January Update: Mind Blind 2.0, Chapters 13 & 14 (Now With Zero Construction!) (Patreon)

I’m desperately trying to finish by May, as that will mark Mind Blind’s 3-year anniversary. I want to write other stories! Maybe go on vacation before putting on Delivery for the Damned, because last year was stressful.

Now that I’ve moved back to Chicago, I’ve finally got a chance to breathe and process and all the events of last year just . . . hit me. Hit me hard. Like a truck, or a really angry duck. I’ve been coping with anxiety, so that’s why I’ve been super quiet on social media (which has always been something that stressed me out). I do need to finally look in my inbox, however, as emulating an ostrich and pretending the world doesn’t exist isn’t long-term viable.

(Heh: emulating an ostrich.)

That being said, I do have friends that drag me outside on occasion, which is good because I don’t have the long white beard to fully commit to hermitcore. And I’ll get in a better headspace—I always do! Finishing Mind Blind will help with that, as I’m honestly really bummed by how long this project is taking. Working as my mom's caretaker slowed things down, true, but the main issue is that there’s just . . . so many . . . words.

Too many words, if I'm being honest. Way more words than anyone needs. Next book, I'm dreaming smaller.

Mind Blind currently has over a million words (including coding, though, so average playthrough should only be around 130,000 – 145,000), and I still have a few endings to finish (and then code so that they’re playable). 

To give you an idea of what I’m dealing with, here's my fine-I-give-up-keeping-this-in-my-head chart of all of Mind Blind’s endings:

That first purple dot marks Chapter 17, but some of the endings are dependent on stuff that happens as early as Chapter 13. Which is to say . . .  It’s a lot, and there’s a lot of writing. So that’s what I’m doing, but I know that I need to also be a better communicator since you guys are what enables me to write in the first place.

(Seriously, Mind Blind would've been long abandoned were it not for your support.)

Anyway, I wanted (and kept optimistically promising) to release the grouped Vengeance endings, but I keep adding more because endings aren’t necessarily straightforward paths—there’s a lot of leaping around, and replay reveals gaps. I wanted to get everything out this January (thus this post happening on the 31, but I refused to admit defeat until I literally ran out of time), Chapter 15 is undergoing rewrites due to events which take place in the “Plot Armor, Dramatic Sacrifice Edition (Var C)” ending, and those changes impact events/code in the “Pragmatism Is Sexy Because You’re Not Dead” ending. 

Which is to say, it’s all such a tangle that’s it’s hard to release one portion without the rest. The Vengeance endings are almost finalized though, so I should be able to put them up soon. (Granted, I thought that two months ago, but then Caleb unexpectedly bashed AL over the head with his laptop and I rolled with it.)

So I’m stamping “May 2023” as my FINISH EVERYTHING deadline, and will do my best to release chunks as soon as they’re ready. Ready meaning “functionally playable.” I’m not polishing everything yet in these later chapters because the content is too much in flux.

Anyhow, Mind Blind 2.0 now has Chapters 13 and 14 (link at bottom)! Most of these changes were made months ago, so the changelog is by no means exhaustive as I don’t remember everything that I altered 😅

Chapter 13:

1) No more “Under Construction” portions! Branch for Nover!Buttons (Buttons with a super bad relationship with Nick, and who thus didn’t realize certain things in Chapter 12) is now fully playable.

2) The option to throw Kenzie under the bus has been (temporarily?) removed while I reevaluate if I actually want to write that pathway (if the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak). It changes a huge amount of the Vengeance-branched endings, basically necessitating two separate versions (so doubling those endings). I started writing it and disliked doing so (because Kenzie is my baby), so put the betray arch to the side and may not pick it up again. Given how many endings there are already (see attached pic), I’m just not sure if I have time to add in yet one more and still finish by May.

3) Reese no longer lets just anyone take the Pollard Machine. For those who are in good enough standing with them to take it, however, there’s an additional payoff in Chapter 15.

4) Ace version has been added in for the Kenzie kiss scene (should Button blow their cover with Vengeance).

5) More questions to ask Reese, and new clues regarding certain paperwork (which comes in handy in Chapter 16).

Chapter 14:

1) No more “Under Construction” pathways! Chapter is now double its original length, even with me tidying up and condensing the code.

2) Added in alternative scenes where Button can potentially black out while mind-merging with Shard. High-confidence Buttons get a different version of this scene.

3) Chapter structure been overhauled. Should Button accept Shard’s help, only Buttons romancing Gray or Sally will have the later option to let their RO check to make sure that Shard is gone. All Buttons who reject Shard will get the Sally/Gray check, but I felt that it was more impactful to otherwise end the chapter with Shard vanishing unless you’re romancing those two (Gray’s scene being integral to his “main” romance path).

4) Speaking of romance, Gray’s kiss now has an ace pathway (one kiss-avoidant, one not).

5) Shard has new monologues, version dependent on you rejected them, accepted their help, or fainted. (Also on whether they luuuuuuuuuv you. Reluctantly, and much to their disgust.)

6) Here’s a clue, there’s a clue, every where’s a new clue (albeit, you need to go back to earlier chapters to catch them).

New Link: https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/miind-blilnd/mygame/