Like my ADHD brain, a new project is always more exciting to me than finishing the one that I was so excited about a week ago 
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I had initially planned to release Dreamwalking Elysium, my side project, as a separate game. That said, after some rereading some discussions I had with a few people, I’ve decided to bundle it together with my main project. That way, you get more content on the dollar.
Hopefully, the final draft will be out this Saturday.
I did manage to create a pretty nice story select menu for it.
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In today’s news, I fear I’ve been leeching off too much from my vague memories of the random episodes of random TV series I watched 15-10 years ago.
Eurgh.
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Easy done. My other half asked me if my main RO was based on her. And if the MCs dad was based on her dad. It was a no on both counts but then… maybe they are without me knowing.
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Based on is one thing, but I think I might accidentally have lifted a scene whole cloth because I don’t quite remember what happened in that TV series anymore, only my weird what-if version of it.
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You’re not doing the wrong thing at all! In fact, what you’re doing is surely a lot more efficient than what I’m doing, which is simply writing a story in prose form and adding notes about decisions and alternate branches as they come to me. I just personally like to get my story completely written and give the text a good editing pass before I start coding. It’s just personal preference.
(Also, I want to note that when I started writing, I didn’t know what engine or framework I was going to end up using. As of yet, I’m still undecided if ChoiceScript is right for what I want to do, but I’m going to start with it and see how it goes.)
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That makes total sense to me 
I’m torn, I feel when I try to just give myself a section of prose to write I can get lost in the winder picture and branching choices, but equally stopping to add the code in can be blocking the flow.
I’ve today decided on a hybrid, I’m writing placeholders for code, that when I transfer it to notepad++ I can replace every instance of the shorthand with the correct code instead of writing ${romance_name} every time I just write Maya (the female RO name) and it’s much quicker and keeps immersion.
Well, that’s the idea, let’s see
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Oh goodness, I had so much fun with this.
Your parents made you marry a supervillain you (to your knowledge) had never met, but whom everyone in your area fears. Then they (he in this, but they'll be gender selectable) disappeared to deal with some emergency the moment you reached their base (called, very creatively, The Bunker), leaving their second-in-command to help you settle in. Then you wake up in the small hours of your first night there and find yourself hungry, so you set out to find some food. What you stumble into is THIS.
You walk through what appears to be a dining room. Or, with its many tables and chairs, it might be more like a diner. Restaurant? Whatever it is where people in military installations gather to eat, this is probably it. The Bunker is one of those, after all, or used to be, at least. Before Sparkgap took over. Anyway, at the other end of the room you can see double doors, and a sign you can’t read because what even are those letters, but it’s both where your map is pointing and where the smell is coming from, so you’re willing to bet that it’s what passes for kitchen here.
You crack the door open and peek inside.
What you see is certainly not what you were expecting. Sparkgap stands in front of the stove, busy with whatever it is he’s doing, but it probably has something to do with cooking. He’s still in his parade uniform (well, the skinsuit part, he has ditched the cape), although it now seems oddly oily, and he’s let the tail of his crown braid down, hanging at his back. Then he turns, and you can see the bright green apron he’s tied over his uniform.
And maybe you’re not as sneaky as you thought, because in the middle of reaching the overhead cabinet on the side he clearly was reaching for, he does a double take in your direction. The look on his face seems to communicate something akin to utter bewilderment. (Which, frankly, you can’t blame him for. You’re surprised too.)
“Uh,” Sparkgap says. “Hello, [MC]. You’re up early.”
“I was hungry.” You surprise even yourself with how nonchalant you manage to sound.
Sparkgap blinks. “Would you… like some breakfast?”
You do have to think about that for a moment. You are hungry, yes. But it is Sparkgap who’s offering. Can you really trust whatever it is he’d give you? Then again, you probably disturbed his own food preparations, and it’s unlikely he would want to poison himself. So you make your decision, ill-advised as it may be.
“I mean,” you say. “If it’s not too much trouble.”
“Only if nobody’s done the dishes,” he gives a breathless laugh. “I always cook too much.”
You slip in through the door. It’s a fairly large kitchen; not that you know that much about kitchens, but you’re certainly not hurting for space. There’s the stove, of course, or more accurately, five of them. Countertops line the walls, cabinets hanging over them. Sink and fridge, a few larger cupboards that could be for storing food, or mops, or alien corpses for all you know; a white door on the side wall with an engraving of a snowflake on it. A few appliances you don’t know the purpose of. And a dinner table, with one place set.
A cabinet door closes. “I’ll be just a moment,” Sparkgap says. By the time you look back at him, he’s busy at the stove again.
“Where are you keeping the plates?” you ask.
