September 2025 Writer Support Thread

[Foxcat]

@dozendietcokesaday

reflexology and foot massage billboards in simplified Chinese

If you don’t mind my random curiosity, is there a reason the signs are in simplified instead of traditional?

---

So I got laid off, and last week was my, well, last week. Luckily I still live with my parents and have a lot of financial breathing room (and I don’t think I can fully express or even fathom what an immense privilege that is, (sadly)), so thus far I’ve been mostly just getting household things in order, but I’ll have to of course update my resume and then do that funky (awful) job-hunting song and dance. It’s not easy to find a job with the economy and the energy it requires so I’m gonna be careful about how much energy I spend on it, and try to fill the gap with volunteer work. Been wanting to do more so this is a good opportunity while my schedule allows.

---

Now that I have more time, I’ve also started making my way through the list of videos I have saved to watch later regarding the craft of writing. I’ve also been watching a therapist’s playthrough series of Slay the Princess, which, especially as an IF writer, I’d say also counts as craft research (I love when I can count my entertainment as work). But yeah oh boy is that an interesting game. And I think with the Halloween Jam going on right now it’s a great time for getting me in the spooky mood.

[dozendietcokesaday]

Sorry to hear about your layoff. That’s tough, but it sounds like you’re facing it head-on and have a good plan for what to do next. Best of luck on the journey.

@Foxcat

If you don’t mind my random curiosity, is there a reason the signs are in simplified instead of traditional?

Authenticity purposes — that part of the city is tourist-oriented, and simplified Chinese is for mainland visitors. It also helps with the scene-setting, showing by omission that parts of the city are changing/disappearing

[LiliArch]

@dozendietcokesaday

parts of the city are changing/disappearing

Do you mean this in a horror mystery sense (“I could swear there were houses yesterday, but now it’s a 200-year-old forest?”) or normal city-changing (“I can’t believe they destroyed those 200-year-old houses to build a parking lot!!!”)

[Foxcat]

@dozendietcokesaday

Best of luck on the journey.

Thank you so much!

@dozendietcokesaday

Authenticity purposes — that part of the city is tourist-oriented, and simplified Chinese is for mainland visitors. It also helps with the scene-setting, showing by omission that parts of the city are changing/disappearing

Oooh, very cool. Thank you for indulging my curiosity! :>

(My guess is that it’s the normal-city sort of changing/disappearing)

That reminds me, I should also take advantage of my current schedule to read some WIPs! I have a bunch bookmarked that I should get around to. Oh man there’s too much I can try to do now. I’ll take it a step at a time.

[dozendietcokesaday]

It’s in a mostly real-world setting, so it’s more like “wow, the old things are being replaced by the new things” and with a bit of “some things are actually disappearing!” Like a kind of slightly melancholy atmosphere

[ChanceOfFire]

@Foxcat

So I got laid off, and last week was my, well, last week

I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve also been laid off before, and it came pretty suddenly. For what it’s worth, right now, I’m also racing to find another job in case my current contract doesn’t get renewed.

@Foxcat

Now that I have more time, I’ve also started making my way through the list of videos I have saved to watch later regarding the craft of writing. I’ve also been watching a therapist’s playthrough series of Slay the Princess, which, especially as an IF writer, I’d say also counts as craft research (I love when I can count my entertainment as work). But yeah oh boy is that an interesting game. And I think with the Halloween Jam going on right now it’s a great time for getting me in the spooky mood.

Yep. Most important thing is to take care of your mental health in these times. After the job hunting, unwind for a bit and do something to take your mind off it for a while.

[Hazel]

@Foxcat

So I got laid off, and last week was my, well, last week. Luckily I still live with my parents and have a lot of financial breathing room (and I don’t think I can fully express or even fathom what an immense privilege that is, (sadly)), so thus far I’ve been mostly just getting household things in order, but I’ll have to of course update my resume and then do that funky (awful) job-hunting song and dance.

Sympathies on the unpleasant job situation, and I hear you on the parental support. I can do what I do because I live with my mother now, and have for a couple of years.

I haven’t been on the job application circuit in a while, but I can say I have no fond memories of those times. Volunteer work is a clever idea. The feeling of productivity is actually essential, I think.

[raywilson]

hi all!!! a few days left of september, so just writing in here to let everyone know that if anyone wants to make the october 2025 writer support thread, please let me know and you can take over! i’m more than happy to do it, of course, it was actually pretty fun and cute making the post lol—but if anyone wants to give it a go please let me know and it’s all yours! (EDIT: @/ChanceOfFire has got it, thank you!!)

in other news, i ran a randomtest with like 1,000 variations i think and the average playthrough was already almost 9,000 words of my so-called prologue. so idgaf i’m making it Chapter 1 now, it won’t make much of a difference anyways and now i feel a lot less nervous because that’s one less full ‘chapter’ to write eventually (aiming for 8, and a separate prologue and epilogue). now i’m just writing a very very short prologue to tack onto the beginning of the game, then will finish what’s now chapter 1.

feels way more satisfying to call it the first chapter, lol! it’s long enough (and contains enough plot) for it, so it works for me.

