I’m seeing it now. The interrogator slams the table, which makes the suspect jump and project a shield on instinct, which makes the power limiter to knock them out.
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oh heckls now I find them adorable AND feel bad for them. you be fully triggerin my protection instincts at this rate (would read simply for this apparent goof of a Villain right now xD)
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I actually like Tiernan best. 
Yeah, feels like it’d be easy for the player to want to second-guess them, which would be interesting. Or if there’s an NPC who expresses distrust (and/or aggression!), then the PC can either argue to give the villain the benefit of the doubt, or pile on.
Further, just because they’re cooperating doesn’t mean there can’t be extra info to dig out, if there’s something they forgot about or didn’t think was relevant, and therefore doesn’t mention unless the PC asks just the right questions! If you really wanna play into the interrogation, that is.
Heck yeah! I don’t have any interrogation scenes planned but these are pretty good considerations to keep in mind in general.
Dominoes of comedic chaos. I love it.
We approach the end of the month, ever too quickly once again. 
I did zero beta reading because of course. But I did actually participate in an online event that I wanted to (Cobblemon (mod for Pokemon in Minecraft) tournament on my usual server. Put a team together yesterday, didn’t train any EVs, and got one-shot by a Garchomp all the way through my match. xD Good times) so that’s pretty good. Maybe next month, if I can change my approach, I’ll get productive with my personal/writing stuff too.
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I mean, that situation could at least be interpreted as a physical danger. I have one character that instinctively manifests their power armor when they feel threatened…including when their anxiety flares up…in a party. But at least you’ll never need to wonder if they really really don’t want to talk about something!
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Only a few days left in the month and I’ve hit both of my goals. My word count for the month exceeds the goal I set and I’ve set up my WIP thread. (Yay!)
I was wondering– in the WIP threads, is there any interest in updates that don’t involve a new story content?
For example, in my game, I have a card deck that people use to play games and for fortune-telling. Because of who I am as a person, I’ve developed actual rules for the card games. (This is how players are able to play Frut in Luvia’s ch3 route; I had to figure out the rules first).
In lieu of a content update (since I still have errors to fix), I considered sharing the rules for the solitaire game I’ve made for the deck. (While the deck doesn’t exist IRL, you can make it from a normal playing card deck).
Is that something people would find interesting? (I still write every morning, but when I don’t have the focus to write in the evenings, I edit or work on adjacent things like this instead).
Or, is it expected that WIP threads go dark for a bit between content updates?
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If you’ve something cool to share, might as well. 
At best, it gets people talking and engaging on your thread. At worst, you’ll give your thread a short bump and some extra visibility.
You can ask for feedback or ideas on the thread. If it is related to your game, it is perfectly valid to open some discussion on it on a WIP thread.
If you’ve no updates, it’s fine to let it go dark. But if there’s a card game you want to share, might as well put it on the WIP thread to see what people think. It’s a low-stakes way to test the waters.
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I suddenly remembered a thing I wrote a couple of years ago, so I had to go digging through my files.
On subject of heroes and villains. Not related to the jumpy one who's bad at being a villain, this one is GRUMPY one who's terrifyingly GOOD at being a villain…when he bothers to.
”Unfortunately, he’s the kind of a villain who’s more of a hero. There is no holding a city hostage with a death ray, no spilling the master plan while you’re tied up on a deathtrap; but if you’re on his list, he will find you, he will beat you, and he will kill you.”
And now I'm laughing.
”Why are you staking out a two-bit pizzeria?”
”I’m not staking out a two-bit pizzeria.”
”No? Because that’s what it looks like to me.”
”There’s a who’s who of the whole underworld of the district at the top floor.”
”…oh.”
”And it’s not a bad pizzeria!”
”Whatever you say.”
“It’s your move. You’re the one holding all the cars here.”
You give him an incredulous look.
“Cards. I mean cards.”
“Pardon me, I didn’t fall through a multiversal wormhole carrying my wardrobe. And I doubt my MasterCard works here.”
“I don’t consort with elder gods.”
“We are, as always, making poor decisions.”
“I suggest you scram, before I decide to make you pay for the dry cleaning.”
On subject of heroes and villains, part two, soap opera edition; Viktor/Vortex is a supervillain, Jay is a superhero, and Linda is former's (ex-)wife and latter's sister. Oh, and she's replaced by an eldritch abomination who's kidnapped V.
”Hello, Viktor.” Jay stood there, leaning against a table, curiosity gleaning in his eyes. ”Nice place.”
Vortex blinked a couple times and stared at him blankly. ”You’re dead.”
”That makes three of us.” Jay turned his eyes to Vortex. ”Look, you have to trust me. That thing… it isn’t Linda.”
”…I know.” Vortex’s voice was surprisingly quiet. “I killed her.”
Now it was Jay’s turn to blink and stare blankly.
”It’s complicated, okay?” Vortex grabbed a T-shirt from a chair next to the bed and put it on, moves and tone equally harsh. ”What are you doing here?”
”You need to come with us.”
”How about no?”
Jay pinched the bridge of his nose. ”She’s going to use you as a sacrifice to attempt to summon… something, I don’t even know what.”
”Are you sure it’s not Lyn? That doesn’t sound like something she wouldn’t do”, Vortex snarked, but the words fell out without their usual edge, no matter how much he tried to mask the fact.
”Viktor, please.”
For a moment they just stared at each other, then Vortex sighed. ”Fine. Give me a moment to grab my gear.”
