I’ve just got one more (fairly involved) interaction to write and pop into Chapter 6, and maybe a couple more references to this interaction, and then some spellchecking… and then I think I’ll be able to send off the Honor Bound draft. I’d hoped to be at this stage this time last week but household stomach bugs got in the way, but I’m hoping to get it done tomorrow… it’s been a very intense pace of work during July and I’m looking forward to a breather.
13 Likes
Congrats! It always feels good when you can see that finish line 
7 Likes
I’m trying to write with a headache, wish me luck… I need to finish this chapter. 
7 Likes
Hope you’re all having a solid near-finale to the week!
I worked on some dynamic event component before further fleshing out the Main-UI for Once in a Lifetime before delving into relationship interactions.
Whilst I have plenty of work to do, I was pleased to make multiple changes in the last week, including the first deployment of interactions for those at a young age.
The above image shows the following changes:
- Hunger & Energy Levels Added
- Birthday added to display.
I began working on interactions in the above image. These display based upon your age and dynamically adjust. In addition, some options when older will require a certain level of Closeness to do. These will be shown off later.
Lastly, I’ve done tweaking and interactive implementations using multireplace to choose food options. The image above uses mac ‘n’ cheese, but options like chicken nuggets, eggs, potatoes etc are all on the table with rolls. I plan on implementing small twists and changes in text descriptions to at least keep things interactive, fresh, and in-depth however I can.
I’m toying around with displays, interfaces, and how much overall descriptive text I wish to use. Nonetheless, work continues apace!
The title has a lot of code running under the hood already, governing quite a few systems. Whether it’s how close you are with family, your health, how things progress on a month by month basis. Until I have proper playtesting I imagine balance is going to be quite off, but we’re making headway as I slowly craft out systems and content!
Super excited for the future!
4 Likes
I can’t believe I’ve resorted to writing “blah” in my thesis… also I have a subsection that literally says nothing but
Before test
Test
After test
And then I ended up drawing instead. Urgh.
6 Likes
Lmao so relatable, I usually have so many goto/label that say “insert text here” 
5 Likes
A bunch of depressing reasons I haven't written much this week.
- my dad died late last year and this month was my, his, and both my brothers’ birthdays and it feels weird to even think about when he’s not here to be part of it; tomorrow is his birthday and it feels way worse than father’s day did, which was not great.
- as of two hours ago, my mom has officially signed papers selling her home; I’m happy for her because I know that’s what’s best for her, but it’s hard to see it go. It was the only (relatively) safe place I had at a certain point and I always imagined myself being there, like inheriting it to work the land after they were gone and losing it almost feels like a second death in the family.
- because of all that, I’ve spent a lot of my “spare” time helping her move and it’s been pretty exhausting, physically and emotionally.
- a Bad Thing happened back in May (worse than my dad dying? no, but honestly in some ways, yes) and I have not gotten over it. I’m not so sure I ever will, not so sure I can, or should. It’s a lot.
- I turned 32 this month. My birthday was actually so much better than I was expecting; I’m so grateful to my friends for making the effort to spend time with me because I don’t think I could have handled it on my own. That said, I’m disappointed to report that I’m no closer to a baby, which is making the passage of this birthday particularly hard, even putting aside all the other stuff that’s making it hard
So my wordcounts this week have slowed down into the low hundreds. But I’m really happy I got so much done earlier in the month. I did reach all my goals (10k, most of it romance WIP dedicated, and I actually posted a demo)! It would have been great to maintain that momentum, but I knew the second half of the month was going to be hard for me, so I’m not disappointed with myself, exactly, I just hope I can bounce back from all this. Grief is hard. And complicated.
11 Likes
Progress update: Got my update to Dice & Dungeon Masters done earlier this month, though I’d still like to get in a bugfix+ update hopefully next week if I can just figure out what is causing certain bugs. Not really sure how many words or what not I’ve done, but its been pretty code intensive. Still need to finish a linear story or two for Sense & Sorcery hopefully next week, but if I do that my goals for the month will be complete.
Phrasing question, if what you want to convey is “from my point of view, we are still friends, even if you disagree”, is it “I’m still your friend” or “you’re still my friend”?
I think this would depend on the context and people involved. For an egoist, probably the I is always inherent. For more empathetically minded, maybe the later. Often it might imply both I’d think, if it is a healthy relationship . … least thats my take away for that question.
I worked on some dynamic event component before further fleshing out the Main-UI for Once in a Lifetime before delving into relationship interactions.
Wow - those look amazing. Ha, I’d have no idea how to code that. That font has a cool Broadway feel IMHO.
So true. Honestly it sounds like you are doing well with the writing and you should be proud of yourself considering all you have going on. For myself, I kind of range from feeling writing is cathartic to feeling it is too much when dealing with grief. When my father passed, I did do a good amount of writing after taking a fairly long psuedo-haitus for at least a decade. Now, with caregiver duties expanding gradually for my remaining parent, there are days where I just don’t have it in me to do the writing or the coding. I will say that when dealing with grief sometimes the more edgy stuff was harder for me to write - I had a time where I pretty much just wanted to write Disney princess toned pieces.
6 Likes
For a game in a fantasy or historical setting, would achievements that reference pop culture take you out of the story?
I strictly avoid overt references in the text, but most of my achievements are obvious pop culture references of some kind (or egregious puns/dick jokes).
