January 2025 Writer Support Thread

[Niki_Christopherson]

@AletheiaKnights

I’d like to know what all of you want and need from these threads. What do you think is important to maintain? Is there anything you’d like to see changed?

First off, I’d love to thank you for doing this. These threads are sometimes the only thing that keeps me going on my game, and I appreciate you holding it up.

I’d love to seea continuiation of articles designed to help us be better writers and game designers. I also really loved the day 15 snippets and the WIP update thingie that Harris does. I can’t think of anything that could make this better.

Thanks again!

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@HarrisPS

BTW for those interested, I was crunching some numbers on the release/WIP digests:

• the average number of updated WIPs per month was approx 30, and it never fell below 20
• the average number of brand new WIPs per month was 12-13

There were spikes in people sharing new WIPs or updates in January, July, August, and November; I think this was probably the effects of starting a new year, NaNoWriMo, and people in education having summer holidays. June and September was the lowest, which makes me think of exam season and the start of a new school year respectively.

Holy wow, this is amazing.

@LiliArch

I tentatively hope I’ll be able to start a WIP thread this year.

We’re rooting for you!

@Cat-Toes

Get out 2-3 chapter updates. This may not seem like much, but I’ve been averaging one a year, so this is very ambitious for me.

XD holy shit, same. GO YOU!

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As Usual, here we go:

Progress on my 2024 goals

• Complete Phoenix Rising - No where NEAR. Same as last year, really. Still working on the first chapter. At this rate, this is gonna take me 40 years.
• Begin Editing Phoenix Rising - It’s laughing at me.
• 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) - I have officially stopped doing this. I tell myself it’s because ‘duolingo is doing the wrong thing by using AI, so I’m boycotting’, but that doesn’t change that I’ve given up.

My 2025 goals

• Complete Phoenix Rising - This isn’t really realistic. But I’m gonna do my best.
• • This is an estimated timeline, PLEASE do not get your hopes up for it. This is to break it down for me, so that I can make plans and hopefully get it all done… but probably won’t.
• • 1. Finish Demo Update - End of January, roughly.
• • 2. Finish writing code skeleton for Chapter 1 - End of February, roughly.
• • 3. Add Flavor-text to Chapter 1 Code Skeleton - End of March, roughly.
• • 4. Edit Flavor-text to Chapter 1 & Debug round 1 - End of April.
• • 5. Debug round 2 - End of May.
• • 6. Upload full Chapter 1 demo - Middle of June.
• • 7. Code Skeleton Chapter 2 in it’s entirety - End of July.
• • 8. Flavor-text out Chapter 2 - End of September. (If I’m going by how long it took me to finish the first chapter, this is WILDLY optimistic)
• • 9. Bugfix & Edit Chapter 2 - End of October.
• • 10. Upload Chapter 2 demo - End of November.
• • 11. Code Skeleton Chapter 3 in it’s entirety - End of December.

My January Goals

• Finish Demo Update of Phoenix Rising
• Get posts on the Nascent Souls Tumblr up to end of March. - My posts are out to February at this time! I hope I can keep this up.
• Bonus at work. - Still a requirement to keep my job.
• Keep up with my Accountabili-Buddies so that we all make progress on our games. @RascaldeesV2 @Phenrex @eveelution @levviathan@Suyin @Eiwynn . Also looking for more accounta-bilibuddies too! Apply now!

For those curious, I said this in the December post too, but I don’t think I’m ever going to remove Eiwynn from my list. She was on it when she left us, and she’ll be on it until I do. It’s a sign of respect.