@Fairygodfeather I think I’ve said this before somewhere, so I’m going to sound a bit like a broken record here, but Persona’s more like (and literally like it in P3 & P4) a student at day, crime-fighter/investigator/fighter/whatever at night. So basically, the system is about balancing both of them, so acing classes but beating up the monsters and reaching your goals successfully. The romances are ‘kind of’ like a dating sim, to a certain extent, to it may already be like an exaggeration to call it so, but the system is more closely alike that.
But your answer pretty much said it out to me, so yeah xD Then again, I can understand your point. Your outline looks great as well, so I’ll really be looking forward to this!
Yep! That’s kind of how it’ll be. Student by day, investigator by night, however there won’t be much focus on the school day unless it’s plot relevant. So there will only be scenes at school if it’s to discover that the teachers have all been replaced by aliens, or the canteen food has been replaced with drugs, and the like. And while I’m saying school, it’s more like college.
Goal number one of mine is to include lots of choices. Goal number 2 is to take something of a visual novel/dating sim approach to choicescript. I want some solid romances implemented, with the option of going on dates, of progressing down each of the romantic interests personal paths. I want the romances to be a strong part of the game, with each romantic path providing its own story and revelations. So there will be dating, there will be meeting the parents, there will be problems in each of the relationships. While the story, and supernatural investigations are an important part of the game, so are the relationships, and they should, if all goes according to plan, change things.
I don’t want the game to be like Choice of Romance, where you’ve three options, but two of them end up in dead-ends. I want fully implemented romances. I’ll see how they go though, since trying to juggle 6ish romances is a bit complicated. There should also be the option to just be friends though. And there’s a couple of characters who you can date but it won’t amount to much of anything.
Hmm they’re not tickling my fancy. However I do like Bazaar, and I’m a great fan of alliterations, as well as puns. Bazaar/Bizarre fits all of my punning needs.
And now I’m wondering who is the Balthazar that may have been the previous show owner, and what it was that made him so bizarre. He probably wasn’t one of the three wise men/magi, but instead cursed with the same name. I suspect there’s a story in there, and there wouldn’t have been if you’d not suggested Bazaar.
I’m aiming to have Episode 1 finished by the end of the month. The entire game will take longer.
The trouble with a demo is that I don’t write linearly. I write vignettes and then they all need linked together in a way that makes sense. I write the exciting stuff, in the order that interests me and everything else is TODO.
I have scenes for the first three Episodes written. I have them roughly plotted out but I’ve a lot of gaps to fill in. I’ve another three episodes outlined but without scenes written in them, but I’ve a rough idea what’s going on.
I won’t be releasing things to public beta because my narrative style is such that once I have the future episodes written, I’ll likely seed plot clues, visions and the like into the previous ones. But I will be looking for beta-testers.
Only that said the entire point of PSI: The Doll Maker was to create a self-contained demo for the game. I want a demo that tells a complete story, beginning, middle and end as well as making people want to play the rest of the game. An introduction to some of the characters, the powers and the world.
Of course just this second I’ve realised there’s no hint of romance in Episode 1. Not sure what I’ll do about that, if it’ll matter or not.
Well I worked out who Balthazar is, why he’s bizarre and also what happened to him. I may have an Episode dedicated to him, eventually. Oh and I think I’ve a way to tie him into one of the episode-arching plots.
The plan is to have each episode tackle a different monster of the week. Like in the early seasons of Smallville, Buffy, X-Files, etc. And then a season arc as well that spans all of them. That’s one of the reasons I can’t release things bit by bit, because I need to make sure the season plot is properly seeded in and chances are I’ll want to shuffle things around for better flow.
The main season arc is Hunter’s History. Hunter has Amnesia. They can remember nothing of their life further back than a couple of months. The mystery of who Hunter is, why they have amnesia, and why they have these powers are core to the first season. You may try searching on the internet or even asking your Mom, or using your powers to investigate. There should be dreams, flashbacks, mysterious figures from the past, and various clues.
I wish I could play Unnatural. I’m really worried that if I play it my game will end up too similar though, since we seem to be writing in a very similar genre/setting. The first thing I do once I finish Season1 though will be playing Unnatural though since it looks good and I enjoyed what I did play of it. I just really don’t want to be unduly influenced. I’d to drag myself away and stop playing when I started to go “that’s a fantastic idea” about bits or changing things because they seem too similar.
I write in odd ways. I’ve been dotting back and forth through the first three episodes. I have the big fight, in the third episode written. I have the ‘fight’ in the second episode written. I have the encounters with various characters written, devoid of any sort of context. I have small scenes which seem amusing to me. It’s such a jumbled mess.
I sat down to write today, spent only an hour so far, and most of it was a scene from Episode 3. Sure it’s a character-building scene, it’s one giving me greater insight into two of the characters but it is in no way getting things done for finishing Episode 1.
I know what you mean, I’ve had the finale in my mind for ages now and found another game has an almost exactly the same part of the story. (different enough not to be called a blatant copy, but close enough that made me want to come up with something different.
Yeah my good intentions went out of the window. On the plus side I’ve spent most of the day working on a game. On the negative side it’s not been this one. Oh well! Maybe tomorrow.
And thank you. Ugh! People want to play this. I should write and not get distracted by the shiny other project. If I can focus this energy into PSI I’ll get it done quickly. I’m good at all the planning and coming up with ideas, the plotting, the making skeletons, the writing of random scenes but stringing it all together starts getting tougher.
There’s still an hour left in the day! I can do something!