By default, achievements unlock at the end of chapters to minimize interruptions, though the player can set them to unlock as soon as they’re earned or at the end of the game.
Additionally, I kind of want to include achievements for bedding NPCs, but I have some reservations about achievements that require you to have sex with and/or romance an NPC. I tend to play without sex/romance so I often don’t even unlock those achievements myself. And it could make players feel pressured to play counter to what they’re comfortable with, especially if the NPCs have set genders/sexualities. Though I suppose you could say that about any achievement; I often don’t unlock achievements that require you to be extra evil either.
So I’ve been thinking about exploiting the double meaning of body count and having an achievement that can be unlocked by bedding OR killing NPCs. Too weird?
5 Likes
As someone who general doesn’t care much about achievements, here’s my thoughts on your question.
Personally, I vastly prefer this to having the references in the text. I would probably enjoy it in an achievement, but only if I actually understood the reference.
I think this probably depends more on the vibe of your game. It might work in a humerous mannor, or it might not.
4 Likes
I’ve never avoided making references in my achievements. They’re a good way to acknowledge inspirations and hinting at future plot developments via paratext.
The Dragoon Saga’s achievements reference historical parallels, but also pop culture past and present - and it’s as close as you can get to historical fiction without it actually being historical fiction.
9 Likes
@levviathan I’m very sorry you’ve been going through it. It’s very understandable that even one of those things would have an impact on mental health and writing, and having all of them must be really tough. I hope things feel brighter later.
@Lan references in achievements are fun! I do them, or silly puns, all the time. It’s a place where I can indulge myself. I wouldn’t worry too much about feeling like achievements are a pressure for players; completionists will want to explore every corner of the game, and those who don’t want to romance everyone for example will just ignore the achievements.
7 Likes
Levvi,
life as we know it
Shit happens.
I learned why elders used to tell us; get marry earlier & have crowded tables before it starts to get emptier. Had some shit happened, had the repercussions of my defiance. Never regret though. No need to give details much. But guess will use them ass badass story parts.
For your mother new place is the best fresh start, otherwise your home would turned into a museum with bits of memories everywhere.
So use this whenever shit happens:
I guarantee you life will be different
3 Likes
I think that’s pretty widespread and (somewhat to my surprise) I’ve never seen anyone gripe over it. Maybe achievements feel non-diegetic enough already that people don’t get thrown off by their content.
I think that’s potentially good, depending on the tone of the game. Achievements for sexytimes is too easily Witcher-esque (another card in the collection, another trophy on the wall), which is why I’ve never liked it and don’t have it in any of my work. Doubling it up with murdering your supporting cast members would confound that subtext and replace it with one more implicitly critical of treating NPCs like objects.
It wouldn’t work for all stories. If you’re writing a romance where finding true love with an NPC is the peak of an emotional crescendo, having a pop-up saying “Body Count +1” would be tone-destroying, even if you hadn’t already seen it when you chopped another NPC’s head off. But if you’re writing a story with the option for some recreational shagging in a side plot, then I think it could work.
10 Likes
Today’s vocabulary weirdness: I was completely unable to remember the word “intimidating”, the closest I could come up with was “intimidative”, and I was able to tell that sounded wrong, but not what the correct word was…
7 Likes
A funny thing for today: ever since I started writing in choicescript, I get these random “this could need a page break here” whenever I’m writing for my novel. I might actually be going insane with the amount of code I see everyday
8 Likes
The first real trials of the art for this year are on. The quality of my friend work is something no AI could get from the very generic command I give to him.
Of course I can’t show it here due spoilers even if don’t direct present the theme itself.
I am so EXCITED
9 Likes
I guess forcing a break is one of the reasons why I write less-than-2k chapters, although that may also be because it’s what I got used to when I wrote my… webnovel? (I mean, it was a novel, and I released it chapter-by-chapter on my website. Probably also the reason why I have so much difficulty tweaking things I have already written, now that I think about it.) I have no idea how people write chapters that have playthrough length of 10k, my brain just nopes out and demands a chapter break.
Not quite the same thing as page break I guess, but, again, short chapters.
Congrats!
7 Likes
I have been thinking over few aspects one is game development methodology and tracking.
About the game what I didn’t mention before that is has cross-genre properties. MC is not only deals with management of the club, there will be elements of unsolved events requiring wits of MC to solve. Where intrigue, strength, luck, wisdom will effect the choices.
In addition to what I have in mind for the mid, mid-late game some other business related stuff which will be interesting.
May be I will need to rewrite the definition all along.
Should I emphasize that there are 5 skills for each player + variables of name, number, age and transfer market value.
Think dump
Each player has ; strength, condition, main ability, play ability & speed
Strength affects condition and 1-1 duels, condition affects physical status - stamina and endurance, main ability is the skill like defender - defending lvl, goalie - goalkeeping etc. , play ability is general technique and game intelligence and speed is for dribbling etc also has an effect on match script/engine.
Watching Paris opening ceremony, today had some work done. Hopefully will focus better in the coming days.
5 Likes
Y’all have probably seen it already, but Ink and Intrigue has gone to beta testing! I’m super excited and also fighting the usual pre-release imposter syndrome. 
It never fails: I’m simultaneously super proud of what I’ve written, and also nervous that people won’t like it. Silly brain. Stop it with the anxiety already.
17 Likes