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I have the same issue: Adding code in as I write my first draft seriously breaks up my flow, but I’ll sometimes add in pseudo-code here and there that I can easily replace with real code later.
One thing I sometimes do is write something like “[[Maya]]” so that it both sticks out in the text as a variable, and I can search for and replace it with “${romance_name}” later.
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Oh, I do this so much when I haven’t decided on some name! Mostly with characters that are marked with just letters ([D], [E], [K], [W], etc.) but I have also [city] and [lanA], [lanB], [lanC]… you get the point.
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Absolutely! My draft is riddled with bracketed words.
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i finished drafting chapter 1 tonight like. rn. now it’s just editing, proofreading, playtesting etc. but i’m kind of like …?? what. i can’t believe it’s for real all written it feels imaginary! and this is only the prologue and chapter 1. i can’t imagine how surreal it’s gonna be in the later chapters.
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Best feeling in the world is finally getting to see the story live. Almost painful to wait on releasing the updates sometimes . . .
Ha, yeah, that happens with me too – not lifting a whole episode, but scraping the tone and spirit of a tv show. It can be particularly fun when I flip genres from whatever work I am channeling. Some of the villian confrontation scenes I have in Sense & Sorcery I think always carried Arrow vibes, mostly from the early seasons of the show, though obviously the characters, words, and setting are all my own and have nothing to do with that tv show. So, I’d say as long as you aren’t outright copying the wording, characters, or other IP elements, your fine.
Never did this, but might have to consider it. Sometimes the names come easy, other times its a struggle.
For my progress for today I completely worked on other sections than what I had planned to work on, but I feel like I made really good progress on a chapter that was riddled with holes, so hopefully it was time well spent.
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Luckily that was just one firefight, and none of the plot summaries I read even mention it. Plus it’s not like an argument about whether or not a proven traitor who’s being dragged along half unvoluntarily should be allowed to have a gun is something completely unexpected in that particular genre. So I think it’s fine after all. (“I need a gun” may or may not be a phrase that appeared in that episode - I literally can’t remember - but it’s hardly one that hasn’t been in hundred other places as well.)
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Yeah, agreed, that’s a scene likely in many different stories / medias.
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Right! It’s not just good for indicating variables, but also for putting off with coming up with names or other details when you just want to keep writing. I include so many sentences that go something like, “[SO’s name] went to [restaurant name] at [time] to meet up with [best friend’s name],” that I go back and fix later.
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I really liked the part of Scarlet Sorceress in which you have a solve a mystery like a detective would. I also appreciate the fact that it lets you retry if you fail, because I bombed it the first time.
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Does a master’s literature review count as a writing project that this thread is here to support?
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Yummy.
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Question for everyone: What’s the ideal paragraph length? ~ as a general guideline
I imagine it varies between desktop and mobile too. With mobile versions leaning towards shorter, more concise chunks, maybe 2 - 4 sentences max? Maybe desktop you could stretch it to 3 - 6 sentences. But I believe for most authors we’re primarily targeting a mobile audience here.
Just some thoughts:
I’m thinking 1 sentence paragraphs are perfect for impact — a sharp action, a striking description, or a dramatic turn in dialogue.
2 - 3 sentence paragraphs are the most common and there to let the story flow.
4/5 sentence paragraphs I’d use sparingly only for complex ideas or layered descriptions // otherwise the wording might feel ‘clumsy’ or not so smooth if split.
Example of 1 sentence:
He diced the bamboo with clean precision — like it were pieces of sashimi.
Returning the blade to its scabbard, he directs his eyes to you.
”Want to be next?”
^In this case, i feel each sentence is better split as its own paragraph, rather than combined in one.
*choice
- You gulp and step back alarmed
- You steady yourself to draw your blade
Example of 5 sentences paragraph:
Lady Mika was a sight to behold.
Her kimono flowed free and luminescent, casting an otherworldly glow. Her bamboo hat was tilted such that you couldn’t see her eyes. Even so, a menacing aura emanated from her, silent and pervasive. Her hands are shifty, and her scabbard sleek. Her practiced stance warns you that’s she ready to strike at any time.
You blink. It happens.
What…? My arm. I’ve lost my arm! Ahhh!
In this example, I don’t think the paragraph should be split, even if it gets wordier? As it encompasses a holistic description of Lady Mika.
I’d like to get more clinical about this guideline. From readability perspective, I feel anything more than 100 words for a paragraph is not advisable for mobile game? Keen to hear what ya’ll feel about this. Those are usually in the 6 to 8 sentences range ~
What do you think of this guideline:
1 sentence –> impact, 1 to 20 ~ words
2 - 3 sentences –> 2 to 60 ~ words
4/5 sentences –> 4 to 99 ~ words & use sparingly
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