Writer's Blog: Not a Perfect Ten (Patreon)

The Great Rewritening Version of Chapter 9 (link at bottom of post) has been up on dashingdon for a while, although I didn’t announce it in hopes that I’d be able to get the entire Chapters 9-15 update out this month. But if your saves were wiped sometime these past weeks: that's why!

Chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14 are done and ready to go. Chapter 10, however, is not. I was really trying to get it done by the end of the month, but it didn’t pan out.

Warning: Spoilers for one of the game endings ahead.

I finished coding the Vengeance-allied ending, albeit it’s not so much “allied with” as “taken over as Top Evil Moustache Twirler.” Pursuing this ending has always been contingent upon Button having a high “Vengeance” stat and a low “Unity” stat (with variations based on relationships with Reese and Andy/Liz). But when I read through the whole shebang, it was extremely jarring to see Vengeance members automatically trust Button just because a certain politician gave the gladiatorial thumbs up.

No matter how antiestablishMENT Button may have consistently been in their thoughts throughout the game, the Vengeance crew are adamantly not mind readers. (And, yes, that pun will also be the achievement name for earning this ending.) Prior to the final chapter conclusion where Button gives their Oscar Award Acceptance speech for best-acted triple agent, however, there’s only one real chance for Button to win over the peons of Vengeance to their side: at the party in Chapter 10.

It was a conundrum. How could I better set up Button to attain their new position without it seeming unrealistic? How could Vengeance members be primed to accept Button as their overlord? And what clues could I provide to let readers know if they were on the right path?

Chapter 10’s party had already undergone some tweaking, but I felt as if Button really needed an opportunity to bond, you know? Like, how can they be expected to run a terrorist cell unless they personally connect with their minions? Thus, in order to achieve the Vengeance ending, you now have to impress the britches off of every single person at the party.

Some of these new people, you only meet if you impress someone before them. Introductions are reserved for true believers (or those who do a REALLY good job posing as true believers). Instead of Button choosing who to talk with, you and Kenzie get introduced to different people depending upon how impressive you all. Catch all the Pokémon, and you may potentially get to boss them around post-game . . . provided the initial Vengeance/Unity stat thresholds are still met, as per the original writing.

Anyhow, the new party structure and interactions are a lot to rewrite and recode. Every ending that I’ve completed thus far has resulted in pretty massive early changes to Chapters 15-17, but this Vengeance ending is changing the most midgame code. I’m taking the weekend off (!!!) to attempt to creatively recharge, but after that will try to finish

I am really, really sorry about yet another update delay. I’d hoped to get the new stuff for Chapter 10 all finished by the end of today, but I have to concede defeat to my own ambitions.

As for what’s new in Chapter 9:

(There are a lot of minor changes, but this list is the major stuff that I can remember. Chapter 9 has been rewritten for a while, so there’s probably things I forgot as well. Version 2.0 was originally 20,000 words longer than the original, but I managed to prune the wordcount down to 37,000 words. Which is still 10,000 words longer than the first draft but doesn’t drag as much.)

1) Overhaul of Button and Nick’s reconciliation scenes. Nick’s scene in the beginning has a lot more reactivity in general.

2) Reworked phone call with Hope. Rosy now stays for the call. Things should also be less repetitive, with the coding taking into account whether or not Button talked with Hope in earlier chapters. You should no longer have to restate your opinion on the BRS for the umpteenth time if it’s already been discussed.

3) New conversations with Rosy or Nick should you choose not to have a phone call with Hope.

4) Nover-Nick is a lot punchier.

5) Many new dialogue choices sprinkled throughout, ,most of which I can't currently recall. The potential to refer to Kim as "Kimmy" now exists, however, so there's that.

Funnily enough, the one scene that I planned on changing the most ended up being the one that I reverted back to its original form. I added too much fluff to Kenzie’s date (as you can see in the deleted scenes that I posted earlier this month), and the original version ended up maintaining tension better. It is, after all, an undercover mission and not an episode of The Bachelor.

Mind Blind 2.0: https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/mind-blind-20/mygame/