Weekly update: January, Week 4
Week’s Wordcount: 8166 words
Total Wordcount: 216K words
The eagle-eyed among you may note that although my week’s wordcount is 8000, the total wordcount is only 4000 higher than last week. Well, mathematical friends, the total new content is 8000 words, but I cut 4000 by removing testing-related code that’s no longer necessary at this stage. It felt very cleansing. And also makes my playthrough to total wordcount ratio a little less ridiculously branched. (It’s still ridiculously branched. But the replayability and different experiences for different players should make it all worth it!)
What I’ve been doing:
-Doing a little bit of writing for the Delacroix teaser. It’s ending up pretty melancholy, which I suppose suits such a gothy, solitary character. (Now I’m wondering how the Four Humours map onto the various characters, send help.)
-Coding achievements throughout - I’d been sitting on a list of ideas for achievements and thought I’d get some of them out of the way now rather than going through the whole game at the end.
-Coding and outlining Chapter 8: complete with a bunch of fiddly but functional code about sports day scores and exam grades.
-Re-outlining a chunk of Chapter 8: I outlined and coded a subplot at the end of Chapter 8 in full, but realised it wasn’t strong enough; it was sort of related to the overall plot but didn’t move it along enough. I wanted it to be more explicitly tied to the overall plot, and so I redid it. Now it’s much better! I include this here because I like acknowledging that writing isn’t always a straightforwardly linear process. Just like the games themselves!
-Writing Chapter 8: I’ve done one of three branches of the first act of the chapter, which I’m pleased with; it involves an extremely obnoxious character who’s one of my favourites. There is some content with Mr Griffith, which should humanise him a bit - he is so very severe and rarely opens up to anyone but you’ll see a bit of a more relaxed side of him here. It also involves a sports contest, which is bringing back dreadful flashbacks to my own schooldays. Happily, my own experiences involved less archery and mandatory participation, and more sitting around in the sun while the more sporty people did their thing…