Saturday Devlog (December 21) (Patreon)

Hi everyone! Hope you've been staying safe and healthy. An early Merry Christmas to those celebrating, and I hope the holidays have been treating you well!

As you may have gathered from the lack of devlogs recently, writing the next leg of the rewrite has been something of a challenge. Truth be told, I had expected this section of the rewrite to be a speedy one, as I imagined it would require some surface-level edits (like the one you've seen in the last scene of the last update). But the more I worked on it, the more I grew dissatisfied with the depth of writing and dialogue flow, especially in the earlier parts of the Aulain arc. I used to be perfectly pleased with them and the way they served the arc, but ultimately I think I've changed (hopefully for the better) as a writer, and so it follows that my preferences have, as well. Towards the middle of the month I tried engaging instead in a more thorough overhaul of the pertinent scenes, and I'm happy to say that they feel a lot better to me. Hopefully they do to you as well!

Aside from general quality sprucing, I had two specific concerns that the current update (as it's currently shaping up to be) hopefully addresses:

1. I want the theming of Aulain city--which centers on pretty gloomy events re: the story of Ghisan Lucerre and the funeral of Father Gerian--to be more appropriately reflected in the atmosphere. As such, the backdrop of Aulain's storm and possibly imminent greatflood has been made to take center stage, to add a dark tension of sorts in the arc.

2. I'm largely happy with the way Eli has been developed and written, but I always did have that niggling feeling in the back of my head that they felt a little too stoic and removed from the rest of the Arcadian cast. Their interactions with F and Yu have been expanded in this rewrite, and it was a big priority for the banter between them to feel more like that of old friends. This did require me to rein in some of Eli's more standoffish tendencies, and balancing that with their legacy characterization from the old demo has been tricky work. I think the balance now is in a good place, though I'll definitely be interested to hear if the changes are well-liked.

With all that being said, please expect a new update still at the end of December.

I'm also beginning to reckon with the fact that this rewrite may be ill-suited to the old demo's weekly devlog cycle. My process now revolves around vetting through content from old demo and hiatus rewrites, and doing the literary equivalent of tossing them at a wall and seeing what sticks. This causes a large amount of trial-and-error in the earlier parts of the month, though when I've hit my stride I'm able to produce at a much faster rate vs. pre-rewrite. I think I want to see for a couple more months if I could use the old format after all, since I've grown so comfortable with it over the years. As always, thank you for being patient with me in the meantime.

I will upload a double-feature Sneak Peek following this devlog, showcasing those early parts of the update where the revisions have been heaviest. As always, thank you for supporting the development of A Mage Reborn!