DevLog Update (Patreon)

Hey all,

So been kinda quiet on the update front around here lately and I wanted to apologize for that. Typically, I try and take a bit of a breather between updates, especially considering how expansive and involved v14 was. For those that haven't played it yet, v014 will go free on Feb 20 for all and more announcements related to the game will follow suit after that. 

v0.15 Progress

So progress so far is pretty light and that sucks but here's some background on what's going on. First off, that break that I take is really important. Let's me clear my head and gives me time to remind my RL friends that I don't hate them. This time around, though, we had some changes at work that completely destroyed me over the break. Rather than having an actual break over the past few weeks, my work schedule has been 85 hours plus a week. I'm dead right now and trying to recover this weekend. Spending all day today working on the outlines. But here's where we're at...

v015 is mostly outlined. However, now that I'm working in a Team Mode, it's increasingly important that I get the ideas out of my head and onto paper to show others. Blayke and I have a much different work pattern on planning and it's important that we continue to compromise since I want him heavily involved with the planning. So, in contrast to past updates, I'm trying to outline several updates at once moving forward. This is increasingly important for Blayke and I to communicate, in addition to starting to drop more hints into game and ensure when things are revealed that they were adequately prefaced. One thing that really bothers me in many episodic mediums is when they reveal something in an episode and then resolve it in that same episode. I see this in shows like American Horror Story where they show something that has "always been present" but was never shown before. They act like it's a twist but it just feels like bad writing. Everything that happens in this game was teased long before it happens. I'm a fan of foreshadowing and planting things early so I want that to work. Further outlining will just enhance this and it mitigates the amount of bitching I have to listen to from Blayke (luv ya, boo!).

I've also felt it was necessary to do a full re-read of the game. In contrast to the players, I've only played my own game twice. This thing is a fucking leviathan at this point and complete re-reads are important--but take an extraordinary amount of time away from development. Thus, I usually try and avoid it. However, it's a necessary evil and something that needs to happen to tighten up the writing in these updates--particularly when I'm going to outline several updates at once. So that's an extra step happening right now. 

I'm going to leave this update short so I can focus more on getting things done today. But hit me up if you got questions. 

-Aaryn