User blog:Jadelady/The Royal Finale Instagram Live

This is basically a summary of Pixelberry's Instagram Livestream from November 17, 2021. The video can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWZXMfzKy8_/ I did not watch or participate in it as it was livestreamed, and I did not send any questions to the team for them to answer. This is not a transcript of the video; this is just a summary of the main points and what was asked and answered. If you watch the video and find more information that I should add, feel free to comment.

These are the pixelberries (a term they call their employees, staff and writers) who were in attendance:
 * Kara Loo, who brainstormed the idea of TRR1 with Jennifer Young - she also states she is the COO of Pixelberry
 * Jennifer Young
 * Jeffrey Herdmen, who started writing for the series in TRR1, Chapter 4, took time off to write for TRM, then came back to TRH when TRM ended
 * Owen Javellana, who joined the team starting in Book 5 (and thus was part of the writing team for TRH2, TRH3, and TRF)
 * Olivia Pourzia, who joined the team starting in TRR2
 * Megan Schwarz, who joined the team starting in TRR2

Kara, Olivia, and Megan joined the feed via their home offices, while Jennifer, Jeffrey, and Owen were at Pixelberry Studios. For that reason, it was difficult to hear Jeffrey, Owen, and especially Jennifer since they did not have individual microphones/headsets. Jennifer's audio kept cutting in and out. The series is coming to an end. How do they feel? Jeff basically summed it up as "bittersweet" and Olivia admitted she cried writing the last chapter.

Kara talked about how it all started with her brainstorming with Jennifer. The Royal Romance started on a budget, on a 'what can we write and make cheaply? what art assets can we reuse?' Beginning with reusing Zenobia Nevrakis's asset and transforming her to Olivia, pulling assets from Rules of Engagement (Leo mentioned Liam, let's go with Liam), asking The Crown and The Flame's lead Kathleen if they could give Drake the last name of Hunter (after Dominic Hunter) and was told emphatically "No!" It was a 'how to write a book without stepping on the toes of other "Choices" books.' They did not go into the series knowing it would become a series and knowing how it would end. When they got to the end of Book 1, the question in their minds was if the Prince was going to pick you. When they realized how well it was doing financially, they got their answer: no, he wasn't and that would lead to Book 2. Later, Kara states that the Royal series had the toughest deadlines of all the Choices books in her opinion.

Jeff mentioned how The Royal Masquerade was supposed to bridge The Crown and The Flame with The Royal Romance, and bringing House Nevrakis into it and a super serious "bearded Maxwell".

Kara talked about how she started writing the Main Character ("Riley"). She was sassy, she was sweet, but when Jeff joined the writing team, he joked about big hats and so MC's love for big hats was born.

When asked about the inspiration behind Hana's character, Kara said she modeled some of Hana's traits after Jennifer. For example, Jennifer plays the piano and so does Hana. Jennifer brought up a little of her upbringing and childhood, how her parents made her and her siblings learn the piano, practice ballet, and those (stereotypical Asian) expectations. Megan said while the other characters had their personalities and traits set in the story, Hana grew alongside MC where she was discovering herself and what she liked. They all loved Competitive Hana.

Best pet? Megan loves animals but got shot down by the team when she wanted to add more, considering there is already a menagerie of pets in the series. Jennifer and Jeff vote for Chance (corgi) as the Best Pet, while Kara is partial to the horse (Marabelle's Dream). Owen loves the puppies, and Olivia likes the kitten because she is modeled after one of Olivia's cats. Megan is also partial towards the kitten because her default name is the name of Megan's cat.

Most fun to write? Olivia liked writing the wedding chapter in TRR3 with Kara. Megan says a lot of scenes come to mind, but the first one that popped in her head was writing the Prince's proposal. Kara liked writing the scenes in TRR1 when the gang went to Lythikos because it was the first chapter they got to explore more of love interests (with individual premium scenes). Jeff enjoyed writing Maxwell scenes, and Megan piped up with Bertrand. Owen thought it was fun to write ensembles (like the guys drinking at the bar in TRH2).

Best apple? Apparently Kara and Jennifer researched into different varietals of apples, and there is a rivalry between the Cordonian Ruby and the Red Delicious. Jennifer says the Red Delicious is probably the closest to their fictional Ruby, but also pipes in that Bertrand hates Granny Smiths.

Plots they wish could have written? Pairings? Interactions? Kara had a dark idea; she wanted to write a darker version of Cordonia - one where MC had been missing for years, Liam has an eye patch. She was veto-ed a lot for wanting to kill characters; at one time or another, she wanted to kill Bertrand, Bastien, and Olivia. Jeff wanted a Drake / Maxwell buddy cop movie. They all like pairing Maxwell with another character non-romantically. They missed writing Madeleine / Olivia interactions as they were always antagonistic towards each other.

Favorite villain? Owen likes Eirik because of his dual personality. Olivia likes Barthelemy because of his intelligence. Jeff and Megan like Anton, Megan more for the Justin puns.

MC's parents? Kara once again says that MC's parents are the player's parents. When the player (the audience) wants to know about her parents, just look to their own parents.

What happened to Madeleine? They really had no answer to this. Olivia points out that in some players' books, Madeleine had basically been exiled at the end of TRH3. (This happens if you choose the default settings and/or do not choose to speak to her with kindness/respect. If you choose to be snide/condescending/mean to Madeleine for her father's actions and for how she treated you in TRR1/TRR2, she sides with Barthelemy.)

Why didn't MC have more children? Besides the little bit they left in the last chapter, they said logistically they didn't want to write a second child if they were not going to give the reader plot/time with the child.

Spin offs? There are no immediate plans for any future books. In the beginning of the interview, they said they feel the story is done and is concluded. However, they said "never say never" and want to leave the future open in case they decide to revisit the series.

Advice for writers? Specifically for writing for Choices? Kara gives three points: Jennifer adds that you need to write for players, not just for yourself. Megan adds that it takes humility, to be able to take a step back and think rationally instead of emotionally, and be receptive to feedback and criticisms.
 * 1) Be prepared to write a lot quickly. Unlike writing a novel for publication, there is no time to give yourself a day if you have writer's block. It is collaborative, the team has a common vision, and so you need to work well in a team and with others.
 * 2) Be cognizant of costs. Resources such as art assets, writer assets, and time constraints.
 * 3) Think creatively.

They give shout outs and thanks to the art team and producers.