[KZV]

@hallameat

I cited “Night Road” before but “Werewolf: The Apocalypse – The Book of Hungry Names” is a much better example of what we’re boxing about, esp. from a World of Darkness perspective. No uninitiated player could be expected to understand Auspices, Rage, The 5 Forms, and Regeneration without a little explanation. You get all of that in the first Stats screen of that (excellent, IMO!) game. And you don’t have to play footsie with NPCs for it – you get the straight dope right out of the gate so you can move on with the story (and your life).

IMO, there is a difference between mechanics and lore.

The stuff you mentioned there is mostly mechanics. It touches on lore, yeah, because it’s a story game, but it’s system information that’s needed to play the game. The game gives it to you with a certain slant on it to for flavor reasons, but it’s information that has to be reliable because it’s telling you how the game is played.

Like, a vampire game can be unreliable when it’s telling you about the the ideas behind the Sabbat and the Camarilla and the Anarchs. That’s all lore stuff and it’s expected that the reader will realize that, say, the pro-Camarilla slant on the Guide to Factions implies that the author was a Cammy and so the guide should be taken with a large grain of salt. It can’t be unreliable when it’s telling you how disciplines work.

[Sylents]

Man its sucks that my wip isnt far enough ahead to implement the ideas i keep having.

I swear this keeps happening during late night…

So in ch1, you create your character and all that. Cool.

On even chapters, you have optional perspective changes for ROs for the first half of said game. Cool.

The game is in first person because your playing as an established character “wearing” your created character. Cool.

Heres the kicker and I could easily explain this away given the villian, the established character is torn from the created character.

That character becomes you and established character remains as I.

The second half of said game would an optional perspective change between I and you.

The established character keeps the story, RO and everything else wheras the created character becomes a self insert.

Thankfully Im not that far yet so I can iron out the details if it’s even doable.

[Jackpot1776]

Finally sat down and put all my ideas onto the page (or screen) and once again have a WIP out! I’m really trying to focus on “doing it right” this time, plotting out the story, building an arc for each side character, having checkpoints throughout the story so i write one book and not 37. Going much better this time around! Good to be back

[dozendietcokesaday]

It’s been half a year since I started doing creative writing! I’ve learned a lot in that time, and hope to learn more. Very fun journey so far.

[ChanceOfFire]

@raywilson

hi all!!! a few days left of september, so just writing in here to let everyone know that if anyone wants to make the october 2025 writer support thread, please let me know and you can take over! i’m more than happy to do it, of course, it was actually pretty fun and cute making the post lol—but if anyone wants to give it a go please let me know and it’s all yours!

If there are no takers, I can give it a go. If anyone else is interested, I’m also happy to step aside. @HarrisPS is it ok?

On another note, I asked HG if they could put my game, Dragon of Steelthorne, on sale for a week to celebrate the recent Introcomp results, and they said it would be up on sale next week. $3 for 170k words, folks. (…and anything I have up on itch is free )

[Anna_B]

Honestly? I read through this and I’m already confused

[Sylents]

I recently realized its already been done to a lesser extent or is currently being done.

Fallen hero.

The MC has a doll body that becomes autonomous in the eventual sequel…I assume.

My version is more like wearing a second skin and being ripped from it.

[HarrisPS]

@ChanceOfFire

If there are no takers, I can give it a go. If anyone else is interested, I’m also happy to step aside. @HarrisPS is it ok?

Yes, I’m very happy and grateful for you doing that - thank you!

[KP_Everly]

I have officially reached 30 followers on Tumblr! In way of thanks I have unveiled my 5th RO Rinnaria aka Rin! (Don’t call her by her full name! She hates it and will correct you!) Rin is a female kitsune, player sexual. She will steal your snacks and blankets if you let her, but she also may steal your heart! You can find her reveal trailer on my Tumblr!

[LiliArch]

Apropos of nothing: I find it funny how this one MC has had quite a distinct voice from the start. And it’s not like I planned for it, I just started writing a random scene with zero to none preparation (well, I had a slight idea of the circumstances) and it just happened.

Like, this is literally the first thing I wrote regarding them.

You rush into the robotics lab, step over a bunch of tangled wires, sidestep a giant metronome, and finally find Sparkgap. Well, what you think is Sparkgap; all you can see is a pair of legs hanging from what looks like a giant boiler, noises of working coming from inside it. But you don’t recall him having a habit of leaving random legs lying around, and all of the workers definitely had theirs when you passed them on the first floor, so you’re pretty sure it’s him and not some weird set piece. Definitely not a raid.

