October 2025 Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
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Welcome all to the support thread for October 2025.

The writer support thread is a low-pressure, low-judgement space to talk about writing, share our progress and ask for feedback or questions. Thank you again to everyone who participates in these threads and helping to support each other.

Some notes:

The Halloween Jam is still going on. If you would like to join the jam or maybe provide (private) feedback to participants, the thread is here.

WIPs

I will also be featuring some WIP threads here. Please feel free to take a look and provide feedback (or even just leave a comment) if you have the time.

False Ancestry by @Fraud_Writer

Scarlet Sorceress by @ChanceOfFire

Ronin: Legacy of Ash by @Jackpot1776

Westbound Travel by @TheMorrigan

Midnight Bloodletting by @Giovanni-Aldini

Resource Sharing

@HarrisPS runs IF Seal, an IF advice blog. You can find out more here. I would just like to share a few articles which caught my eye.

IF Seal: Lack of audience engagement makes me want to quit

IF Seal: How can I handle a game without visible stats?

IF Seal: Should I outline everything at once in detail?

Especially regarding the first article, please consider leaving a like or comment if you enjoyed a WIP from a writer.

Anything else?

That should be all. Feel free to post in this informal space.

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Yippe, wait timezones.

Do I post my new update now or when it hits october for me?

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Well… the support thread is already up, so might as well post it now, or whenever it’s ready. :sweat_smile:

If anyone else wants to showcase WIP threads or articles, I’m still open. :+1: Feel free to DM me or leave a comment here.

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True, I just need some to add some extra dialogue fluff and it will be ready. :eye::biting_lip::eye:

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It’s now October here in Manila, so I have every right to post here.

As usual, I’m continuing development on Lily Adventuresses! Episode 3, and I’ll be working on the third chapter this month. The chapter in question will involve puzzles, so I’m consulting a 20-year-old RPG Maker site for some tutorials on puzzles/minigames I can utilize.

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Update on September:

-I did successfully get a WIP posted with a completed chapter one!

-Still did well on my midterms even though writing mania took over my headspace for a couple days haha

Goals for October:

-Finish chapters 2 and 3

-total word count openly published at 20k

-go to bed before midnight instead of writing haha

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A bit early for me, but I’ll post now. Thanks for hosting the thread, @ChanceOfFire!

I’m putting all my focus into the Halloween Jam. I’ve got a trip coming up, so I can only count on three weeks of actual writing time. Pretty sure I can put together something playable, but I don’t feel as grounded in the characters as I’d like.

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My goal for this month, is to actually finish the update on time and ahead of schedule, since its mainly a rewrite anyways.

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Happy Birthday October Babies! :birthday_cake:

Well, this month I’ll be doing some small edits, but I’m otherwise waiting to hear back from Hosted Games. I’ve already started writing the next part of my story, but I’m not setting goals yet.

I’ve also started planning out yet another story. This one is a political drama in a psudo feudal Japan light fantasy setting. Not sure if I’m going to do anything with it, but my mind wants to explore the ideas.

This video goes over Bioware writing and how they do well and mess up choice based stories. It provides tips and tricks for what works and what to focus on to replicate the success of Mass Effect and Dragon Age (at their best).

A video about how to write short stories. I think writing them is a great thing to do, because it allows you as a writer to practice getting a lot of information to a reader with very little.

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I conceptualize my own writing and what I want my goals with it to really be. Maybe because I sort of hate everything I’ve ever written most of the time, but also just because of the competing pressures of things like time and care.

Anyway, all to say I want to start emphasizing wordcount a little less. It’s a useful measure of progress, but I don’t care for the way it gets taken as a measure of value sometimes, either.

So, even if it feels a bit like a performative rephrase with the exact same underlying substance, I’ll say my goal this month is just this one:

  • Keep a writing routine every weekday for the month.

Realistically, this will probably just turn out to be “write about 30,000 words,” accounting for days when I won’t have enough time, but… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll feel a little bit better about it, somehow.

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic month and meet all your goals, whatever form they may take.

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Did a lot last month: wrote Katie scene 4, Chloe scene 1+2, Danny scene 2, chapter 5 event. Major revision pass on Katie scene 1+2, Eric scene 2+3.

