Writer's Blog: Dotted Blue Lines (The Fancy-Mathy Kind, Ooh La La) (Patreon)

Wordcount: A lot.

Next Update: January 16

In the early days of posting Mind Blind, I was too busy hyperventilating over the fact that other humans were reading my writing to even consider the different ways that technology now enables reading. Ever since I realized that some early readers were using screen readers for MB’s demo, however, one of my top priorities has been to make sure that the final release includes a text-only mode selectable in the settings. As stated on the tin, this version won’t have any of the picture-version of documents—things like Nox’s file, Vengeance’s invitation, and the variating chapter covers will all instead appear as regular text.

(On a related note, I ran out of lyrics a long time ago for the chapter covers, which is why there haven’t been any recently. Since I won’t be able to use copyrighted lyrics in the final release anyway, I’ve instead been rereading books in the public domain. My copy of Alice and Wonderland is 95% sticky note at this point. I know, I know. Every author uses Alice and Wonderland for their chapter covers. But that’s because its quotes are good.)

(And, more importantly, using those quotes won’t get me sued.)

The alternating pathways of Chapter 15 is still on schedule to release this weekend, although Sunday is looking more likely than Saturday at this point. This updated version involves an actual blueprint that you get to look at; three blueprints, to be precise, one for each floor. I’m pretty satisfied with how these turned out! Maybe I should’ve been an architect? Probably not, as I lack the attention span and spacial skills to even build a cabin out of lincoln logs. (Ergo why the blueprint has taken me so long.)

My biggest headache currently is that I can’t seem to figure out which file size will allow all the detail on the blueprint to still be legible without it becoming too big to load. I may need to go with a more simplistic blueprint maker (the one I chose has cool dotted blue lines, but the cool dotted blue lines aren’t strictly necessary). Either way, unless I’m struck by lightning and with divinely granted inspiration, the new scenes released this weekend will likely only be the screen reader-accessible versions. In these versions, the layout is described (in a way close to what already exists) rather than presented via visually.

I love interactive fiction for the creative complexity it can provide. Not just branching pathways, but visual things like incorporating visual puzzles into the main text. I also like to experiment with certain techniques more commonly used in Visual Novels (e.g. presenting Nox’s actual document to players just as Button receives it). It adds a level of immersion that I don’t want to forgo . . . although I do confess that figuring out how to create and implement this blueprint was almost enough to make me throw in the towel and only go with a text-only version. 

I went through an entire spiral: Why was I including visuals anyway? Even my kindergarten fingerpainting teacher knew that I wasn’t going to be an artist. (Her question of “Jenny, sweetie, is this supposed to be the moon or a crab?” haunts me even now, decades later. Because it was neither, Ms. Avery. The round thing with tentacles was supposed to be a realistic depiction of my newborn brother, and I freaking thought I was Jean-François Millet reborn until you shattered my dreams.)

Having a choice is always better, in the end. And so, the blueprint will be in the end game, even though it’s not upload-able just quite yet.

. . . What can I say? I should downgrade the blueprints, but I really like those cool dotted blue lines.