I failed at my May goal. I’ve been away at a convention for the last few days, which I was expecting, but I wasn’t anticipating how busy I’d be in the week leading up to it, and now I’ll be spending the next couple days or so catching up on everything I’ve missed. I had planned to complete writing most (more than half) of Chapter 5 of The Rise of Cthulhu, but I only got about a third of it done. For June, my goal is to have Chapter 5 completed (that includes testing, fixing, editing, and uploading) before the end of the month, which I think is achievable. I can probably finish it sooner than that, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself again.
I always allow my code to be visible, for the reasons stated above. I haven’t actually had any bug reports on my code, though. I do test everything thoroughly before I upload, so maybe I actually caught them all.
My goals this month are a lot less fixed than last one. I’m right at the beginning of a new chapter, so obviously I want to get that outlined and coded properly, then start making forward progress on it. Will I be able to finish the whole thing this month? Probably not. On the other hand, I’ve been blitzing through things recently (is this what being a functional human feels like?), so I might end up fairly close, depending on how long it needs to be.
I guess this time, I’ll just wing it and see where I land.
honestly, i’ve been kinda booking it writing-wise the past few months, and i’m worn out. i’ve also been moving the entire past week which has suuuuucked. this month, i plan to have a more chill schedule with writing again, perhaps try to fully outline chapter 3 and write+code a scene or two. it’ll be good to just take it slow for the first time in a while.
That’s right! But it means our arguments about whether or not it’s acceptable to use ‘it’ for humans and ‘they’ for animals are all the more vehement… an argument I find deeply unfair, because it’s not something people just have randomly decided to start to do (unlike what the arguers seem to think, if the arguments themselves are anything to go by) but established things in certain dialects, so the argument is practically claiming some dialects are more correct than others, which is… not a great look.
Finish a first draft of chapter three before the summer holidays start and my writing time becomes dramatically curtailed.
Actually post my demo.
I think it’s hard to think of a good faith reason why a straight player would be alienated by an openly bisexual NPC.
Speaking personally (and as a bisexual writer), I am vastly more concerned with making sure my own community feels represented and included than anything else. I am putting a lot of work into allowing for different sexualities, including adding alternative threads for asexual PCs to pursue intimate friendship instead of romance with ROs. I feel like the world is increasingly quite a hostile place for the LGBTQ+ community, and I want very much to be part of imagining real grounds for hope. If some readers feel put off my story about going on adventures on magical sailing ships by the fact that most of the characters setting the sails are attracted to more than one gender, I don’t think that’s my problem.
I have also read that talking about queerness is “preachy” and not talking about queerness is “not acknowledging queer identities” from criticisms.
I explore queer characters in my games by allowing them to contribute meaningfully to the plot, to mention how their queerness impacts some element of the story’s conflict and not necessarily mentioning it without a specific purpose, and to allow the player to have a full spectrum of choices to react to said queer character —positive, neutral, or negative. I think turn-off criticism boils down to players feeling (1) judged for their values or lack of knowledge and (2) lacking autonomy to express these values and knowledge.
Ultimately, though, if a few people think my games are a turn-off for discussing queerness, it’s probably better that they not continue my games. If many players are saying that, then there’s something deeper going on.
Also, @sana , do you mind adding content warning to your next post? It’s the anniversary of my loved one’s passing so that really jarred me. Sorry about that!
My wordcount goal is lower, but I hope that it is more achievable. I believe that’s about 500 words per day.
For part B, I have 5 1:1 conversations, a meeting, and a snooping investigation to write. The meeting and investigation are mutually exclusive. (The MC can choose to either attend the meeting while their younger brother snoops or convince Nedric to let them snoop instead). The meeting will include at least one potential fist fight.
In order to improve my pace and combat insecurity, I dedicated myself to Khorne, the god of blood and carnage. He’s not a very nice dude, but he espouses the doctrine of not caring what people think and getting stuff done, so it seems he has exactly what I need.
Khorne cares not from whence the words flow, only that they do.
Spent the (otherwise unproductive) weekend trying to create anime art. A machine could probably make something in a microfraction of the time, but whatever. Trying to pick up a skill.
This was originally meant for the MerMay Art Jam, but on second thought, my drawing still needs a lot of practice before I can create something worth putting on an itch profile.
Anyway, next choicescript project is a mermaid romance game. Five peppers. With stock art rather than my own crappy attempts to draw a mermaid.
Seconding what others have said that if players are upset by this, they won’t enjoy your other queer characters either - and therefore, if you like writing queer characters who talk about their queerness, they aren’t an audience that you need to worry about.
The element of a romanceable character discussing their past relationships is another matter but I personally think it’s fine. Characters can have had past romances without diminishing the act of falling in love with the PC, if that’s how the romance can go. (If the RO is like Max de Winter from Rebecca and the PC is being made to feel small, with no way of expressing that, that’s another thing altogether but even that could potentially work IMO.)
I’d hope not, I need all the time I can get for packing my stuff for moving!
I’d just pick an audience I’m writing for and see what that group thinks.
I’m kind of curious-worried how readers will take one of the ROs I’m currently writing because they have two exes that are (non-romantically, but it’s commented and laughed at) part of the main plot…
Jeez. A protagonist like the MC in Rebecca would be fascinating to see in action in an IF. If an author could pull off that feeling of being so utterly in thrall to an environment and the ghost of a character without having that oppression completely stifle the reader / player, it sounds like it would be a hell of an experience.
*choice
Sit in Rebecca’s incredibly tasteful drawing room.
Contemplate Rebecca’s immaculate wardrobe.
Comfort Max in the library.
(IF: WILL > 70 AND STR > 70): Assert dominance. Suplex Mrs. Danvers.
I managed 1 on the day of public release, so cutting it close, bu done. And I did 2, but I did it today, so technically not May. Did no even touch 3, but it was a stretch goal, so I don’t mind.
June is going to be a bit busy for me, so I’m going to try and keep my goals managable. (I never do, though)
Get enough posts in my Tumblr to queue to last my whole vaccation, so I don’t have to post while I’m traveling.
Add 20k to chapter 5
Less of a stretch goal more of an alternate, but fix the relationships page in the stats screen.
On code diving:
I actually do regret making my code public a bit. My motivation was less about readers, and about my wanting it to be availible for new writers since I learned a lot about coding by reading the code of IFs I really liked. But I don’t feel like I get useful feedback or error reports from it very often, tbh. There’s like a small handful or people who have used the code to find bugs, but I get an equal amout of code diving messages that are far more annoying than useful.
My motivation was less about readers, and about my wanting it to be availible for new writers since I learned a lot about coding by reading the code of IFs I really liked. But I don’t feel like I get useful feedback or error reports from it very often, tbh. There’s like a small handful or people who have used the code to find bugs, but I get an equal amout of code diving messages that are far more annoying than useful.