Robin's Route is Out!

We are very proud to announce that Made Marion has entered Early Access with the release of Robin's route!

Buy and download on Itch.io or Steam.

Purchasing Made Marion in Early Access gives you access to the game as every route is released, all the way through our final version. We will continue to provide weekly mini-updates and our monthly larger development update as we go.

We have some lovely reviews up on Steam already. Thanks in particular to the fine folks from the Otome Lovers curator for their reviews!

Made Marion is a mature-rated game meant for an adult audience.

Update Notification

Got clobbered with a couple health hammers this weekend, monthly update will be a bit late but is coming!

The Ides of March seems especially Idesy on Tumblr this year. So... have a good one, friends and countrymen.

We just have Smirk Jr. on the docket first. ;)

Wasn't the best writing week for me, but I got some good scaffolding done (transitions and shorter scenes that help tie everything together).

Did a lot of company chores like tax prep (ugh), finance crap, and following up on networking requests.

This coming week I'm dedicating to action. Going to get my butt in gear on some important action scenes in Will's route.

I thought it'd be nice to show the characters' genuine smiles that they give to a romanced Marion, so it's not their laugh so much as just how they happily gaze at her.

Robin's smile is more gentle than usual with Marion. Until it turns into his teasing seductive smile. ;)

John has always looked at Marion with his kind smile. His golden eyes seem to shine when he gazes upon her. If she ever convinces him to shave the beard, there's a dimple under there.

It's a special moment when Will discards his usual sardonic smirk and graces Marion with his genuine smile. Treasure it, for it probably won't last long.

Meissa is over the moon to be with their beloved. But gazing too long upon her causes them to think naughty things and blush. Marion, naturally, finds this adorable.

Alanna loves to laugh, and alone time with her is full of merry teasing. When she's truly feeling comfortable, she snorts a bit when she laughs.

Gui's smile with Marion is still somewhat unsure. Is this the real life, or is it just fantasy?

Geoffrey's genuine smile is powerful and CLASSIFIED. For now all you get is a raised brow smirk, and you'll like it.

Will Chapter 2 marches on! Currently working on the carriage heist scene.

Some time back, our backers voted to see three different points of view of this scene, depending on which of the Sherwood love interests Marion is working with.

These three members of the Nottingham Guard are the major antagonists in the carriage heist scene. They will also be the major antagonists in John's route, but for now we only see them while trying to steal a portion of Lord Geoffrey's tax shipment.

Each of these three guards has the ability to make life more difficult for our Sherwood love interests during the heist. On Robin's route, Marion is able to deter all three of them, setting the heist to Easy Mode.

She won't be as well-positioned on the other two routes. Will's heist difficulty is Normal Mode and John's (where she's waiting in the forest for Robin and Will to do their thing first) will be Hard Mode.

Once you've experienced all three versions of the carriage heist, you'll get an idea of how Marion's presence makes a real difference. I wonder, how will the heist go when it happens off-screen during the Nottingham routes?

One Small Cultural Difference

Lore Post: Avalon

CN: Discussion of domestic and sexual assault, but only as a concept. No actual description of assault.

CN 2: I will be using "women" and "men" here not to assert that gender is binary or discount my fellow non-binary folks, but because this discussion is centered around traditional binary gender roles. ***

As I'm writing the middle chapters of Will's route, where Will and Marion have a bit of a rougher playful relationship, I'm thinking of one small cultural difference I've made with Avalons that has wide-reaching positive consequences.

In Avalon society, domestic and sexual assault is considered an extremely cowardly act. In particular, a man assaulting a woman is considered the height of unmanliness. This doesn't mean that assault is nonexistent in Avalon (and other kinds of violent crime like muggings happen when the social order breaks down, like it has in Nottingham), but it still makes a huge difference in how people walk around in the world.

Avalon men do not generally defend other men who commit assault. It's not widely used as a threat to control or intimidate women. Women do not fear that they're at risk of assault at any moment. I wanted to imagine a world like that, which gives Marion less fear and more of a feeling of power in her encounters with men.

This makes a big difference in how Marion reacts to various situations in the game. Even when dealing with the obnoxious (and specifically Not a Good Guy) Ser Lawrence in Robin's route, she understands that he's referring to a consensual situation and responds accordingly. It's also why she's not completely terrified in Sherwood Chapter 1.

I've tried to write a few hints about this cultural difference into the text when appropriate, although it will be discussed more openly in Geoffrey and Gui's route when Marion helps a woman who has an abusive husband.

It's rather freeing to imagine Marion walking around in this world. For instance, right now, I'm writing a scene in which Will and Marion go to a tavern. Will leaves Marion's side and she's not concerned that she's going to be bothered or assaulted by the men in the tavern. Instead, she's joined at her table by another women, there alone to have a drink after work.

What a lovely change this small cultural difference makes!

