Stay Safe Out There! (Patreon)

Greetings! 

Looks like this coronavirus thing really is getting bad. I hope you're all staying safe out there! I'd been a little sick lately, and I'm in one of the worst states for it, so I was worried Corona-chan got me! Looks like it was just a mild sinus infection, though, so I think I'm okay (for now?) Luckily I stocked up a while back - hopefully you did, too. It seems like most folks will be fine even if they do get it, but this is probably a good time to practice your hikikomori skills and catch up on some anime. The NEETs shall inherit the Earth! 

The H-Scene

On to the update - I've finally finished renders for the 2nd H-scene, and I think it looks pretty sexy! Working with Sami's model is a lot of fun, and I think she's a fun character so I suspect we'll end up seeing her again ;) I still need to do postwork for the images, but at least the most time-consuming part is out of the way. Once postwork is done, writing is all that will remain, so let's talk about that now.

Writing Work

As I discussed in a previous post, a few weeks ago I took a step back and did some serious thinking about the game's overall plot. I had a vague idea of where I wanted it to go, but this process forced me to really flesh my ideas out, working through the whats and whys of what I to happen, thinking about the themes I wanted to touch on, as well as how I'd integrate them into the story. I feel pretty good about my plan for the story now, and I'm excited to get working on it again. As I resumed writing dialogue, though, I came to realize that my 'under the hood' work wasn't complete.

Story Types

From the beginning, I'd thought of this as a 'milieu' story. That is, you have a character (who's basically a stand-in for the audience) dropped into a strange new world, they see all sorts of wondrous things in this world, and then they come home. The canonical example is Gulliver's Travels (something that's been on my reading list for a while,) but there are many others. Thinking about the work I did on the plot, and all the things that had come before, I gradually realized that this isn't a milieu story - it's mostly a character story. In character stories, you start with a protagonist who's deeply dissatisfied with their role in the world and sets out to change it. (For example, suppose the protagonist starts off as a pitiable loser, but one who isn't really happy being that way...) The story ends when they either find a different role or resign themselves to their current one.

Milieu stories are big on world-building - cultures, customs, histories, ways of life, that sort of thing. That's never been what's excited me about this story - after all, the current game world is basically a giant homage to/parody of a game created by a company whose name rhymes with 'gizzard.' Complex motivations and inner conflicts aren't that important in milieu stories, but in character stories characters and characterization are everything. If this were a milieu story Alex wouldn't need a character arc - and I hadn't originally planned to give him one! But since I now understand this is a character story, an arc becomes pretty important for him - and maybe some of the others, too.

As I got back to work on writing, I realized I didn't know many of the characters well enough to do what I was planning to do with them. Some of them also hadn't been terribly interesting so far (I'm thinking mostly of the male Bunnies here.) So, I re-read a book I'd originally read when I started this whole project - the excellent Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card - and got to work really defining them. I'm in the middle of that project now.

Don't worry; this game will get a little more serious later on, but it's still a comedy. There's not going to be Macbeth levels of anguished navel-gazing. I just want to make this story as interesting and memorable as I possibly can, and I now realize that means getting everything I can out of the characters.

And now for something completely different...

... what would you recommend as a truly great anime series? I hadn't watched anime much for quite a while, so on a lark I decided to start Steins;Gate. And I absolutely loved it! It's easily one of the best stories I've seen or read in a long time, and if you haven't seen it yet I'd highly recommend that you do. I finished my plot work before starting it, and I'm very glad I did because some elements of S;G actually relate to what I'll be doing in TPE. That got me thinking, though, there's bound to be a bunch of other truly great stories out there that I haven't seen yet. What would you say some of the greatest anime stories are?

Note: I haven't seen Steins;Gate 0 yet, and I won't be watching it until I play the S;G visual novel. And I won't be doing that until the next release is out, so pls no spoilers! (◕‿◕✿)

That's where I'm at. I hope to get finished with the characterization project this coming week, then it's a push to the end. So stay safe out there, try not to go out if you can, get plenty of rest, and watch/play something interesting while you're holed up (like Steins;Gate!) Thank you for your support!