Your game turned a profit for them within days would be my guess. Don’t worry. There are titles that remain a loss, I am sure. But they are few and far between, at least on the HG side.
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I know, and I did appreciate the talk. But if anyone was wondering why I worried myself over sales and reviews in the early days… it was that. (I still have a tendency to obsess over things that matter less than I think they do 
)
I did have a chat with another writer, and let’s just say that I’m rethinking the low rating counts → low sales thing after getting some hard numbers.
Also, did hustler just post in this thread!? I feel like I’ve inadvertently summoned a dark and powerful being into this corner of the forum. 
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Update: I’m currently at
- “Puppies! …wait, what?”
- “Ice cream! Ice cream is on fire!”
- “Get off! Stop the dolphins!”
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- “I didn’t know there was a test!”
- “My dog ate it!”
EDIT: - “NOT THE PINEAPPLE!”
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Second or third one for sure. Both are solid choices.
@ChanceOfFire Actually, I noticed your post because I was already here, because for the first time in a long while I feel like I should be. My mojo was off a lot of last year writing-wise, and the break I took after my Cinderella story extended way longer than I would have liked. A further wrench was thrown into the works by my disgruntlement with the company about the royalty discussion earlier this year (an issue that’s far from settled, but that’s another matter). But I made my writing goal last month (5k words, since I didn’t start until May 15th) and that’s not happened since mid-2022. So here I am once more, ready for some public accountability. 10,000 words or bust this month, and probably most months (I might do just 5k for August since we take a lengthy vacation). My goal, which may no longer be feasible, is to get Grandparenting published by the 5 year anniversary of Parenting’s Steam release, which was Mother’s Day, 2020. Barring that, I’d like to at least submit it for publication on that day. I miss having public demos, but that just doesn’t really work here. I must do my business skulking about in the dark alone for the time being.
Naturally, I keep getting ideas for my planned fifth story. Grass is always greener. But I never, ever do two WIPs at once. It’ll have to wait its turn.
@JBento “Not the pineapple!” is also a good one.
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I might add that to the list. 
(Or something similar, anyway. I’m not sure they know what pineapple is. Post-apocalyptic Europe and all that.)
(Where I’m currently at, I might end up using them all.)
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My goal for June:
Continue working on Luucky United FC as I silently doing for the passed month.
My target to publish the second update is 15% done. (Besides too many small coding refactoring, sometimes major tbh ^^ )
I hope to post soon for more info.
Quick technical question: how to avoid gender based character approaching repetition?
*if gender = "male"
Lady said...
*if gender = "female"
Gentleman said...
because basic I use the same form also not to lock myself for the future encounters didn’t set human relations based on variables path.
Besides wish every writer a sunny mood and this is one of my writing music channel, good for gathering thoughts.
cheers and wish success to all and looking forward to the Rebel update
edit: 20% done ^^
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Ah, I think I finally got a good one for the situation I was originally working on.
“Not the door! DON’T OPEN THE DOOR!”
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My hand is already much better after getting a cortisone shot last week, and I had high hopes of getting back to work this week, but in the way of things, a new crisis popped up.
All the same, my goal for June is still to finish the current draft of my outline and submit it for revisions. Whether that’s a realistic goal, only time will tell.
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Hello writing buddies! Happy Pride 
My writing goal for June is to work on Chapter 7 (yes, Chapter 7!). It’s going to be so nice to get back to pure creation again. Editing is fun, but it’s not the same as new words flowing. I’ve also signed up for some professional development classes, including watching old NarraScope videos. I’d not heard of NarraScope until the great interview with Lauren O’Donoghue about her game Love Undying: A Kiss Before Dawn. Narrascope 2024’s registration is open until the 7th, if anyone wants to attend.
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Actually, after thinking over some of the earlier comments (with a much cooler head), I’m deciding on something else.
Last month, I was strongly thinking of abandoning Scarlet Sorceress as I was starting to worry about its viability as a HG release, particularly after a difficult but necessary discussion in a different corner of this forum. Now, I think I want to get back to it. The WIP thread will auto-lock by the end of this month, so I’m planning to get an update in before that happens, and I’m posting this here for accountability.
