(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ (Patreon)

Hey everyone,I think it's about time for another blog post to keep you updated. First, a bit about me personally, don't worry, this time it won't turn into it's own wall-of-text post. Germany has cooled down, so my PC no longer need external cooling (the "certified hood cooling" comment actually got a chuckle out of me). And with the weather cooling off, I'm feeling more active again too. So, yay.

Now, onto the game itself. I've made good progress, and I'm going to reveal a bit more about what I have planned. Anyone who's played 12.5 will probably already have a rough idea of what's coming. If you haven't played 12.5 yet, you might want to stop reading here to avoid spoilers, though it's not a hard spoiler. At the end of 12.5, the main character ends up in the underground lab, and I am genuinely excited about that lab. It lets me lean into a bit of bio-horror in the story, which is something I've wanted to do for a while. But don't worry, this isn't turning into a horror game, I'm building it more as an atmosphere than a genre.

If I had to compare what I'm going for to something else (no guarantee I'll pull it off, but it's the goal), has anyone here played Bioshock 2? I really enjoyed it back when it came out. I'm not sure how well it's aged, but at the time I had a genuinely great time with it. Bioshock 2 had one big difference from the first game. For those who don't know Bioshock: it's a somewhat creepy horror shooter set on the ocean floor, dark, grim, full of monsters and mutants and general chaos.

Bioshock flips that dynamic. In the second game, you play as one of the most dangerous monsters down there, the Big Daddy, you're the biggest, toughest and meanest mofo around. The environment is still creepy and, don't get me wrong, still very atmospheric, but instead of being the prey, you're the one in charge. I think that's what made Bioshock 2 so cool: even though things are still tense, you feel powerful, because you are a walking tank. When I finished Bioshock 2, I got an achievement for not dying once, and I'm not even a particularly skilled gamer. Honestly, I'm pretty bad at video games in general. But that says something: even though the game was atmospheric and horror-themed, it wasn't especially hard, because it leans into that power fantasy. Yes, it's a creepy setting, but you're simply the strongest thing in it. That was really cool.

I honestly don't know anymore if I'd still recommend it today, but that combination, horror atmosphere, everything feels grim, and yet you're just untouchable, is kind of a diffrent power fantasy. You're still exposed to horror, but it's never actually dangerous for you. If a few mutants jump you, you just smack them down. That's satisfying. And like I said, it wasn't because of an easy difficulty setting I chose, I always play games on the difficulty the developers intended, usually normal, it was easy by design, the devs wanted that. It was a really cool experience: atmospheric, but never actually threatening. And it had great moments where something scary shows up and you basically get to say, "Ha, I'm way tougher than you."

That's the kind of feeling I'm trying to recreate. I mentioned in the last blog post that there will be flashback scenes (there's probably a proper term for that, but it's escaping me right now), and that's something I'll be building on. So we'll have moments of tension and build-up where something scary approaches, and then we'll have moments where the "Big Daddy" walks into that scary scenario, and the scenario itself doesn't change, but the rules of engagement do, because we are again in the shoes of Mc. I think that's a really cool feeling, and it fits very well with the story I'm currently trying to tell.

I wanted to attach a video here (that was the plan anyway, but Patreon said no, so it's just an image, unfortunately, you can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/KRmh3CtR9V0). In the actual game it'll look better, but this gives you a rough idea of the atmosphere I'm going for.

I know some of you would have preferred a barely-dressed girl as the header image instead. But there's already more than enough of that kind of image online. That said, if you're here purely for pictures of scantily-clad girls and couldn't care less about new story glimpses, let me know in the comments. Yell at me about it, and next time I'll deliver. I promise.

So that's what I'm currently working on, building up this atmosphere. The new system I teased in the last blog post will be part of it. I don't want to give away too much yet, but I think it's going to be really cool. The underground lab and its reveals have been locked into the story for a long, long time. Actually putting it into shape now, though... I don't know, I just really like it. Like I said, check out the image/video, I think it turned out pretty cool.

The tricky part is pulling that atmosphere consistently across all these sections, but doing it with enough finesse that it doesn't become overwhelming or boring ,because this isn't a horror game. Sure, plenty of visual novels include a horror segment here and there; it just works well within the format, since horror in general is something you can pull off well even with a small budget. And honestly, I just really want to do it.

But like with the detective investigation sections with Emma, there will again be a choice to opt out if you're just not into it. This time, though, it's not a skip it or not decision. It'll be an active decision instead. You'll be able to say "screw it" right from the start and just blow the whole thing up instead interacting with it. But like i said it won't go into full horro, I don't think i could pull that off anyway. It's more in the direction of what Bioshock 2 did: everyone else is scared out of their minds, everything's grim, but I'm the Big Daddy, and here I come.

Anyway, I'm curious to hear what you all think.Take care of yourself and stay safe.With loveBerk the Merk.