Weekend Update - Game News #70 (Patreon)

Hey everyone!

My last few posts have been about what I've been working on, so I'll continue with that trend.

One of the bigger things I underestimated for this update was the writing. This was surprising for two reason, the first being writing is my favorite part. Sure, finishing up the visuals and putting everything together is rewarding in its own right, but when it's still fresh on the page and not yet limited to the maps and assets I have to make it, there's a beauty in the unfinished. 

They say every project starts out perfect with conception and can only lose that perfection with each step along the way. Or did I make that up? Hell if I know.

The second reason the writing took longer than I expected was a big part of this update was already written over a year ago. It involves the MC's confrontation with Laura, and I wrote it back when I was working on Episode Ten to get an idea of where things were headed. So how has it taken so long to finish up?

The thing I didn't anticipate was how much I suck at writing the "evil" path. I've been teasing it for a long time, and trying to leave little hints and foreshadowing of how the MC could possibly turn bad. The way I see it is you, the player, would be corrupting him. 

He's a pretty naïve dude at the end of the day. Sure, he's come a long way in the few weeks the game has taken place, but he's generally used the power he has for the benefit of the girls in his life. So what pushes him into embracing his worst tendencies? Part of it is his reaction to Laura, part of it could be Laura herself acting as the devil on her shoulder. Part of it could simply be his own selfishness and wanting everything to be the way he wants it regardless of the people in his life and what they want.

For research I've played a lot of games where the player is an asshole. In the games Friends In Need or Nothing Is Forever, for example, you can play every scene and relationship as a great dude, a genuine psychopath, or somewhere in between. It's quite fun to go back and see how each scene could play out. And this is common in a lot of games, giving the player the choice on how he interacts with the world and finding out how the story unfolds.

The problem I was warned about but still didn't fully expect was my personal attachment to the characters. I've mentioned before in behind the scenes posts how the MC is based on me when I was that age. I was learning how to interact with the girls in my life, especially when they were friends with each other and were all in the same class, making my entanglements with them a balancing act.

The girls are all based on their namesakes as well, which has always helped me to create real characters with distinct voices, personalities and desires. So when the MC is rude, mean, or even cruel to them, it's difficult for me to justify. That's not who I was at that time, and if the MC is an asshole, I want real reasons for him to act that way.

At the same time, the "evil" path has been far more subtle than I planned at this point, because I kept putting it off, waiting for the right moment in the story for him to start acting like a true asshole. I've spent a lot of time leading up to this update, so I wanted to get it right. This means, once again, writing the same scenes multiple times, trying to take into account so many different possibilities throughout the game.

Now that we're here, I want it to make sense. And it took me a long time to realize it can still be subtle at this point. He doesn't need to be a dick overnight, he simply needs to be believable. The answer, going forward, will mostly be for whether he makes the easy choice, which often means using the watch for his convenience vs. taking the more difficult path of having to earn the love of the people in his life.

I spent a lot of time mapping out future updates and where the endings will lead. At some point the endings will divert entirely, but for now the two paths will still continue side by side, the same scenes and events happening but with different actions and outcomes.

Part of this has been trying to reign in the scope. Over the years I got a little too ambitious with Hypnosis, wondering where the limits were until I found them by pushing more and more choices and open scenarios. The broken watch branch was a great example of me trying to write a solid ending only to end up with three of them, each with multiple variations and smaller side endings, taking over a year to complete.

It's been a fun experiment, but it's time to focus on the direction everything needs to be heading and get there in a far more timely manner.

I've said it before, but future games will be much smaller and tighter, with less characters and something that can be finished in less than a year. Taking multiple years to finish a game is difficult, and it means making you, the players, wait too damn long for the story to continue.

On a different note, what do you think of the game preview for the image? It's a render I was working a few hours ago. I won't actually use Aera's dress, since it's see-through, but thought it made for a decent stand alone.

I mentioned showing game preview images before, but I still get nervous feeling like I'll make someone annoyed for possible spoilers. Eh, comment if you're mad about it, I guess. Otherwise I'll start posting previews more often.

Thanks, everyone!