Behind the scenes writing: Episode 1 (1/4) (Patreon)

(Warning! This post may contain major spoilers for the story! Read further at your own risk.)

So in case it isn't clear with what we're doing here for update 0.15, we're going back and adjusting older content. Mainly fixing up and updating the writing so that it's more in lines with how the writing quality is seen from our route's writing so far.

We're doing something with this where the current system of dates/days are going away and in it's place it'll be episodes instead. We touched a bit on this during our news post #2 for this month. But pretty much it sounds bigger than what it really is, as it's just moving away from the in your face date/time system in favor of giving off the impression on your playthrough that the game is more like anime episodes.

With that all said, let's jump into it! (reminder this is just 1/4th of the episode, the rest will be covered in other behind the scene writing posts in the coming week! ^^)

Episode 1: We're required to wear what?!

It all begins much like how day 1 currently feels, there's new dialogue and it's pacing should feel better. It has Brandon, Joey and Nathan stand outside of the academy together.

The main new stuff added here is a better mentions of the summary plot explained lightly, letting it feel more like it's connected to the whole idea that Brandon got acceptance letters for him and his buddies, etc.

Joey decides he can't handle the wait any longer and rushes off into the building, as the other boys follow behind him. They're pretty caught up in looking around the entrance area until John bumps into them.

The rule explaining is hugely different and goes in great depth for making it clear just how each rule works, exceptions, punishments, etc. Quite a bit to take it, but we think we handled it pretty well without trying to be too boring either. It should really help for backing the idea of the world setting with it's rules and punishments, making things feel much more connected.

Anyways, things are a bit similar where the boys have to choose if they'll accept the terms to attending the academy. Which of course they do, so it leads to them having to get changed into their uniforms and diapers.

They head into the restroom together to change and on return, John begins to walk them to their classes and mentions how he'll need to split them up for the day so they won't get in trouble around each other, etc.

During this, players will be able to ask John unlimited choices about the academy, rules, etc. Finding out even more in depth information to expand on what's there.

Once finished, Joey gets dropped off, followed by Nathan and some new dialogue is seen here and we'll end the first 1/4th of this episode seeing Brandon get to the classroom with John.

~Writer notes~

-This first 1/4th of episode 1 came out to roughly 5000 word count (excluding choices).

-I think some fans might look at how this whole days/date format being changed into episodes might seem more like a reboot 2.0 taking place. But remove the idea of episodes even being a thing for a moment. Our plan here with fixing up the older content is that it's taking what's there already for the scenarios and ideas, but fixing them to be higher writing quality similar to the routes writing seen.

The main thing to keep in mind is that there is some new stuff that fits between the gaps of the existing content scenario stuff going on, that will make it seem bigger as well. Anyways even without accounting the episode format change taking place, the way things are being adjusted was being kept in mind. Even if we left the day to day/dates system format intact, we've accounted how our schedule looks with all of this in mind and it still sets us on track with our targeted 2022 early release.

-Expanding on the academy rule system was something interesting to do. Not only to take what was already in the game, but to really lay it out as a more set in stone official rules list. How one rule has it's exceptions and what happens exactly if said rule is broken vs another rule, etc. I think if you really wanted to get a better world setting of what's going on and immerse yourself better in MA's world. This stuff alone will give you that feeling.

-One thing I wanted to touch on better with these adjustments to older content was how Brandon and his buddies see diapers as. It makes sense that when they first show up, they wouldn't be comfortable with the idea of diapers and just expanding on that. Seeing a more natural flow from Brandon's thoughts being "Gross, ew..." towards "What's wrong with me? Did I like this?" to "full blown I love diapers!"

-There's new mentions for things like how phone, computer and electronics monitoring works, history of the academy. How the classes work and it's schedule being odd, etc. I think overall there was a lot of new information to fit naturally within just this first 1/4th of episode 1 to really give players this good grounded sense of being able to see themselves in a world that's not half explaining things like...

"We have monitoring of devices." Okay... but how exactly? How does that work and make sense, even just trying to explain it some what, instead of just barely explaining it and don't mention it again? etc.

-I think it should be assumed that we're not splitting episodes up or anything like how the game currently does for day 1 with it's 3 sections. In order to give it that real one episode from start to finish feeling, it'll just roll from the start of episode 1 until it's end. Then it'll make it clear to players when episode 2 begins, etc.

-If you haven't seen our explaining of how this whole change to episode format stuff is going to work, please do go to our guide post and find September's news post #2. It's a long read, but it's got a lot of stuff covered there. We'll expand on that stuff here by the end of this month with our news post #3, but until then the previous post will give a good idea how things are being tackled.

-Our goal for schedule still seems to have episode 1 & 2 offered for update 0.15 on Oct 5th. So just letting everyone be aware of that, we'll see a lot of behind the scenes for episode 1 this week. Then next week episode 2. ^^