My current "Writing Will's Route" music.

::Evil giggle::

Writing: On Chapter 2! I'm putting in a few fun romance trope situations (though I am ashamed to say I have not yet found a good home in Made Marion for "and there was only one bed"). This is the chapter where Marion realizes how much fun it is to tease Will.

Art: Two CG sketches have been approved! I'll show off the first one since it goes in Sherwood Common.

Made Marion Development Update, Feb 2024

Hello everyone, and happy belated Valentine's Day! Will took a moment of his time to make everyone a very special Valentine.

Darn it, Will.

The Writing Desk

I am moving into Will Chapter 2!  These first couple months of Will route development have been challenged by some unavoidable IRL issues, but those are all cleared up now and I am devoting the rest of February and March fully to writing Will's route.

Chapter 1, as predicted, will be around 20,000 words. I still have one more Chapter 1 scene to finish, but it's a big action scene, and those tend to take me forever as I figure out all the logistics. I decided that rather than delaying the rest of the adventure, I'll slowly add to that action scene while writing Chapter 2.

Will Preview Video:

In case you missed it, we created a preview stream featuring the beginning of Will's route for the Steam Storyteller's Festival in early February.  Here it is!

Art Roundup

Some backers have been curious as to the completion status of our art, so here's the roundup:

Sprites and CGs (Arrapso)

All main character sprites are complete, save for a ??? variant sprite that will only be seen in the DLC.

We have 3.5 major NPC sprites yet to be completed: Hugh, leader of the Grey Wolves (backer sprite); Issa, Lord Geoffrey's cousin in from Nibiru (backer sprite); Kafeel, leader of Nottingham's Sunjati Merchant association and Will's friend; and the final version of Thomas, a character who is only seen in Alanna's route. I will need Kafeel for Will's EA release and am hoping to have Hugh and Issa for it as well, although they are more important on the Nottingham side.

After those are complete, Arrapso's main job will be CGs. I have ordered 4/5 Will CGs and am still deciding on the design for the final one. We also still need to design the backer wallpapers (which will be available in PC and phone formats).

Backgrounds & Creature Sprites (Sandra)

Backgrounds are almost entirely finished. I have one more major background to commission and then it'll just be the occasional variation as needed or maaaaybe one or two more major backgrounds later on to add more variation to the Nottingham Town exteriors.

All major creature sprites are complete.  I may commission one of Geoff's beloved hunting hounds during his route, but haven't decided yet. Meissa's bird friend will likely be a cut-in like our messenger doves.

Lore Intro and Cut-Ins (Lawrichai)

Lawri has been having some IRL challenges but should be back with us soon. Her main jobs right now are sexy silhouettes and the lore intro animation. We may be transforming the lore intro graphics into a full .webm animation instead of using Ren'py's built in Animation and Transition Language, as this might actually be easier for Lawri, as well as looking a lot smoother and making me pound my head against my desk less. It's a win/win/win! We'll have more on this next time.

Otherwise, Lawri's work is ongoing depending on budget and how much she is able to complete from route to route (I can always add in more cut-ins, but for now we're focusing on more critical ones as we have time after the sexy sils are complete per route).

So that's where we are with art right now!  We're in pretty good shape overall, there just might need to be some more intense art production while I complete the second half of Will's script.

See you next month!

Happy(?) Valentine's From Will!

Well, he tried. Or maybe he didn't.

He's gonna need a bit of polishing up.

Aww, thanks!

Was Layton matchmaking or simply amusing himself? We may never know. (It was probably a little of both.)

Layton's little "idea" was inspired by a Beltane tradition practiced by the Carleton College druids when I was there. Yes, my uni had a druidic organization. It's an awesome place.

Little John's Gone Fishin'

Our monthly Kickstarter development update will be posted later this week!

I can't lie, when I first got the idea for Made Marion, my first thought after, "You know, I love the Robin Hood legends and there are a ton of possible love interests," was "The Sheriff of Nottingham must be romanceable."

But I didn't want the Sheriff to be the one-dimensional villain that he is in many of the tales (both past and present). One of my big rules as a writer is that everyone believes they're the good guy. There are reasons why Geoffrey is doing what he's doing and while I certainly don't agree with all of them on a personal level, the important thing is that Geoffrey believes they are necessary measures for the greater good.

We won't be seeing a ton of Lord Geoffrey on Will and John's routes, as these routes focus on different sets of antagonists (John's on those three guards you met during the carriage heist, Will's on... SPOILERS). So perhaps he will be a bit less distracting until the Nottingham routes come out. ;)

Will's Route Preview Stream

Now that the Storyteller's Festival has wrapped up, I'm posting our stream featuring our preview of Will's route! My first reader/editor Edhie and I got together to read through the first few scenes of the route.

Do you like bickering? Troublesome, handsome love interests? Rivals to lovers routes? Then check out Will!