Next I’m doing a revision pass on chapter 0+1+2, a SPG editing check, remove more em-dashes, and playtest, and then it’ll be ready to update the WIP!

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Oh wow September flew by fast. So my main goal for October is finally finishing the first chapter of my IF and releasing the WIP this month. (Also the side goal of utterly obliterating writer’s block from existence)

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I’ll keep my October goals short:

  • Post my WIP (I feel good about this one)
  • Finish my Halloween Jam 2025 entry (this one, not so much, but we’ll see)

I have a few vacation days that were approved, so I’ll have more time to write. Hopefully, everyone gets to complete their writing goals for October. Take care of yourselves and stay safe.

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September goal was to do as much as I did in August, which I sort of did, being a mixture of writing and learning just on different foci.

So October goals are to try and consolidate what I’ve done so far into my submissions for Halloween Jam and EctoComp (on time!).

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HAPPY (almost) HALLOWEEN TO ALL!!! :jack_o_lantern: :spider:

one goal this month: finish (hopefully even release) chapter 1 of Deux Ă  Deux

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Happy October everyone! I love fall so I’m excited to watch the season change.

As for goals this month, I’ve decided to prioritize. Main goals:

  • Develop characters, including family trees, magic, and relationship to MC
  • Connect magic system to yearly holidays and gods (and hopefully finish building the magic system)
  • Make outline for chapter 3 and start writing

Extra goals:

  • Create map and verbal description of it to get a better idea of the path of MC’s journey
  • Start building a world history timeline

Wishing everyone a productive and motivating month, and happy Halloween!

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Happy October all – for this month I have the following goals:

1 -Decide if I want to continue on with the Jam or not, based on my likelihood of actually finishing what I started vs other WIP goals and real world goals, deadlines, and such. Think I’m dropping down my chances of completing on time to maybe 30%, and thats only if I have a few sections without much choices, which I hate to do . . . gonna think on it a few more days and come to a decision. Kind of feel like if I keep going its going to be of declining quality is the thing . . .idk. But anyways, either a) Finish project for halloween jam and turn it over to Mara or b) give it up for now and release what I’ve got to COGdemos and maybe a WIP thread as i feel like its WIP worthy at least.

2- Finish my goals for Sense & Sorcery from the prior months – three excerpts, one for each road path, post those as stand alones, and get some progress on other things in the game. If I get enough done, I’d post the update too, but most likely that will be November now, especially if I do the jam

3- Start on the next update for All the Way – most likely won’t reach this till November or even December, but one likes to think they will reach it, yeah. Next update at least 1 chapter added on, preferably 2. I pretty much know what I want for these chapters, so I just need to reach free time to write and code it.

Tons of real-world stuff to do though, so I’m not all that confident on getting this stuff done, plus the bugs in Blood & Blooms is definitely a bit of a quick punch to the process.

Love that – sometimes magic systems feel like a bit to much and I think are the easiest break for suspension of disbelief, but when done right they can really enhance a work.

So feeling that. If I weren’t Scope Creep’s lap dog I’d do better on this, but then I also wouldn’t be making the sort of game I want to make, so its a toss. Best of luck and glad to hear I’m in good company!

I think for myself at some point I want to recenter on message. I know tone and theme and message all grow organically for the most part and they will be present in some way or another in a work, but sometimes my works stray a bit to far to the dark side, so with a bit of planning perhaps I can add some more optimistic messages . . . food for thought for myself.

On the other hand, the ability to dislike your writing actually sounds like good editing food. A good plus on that part of the process, where I’ve got the reverse problem to often.

. . .

Well, good writing, health, and creativity to all – happy Octobers!

P.S. Am I the only one that thinks Scope Creep or at least Scope ought to be a character in a future WIP?

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I’m thinking Scope Creep ought to be a game title, although it could also be a lesser eldritch monster. (Scope just sounds like a sniper’s callsign.)

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Oh, love it – I could see it as both, if it’s a meta work where a writer/coder is starting to be haunted by a sentient Scope Creep during the creative process, maybe a la Kafka?

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this is a sick callsign.

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