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Chapter 2, Part 1 is now out!! Last updated: August 3rd, 2023

Please add Next in Line to your itch.io collection! The game will be free. Always.

Next in Line will be rated Mature. Player discretion is advised. Please do not play or 

Put your health first! Message me, comment, or ask on Tumblr/Discord if you need any clarification on content and trigger warnings. 

  • Content includes (or will include):

    • Violence
    • Suggestive language and themes
    • Optional sexual content (will be skippable or avoidable)
    • References to war and the effects of war
    • Death and/or references to death
    • Exploration of grief
    • Mature language 

Subject to change. Changes will be communicated.


You're next in line for the throne of Castelon, a fictional country very loosely inspired but not based on the ancient and medieval worlds. Particularly, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, and periods of England.

Shortly after the war ended and a month before your 21st birthday, you received a hastily written letter at the compound in the mountains, where your parents had sent you at 16 to keep you away from the war.

"King dead. James abdicated. You are Next in Line."

Your country is reeling from its King's death and the end of a decade-long war. Today, on your 21st birthday, you begin the timeless tradition of sharing the responsibility of running Castelon for the next year, alongside your mother, Queen Vivian. This tradition, known as The Harbinger Ceremony, is your opportunity to prove your ability to be a reliable ruler.

Prepare to step into a story about love, trust, and finding oneself. Can you navigate your royal duties, solve your father's murder, and find love (or friendship) at the same time? Or, will the Gods withdraw their blessing from you?


Current Demo Features:

  • Prologue Parts 1 & 2,  Chapter 1, Chapter 2 Part 1;
  • Customization: gender, pronouns, hair, eye color, royal title,  skin color, tattoos, piercings, and more. Clothing is not gender locked. 
  • Shape the MC's future and some of their past.
  • Pursue romance or friendship with various characters. See characters further down.
  • Players will not choose sexual orientation - it's up to you to pursue romance if you want or simply don't. All 4 ROs are romanceable by any MC. Note: there are no poly routes available at this time. Love triangles are possible.
  • Romance is optional in the game. Although, it should be noted this was originally planned as a romance game so there will be a lot of optional romance content.
  • 3 Family Mottos (based on an early choice) that will unlock various choices throughout the game.
  • Choose your pet and their name (meet them in Chapter 2);

Full Game Features:

  • Everything listed above, plus...
  • Chapters 2-14;
  • At least 4 holidays that offer opportunities to honor the gods, further relationships, or simply have a good time;
  • Birthdays for other characters;
  • A kingdom charity you can help support;
  • The experience of being backstabbed;
  • Making decisions that affect the people of Castleon;
  • Expanded personality choices and reactions;
  • More flavor text in regards to your MC's personality and physical attributes;
  • Optional sexual content;
  • Multiple endings.

Chapters 2-13 will each cover the span of around one month. The full game will follow roughly a year of the MC's life as The Harbinger.

Features are subject to change at my discretion.

There are four romantic or platonic companions available. Additionally, there are many other characters, including family members.

Constantine Dimas, M, 26 years old, Taurus

  • Constantine is the best friend of your twin brother, James, and a Knight in Castelon's Elite Guard. He is fiercely loyal to your family and fought alongside James in the Arandale War. Like you, he finds amusement in teasing your brother. 

"You're not too different from your twin, both reckless royals, so you probably need someone to care for you."

F. Faramund, M or F, 22 years old, Aquarius

  • Whether F was your first love or your ex-best friend, they broke your trust and disappeared. Now, they're back and seemingly apologetic. Bury the hatchet, rekindle your former relationship, or walk a different path altogether.

"The stars guided me back to you and I will stay as long as you allow."

Felix Faramund, M, 24 years old, Aries

  • Felix is F.'s older brother and was someone you once considered a friend. Like, F., he's returned to Castelon. Unlike F., he can be quick to anger and he's not afraid to speak his mind. He can read the room, he just doesn't care. You can romance Felix, even if you loved F. 

"Just know, I'll fight for what I want."

Lady Margaret, F, 22 years old, Gemini

  • The mysterious Lady Margaret is a noble businesswoman who enjoys observing from the shadows. She's close to your mother, Queen Vivian. Although she is slow to trust others, those who earn her trust will find themselves in the company of a powerful and loyal ally.

"I can think of many ways to consume your time."


I am the sole developer and writer for this game. It's my passion project and my main project!

