Zinc Alloy Games

Last updated: 9-AUG-23.

Zinc Alloy Games on itch.io.

Hazel Gold on WordPress.

Published games:

Turncoat Chronicle on Hosted Games.

Works in progress:

The Flower of Fairmont dev thread.

Other links:

Turncoat Chronicle WorldAnvil page.

Turncoat Chronicle YouTube playlist.

I'm late! I'm late! I'm late to the Steam Summer Sale, but you should all know that

Turncoat Chronicle is 34% off!

Buy it now!

Yes, I am aware that Dashingdon is removing support at the end of the month. This has been a long time coming. Dashingdon was a fan-run hosting site run and hosted for free, which we all benefitted from greatly for years.

However, my only current WIP, The Flower of Fairmont, is hosted on itch.io. It's not affected by Dashingdon's closure, and you won't be losing access to the demo when the site goes offline. In fact, I've been using itch.io for a while, for unrelated reasons.

Happy New Year, everyone!

First of all, an apology. I'm aware that it's been a long time since I wrote a proper update post. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, I'm currently spending most of my writing time working on a project that's not ready to be revealed. I'd like to avoid talking about it in public until it's at a more advanced state. Second, I've been taking a bit of a break from social media, lately, mainly to improve my productivity.

The project I'm working on now is very exciting for me and I'm looking forward to being able to share it, but for the moment, I'd rather focus on the work itself. For that reason, it will probably be a while before my next update. All the same, I wanted to wish you all a happy new year. 2024 was a complicated year for me (as I imagine it's been for many of you).

Turncoat Chronicle is One Year Old!

One day late, and I meant to prepare something more celebratory, but it's exciting to think that my little game has been out for a whole year. This summer has been a time of reflection for me, and so perhaps I'll write a longer blog post on the subject, later this month. In the meantime, I'm happy to celebrate this milestone.

Turncoat Chronicle is a fantasy intrigue text game.

The throne of Koth was stolen by the usurper twenty years ago. Now, the rightful heir has returned from exile to reclaim their throne and avenge their parents' murders. But while the missing heir might be the hero of this story, its protagonist is you, the Usurper King's child and heir. A marriage alliance with the returned heir might protect you from their vengeance, but it would mean turning on your father. Killing the heir would secure your father's favor, but first, you must wheedle your way into their good graces. If neither appeals, you could always betray them both, and crown yourself in their stead.

How to get the game:

Play online.

Buy on Steam.

Buy on Google Play Store.

Buy on Apple App Store.

Due to health issues, I've done almost no writing for the past two months. Instead, I've been trying to catch up on some of the research materials I've accumulated. So, in lieu of an update on my progress, I've decided to share a few links:

How Myths Come About: The Case of Echidna:

"Echidna never reached the second of these two stages; the Greeks turned their attention from her to her more interesting offspring. The references we have, then, point to a story that stopped its development just at the point where the oral traditions began to be set down in writing."

The Dawn of a New Lilith: Revisionary Mythmaking in Women's Science Fiction:

"No longer content to define female characters exclusively through relation to male heroes (Russ 1972, 5), women writers produce female champions who reject the "good girl/bad girl" binary in which "good" symbolizes women's service to the patriarchy, and "bad" announces them a threat to patriarchy. The revisioned Lilith as she appears in women's S/F stories complicates the stereotypes of both the empowered sorceress and the idealized mother. Her character demonstrates the difficulties of reckoning an independent, sexual self with a being on whom innocents depend for sustenance and protection."

Back to the Basics: Re-Examining Stoker's Sources for "Dracula":

"Although the similarities between Bran Castle and Stoker's Castle Dracula may seem "too close to be coincidental" (Florescu and McNally, In Search of Dracula 64), there is no proof that the author of Dracula knew of this place. This thirteenth-century structure certainly looks the part, for it has all of the features tourists want to see: battlements, towers, a Gothic chapel, a winding staircase and a secret underground passage."

Gilgamesh and the Magic Plant:

"Questions immediately arise: What did the story teach before it was woven into the epic? How might the ancients have entertained themselves with the tale? What sort of narrative could be concocted from the ingredients: Magic Plant, antediluvian hero, and deep water? The structure of the story, in its present form, remains sufficiently unaltered that one may reconstruct its original elements."

i think i've come across a bug: i chose the jessa!confidante route and there's a popup that happens when trying to continue

3-ghosts line 26: bad label write_bff_w3_start

also, is this the right place to bring up bugs?

Yes, that definitely sounds like a bug, but luckily, it should be easy to fix. I'll be pushing a fixed version, early next week.

I'm pleased to announce that version 0.3 of The Flower of Fairmont is out for all to play!

Welcome to the new year! I hope 2024 has been treating you well, so far.

My first piece of news is that, going forward, I will be switching to making update posts every other month, rather than every month. This is because I am working on two projects in parallel, and one of them is not ready to be made public. Because I have less to update on, I feel a bit silly making monthly posts.

The second piece of news is a much happier one. Since I've been making good progress on The Flower of Fairmont, I will soon be able to share part of chapter 3 with you all. Though I can't set an exact date, I hope to update the demo in February or March. It's been quite a while since the last demo update, so this is very exciting for me.

Happy second night of Hanukkah!

It's been a while since I wrote one of these posts, for which I apologize. The main reason is that I like to post when I have progress to report. Since September, there have been several complications and commitments that limited my writing time. I'd planned to make big progress on The Flower of Fairmont, enough to get me closer to being able to post an update to the game's demo. That hasn't happened. I have made some progress on week 3, but that week's main journal entry is still far from complete.

So, what progress I've made is either not enough or not ready to be shared. However, I've enjoyed returning to Fairmont's world and the many folkloric inspirations that it draws on. I'm now regularly adding words and checking scenes and choices off my to-do list. Still, I'm quite far from being able to set a date for the next update. I'll make an effort to update my progress here more often.