January 2026 Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
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Happy New Year (almost, or maybe it’s already here depending on where you are).

I know, I know, why does time fly so fast?

The writer support thread is a low-pressure, low-judgement space to talk about writing, share our progress and ask for feedback or questions. Thank you again to everyone who participates in these threads and helping to support each other.

WIPs (Feedback Exchange)

The following writers have expressed interest in a feedback exchange agreement for their project. Feel free to reach out to each other and make arrangements. That said, even if you don’t have a project of your own, you are welcome to check out these projects and offer feedback as well.

Pactbinder by @Hamartia

Below the Skyline by @dozendietcokesaday

WIPs (Other)

I will also be featuring some WIP threads here. Please feel free to take a look and provide feedback (or even just leave a comment) if you have the time. Feel free to comment or reach out if you want yours added to the list. (If I missed anyone out, please let me know.)

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Resource Sharing

@Cataphrak has an interesting article on narrative design which you are welcome to check out.

You can also find more guides to writing on his website.

Anything else?

That’s all. Feel free to reach out to me if you want anything added.

Actually, one more thing. I’ll make this post a wiki. If anyone wants to add their WIPs to the feedback exchange, or to the feedback request without an exchange, you may edit this post and add it in yourself. (But you can also ask me to add it too.)

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December 2025 Writer Support Thread
When to start sharing?
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It’s strange to think that at this time last year, we’d just lost Eiwynn and were figuring out a system for writer support threads without her diligence and dedication; thanks to everyone who kept them going last year, including you, Chance.

This might be a good place for me to reflect on last year’s annual goals and set this year’s. As of January 2025, I was hoping to accomplish two things:

The first one happened. I got to Chapter Seven, which I’m hoping to finish this month, so not even that far away from Chapter Eight, either.

The other thing… fell through. I’m honestly in a bit of a creative ditch right now, so to speak. I can do plenty of one-sentence ‘high-concept’ sorts of things, and even build some of those out into respectable outlines with characters, a mechanic idea or two, and so on. But I always hit some point where I don’t know what’s supposed to connect C and D in the plot, or I can’t get down to a granular-enough level of detail about how things will work to satisfy myself.

It’s become quite frustrating. I could, of course, “just wing it,” but having done that with plenty of my previous work, I can say I never feel quite satisfied with the result of that, either. It’s quite the paralyzing dilemma.

Nonetheless, I need to keep moving forward, and some annual goals for 2026 are a good start:

  • Finish Blood of the Living, edit it, and submit it for publication.
  • Get a solid outline, design, and other pre-work done for whatever comes next, plus one or two chapters.

Hopefully, that will be manageable in the next twelve months. We’ll see how it goes. As for this month, I really just need to get one thing done:

  • Finish Chapter Seven

If I can do that, I’ll be satisfied with January.

Here’s hoping everyone has a solid running start to the year, whatever your goals for it may be (and even if you don’t have any)!

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I snag first reply!!!

Happy new year guys!! :partying_face:

Lool i was bested by @Jaybirdy :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Sorry I sniped you! (And Happy New Year)!

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Your opener made me sad. I didnt really know much of her since i joined up here kinda late, but from the few replies she made on one of my threads helping me with an issue i could tell she was a sweet person.

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So far I needed something to ease the anxiety of waiting for Velocity, so I’ve put my hand to the wheel again and started a new set of projects.

Anybody got tips for writing a series?

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You mean aside from “don’t”?

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It’s now 2026, and it’s also my birthday month. As of this writing, I’m putting on the finishing touches of Lily Adventuresses! Episode 3, which should clear the way for a full release any time next week. After that, I’ll prepare for the Global Game Jam as usual. It’ll be my 12th consecutive ever.

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It’s been a year???

I usually plan independent stories that just happen to take place in the same continuity (I blame my early reading habits for this), but there’s this Mythcreants article.

One bit of good writing news, although this happened yesterday: I finally figured out yesterday that I actually can access the extended mobile keyboard from my external bluetooth keyboard! Yay. I can use en dashes (and carons) now.

