Here’s an update on progress so far on the Steam Highwayman: Princes of the West project. What’s happened in the two weeks since the campaign ended?
– Pledges have all been collected and I’m awaiting the transfer of funds to complete – it looks like it’s in process, but my bank hasn’t notified me yet.
– I’ve followed up where I can with late backers and a few people whose payments didn’t come through.
– I’ve also had a flurry of sales of my old stock of the maps for Smog & Ambuscade, Highways & Holloways and The Reeking Metropolis – so these have been sent off in the post.
– I’ve been working on the codeword check Codewords are a key component of the logic sequences in the quests, so they have to be right, and that also means checking codewords from other books that become relevant here in Princes of the West. If your previous playthrough has ticked Amalgam, Amphibious or Bolster, then you’ll have some nice bonuses coming your way.
– I’ve spent a large amount of time on a quest survey – essentially, working through the entire draft, checking which passages are parts of which quest or event, and building up to checking that each one is a) finished and b) good. I’ve already cut out a few orphan passages (without any inward links) that survived from earlier drafts of quests, freeing up about 5 passages’ worth of space. This is also directly linked to the codeword check.
– The Item check – this has begun. It’s a huge piece of work, like the codewords. There are more than 300 unique items in the four books so far – some linked to quests, some purchasable or good for trade, and many that are both! I love creating fun items, but I have to limit myself…
– I’ve begun creating and formatting the .pub document that will become the submitted print .pdf. In the name of consistency, I’m using the same software and even the same old laptop for this that I did with the previous volumes: an old edition of Microsoft Publisher which formats things exactly how I like it – but once SH5 and 6 are done, I think it’ll probably be time to move on! This document is key – I can reuse portions of previous documents – especially for paratexts like the copyright page, titling, introduction and epilogues – but everything needs careful changes – from as small as a change of title, illustrator and ISBN on the copyright page, right up to re-written epilogues.
There’s also been a lot of other stuff going on, including my son’s second birthday and a three-day visit from my brother and his family.
– I was meant to begin drafting Harvest of Death but it hasn’t happened yet, due to the big editing jobs described above. Don’t worry – when the time is right, it will simply fly off the keyboard!
In the next fortnight, I hope to…
– Complete the quest check
– Complete the codeword check
– Look at my fight mechanics
– List and standardise the rooms
– Check links to the other books
– Be getting my hands on the funds at last!
– Possibly write up Harvest of Death
– Follow up some more backers who dropped out
If you have any input about the codewords, quests, fights or other mechanics, please get in touch. My game design has improved a lot since the first book, but it’s by no means perfect, and this is one area I really want to improve for Princes of the West.
Next update due: 29.8.25