Granted, I could remove the gender lock to reach a bigger audience, but a vision is a vision. 
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Yay!
If it auto-locks before you get a chance to update, just say something and I or someone else will unlock it for you.
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I still have to test this, but if this works… Holy shit, you just saved my life.
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Today’s writing problem, should the reader be able to learn about character’s backstory the character doesn’t want to talk about? My instinct says the reader would expect to, if it’s hinted at, but, like I said, the character(s) doesn’t want to talk about it.
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I mean… as a reader, I would expect to get to know enough to piece anything important together, but I think it’s fair to not tell me everything. I also think it’s fair to basically do a “you must be a level 4 friend to unlock (any of) my tragic backstory.” Another option is to have whatever bit of the backstory you (as the author) want to share be revealed by some other means.
- a friend or family member may reveal something out of concern or familiarity
- something may slip out during a seemingly unrelated conversation that the character then feels the need to explain (I have done this in real life)
- something the character says is super weird but they don’t realize it’s weird and then, again, they feel the need to explain (I have done this too! I made an off hand remark about how ice cream trucks were fake because… I thought ice cream trucks were fake)
- the player character can be an outright snoop and go through their stuff (and get caught?!? or not)
- if ptsd is involved, a flashback could occur (for the character, not one the player would experience first hand but would see the result of), giving the player clues as to what may have happened
- a person from their past may show up and reveal something out of ignorance or malice
or you can just put your foot down and say “no, my past is not misery porn and you are not entitled to know it” and frankly I’d respect the hell out of that coming from any character because #same. Will your players be foaming at the mouth with curiosity? Yes. But I think that could be used for a great moment of characterizing your tight lipped person’s present, which is more important anyway.
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Allowing the reader to ask is what I would recommend, but the character’s reaction to the MC asking it is something you can use to further develop the npc in question.
If you don’t allow the reader to ask the questions they want to, it affects their enjoyment of the reading.
Having creative and appropriate reactions to their ask will be appreciated, even if they don’t get the answers they want right then and there.
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I still support the practice of collectibles in these games as well. Worse comes to worse, if you don’t think there’d be a way that the character would ever tell the PC about their past, then you can always put it in as a side story that the player earns by doing certain things and can read up on it themselves. That way, people that want to know will still be able to know, but the character won’t have to go against their character in order for it to happen.
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I mean, if the MC is jerk enough, they can cause one, with the mere cost of alienating most of the cast (and half the ROs, although to be fair, if you’re doing that you’re on an unreroutable collision course already)
Ah, yes, the codex approach. I’ve been thinking about that before, actually.
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I agree with @levviathan’s suggestions. You can also ask yourself if the backstory is necessary to the story you’re telling. What thematic purpose does it serve? Does it earn the word count? Articulating it might help me as a writer, but does it help the reader understand key, necessary parts of the character, plot, and themes?
An example from my present game could be Gloria’s mother. A huge part of Gloria’s character is how ey must work to help eir family, who has been playing financial catch up since eir mother came down with major depressive disorder. The player can ask Gloria about eir mother’s health condition, but Gloria refuses to go into the gritty details. Some players might want to know these details, but they aren’t really important to the story. The point of Gloria’s family situation is to show how La Ciudad may have all these wonderful advances, but people still fall through the cracks. There’s no need to go on and on for paragraphs about the humdrum, banal pain of sleeping for twenty hours a day, inability to get out of bed, bouts of despair etc.
Plus! If you save the character backstory for later, you can explore it more in other work. Leaving things undefined gifts you freedom later–whether that’s a future DLC, a tinker or change to put that character in a sequel, or a promotional side story. Whatever you like.
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Oh, I’d be perfectly happy to not include it! I’m just trying to not annoy readers too much (I’d prefer them to be annoyed about things I’m doing to annoy them, not about things I’m doing to respect my characters) and I’m kiiinda anticipating “why did this character forsake their name completely???” to raise some curiosity.
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