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Happy new year, everyone! It’s been a bit weird not releasing a game in 2025 so it’s felt like a bit of a transitional period, and the last couple of months were very disrupted due to health stuff - but I’m hoping to release a game in 2026! (or at the very least complete a draft.) I wrote a rambly post over here about what I did and wrote/read/watched during the year.

For January, I want to finish drafting the chapter I’m working on - Chapter 5 of the secret project. And I’d like to finish the first draft of the non-game fantasy story I’ve been writing recently. I’ve been finding it really lovely to work on something that’s a) a very different medium and b) just for me, for now.

I’m hoping to post a digest of all the ChoiceScript games I could find this year soon - it’ll likely be later today, or tomorrow.

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Happy new years everyone. 2025 has been a rough year for everyone I can imagine. But I am lucky to have been personally spared most of the troubles. And at least so far for me. 2026 is shapring up to be quite a good one. So I am rather excited for that.

Regarding my goals. I did manage to lock in a bit. Spent the night writing into new years. Partially because I don’t really have any celebrations planned. But also so I can proudly say I wrote for an entire year. :3

Mandatory new years joke aside. Though I didn’t manage to meet December’s goal of 10k words. I did manage to knock out about 7k. 5 of which were in the aforementioned year. It’s not exactly what I wanted. But perfect is the enemy of good enough and it is progress I should be proud of.

In the spirit of the new years. I shall set out a ridiculous goal. And that is to lock in about at minimum. 15k words for January. That or completing a path. Which ever comes first on the path to the overarching goal to finish this update before May 26th. It won’t be easy. But I am feeling like 2026 is going to be a really good year and finishing this is going to be the nail that makes it fully amazing for me.

For now though. I have sleep to catch and a family birthday to celebrate. May everyone have a wonderful year.

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You must have posted this topic right before I went to bed. I stayed up to try and get an early post, but it was getting too late.

Happy New Year, everyone! Happy birthday, January babies! :birthday_cake: :partying_face:

This first video covers advice from an editor on word choices that work better.

This second video is about getting yourself off devices and oth to focus on discipline and self-improvement.

This month I am working on my second story in my series, but I’m also mapping out part three to a lot more detail than I have before. I’m also mapping out a Proof of Concept demo for a game mechanic that I hope to complete by the 15th, so I can share that instead of my normal snippet. We’ll see if I manage to get that done on time.

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Here’s December’s digest!

Release

CoG WIP updates

New HG/Hobby WIPs

HG/Hobby WIP Updates

Kate’s Reviews

Current full game beta testing

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And the 2025 digest part 1:

CoG Releases

HC Releases

HG Releases

Noncommercial Releases

New CoG WIPs

New HC WIP

New Steam pages to wishlist

AletheiaKnights Reviews

Kate’s Reviews

Author Interviews

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2025 digest part 2:

CoG WIP update

HC WIP updates:

New HG/Hobby WIPs:

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And finally part 3: HG/Hobby WIP updates:

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Thee amount of work you do… And Thanks…

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31 published releases, 12 completed free games, 151 entirely new projects, and 123 projects from previous years updated (updates to new-in-2025 projects get rolled into the “new” section). And there are even more that I know I haven’t spotted. I’m always so, so impressed with the creativity of this community.

Congratulations to everyone who shared something you wrote in 2025! If you’ve been writing something and haven’t shown it off yet, maybe you can take the plunge and do that this year. And if you’ve been musing on a project, maybe spring is a good time to start one!

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Yesterday I made a spread sheet to try to track when characters appear in my story (divided by chapters), what they are doing, and if it advances their personal story. In doing this I’ve come to the conclusion that I have too many important characters. This is a mix of main characters, romance options, and major antagonists. I think I’m at 21 and that’s kind of cheating. One of the columns just says DNPC (Dependent Non-Player Character), which is actually 5 characters, but you only ever interact with one in a play through.

This makes juggling everyone rather hard and I hope that I don’t make things too dense with events happening that it doesn’t read well. Also, I fear that it’ll feel too overwhelming to handle once my outline/plot mapping is done.

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Thanks for all the digest and happy new year!

I think I am going to take this month off though, because I will be going on a trip! Hoo-ray!

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