PatreonKo-fi |  Discord  | Game Tumblr | YouTube  (for indie dev things)| My Website

My discord is writingmysoul#6083 if you want to reach me! Game discord is linked above.

StatusIn development
PlatformsHTML5
Release date Aug 11, 2022
Rating
Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars
(205 total ratings)
AuthorVi @ VW Publishing
GenreInteractive Fiction
Made withTwine
TagsCharacter Customization, Historical, Multiple Endings, Mystery, Narrative, Nonlinear, Romance, Story Rich, Twine
Average sessionAbout an hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse, Smartphone
LinksBlog, Patreon, YouTube, Community

Development log

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Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 51 · Next page · Last page
(+1)

Out of curiosity, is development going smoothly? There hasn't been much in terms of updates since August.

(+1)

There is a post on Tumblr

(+1)

Oh so things are NOT going smoothly..

(+1)(-2)

At least it's not abandoned and the author lets us know quite regularly what's going on. Unlike many others :/  

Yeah true enough

I keep encountering this error and i restarted but i still have it.

Felix holds his hands up in mock defense, “Apologies, sister. What I meant to say was, how did you manage to run away from the person who loved you, only to have your new lover die? Unlucky you are.”

Oh. Shit. Both you and Anna are too shocked to move. Felix has a devilish grin on his face and his eyes dance with mischief. Freyja grabs her brother by the shirt but doesn’t throw any punches, despite her angry shake. She appears to be having an internal dialogue.

You…

and nothing pops up for this, what do I do?

Hi - sorry for the delay in responding. I'll look into this and respond back when I believe it is fixed. Apologies again and thanks for letting me know.

(+1)

Man I love everyones reaction when your per is a lion.

They freak out over a wolf, to. It's so funny. Meanwhile, my MC is like..."whose a good boi?" while giving him fierce belly rubs. xD

(+1)

It was funny how James was afraid of ferret.

(+1)

To be fair, those little suckers know how to bite. xD

(+1)

Small but dangerous 🥰🥹

(1 edit) (+1)

Please tell me this project is still ongoing. I like the premise.

(+2)

It is. You can follow progress updates on her Tumblr blog.

Hi - yes. I've been on a break recently due to my mother in law being diagnosed with cancer. That said, I am definitely not abandoning this game :) hopefully I can get the rest of chapter 2 done shortly. Thanks for playing!

Three small errors towards the end of chapter 2 part 1:

  • The name of Constantine's horse shifts from Allegiance to Justice.
  • If you sit next to Felix in the carriage and tell him 'You're fine', then 'Thank the Gods that you've shut up', that will lead to 'Error: the passage "endpart1" does not exist'.
  • If instead you pat the seat next to you to get F to sit there, Felix will smirk at his '$fisibling'.
(+1)

Sorry about those and thanks for flagging. I will try to update this soon. I appreciate the time you took to share them with me.

(1 edit)

Hey no problem, just trying to help out. Thank you for writing this IF, I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Edit: Oh dear, I just read your reply to the comment above about why you are taking a break. I'm so sorry, I did not mean to imply any form of pressure for you to resume writing.

(+1)

I think theres a bug! After talking privately with F in either chapter 1 or the prologue and going back to Anna Felix, they get into an argument and it says "you..." like it's going to give me an option to do something, but there are no options so I cant progress :( 

Sorry - working on fixing this!

this is Really good and it really just. hits in the heart sometimes ghjkjh I love your writing and how it flows
the characters feel alive and right and i just. really loved the experience! 

freja beloved...

anyway! remember to take care of yourself @-@

Thank you so much, I appreciate your kind words!

!! :D

I can't  save the game

same

Ok, that was awesome. This is easily my top 5 interactive games so far. So good and, thankfully, mature. And like so many other of my top 5 is a slow and painful process aka WIP. I hate when a games is in WIP status. But I digress, my question is for you and for any fellow readers that might know about coding, do you have any link to a video, guide book or anything that might help to develop games in twine? I have the coding skills if 80 year old boomer and I get frustrated because I have an amazing story in my head but I can use a tool as extent as Twine. Please help 🙇🙏🙇

(+1)

Hi, not sure if this is still relevant, but a lot of authors have links (if that's what they're called) on their page. Just click 'More Information' above the devlog and then the authors name. Hope this helps :)

Sorry for the delay answering. I checked this out and, yes! They do have links. Thanks for bringing it to my attention 

Thank you, that's very kind of you. I also hate when games are WIP lol. Feel free to message me on Tumblr or Discord or email me at vi@vwpublishing.com and I would be happy to provide advice for Twine. But yes, as someone else stated, many authors have free resources on their blogs. This is still a WIP, but I do have a spreadsheet here with some resources: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/9/d/15vgEwV8lOyYZPM-BF61zkO3HAxKOSBDdT7-2...

