September 2024's Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
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I’m not ready to include my WIP on the list yet, but I’ll try to use the list (when it’s ready) to find other WIPs which I will try out and offer feedback on.

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I’m so close to being able to post something exciting in my update for September but can’t quite yet :sob: hoping to by the end of the day.

Relatedly, I should be putting up the update/release digest before the end of today as well, once I’ve got my stuff in order.

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I’ve struggled a little this month trying to make the recap more interesting. The doctor talking worked for the one recap but having another recap isn’t working as well for me so I intend to just put placeholder text now to let me push on to the actual story opening.

I intend still to have chapter one done in time for Halloween.

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I’ve sent Honor Bound to copyedit! :tada::tada::tada:

It’s the evening, so I’ll share more about it (and how gigantic it is) tomorrow. Thank you everyone for all your support while making this game!

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Here is the September digest for releases and WIPs:

Releases

Expected Releases Next Month

Author Interview:

Current Full-Game Beta Testing

CoG Updates

HC Updates

New HG/Hobby WIPs

HG/Hobby Updates:

AletheiaKnights Reviews:

New Steam Pages:

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You’ve left off my reviews for Love Undying and Silverworld.

Also, there’s a HG release next month called Last Dream.

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omg thats me

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That’s what I get trying to rush… Thank you :slightly_smiling_face:

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What a great milestone to reach!

Awesome job, Harris!

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You’re welcome. And thank you so much for everything you do for this community, and congratulations on Honor Bound going to copyedit, even if I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to try out Fiore’s and Raffi’s romance routes yet.

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YOU ARE THE BEST. Proud of you and @FayI Now have a nice something.

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Hi, thanks for the mention!

That’s just my second ever project I started while I was waiting for feedback. I couldn’t help myself to just sit and wait. I have been collecting ideas for a while and this one was by far the most attractive.

I’m super eager to continue it, the feedback so far is amazing and super encouraging, but I’m trying to put my time into finishing my first one first, so maybe not as hasty progress as I would hope for.

Also, I kind of felt my brain making a click regarding writing and developing. I feel I’m starting to be able to apply all the things I learned through the years and put ideas into words with much more ease than before, like the struggle is (hopefully forever) vanishing somehow.

I’m checking the dates and between the last update on the main project and the release of Project Valhalla was 31 days according to Google, and that was like 19.5k words. Wow, sh!7 I wasn’t expecting that :open_mouth:.

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Heya! Thanks for the mention :heart:

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One day I’ll be on that list.

In today’s plotting news, I’ve now decided that while this one character will always turn out to be a double agent, how much they like the team will start having an effect a lot earlier than I originally intended.

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Happy end of September!! My favorite time of year is upon us! :black_cat: :mushroom: :ghost: :jack_o_lantern: And congratulations @HarrisPS!!! That’s awesome!

Did it! And a little over 12k of that was my WiP! Really happy with this! My project has grown from about 37k to about 67k!

Literally zero progress on this part. I’m debating whether or not to spend October focusing on finishing it or if I should just commit to setting it aside and focus on my WiP. I do think it’s a fun project and I’ve enjoyed working on it to the extent that I have and I would really like to finish it, but I also know I’ll feel bad if I don’t prioritize finishing my current chapter and updating my demo. I really am not sure what I should do here.

I did jinx myself lol I’m not done and it seems like the closer I get to being finished, the more it balloons. It’s not a bad thing; I’m not unhappy with the length and it’s nothing I didn’t plan to write. It’s just turning out to need more words than I expected it would need. And honestly I had a bit of trouble with one part that I stubbornly refused to set aside, which killed my time, and of course now that I’ve surrendered and set it aside, I’m getting through a different part just fine. :smiling_face_with_tear: I feel pretty bad about this one. I mean I made a ton of progress, it just doesn’t feel like enough, especially when I was so optimistic and things were going so well earlier this month.

TLDR: SUCCESS!

I have updated numbers!
For the month of September, I saw 16 new WiPs. Of those:
1 did not post a thread, so I didn’t do feedback
9 asked for feedback; these requests were most often very general and did not usually include specific questions or areas of concern, which made it a little trickier for me to know what they really wanted or expected but I tried my best and a few did include specific requests for feedback, which I found helpful.

I left feedback on all 9 of those (+ 1 updated WiP that wasn’t new). 7 writers replied to me, either to ask clarifying questions, respond to the feedback, or to thank me for the effort. Overall, I spent a little over 15 hours reading and leaving feedback this month.

I call that a success! This was the goal I thought would be the hardest for me, and there were certainly difficult moments (mostly wrestling with time constraints and the resultant guilt, but also reading through some things I wasn’t enjoying wasn’t the most pleasant way to spend several hours) but overall, it is the one I feel I was most successful and consistent with.

