Gooey words of gratitude

Posted by Samantha on Sunday, 29th December 2013

Since releasing Regency Love almost two weeks ago, we’ve been getting an overwhelming amount of support and kind words from all you amazing folks across the globe. (And we were featured on Polygon, too!) To be perfectly honest, we are quite flabbergasted about all this—we’d hoped that our game might be appreciated by a small audience of story-lovers, but didn’t expect such enthusiasm and support from so many people! We’ll do our best to reply to your queries and comments, but please forgive us if we’re not entirely prompt (especially since our communications person is currently holidaying and playing around in all the snow and ice and shininess of her first real winter).

Gooeyness aside (mmm, gooeyness…), we wanted to let you know a couple of things, in the vein of a mini-FAQ-esque list:

Non-iOS release?

We would absolutely love to release for Android in the near future, but, unfortunately, we don’t currently have the funds or resources to do so. The three of us plan to have a nice, long (Skype) chat in the second week of January, during which we’ll discuss possible plans for the future. In any case, as soon as we have any news, we’ll definitely let you know!

Bugs?

We’re very sorry to say there have been a few bugs in the game we didn’t manage to catch pre-release, including one related to Mr Ashcroft’s ending. Additionally, we’ve been made aware of a battery-drain problem. Mel, our programmer extraordinaire, is busily working on those issues (amidst her happy post-Christmas food coma), and we’ll release an update with the fixes as soon as the bugs have been zapped.

Mr Graham?

When we initially planned for our 16 December release, we were going to include Mr Graham with the other bachelors; however, a few weeks before release, we decided to concentrate on other aspects of the game, and to save him for one of our updates. For those who are interested in this dashing redcoat, rest assured, we have every intention to integrate Mr Graham fully in the game. This may depend on funds and resources, but again, we’ll let you know after our little chat. (Jenny is quite a fan of Mr Graham, though, and I’m sure she’ll continue to champion him!)

Mr X, Y, and Z?

Ooooh yes, we have plans for quite a few more gentlemen whom we’d like to introduce to you! We have their names, families, stories, concept art, and dialogues all sketched out (with huge chunks of conversations already written!)—all that’s left are the major questions of resources and funding. But we will look at our options and try to come up with something!

I know, so many things are up in the air at the moment, and we’re really sorry about that. But please do be patient and bear with us—this is our first game, our first little company, our first foray into the possibilities of a Regency romance RPG, and we’re doing the very best we can! In the meantime, we’re infinitely grateful for all your feedback, your interest, your helping us spread the word, and your amazing support—lots of warm and fuzzies, indeed!

Thank you, happy holidays, and we hope to see you in 2014!

(And now I’m going to go build my first snowman!)

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen! Let’s celebrate with some Regency Love!

Posted by Samantha on Monday, 16th December 2013

238 years ago, Miss Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire. Over two centuries later, the world is still very much in love with her portrayals of Regency society, gender roles, family, love, marriage, and a whole bunch of other themes I’ll leave for Google and Wikipedia to fill in. Austen has made such an impact not only in literature, but also in shaping our understanding of Regency culture—in fact, for many people, the term “Regency” automatically conjures images of Mr Darcy rather than the Prince Regent (later King George IV) after which the era was named.

2.5 years ago, three girls gathered in an apartment in Sydney (which was coincidentally named “Regency”) and, inspired by Jane Austen, decided to make a Regency role-playing game that also functions as an interactive novel. At the time, we were (re-)playing Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2, and thought, “Hey, why not replace the darkspawns with chickens and Alistair/Zevran/Fenris/Anders with versions of Mr Darcy/Mr Knightley/Colonel Brandon/Captain Wentworth?”

The “minutes” of our first few meetings, way back in April 2011.

And so we did. (Minus the chickens—but we’ve replaced them with a certain Lord Fat Cat, instead.) Granted, it took our team more than 2.5 years, with one lady going to design school and focusing on getting super awesome marks, another lady making the transition from tutoring computing science at university to full-time programming and then to enrolling for art school, and the last lady leaving Australia (as early as September 2011) to do an MA and then a PhD. Thank goodness for Skype, Dropbox, and WhatsApp.

And now, you can finally experience Regency Love yourself on the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad:

If you’re not entirely sure if this is your cup of tea, here are three independent reviews that may help you decide: The Bennet Sisters, Confessions of a gamer girl, and Outside Windows (Contains minor spoilers.)

We hope you’ll enjoy our Regency creation, and would absolutely love to know what you think. We have so many ideas on how to expand the game and its stories, and, with your support, we hope to carry them out someday.

But today, let’s celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday, and spread the Regency Love!

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr—use the hashtag #RegencyLove to join the conversation!

P.S. Congratulations to the winners of our giveaway: Tristan, Kelcy, and Costy. Thank you all for participating, and stay tuned for more giveaways in the future!

Regency Love Release Date

Posted by Samantha on Saturday, 16th November 2013

After our blogging hiatus of the last few months (during which we were working ~~frantically~~ steadily to reach our goals), we are super excited to announce a release date for our iPhone/iPod touch app, Regency Love: 16 December 2013!

The release coincides with Jane Austen’s birthday, which will be a perfect time to celebrate stories from the Regency era. We’ll be posting a few things over the next few weeks–including a giveaway of an advanced copy of the game–so stay tuned, and follow our Facebook and Twitter for updates!

Release: Costume Theatre

Posted by Samantha on Saturday, 15th June 2013

We are excited and proud to announce the release of our first app in the App Store: Costume Theatre!

Costume Theatre Main Screen

Grab your copy now, available free on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch, and have fun dressing everyone and everything up in Regency garb! For those who are feeling a little more adventurous, you can also purchase the additional Roaring Twenties content pack, complete with flappers, feathers, and some epic moustaches (not to mention, some bonus Regency clothing)!

Of course, we’d love to see what you come up with. Simply tweet us (@TeaForThreeTime) your transformations or post them on our Costume Theatre Facebook page. We’re also working on adding features for future releases, including extra content packs and sharing functions. We’ve also got some fun Costume Theatre events planned for the future, so keep an eye out for those. In the meantime, if you have any additional feedback or comments, please let us know—we’d love to hear from you!

And I think the team deserves a little celebration, though we’re currently spread out all over the world: Jenny is drawing a lot in Sydney, Melody is wining and dining her way across Europe, and Samantha is singing some light-hearted Schubert in Belfast.