Weekly Update 18/08/2024 (Patreon)

Sorry again, for writing late. Always forget the weekly update is on Sunday. (Will probably happen again)

Anyway let's get to it.

Progress:

Writing - 11,000~ words

I haven't got a lot of work done this week due to life and the writer's block is crazy.

But let me put this into a number. The amount of content I've written so far is around 70% of the chapter. So honestly, not much is left. I just have to write out the events that I have in mind already, and visualise them well.

I've already made up my mind on how chapter 2 will end, but stringing all the events together are quite difficult. So, I think this week we can talk a little about pacing.

What I want from all of my chapters, is to have a main event and multiple side events. Why? Well, the main event won't have enough content to make up the total playtime for the chapter, and if I get to the main event straight away with no side story, I can't develop other side characters and provide more context on the world.

But! Most of these side events are not here just for the sake of it. In some way, they may be connected to the main event of the chapter, or they may lead to a main event in the future. That's what I want at least.

And here's the fun part. I need to be extra aware of which event leads to which. The timing needs to be well-coordinated so that it doesn't get boring. No one wants to read side story for the majority of their playtime, and too little main events can't keep your interest. In sense, I'm saying that, side stories should be here to keep the whole experience refreshing. I believe giving the main story line a little down time can allow players to digest information better. A pause between the main event can also help in building anticipation and generate curiosity.

That being said, the side story needs to be at least not boring. That's the minimum requirement.

Taking our players' mind off of the main story by providing entertainment or interesting side stories is better than presenting a soulless filler, am I right? Which is why I want most of these side events to be associated with character development, world building or even introducing new characters.

Now obviously, not all side stories need to mean something. They can be goofy interactions between characters to provide a comedic relief, or an event that has no association to anything and happens just to get a laugh. Oh right, I forgot about sex...

But I'm going to leave sex as next week's topic since this is probably a big area of concern to some of you.

So, yeah, that's all for now. Thanks for all of your support once again. I'll be writing again next week.