Release Devlog!

Hey everyone! Just a quick devlog to announce that I proudly released The Daughters of the Sun, my love letter to Jean Racine's Phaedra, my favourite work of art of all time!

Coding-wise, this game was the occasion for me to explore color matrixes, which I have never done before! And I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it actually was! Now, the next step for me is to explore layered sprites and I'll have finished my "basic Ren'Py coding" bucket-list!

For this game, I had the pleasure to work with a VA again, and what a VA! This game really was a challenge and her performance as the Daughters of the Sun (Phaedra, Ariadne and Pasiphaë) is just stellar! She really is an important part of what makes the game amazing, and her acting really gave me shivers!!

For now, I'll just say I'm proud of this game: it's not my most ambitious or anything, but it really resembles what I had in mind! So I hope you guys are going to enjoy it, and that it honours Racine's original material! Expect a longer devlog in the next days, to let you know everything about how Racine inspired me! For now, let me share you a mythology check-up, for culture and if you're curious about the myth:

APHRODITE AND HELIOS

Hephaestus, god of blacksmiths, was chased from Olympus by his mother, Hera, goddess of wedding, because of his notable ugliness. Raised by nymphs, he learnt craftsmanship and plotted his revenge: using his talents, he locked his mother on an enchanted throne. Being the only one with the key, Hephaestus agreed to free her under one condition: he would marry her daughter Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.

However, Aphrodite was enamoured with Ares, god of war and the two were lovers. One day, however, the Sun, Helios, flying over Olympus, discovered the forbidden union and told Hephaestus about it. The latter, full of rage and jealousy, set up a trap: a golden net on Ares’ bed would catch the naked lovers and all the other gods would be invited to make fun of them. When this eventually happened, the Sun, adding to the humiliation, shed light on them to make them more visible.

Aphrodite, humiliated and offended, decided to curse the descendants of the Sun: they were doomed to tragic loves.

PASIPHAË AND THE MINOTAUR

Pasiphaë was the daughter of Helios and Perse, a water-nymph (she was therefore the sister of the more famous Circe), married to Minos, king of Crete, with whom she had a lot of children, but only four will matter here: Androgeus, Ariadne, Phaedra and the Minotaur.

Poseidon, god of the sea, made Minos king of Crete, in exchange for the sacrifice of the white bull, but the latter broke his engagement. The god, furious, decided to curse the traitor’s wife, and Pasiphaë found herself in love with a bull. Consequently, she asked Daedalus, famous engineer of Greek mythology, to create a wooden cow on wheels in which she could hide. Daedalus did so, covered his creation with leather, and it was enough to fool the white bull: it impregnated Pasiphaë, who gave birth months later of a terrible creature, half-human half-bull: the Minotaur.

Minos asked Daedalus to create the Labyrinth to hide the Minotaur. After Aegeus, king of Athens, had sent Minos’ son, Androgeus to death by making him fight the Marathonian bull just because he raffled all the prizes of the Panatheanic games, Minos declared war on them, forcing Athens to capitulate: in exchange of peace, every year, Athens had to send seven young girls and seven young men to feed the Minotaur.

ARIADNE AND THESEUS

But this did not sit right with Aegeus’ son, Theseus, who decided to go to Crete and fight the Minotaur to free the children of Athens. One of Minos’ daughters, Ariadne, fell in love the moment she saw him. Yet, she knew all too well the cruel fate that awaited Theseus: he was surely strong enough to fight the Minotaur, but he would never be able to find his way out.

To prevent his lover from never returning to her, Ariadne gave Theseus a thread he would just need to unwind behind him to find his way back and gave him a sword belonging to her father, offered by Hephaestus himself to celebrate Minos’ union with Pasiphaë. Thanks to Ariadne’s help, Theseus slew the Minotaur, obtained peace from Minos and sailed away with his newfound lover. However, Theseus quickly got bored with Ariadne and abandoned her in Naxos, an island: Ariadne could not come back to Crete as she would be charged with treason and executed and, although different variations exist here, we will go with this one: she committed suicide. That is the cruel fate in love Aphrodite had for her.

Theseus, after this, came back to Athens and forgot about a promise he made to his father: if he came back victorious, his sails would be white; or else, they would be black. Theseus forgot to change the sails and Aegeus, believing his son had died, threw himself in the sea which now has his name. Theseus became king of Athens.

PHAEDRA AND HIPPOLYTUS

After, Theseus kidnapped Antiope, the Amazonian Queen and had a child with her: Hippolytus. After the death of Antiope, Theseus married Phaedra (according to some versions, he kidnapped her). Phaedra fell in love with Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, the moment she arrived at Athens. Now, versions may vary, but here is the one we will consider: Phaedra, to fight these incestuous feelings, pretended to hate Hippolytus. Theseus, to appease his wife, sent his son to Troezen. Phaedra was free from her terrible feelings and could live in peace, forgetting Hippolytus. Yet, years later, Theseus allegedly had to accompany his friend Pirithous to hell so that the latter could kidnap Persephone (wife of Hades, god of the dead). Therefore, not to leave Phaedra alone, he put her under Hippolytus’ protection at Troezen, before leaving. There, the flames of love burnt again in Phaedra’s heart, and she fell madly in love again with her step-son. Thing to note: Hippolytus is an enemy of love, despising Aphrodite and her altars.

From now, for this mythology check-up, we will mostly follow Racine’s play: Phaedra, knowing all too well that this was Aphrodite’s curse, decided to starve herself to death. Yet, with the announcement of Theseus’ death, her wet nurse convinced her to stay alive longer, to defend her son’s interests on the throne, and to talk it out with Hippolytus. Phaedra did but got overwhelmed by her feelings, eventually accidentally revealing the true nature of her feelings to Hippolytus: this ended up in her throwing herself onto her sword to stab herself, but her wet nurse stopped her and took her away. Yet, Phaedra just desired to let Hippolytus on the throne and end her life but… Theseus was in fact alive and came back. Phaedra, panicked, and pushed by her wet nurse, accused Hippolytus of having tried to sexually assault her, threatening her with the exact same sword she had left on the floor. Theseus believed her and cursed Hippolytus: he asked Poseidon to murder his son. When this happened, Phaedra, remorseful, drank poison and revealed the whole truth before dying.