[hallameat]

@KZV

Like, a vampire game can be unreliable when it’s telling you about the the ideas behind the Sabbat and the Camarilla and the Anarchs. That’s all lore stuff and it’s expected that the reader will realize that, say, the pro-Camarilla slant on the Guide to Factions implies that the author was a Cammy and so the guide should be taken with a large grain of salt. It can’t be unreliable when it’s telling you how disciplines work.

^ Thanks for this clarification. Explained clearly and coherently for an old WoD player trying their hand at IF for the first time. This distinction makes sense.

Get it now - appreciate it. And sorry if I ruffled anyone’s feathers! The motivation is just to make the game better.

[Zaxwlyde]

The Pulse - September 2025

Welcome to the first proper monthly update on development for The Frontier! These updates will be posted in this thread on the 3rd or 4th week of each month.

My goal with the Pulse is to provide a deep dive on individual features, focus on reveals, and also summarize development on a monthly basis. This is similar to work I did with Estheria: A Realm Divided. As these can be long, I have broken each section into dropdowns that you can open/close at will to compartmentalize.

Now, let’s dive in!

---

Development Recap

Development Recap

Throughout both August and September I was able to make substantial headway on key blockers within The Frontier. These included:

• Logic rewrites for Salvage
• Implementation of relationship scoring and tracking mechanics.
• Development of the backend for the dynamic economy system.
• UI and implementation steps towards shopping, which is modular and can be applied across the settled systems.
• Travel functionality within Turnspire with multireplace.

All together, a shit-ton got done. For this month, we’re going to talk about how I perceive a dynamic economy, and what I’m doing within ChoiceScript to bring this to life.

---

Living and Breathing (Economy Breakdown)

Living and Breathing

When I set out to make The Frontier, my goal was to create something that truly felt alive. Every choice should make a change, whether small, medium, large, or catastrophic.

As I implement mission (quest) chains that branch out and vary throughout the settled systems, my goal was twofold:

1. Missions were meant to be meaningful, and have self-contained stories.
2. That should they narratively impact supply chains, resolve work for vendors, free up company resources for development, or overhaul an economic component (touching the economy at all), that this can actually be both seen and felt.

As a result, I look at every quest within a software known as ArcWeave. From a top-down perspective, I analyze what they touch in the universe, and then decide on impacts.

To ensure that this would be felt within shops, I created inventory tables that shops can pull from based on a variety of markers that determine both stock, if they carry the item at all, and lastly use small subroutines to update pricing based on events in the local or universal economy.

This way, if you truly do something that has a broader impact; let’s give the example of a quest where you infiltrate a weapons production facility. Should your actions actually cease production or even slow it down, local arms dealers may suddenly lose stock of weapons that would normally be produced by that facility/company. Or we may see prices jacked up to take advantage of the limited stock and press on demand. Perhaps you saw something you saved up for that was a brilliant looking rifle statswise, your choice caused it to be out of stock with the local shop, and you now have to turn to black market dealers who have it, but at a 100% jacked premium in cost.

This is a lot to track and so I use a variety of ArcWeave, local testing, and Obsidian.md markdown files to keep it cohesive.

---

Where are we?

Where are we?

I’d say the game is making stellar progress towards an initial WiP build. When we get there, you’ll get to experience:

• Full on character creation with the P.R.O.T.O.C.O.L. system for stat allocation.
• Two romance options (one male, one female) introduced. You’ll be able to embark on two hangouts with each that’re custom-crafted.
• Housing introduction. Sleep the night away. Shower your worries as the grime falls off. Cook and eat to your heart’s content. Browse the Net and check your emails, who knows what’s available for the prowl? Could be small chats, could be breaking news, maybe you’ll even look at the financial markets.
• Experience the intro mission and three dynamically generated missions for salvage as the first profession of the game.
• Explore Turnspire Station as you move through the Stacks, Wingspan Commercial District, Trakspan Industrial District, Dockline hangars, and take your first delve into the mysterously off-limits zone known as the Blue.
• Meet the elusive SYNTH, and embark on the beginnings of a universal conspiracy event.
• Shop for housing decorations, weaponry and armor, and more.
• Explore the lore and background of The Frontier through the Universal Information Center (U.I.C.)
• Much, much more!

All in all, we are targeting a first WiP build between 200k-400k words including code. I’m really really antsy and excited, and hope to get this out by the end of this year if I’m lucky. There’s quite a lot still to be done!

---

Anyways, thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I’m eager to share more on The Frontier in the coming weeks!

~Zach