”You… have it here with you?”
”Sure, why not? She’s doing an admirable effort to pretend I’m not a prisoner here.” Vortex got up and dived into a closet, rummaging through a mountain of items each one more weird or pointless than the previous one.
"Viktor…”
”Oh, please. I’m a telepath. You can’t hide a killing intent from telepath.”
“That was before I died, Jay.”
“What are you talking about? You’re not dead!”
“Are you sure about that? Because I’m not. Maybe I did die. Maybe I’m just an abomination who thinks it’s human. It’s certainly not any less plausible than any explanation to why I’d have survived. And in case you haven’t noticed, my body’s really not…” he trails off. “Maybe that’s what happened to Lyn.”
“Viktor, I keep telling you. That thing isn’t Linda—”
“No, I know. But does she? I assumed she did, but maybe she really thinks she’s her—”
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Not much an idea what going on (yet), but I certainly like your you humor xD (for a single moment I was wondering if ‘holding all the cars’ was an expression I just hadn’t heard before it clicked)
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It’s a multilingual joke. 
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Moderation is vital. A little bit each day is sustainable for me. 
I was going through old game files today, and I found one where I was messing about with player hairstyle customization. Like… really in-depth stuff. There are many variables I account for that most won’t ever really need (such as bangs, mullets, number of hair braids, hair dye, hair roots exposed from dyeing, etc.).
I wonder if I should make the file public for all to use, to give inspiration or a quick aid for customization? Below are some screen captures of how crazy in-depth I went. I think it’s 3000 words in total (it’s pretty bare bones).
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Relating a lot to this right now. Weirdly I’m finding it goes the other way too which is nice at least. I’ve been too busy to write most of this month but effectively managed a decent month’s work in the ~3.5 days I did get to put aside for writing.
Though I don’t love this - it’s a bit scary to have all my progress hinge on so few points of failure!
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It’s not April yet, but since there’s less than 2 days left on the clock, I’m handing in my monthly review early.
I was a bit too optimistic about the amount of time and motivation I could muster for March.
I implemented changes on the dev version based on feedback, and wrote some important scenes for both ch3 and 4. They’re not connected with tissue yet, but they’re there.
I am NOT satisfied with the progress this month, so some changes are in order.
Starting from April, I’ll also upload the monthly goals on the WIP page. I doubt people there check the writer support thread, and some extra eyes will definitely motivate me.
How is everyone’s month going? Better than mine, I hope.
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Yes! They changed it up on me like a day or two after I’d finished mine and I thought I’d been the one to mess it up somehow! Swiftly switched it back though and all is well.
Glad you found it helpful! Hope you got something nice and pretty out of it in the end.
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I’ve been playing some sci-fi games and now I’m pondering how the different alien species in my space opera approach spaceships. I mean, a handful of them are actually just different subspecies of space dragon descendancy, although they don’t know they’re related, but still. If there’s a species that wants zero-g it’s the one that lives in deep oceans, right?
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With a potentially catastrophic pressure difference… I’m not so sure?
True. Depends what you’re used to I guess. I was thinking more of the deep sea fish which live in 300+ atmospheric pressures. Still, I’m imagining it might be a shock the first time.
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I’m… pretty sure gravity and atmospheric pressure aren’t that tightly linked? Especially in a space opera where you have artificial gravity.
It’s not like whales routinely explode.
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You. You have my undying respect now - this is crazy detailed! I usually have to keep myself from drifting off into potentially ridiculous detail but this is a whole other level, amazing indeed. o_o
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March stats.
- Days written - 12/30
- Total word count - 10,092
- Average word count per writing day - 841
- Largest word count writing day - 2683
Overall not the best but not the worst. More consistency with more writing days would be better, but considering distractions of hobbies and studies I don’t think the total count is too bad.
The larger problem is perhaps that, with the addition of previous months, the total word count with code is now 64,614 and I’m still wrapping up the prologue. The branches and branch specific content take up so much time, and yet I do genuinely believe it is adding to the quality of the story. Laying down impacts resulting from player choice that will resurface later in the planned future feels very satisfying to add, and I know as a CYOA fiend that players at least appreciate the agency. Hopefully this logic is sound and not just blatant rationalisation. The most important things are that I am avoiding burnout and I am enjoying writing - two goals that are definitely being accomplished 
. I also managed a ton of (relevant) world building which is always giga fun.
Goals for April - finally finish the prologue, proof read and edit it with a fine tooth comb, tidy the nooby coding and then get the majority of Chapter 1 done, which should hopefully be much much less branchy and wordy. Thanks for the constant discussions here, always interesting and helpful to see the process of more experienced writers 
. Good luck to everyone and see you in April!
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I’ve ended March with a finished Chapter 4. Having a couple of days off before starting work on Chapter Five in April.
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The first two things definitely happened. The third was another matter. At the level of detail I’m planning these things, it’s just going to take a while longer than I thought. But that’s all right—I want to make sure all the pieces fit together properly and I have at least some idea, on a macro level, what a playthrough one of these future games could potentially look like.
I also think it’s important to make sure I’m still interested in the project once I’ve figured all the logistics out. I won’t say that starting with a much more general idea can’t work, because it sort of has for me in the past, but I’d prefer to do a lot more of this work up front so I’m not chancing too much confusion down the line.
Anyway, all to say, I’m reasonably satisfied with how March went for me, and hopefully I’ll feel the same about April.
Good luck to everyone getting some last-minute progress in today.
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