Mochi Moshi Dev Log #34: Much ado about Demoing (Patreon)

Meetings Greetings
Let me start this log off by saying that my co-writer and I met up again at the beginning of this month and discussed what the intro of the game would be. I know I said that the script draft would be done in February, but that didn't take into account doing the intro. I'll be handling that when the time comes, probably in February itself, but after that's done the script will be moving on to the cleanup process. Intros in games are super important to kind of nail the tone, character, setting and possibly the entire reason you're playing the game. With a game where you possibly see the intro 24 times, if you didn't skip it, I want to keep it shorter but also a nice read that feels good to come back to.

What is this intro?
Kazumi's backstory is really simple, and these are things I want to outline in the intro. She's an heiress to a Mobile Phone Company owned by her father but hates the idea of being stuck with something so stiff. Despite it being easy free money and anyone would realistically love to be in that position, she wants to make it on her own considering she fought to be in a public school system instead of a private "rich bitch" type situation. Even though she does have access to free cellphone products/service for life, because who the fuck wouldn't want that, she tends to make it more on her own by trying to build up her influencer profile.
Considering that she's an attractive woman who still kinda gets a bit of dad's cash, she still obviously has an easier time than most, but this is also not a commentary on that sort of lifestyle or what it means to be born into wealth. This is a story about a girl who goes to a cake buffet and over indulges, or goes to a TTRPG themed bar and gets really nerdy. It's kinda hard to really balance this character's backstory without the prejudice of people instantly hating the idea that she should be moderately wealthy, or at least middle class, but as a super fucking poor person myself I just wanna say chill. At least it's an excuse for the 'expenses' of whatever she's doing to be mostly nil. She does talk about getting her own money and not wanting to rely on her parent's wealth though, but it's very minimal. We call that Character Depth.
Will the intro contain all of this nuance and more? Probably not. I just want to write funny dialog and bickering between the player character and Kazumi herself. But I do want to at least detail what her character is in the length of about "half a week," or 1/8th of the post intro length.

Progress
I'm going to keep this short. This month I needed to finish three nodes, and next month I need to finish three nodes to finish my half of the script. So far I've finished one, but have given myself enough time to finish the other two before the end of the month. With the way I write this isn't just possible, it's what I'm going to do guaranteed. I've thought about making this route about her becoming an ASMR youtuber which devolves into her just eating constantly since that's what her audience enjoys her doing. Fun!

Next Month
Besides finishing up the nodes here, next month is the real progress check on whether or not February is possible and what we have to do to actually have everything done with the draft by the beginning of March. This means all 64 "weeks," 24 routes, 65 "nodes," drafted. After that we then go straight into cutting everything up, fixing grammar and continuity, re-reading everything and making a true list of Kazumi's Emoticons.

What's this about a Demo???
So the title of this log is about a demo, which is an idea I've floated around in my head on how to actually take feedback on what we're doing. Personally it's too late to change the entire script, especially since after it being done it would have been just about two years of progress, but, it's also about garnering what you guys hope to see and a sneak peek at what the game's tone is. I'm still on the fence about what this would be, how it would be presented and how people would receive it.
I'm not fucking stupid, I know people have been uploading this shit on separate websites that scrape cookies and rehost everything word for word. So I want to mitigate that with a project that I have absolutely been underpaid for by possibly using itch.io integration with this service, or sending DL keys to people via private messages. This isn't a punishment, this is self righteousness LOL
What the demo at this stage would entail is actually something so simple that I honestly don't feel like I'd want to give it to people without express disclaimer that it wouldn't have any images nor would it even be in the right program. It'd be a twine reproduction of one or two full routes and a survey form that I'd hope you guys fill out. If this is even remotely interesting let me know. If you'd rather the game have a UI and be in ren'py first, let me know.

Thank you!
Thank you all for supporting me!!! I appreciate it so much. I made a comment about being underpaid above but it's more tongue and cheek. The fact that I even get one subscriber backing this project is insane. I want to make this game, we want to make this game. My co-writer has been so excited to just work on this and craft the world and character of Kazumi with me it'd been so nice. If you can spread the word about this to people and maybe help me get some more cash to work on it that would help and insane amount. With the amount of people who do end up pirating my work, if all of them even gave me one dollar a month I'd have enough for a living wage. That's a thought that makes me depressed but I don't tend to dwell on the what ifs.

All that aside, thank you again, and I cannot wait to speak with you all next month. <3
Have a wonderful New Year, and Happy Holidays!