Progress Report 2023.02.28: A Little Bit of Structural Shuffling

Hi friends,

Just a quick update to round out February. As I am still working on the same sections as I was last progress report, there isn’t much new to talk about in terms of the Veyer branch progress. I am closer to the end of it now than I was before, but there’s still several sections to finagle before I can finally start editing.

The more important update is that I am in the process of reconfiguring Wayfarer’s act structure. Up until this point, the game has been structured in three acts, like so:

• Prologue
• Act 1 – Episodes 1 – 8
• Act 2 – Episodes 9 – 12
• Act 3 – Episodes 13 – 5
• Epilogue

Though the game’s essential structure will remain the same (15 episodes), breaking it into new act breaks will give me a little more flexibility in terms of where major story beats fall, the significance they have, and to have that reflected in the game’s UI design (with elements like changing artwork, etc).

Episode 3’s ending is a major transition period and it feels appropriate for that to be the end of an act. The stretch between Episodes 4 and 8 sees the introduction of the rest of the main cast and companions, with another major transition period at the end. With this in mind, the new structure would be like this:

• Prologue
• Act 1 – Episodes 1 – 3
• Act 2 – Episodes 4 – 8
• Act 3 – Episodes 9 – 12
• Act 4 – Episodes 13 – 15
• Epilogue

There is also the possibility that I may split the game into multiple entries along these act breaks. Because each episode is essentially a small game unto itself and takes a long period of time to develop, I am rethinking the viability of Wayfarer as a standalone game. There are pros and cons to splitting it into multiple entries – on one hand, a having it become a series would communicate the scope of the story better than a single game. On the other hand, having multiple installments in a series means that I will then have to work with save states and world states.

Save states aren’t too much of an issue (there’s a way to export the player’s data and upload it into a new SugarCube game), but world states are. There are too many continuity variables for it to be viable for the player to select what they want at the start. Not only are rapport, approval and romance levels important, but what the PC said in specific moments, what information they have accumulated, what’s in their inventory, what choices they made in significant moments—it’s not going to be possible to list every detail and flag it accordingly from a world state menu.

I don’t think it’s even viable to give a selection of established world states for new players to select from (kind of like what Dragon Age 2 did if you didn’t have a save state from Dragon Age: Origins). There’s too much to filter down into one to three options. Because the story is continuous, even if Wayfarer exists as four games instead of one, the only way to play it will be to play from Game 1.

There’s a lot of think about. Regardless, I am not going to be making any decisions on this front until Episode 3 is finished, which will still be a while from now.

Other News

If you’re interested in Wayfarer’s 2023 calendar, it is still available until March 2! The file will be taken down after that day, so there is limited time left to get a copy. As of today, we have raised $1,124 CAD, which will be donated to charity.  

As always, thank you all so much for your support. 💕