OMG this is amazing thank you. Is very detailed and has everything I need. You're a life saver

so glad to hear that! Hope it helps. You’ve got this and I hope to read your game in the future :)

(+1)

Thanks for the kind words.  It's just a working title but  it's called The Silver Moon Chronicles. 

I love the name!!

This is so fun

I've been trying so hard! I want to try and get the guy to confess about stealing some of his neighbors acres. I did it once and now I can't do it again... Do I have to do a certain thing to be able to do that? Or was it like removed. To put it easier, I can no longer see "The letter seems off." (I think that's what it said.) option when I'm trying to fix the problem between the two men. But also the game is amazing, I showed it to my friend and she fell in love with it!

(+1)

hey! I’ll take a look at the coding this weekend. The option is still there! I did change how attributes work so I might have just messed up the variables. You do have to do something particular to get that choice. Let me check and I’ll come back and tell you what has to be done :)  I think you have to have either the deception or suspicious attribute but I might have messed up that on the backend so I’ll check! 


And thank you so much for playing and for showing your friend! That means a lot to me <3

(1 edit)

Of course! My friend is obsessed now, every time we meet she squeals just thinking about it. (I do too, of course.) And I think I did get the suspicious attribute or was it deception? I just don't remember how or which one. Thanks for helping! (And for making the game.)

I had deception attribute and was able to tell the note of sale was forged.

Hey, i dont know if anyone else is having this problem, but when Freya is about to punch her brother, the choices dont show up.

Sorry about that - looks like a coding error. I will fix it soon. 

ok, thanks

(+1)

goodluck on everything, Vi. tysm for this awesome game, i get my A level results tomorrow and its 5am and i couldnt sleep bc of the stress, next in line really helped take my mind off things, i love this game alot and i feel weirdly very mournful about Percieval's death, its probably the way you wrote everything so well, it hurts and its so good, i love this sm, pls take care of yourself<3

(+1)

you’re so sweet, thank you so much! I hope you get the amazing results you deserve on your A levels. But if not, remember, everything will definitely be okay. It will all work out how it’s supposed to. thank you so much for playing Next in Line <3 hope you get some rest! 

(+1)

thank you<33 i hope everything does work out for the both of us<3

Very good. I enjoy both Margaret and Freja so much that I can't choose between the two.

haha thank you! Margaret and F are very different but great in their own ways. I hope you enjoy learning more about them in future updates. 

Love the update, and eager for more opportunities to crap on Frederick!

Felix: I like it when you're mean. Me: AYO??????? 

1000000/10 update but daaaammn. Felix is freaky as hell- XD

(+1)

omg I forgot I wrote that

haha I’m glad you enjoyed the update though! 

(+1)

AHHHH I loved the update!! Keep up the amazing work also I’m very sorry for your loss :( I hope you are doing okay!! But you are an amazing writer and I love this IF!!! ❤️❤️

thank you 💙 I really appreciate your kind words!! 

(2 edits) (+1)

Error?


(+1)

Thank you - these should be fixed now as I found and tested after resolving, 

There seems to be an error or something, I chose the name Kitty for my pet lion and then allowed Margaret and Constantine to pet it and then the name of the lion was changed to "Ripper"

(+1)

Thanks - this was a small error on my part and should be resolved!

(+1)

I’m not sure if this has been reported before but I took a screenshot of it

(+1)

thanks :) I will fix that before I update the game on Friday. I appreciate you letting me know. 

(+1)

You’re welcome!

(+3)

I LOVE it Constantine is my fav fact you tease your brother togeather is perfect <3 

haha I’m glad to hear that! Thanks for playing :)

(+2)

I LOVE THIS AHHDJIEBEKDH omg I’m torn through felix and Constantine tho 🥴

(+1)

Haha! Well you have a couple of options:

  • do more than one play through
  • romance both at the same time and create a love triangle and eventually choose one
  • romance both at the same time, create a love triangle and then break both of their hearts 
  • that's all i got but i felt like it needed another bullet

Anyway, thanks for playing. :) Stay tuned for chapter 2 in July!