I talked before about the time sink and I still feel that way. Most of the WiPs (by a slight margin) were released in the first half of the month and fewer of those released in the second half asked for feedback, so I ended up spending less time on it these last two weeks than I expected, but it was still creating a lot of internal pressure because I couldn’t anticipate how many I’d end up trying to read, how long they’d be, how much time I’d need to dedicate to give good feedback, etc.

The upsides are also mostly the same: I feel good about making the effort, a lot of the writers have said the feedback was helpful and I’ve seen some of it implemented in changelogs/demos, and I got to read some interesting projects I likely wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m still really excited about my Iguana in Villain Intern! :slight_smile:

Some things I thought about during this last half of the month:

  • I decided to portion off the time I will dedicate to feedback ahead of time, as in, “I will give X hours to this project and do as much as I can in that time and then I will stop.” I am planning to cap my feedback hours to five, maybe ten, next month.
  • I’m only going to focus on leaving the sort of feedback that is specifically asked for; no requests = no feedback.
  • I’m sticking to only projects posted in our October thread unless I see a new WiP next month that really captures my attention.
  • I’m still going to like every new WiP thread and will still try to leave an encouraging note, even if I don’t read the demo.

So overall… I guess kind of 50/50? And my feelings about that are pretty 50/50 too. But I did also accomplish a lot of other things this month that, while not relevant to the topic of writing, do make me feel better to think about because it’s not like I failed at everything I did this month.

Great job everybody! We made it to the end either way and we can start fresh again tomorrow. :two_hearts:

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Last day of the month, so it’s time to revisit my goals for this month.

I finished the first two goals without any major difficulties. I was actually impressed with how few errors were reported after updating my demo. (Only 1!) I ended up having a lot more logistical things to work through than I thought I would once I sat down to make a list of them. Originally, I just planned on adding a explanation of stats in my stats screen, refine my outline, and rework my spreadsheet keeping track of my variables. Instead, I ended up overhauling most of my stats screen, including designing a codex, switching from displaying stats numerically to descriptively, and rearranging some of the descriptors. I also managed to get a start on chapter 3 of Guardian of Time.

I was unable to meet this stretch goal, but because of how many logical things I accomplished this month. I feel pretty okay about it.

@HarrisPS Thank you so much for including my game in your list! Also congratulations on submitting Honor Bound.

I’m sorry you’re feeling that way. It sounds like you are making progress, but sadly sometimes our progress never feels like enough.

Your quest here inspired me a bit. I think going forward I am going to try and leave specific useable feedback on a least one WIP every month, specifically if the writer asked for specific feedback.

All things considered. I would say September was a success.

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It is time for my month-end check-in.

I have completed the 1st draft for the Halloween Jam, and will be opening it up for feedback by the end of this week. Goal accomplished.

I continue to work on Patchwerks; the Slo-Mo train to Nowhereville is continuing its journey! Next stop will be Dead-End Junction.

I looked at My October 2023 goal regarding Patchwerks and it is the same as this years.

That is very depressing.

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Still working on that. It’s pretty slow going with work and birthdays in the family and whatnot.

Also started a ‘CoG book club’ with my partner for the fun of it. We’re making our way through ‘Fog of war: The Battle for Cerberus’ at the moment. (Meaning my partner has just finished their first playthrough, while I only made it up to chapter 2 :woman_shrugging:)

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There were, indeed, many bugs. However, I also managed to get 35,000 new words done on Blood, so I’m quite satisfied with things overall.

I’ve learned… quite a lot from the release of my game. Most of it is probably specific to the game itself, but even that will help with developing the sequel. All in all, I think I’m very glad September is over, but I certainly don’t regret that it occurred!

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As a fellow conductor working (and amateur historian of!) the Slo-Mo line, I’d note that Nowhereville and Dead-End Junction both took their names from the understandable emotions of the town founders as they made the long slog across the wilderness. The reality, however, is that they’re both stops on the way to Authorburg. Hang in there.

I only added 25,000 words to XoR in September, half my “minimum” target that I had in mind at the start of the month, which is rough. I’m in a coding-dense section with lots of callbacks to stuff I’ve already written, so progress is slooooooow.

I’ve also been preparing for our move out into the sticks (including a home school/self-driven-research curriculum for my boys), writing material I’ll use when officiating at my cousin’s wedding next week, and writing briefings for a legal case where various powerful people are trying to land-grab the offices of the charity I used to work for. So it’s been a busy month, even before the record flooding last weekend (we’re fine, but some of our friends have had a hard time).

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