August 2024 Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
932

lol
lmao
same.

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933

You can guess i am in a bug freak non sense spiral

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934

I’m in a “I hate drawing” phase personally.

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935

Well, August has been, August has gone. So has two drafts of chapter 2 of Dance of the Night and I am feeling… kind of lukewarm about the whole endeavor. I think the story’s great. I’m enjoying the characters, and while the full payoff of the history changes are only starting to become visible, I know where they’re going. So much so that the beats for C3 are now radically different than I first intended.

But, right now, I’m in that horrible dip where there’s zero visibility on whether anything is working. That phase that is basically walking through mist and going ‘Is this good? Is anyone reading it? Why does my brain scream out in suckage?’ And it’s only going to get more tricky as we get into later chapters, and the pea-souper descends as the demo reaches its limit and there’s nada coming out. Just radio silence. Just the deafening silence of where things are. The disconnect from your audience.

It makes me nervous, and makes me question the entire endeavor. So far, we’re north of 100,000 words of writing. That’s an entire book. And, with any other project, it would be being put to bed, proofed, polished and sealed. But here we’re scratching the surface. And I question why I’m doing it. Particularly because I fear what’s going to happen at the end. When you hit 500,000 words, and the only feedback you get is why isn’t it longer? I kind of dread that.

I remember, years ago, I got my PhD. And I was so proud of myself. And I shared it on social media, and the first response I got - the first reply! - was ‘I can’t see why anyone would waste their life to get a PhD when you don’t need it’. The. First. Reply. And that’s the part of writing I hate. Knowing that, within 24 hours, some evil person, with naught but malice in their heart, is going to steal the game and pirate it. And that evil people will use that copy, and pay the thief for the pleasure. That I’m going to spend years working on something, and get a lot of hate mail at the end of it. That terrifies me. That keeps me awake, destroys all motivation, and makes me feel lost in the fog.

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936

I am lost in the fog as well. I don’t have your talent and I hasn’t been published yet but the fog and the mails probably have reached most people here in rhis thread.

We are here with you. We understand what is put a demo or a snippet and refreshing each five seconds searching for any single feedback even if is half line.

You are worthwhile. You are respected and you have more worth that anyone that pirates games KNOWING the person that makes the game.

I don’t like people pirate big games either but there at least you don’t know who you are harming.

But the gal to piracy games from a small writer who you can meet interact and know many played betas…

You are not the one to feel sorrow they are the one that are dishonest.

And Forget forum people (yeah I know) We are a small percentage of the people who are interested in your work. You will slay and you will keep going improving along the way.

And I know it is not kind. But use your own rage as a stubborness fuel to keep going.

I do, many times when I am about to let all rotten and give up I remember each pm or toxic messages I got. I was called Terrorist against english once, stupid r word, toxic and you will never ever have anyone who would down themselves to read your shit.

That rage and bitterness is not sane but It has helped me to get going-over many thought moments. I will win someday.

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937

Writing sucks…but most writers are crazy and have to do it anyway

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938

Here’s my monthly release and update digest for August. Congratulations on everyone who’s written something this month, and if you’ve shared it, thank you for doing so! As ever, let me know if anything is missing or incorrect, and enjoy!

Choice of Games Release:

Expected Releases Next Month:

Current Full Game Beta Testing

New HC WIPs:

New HG/Hobby WIPs:

CoG Updates:

HC Updates:

HG/Hobby Updates:

New Steam Pages:

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@HarrisPS just wondering… can I get a mention for my bonus chapters? Does that count? :slightly_smiling_face:

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940

Of course it does! I’ve added it on there.

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941

The final day…

And here I sit, no closer to finishing my game. Not even truly closer to finishing the demo update. I’m trying to be patient with myself because I know that work takes precedence if I want to eat.

But it’s so hard not to remember that the bulk of the game was written/coded when I was unemployed. When I had the time.

The major shift this month is that I’ve finally caved and used implicit control function, so hopefully, my game will be less likely to crash.

