Some of my most recent games writing work has been for the browser game Fallen London, in which Victorian London has been stolen to an underground cavern on the shore of a massive sea, called the Zee.

Image: "What was the Affable Explorer to you?" The player's choices include "a long-ago friend," "a one-time lover" and "a maritime rival," though that action is locked by this player's lack of Zeefaring experience.

In The Stolen Soirée, January 2026's exceptional story, the player receives an invitation to a party being thrown by an eccentric explorer back from a Zee voyage.

The player chooses their relationship to the Explorer as well as their choice of clothing: every party story needs a dress-up scene. Different choices of garment raise and lower the player's stats when attempting challenges at the party.

Image: "A Self-Declared Heiress." As a crowd of admirers fawn over the Heiress, another guest remarks that the man she claims is her father had no daughters.

Also attending the party is the Self-Declared Heiress, a beautiful and charming woman with a dubious parental claim and even more dubious motives. As the Heiress sneaks around the Explorer's mansion of maritime oddities, the player can choose to follow her, to dance with her, and to attempt to earn her appreciation.

Image: "The Specimen." The Explorer auctions a glowing egg while a strange voice scratches at the player's mind.

As the party reaches its climax, the Affable Explorer reveals his latest Zee treasure: a strange, glowing egg that seems to exert a strange control over him.

Whatever this Specimen is, it seems to whisper inside the player's mind, talking in future tense about the player's duty to free it from the Explorer's control.

Image: "The Heiress in Black." The Heiress catches the player following her. Depending on her relationship to the player, the player can choose to work in tandem with her or to race to claim the prize.

After the guests leave, the Heiress attempts to steal the Specimen. The player can work with her or in competition with her. The Explorer, however, may be more dangerous than he seems.

The Self-Declared Heiress is a trans character: rejected by her wealthy father, she now hustles and steals to survive. Her story is paralleled by that of the Specimen's: kept prisoner by the Explorer, it can never hatch and realize the future it has already seen for itself.