 

The second project, which is very new, is about cold cases.  I have fallen down an absolute rabbit hole recently reading and learning about real cold cases and forensic science.  I already have some ideas about things I might do with that.  In particular, I am finding the ingenious ways you can extract information in an almost academic way from actual data/evidence absolutely fascinating.

Upcoming

I really am at a crossroads with these projects.  I have done a lot of writing in the last two years and a lot of research (it’s been fun) but I have recently settled down to work out properly how it is I am going to present these stories in their final form.  They’re interactive which means they do not come solely in written form.  I’m actually using the Unity game engine to piece it all together.  It’s a challenge for me but I am hoping to get something on the chocks for release later this year.  In the first instance, this will probably be a Fairplay Mystery (or even two!)

White Willow

Because I’d like to do all this as a way of earning a little money for myself (instead of being just an indigent housefrau), I have created a little company for myself.  This will comprise an online entity for me to operate through which is separate from my personal online presence.  The name of the new entity is White Willow and the picture on this post is a draft of the logo I made for it. 

There is a longer version of this report over at tflc here if you’d like to learn a little more detail: https://littlecarping.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=158

If you are interested in play-testing the first Playfair Mysteries for me, you can get in touch with me via my email at:

So my current set-up looks like this:

- Main: Strangetown (uber version, no or few townies)

- Downtown: Emerald Heights

- University: Cactus Canyon, Quadington, LFT (Playable Sims + Secret Society only)

- Vacation: Winter Wonderland (mountain), possibly Felicity Island (tropical), ??? (far east). Maybe turn Nekojima into vacation hood? Hmm.

- Subhood 1: Sedona Deluxe + Copperhead City (Sims only) + maybe Pitstop Valley

-Subhood 2: Jeans Shaker Oasis

- Subhood 3: Service Area

- Subhood 4: Saguaro Desert + Douglasville + maybe Blackrock (no or few townies)

- Subhood 5: Softpines (on a dirt terrain) + Oak Hill + Oaken Valley

- Subhood 6: Arkhelios + Winterose (Sims only) + Nekojima (if not Vacation Hood)

Ruan returned from work with a promotion. He didn’t have the skills for it, the game said Breoc had pulled a few strings! Ruan’s new career level is SWAT Captain, what the heck, Breoc, do you want Ruan dead?! I know you are on the lists of suspects, too...

Ruan: “The department called... they want me to lead the SWAT unit after I’ve finished this case, but I don’t know how I feel about this. On the one hand side, this new position would pay more, and serve as a stepping stone for further promotions. But on the other hand side I was never particularly ambitious. Not at the expense of my wellbeing anyway. Ey, you must think of me as a coward now...”

Margaret: “I don’t! I don’t think of you! I mean, I do think of you, just not... I mean... I don’t think about you ALL the time, of course! Just normally often. Uh...”

Ruan: “You know what? I think I’ll take the new job, after all! I did get a bit slow as a detective. Between you and me, there’s that blasted forger that I never managed to identify, still going ‘round making money from people’s art...”

Margaret: Oh, shit...

jory, seth, mellyn & hedra all claimed to be in this area the afternoon of the murder, so ruan wants to check out the location and find out for himself how long it takes to get up to pol stones from here.

it’s a quiet day at the beach as polgannon’s teens are all at school, and the only person ruan & margaret encounter is caroline penhaligan, also enjoying a day off work. pleasure sim margaret takes the opportunity to slack off a little and persuades ruan to join her for some fun in the photobooth (no, not that kind!)

@ notreallifeliving - I think you’ll find it’s my chair!

So having met Jory, Cordelia, Gwen, Karenza, Richard and the Kestles in the first episode, MM moves on to some background about the mystery and introduces more characters.  Meet the cops (Ruan and Breoc (and his family)), Margaret, Rozen and a bit more on Jory’s story.  Surpise twist at the end!

Also: Ruan shows a quick turn of speed; what happened to Seth - who did he marry?; did Jory really do it?

Sorry for the super late response! No, I never did, unfortunately. I got as far as visiting every playable family and reading all their stories...and admiring some of the great ideas with the lots! I found a few clues here and there, but didn’t really work out their importance. I always meant to get back to it and sleuth out the murderer...but never did. 

Actually, I was thinking about that neighbourhood not too long ago, and considered booting it up again to work on the mystery, but it required more time and brain-power than I then had available. Not sure if I quite have the brain-power for it now, but I’ll dig it out anyway... :)