Jane Austen's Matchmaker

Jane Austen's Matchmaker is a strategy game where you better your standing in the world by making acquaintances and marrying your daughters as advantagously as possible or just find a nice husband yourself.

>> Get to know your house in a tiny demo that we prepared. >> And tell us what you think!

This is a short graphics preview of the player's house to demonstrate the look&feel of the game:

Your Role, Campaigns, Missions and Quests

There will be different campaigns to choose from, each with a discrete set of missions. In some of them you will be a mother trying to marry off your daughters. In others you will be the daughter trying to get what you want in a most confining life situation. Sometimes it will be about making important acquaintances, sometimes about overcoming difficult financial situations and so on.

In each one of these missions however the character you lead will still have her own unique personality. That does not necessarily mean that you will not do what you suggest to youself. But you might not like it. Or you might not be able to do it in the way you had in mind. You might get testy where you need yourself to be polite, angry where you need to be firm, depressed when you force yourself to do things you actually detest. These will be most trying times for you fighting with yourself in this way.

But don't despair: eventually you will figure out how to treat yourself to get the most out of what you want for yourself.

Daughters

As a mother most of your efforts will concentrate on marrying your daughters as advantageously as possible. But if you thought yourself to be difficult wait until you try to persuade your daughter to see things your way.

There are several approaches to be recommended here: you can micromanage your daughter, forever telling her what to do and checking every minute of every day that she does so. But what might be the consequences? With some daughters this might be a reasonable approach - but what about headstrong ones? Are they not more likely now than before to fall for a scoundrels suggestion to elope with him?

Then there is always the possibility to just let her be of course. But how will you make sure that she employs her time sensibly? There is so much a young lady of today needs to know. What if she idles away all her time instead of bettering her understanding, her conversation, musical, riding or dancing skills. And wouldn't it be ever so helpful if she was a little bit more housewifly, mended and improved her dresses herself, cooked or tended the garden. You can higher a proper governess if you can afford it to have these tasks off your hand. But it will still not solve the problem of how to best approach your daughter.

As a daughter yourself you will find the rule of some if these mothers insufferable! How to best deal with these foolish, dominating or greedy creatures in a world where you have so little say over your life?

Conversation

This brings us to the single most important skill in Mathmaker: communication. You will need not only to talk to yourself, but to your daughters, your mother, your husband, your relatives, your acquaintances, possible suitors. - Pretty much everything that needs to be done or is worth having requires these endless hours of subtle suggesions, downright flattery, a little but of humour - but not to much and not with that upcreeping note of sarcasm, more interest in topics that bore you to death than you could ever have imagined and above all: a controlled temper. Because not everyone that you will talk to will have one himself.

Thank god that at least your servants just do what you tell them to without endless complaints, threats and negotiations!

Suitors

There will be plenty of those but not all of them appropriate for your daughter. Be ever cautious not to fall for fortune-hunters, gamblers and scoundrels. Also take care not to let your daughters fall in love with worthy but penniless young men! And then there is the competition: don't wait till some other mother's daughter snatches away your chosen suitor.

Acquaintances and Relatives

Acquaintances will provide you with quests, interesting conversation topics, health boosting chats about various ailments, recipes that could entice a suitor and introduction to important people. The prestige you hold in Matchmaker's world is made up by how many acquaintances you have and how good your connections are. You'll notice that some suitors will be off limit until you move in higher circles. Visiting your neighbors and holding parties is a time and resource consuming task but essential in a world that feeds off social connections.

But it will not be an easy sea to navigate: you will meet people who try your patience with tales of war or their ailments, who hold selfrightous grudges when you slighted them, who try to corrupt a flowering love by bringing forth their own daughters and who are shocked by how so nice a young men can turn out to be so corrupt. They will count how many times you go to church, who you invite to your parties and with which young men you let your daughter dance. And this is a small neighbourhood so gossip will travel fast.

Planning the day: Events and Household Chorses

So many chores and so little time - if only you had more qualified personnel! A whole house waits to be cleaned, groomed and beautified regularly. Meals have to be prepared, recipes to be collected, household goods to be stocked continually. New dresses have to be bought, the acquisition of a coach or another horse planned most carefully. Your daughter has to be chaperoned at all times when she has caught the eye of a notable suitor. Letters have to be written, the poor have to be helped, messes visited, dinner parties held, public balls envisioned, your daughters musical talent shown off, the apothecary consulted and relations cultivated. You'll have to plan carefully if you want to be able to squeeze as many of these tasks into your day as possible.

As you unlock features and gain necessary properties and prestige in the world you'll be able to drive to London for a shopping tour, organize picnics and maybe one day hold your very own balls!

Property

There will be plenty of property available for buying: coaches and horses, furniture and carpets, dresses and trinkets - and new staff to be hired to help you with a growing household. If only your husband wasn't so cheap! Maybe you could take finances into your own hands and save a penny here and there. But there is no way around it: you'll have to marry your daughters well to upgrade your income.

Exptected Release Date: to be announced

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