I'm playing this from an apple device on the itch.io app, everytime I try to save it gives me an error message. Any one know the reason why?

Oh noooo!!!

I accidentally deleted my save from my files, and now I'm going to have to start over..... Which could be good since I don't remember the story 😹

And 

Thanks 🩷🩵

(+1)

Could you add a downloadable option?

(+1)

Hey - I didn't even realize it was missing :) should be available now! 

I can't play it offline, there's no executable in the archives...

(+1)

sorry about that - I’ll check on this after work tonight and try to fix it. I haven’t uploaded a downloadable copy before so I’m sure it’s just an error I made. 

firstly love the game. ♥️ i see my previous saves are gone so i started replaying. But now when i save anything it doesn't show or load.

oh no. I'm so sorry about that. I'll try to figure out a fix before chapter 2. Apparently the save code I used before was outdated so I used the newer one. It must have messed something up. Thank you for letting me know.

I loved this game so much and I can't wait for the next update :)

thank you so much <3 excited for you to play more of it. 

(+1)

i dont normally comment but i absolutely love this i cant wait for the future updates !! also i am in love with felix hELP

Thank you so much for your comment and for playing my demo! I'm so glad you like Felix. I hope you'll enjoy learning more about him.  He's been an interesting character to develop. 

- Vi

I really love this game so much! But does anybody know how to fix the saves? Whenever I try to save it says an error has occurred. Is there any way to fix this?

(1 edit)

Hi - I'm so sorry you're having an issue with saves. Are you playing in the browser or downloaded? Also would it be possible for you to share a screenshot of the error? If you can't share here or don't want to, you can email to nextinlinegame@gmail.com (if you want).

This also had happen to me and I downloaded it.

I'm sorry about that - thanks for letting me know. Do you mind sharing what type of operating system your device has?

I use Linux to download the game on my chromebook. 

(+1)

This was quite the experience! I loved the way the MC is presented, especially how we weave our way through this world. The mystery is very intriguing and the RO's all feel solid and curious, very curious to see MC will lead with their supporters behind their back.

Thank you so much - I appreciate the time you took to play and leave a comment. 

- Vi

(+1)

LOOOVVEEDD THIS!!!

My one thing though, was that the options we get and even some dialogue doesn't really have room for those of us who chose Touch-Adverse. For example, when the brothers were about to bump heads, MC only had two options; both which included physical interaction. 

Will Our Touch-Aversion be brought up again in the future? Or is everyone around MC already aware? 

I will be going back to do some revision to make it more accurate for those who chose touch aversion and I am trying to be more mindful of this for the future chapters of the game. I’m sure it will be brought up again or at least referenced in some way by characters. Thank you for the feedback! 

Hi - with the newest update, this should be fixed. Thanks again for bringing to my attention. 

(+1)

felix my BELOVED. i love the way you write! i can already tell this is gonna be one of my favorites

thank you so much!! <3

I would love to see more of Margaret, amazing writing, love love love love this , I also put this in my ccollection.

 Yay - there is definitely more Margaret on the way )

(+3)(-1)

I am so excited to play more! I love that you can play simply platonic!!!!

(+3)

Yay! And yes, all kinds of relationships can be meaningful. :)

(+1)

ABSOLUTELY LOVE THISSS MOREE!

(+1)

Thank you!!

(+2)

Whelp im in love with Fredrick. This was so amazingly written! I cant wait for more :))

(+1)

Aw! Thank you so much. Chapter 2 has a special scene with F. :)

(+11)

Thank you James for bringing me my future husband. Constantine is lovely and i gladly accept his hand in marriage. 😌

(+2)

thanks for giving my demo a try <3

(+10)

I Always Have A Bad Habit Of Adding Every Scar Possible, My Character Looks Like A Half Eaten Vachon Passion Flakie

(+1)

Haha! Might be more scars later on. 

(+7)

Ah yes now the trouble begins either choosing Constantine or one of the brothers what a cruel fate I must decide

(+1)

:) or just get into a love triangle mess haha. Thanks for playing my demo!

(+3)

I keep reading Castelon as "Castleton" and it is hilarious

(+3)

hah! Some people on Tumblr said they always read Constantine as Constantinople.

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