…okay I was gonna copy and paste my goals from the beginning of the month here and update them but I’m on the phone app right now and it’s being a lil shit about it. Tried 6 times and it kept kicking out the quote because I had to scroll too much. Ugh.

Moved to my PC:

Progress on my 2024 goals

  • Complete Phoenix Rising - not even close to on track for this one. Although I am making slight progress towards being able to put out the update.
  • Begin Editing Phoenix Rising - TAT I’m gonna cry.
  • Participate in at least 1 game jam - I’m beginning to think this is a pipe dream for me
  • Complete at least 1 game jam - definitely thinking this is a pipe dream
  • Learn Spanish enough to be able to use it at work (earn a $2 raise by doing this) - Duo is looking at me like I betrayed his dumb owl self, and I feel very guilty.

August Goals

  • Finish Chapter One of Phoenix Rising - I have not finished the daydream section. It’s still making me want to rip my hair out with how repetetive it is. BUT IM CLOSER TO THE END.
  • Get posts on the Nascent Souls Tumblr up to end of september. - Help TAT I’m running out ot tags to search for things to add to the queue. Seriously, if anyone has any suggestions…
  • Get the game to a point where I can ACTUALLY POST AN UPDATED DEMO, GODDAMMIT. – stares balefully at it It’s mocking me, I know it.
  • Bonus at work. - I was ONE SALE AWAY. ONE. TAT
  • Keep up with my Accountabili-Buddies so that we all make progress on our games. @RascaldeesV2 @Phenrex @eveelution @levviathan. Also looking for more accounta-bilibuddies too! Apply now!
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Thanks! I’m eager to publish as soon as can, but I’ve received some feedback and now preparing to make some corrections. Always trying to improve in whatever way I can manage.

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I did it! :tada: :partying_face: And I got another few thousand words of my halloween jam entry written, gravy and all.

I’m hoping to wrap up the beta mid-September and submit to HG before the end of next month… wow, that’s gonna be surreal to write as my goal in next month’s support thread. I don’t think it sank in just how close I am until I typed that out.

@Niki_Christopherson thank you so much! :revolving_hearts:

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944

Congratulations on completing your goal! That’s fantastic!

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I’ve been doing lots of revisions to Honor Bound this month in response to editor reviews, my own playtesting, and beta tester feedback. It’s been going really well even though I haven’t been as focused on work (during the school holidays I concentrate more on family time).

I’ll be continuing with all of that during September :slightly_smiling_face:

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Out of curiousity, Eiwynn, is the september thread going up today, or do we have to wait for tomorrow? XD

Oh man, sounds like you guys are nearing the finishing stretches! I’m super excited for you!

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I wrote about 6k words of Meteoric this month, missing my 10k word goal, but that’s not the end of the world considering the circumstances. (My brain hates me haha)

Although, broadly speaking, I am bummed that it doesn’t seem like I’m on course to finish even a 120k word story in a year. I’m at 50k words right now with four months to go, but maybe I can be more productive towards the end of the year.

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I hope so! The goal (spoiler for when I post in the September thread) is to have the draft submitted for copyedit by the end of Sept. It depends how large the rest of the revisions end up being, and what I spot when playtesting (I literally spotted something I need to change just now when testing that a bug’s fixed, so that’s an unknown).

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We all get that way sometimes, don’t worry about it too much! Walk somewhere, or dance, or something. Take a quick break.

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950

Lots of folks hang around this thread. Try asking for feedback here since it’s down to the final stretch and you’re planning to publish soon.

Regarding the edited files I made, you should give those a read through. The pictures are not showing, because I commented them out. You need to remove my comments.

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951

I managed to complete both of these goals! Even though my chapter ended up being a lot longer than I originally suspected. I also went back over my prologue and first chapter with edits, and I started editing my second chapter. I’m actually doing pretty well with them, and hope to be done by Monday, so I can spend a week playtesting before I release the new chapter.

I think this is the first time since I’ve been participating in these threads that I’ve actually met my monthly goal, so I’m pretty psyched.

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