Dev Journal: Art and Ephemera

Still getting the hang of timing these journals out. I hit another rough patch not long after the last one, had a lot of self-doubts, a lot of anxiety about designing my next big project. In general, as a lifestyle, I love planning out this kind of thing, but suddenly instead of being my big "someday" dream, it's very immediate, very here and now and hurry up, get it figured out so I can get started already. And that's a very different beast!

I still feel like there's a lot I don't know about how this game is going to actually work, but I guess that's the kind of thing I figure out and experiment with and get feedback on as we go. I wish I already had a 100% concrete idea of how that's going to work before I get into writing, but that's brought me to realize something else:

If I'm going to make the gameplay actually work in this game, then I should focus more on gameplay first, figure out what works, and then build the story around that.

Rather, it's not that I should but that I have to. That's basic game design. I don't really like it because it means I should keep any real, substantial writing to a minimum until after I've gotten all this other stuff figured out, but this early in developing a concept like this, especially one that will interweave gameplay and narrative so tightly, I think it's a necessity.

So right now, I have an intro sequence written out (that's already outdated, more on that in a minute) and the very bare necessities for a game built, but I still have loads of mechanics I need to figure out and implement. I'm thinking the best thing to do here would basically be to tweak the intro I've already written a little as needed, then transition to basically some quick placeholder/summary writing to just give a quick sketch of the story and let people play through the mechanics purely on their own. That leaves plenty of room to change things down the road while getting data on what works and what doesn't for the gameplay.

That said, this is still a whole new engine I'm working with, and a very... potent, complex one. I've been letting it intimidate me some, but I've finally started making some headway with it. There's still a lot to go, though. I really want to ship a release at the start of August, but that means I need to have a finished product ready for my proofers basically by the end of the week. I want to ship then because I want to get folks excited for the "every month" idea and I don't want too big of a gap between public releases, this is already gonna be two months if I can pull this off.

But that means that along with whatever I want to get implemented for a "first stab at actual gameplay," I'll also need to figure out and implement all the supporter rewards tied into the game, some of which I still need to figure out. It's true there may not even be enough game ready to implement all of the rewards right away, but I'll figure something out.

Honestly, this month has been pretty rough too, and I think part of it is that I haven't really stopped to like... honestly relax and celebrate MVOL, or feel like I've accomplished something? I've taken a few days off, but often turned those into "a chance to get a head start on all this stuff." It's hard to feel like anything is "done" when there's so much more that needs to be done and I need to up my game to make this whole experimental period work, but I might be risking stalling myself out a little pushing too much to just jump straight into it. Part of me feels like I should take the time to just breathe, that I should push off the first release to the start of September, and if I let Unity kick my butt any more than it has I might have to. Right now it's up in the air, but I'm hoping to at least get a basic build out right away. Maybe once I've at least got this one loaded up and making its way down the ladder to the public release, I'll feel a little more like I can take some time to really figure things out and center myself. Twist my own arm till I remember I'm doing this because I enjoy it and I should be happy for what I've accomplished.

Anyway, I haven't gotten as much done directly as I'd like, but we've made some indirect progress. The votes are in! It looks like for Project Matchmaker, the Councilman's Child will be a feline, and the Prince(ss) will be... odd. It was actually an exact tie between, of all things, a goo creature and an ephemeral/semi-physical being.

That one kept me thinking for a while. I made a big list of ideas for what exactly an ephemeral being would be like, and how it would work as something sexual. It had honestly been kind of a vague idea in my head at the time, trying to think of several different archetypes for the creature. But more than that, mixing that with a goo creature of some kind took me in some... very strange directions. Hmmm. Maybe I should go over the many different ideas I've had for this little critter for my first Side-Write?

But in the end, I landed on an idea that stuck for me immediately, and it just kept me thinking and thinking about it until I realized it was basically a done deal. It had made a much stronger impression on me and had much more potential than any of the other ideas I'd tossed around.

The Prince(ss) will be a physically immobile goo creature with immense psychic powers, including precision telekinetic control of its own goo. In other words, if it didn't have psychic powers it would literally be a puddle of slime, but it has the ability to shape itself almost without limitation, maybe even to throw itself around its environment. It relies on making a psychic connection with a more mobile, solid creature through close proximity/contact to tap into their senses to see or hear and use their body to act in a more sustainable, long-term fashion. I've got a lot of really interesting ideas to play around with this dynamic that I'm hoping will touch on some of the classic charm of slime creatures but also strike off in a very new direction with it. We'll see if I can pull it off!

I think this strikes a good balance between a goo creature and a creature that, in a way, is much more an immaterial presence, an unseen force, than merely the material body you see in front of you. I'll have to feel out the right balance for just how much physical influence they have over anything besides their own body, though.

And of course, all this means I'll have to adjust the story some, a lot of it was built around the idea of a more squid-like creature. It won't change the whole story, but it does kinda change the "feel" and some of the details.

Also, I've made a surprising amount of progress with art since my last journal! I got in contact with two studying artists that like my work and offered their help with visualizing my ideas for cheap-- and more importantly, they're much more willing to take the time to talk things out with me to figure out how things should actually look, which is always a big headache with getting art done, moreso when you don't already have references to draw from. As soon as I counted the votes and figured out what exactly the characters would be, I got things started with them, and we've got at least an initial appearance for both characters nailed down, hopefully with some art assets ready in a couple days.

On top of that, I saw we're actually getting close to hitting our next big milestone, for hiring on a dedicated artist! So I started putting out some feelers just to try and be ready for that, and actually immediately found an artist that has enjoyed my work in the past and is enthusiastic about doing game art. Their art style isn't the first I'd pick for most MVOL stuff, but they said they're flexible and willing to adjust to better fit what I'm looking for, and they're willing to go the extra mile on doing variants and refining ideas from the ground up for new visuals, so I'm pretty hopeful at this point! I'm starting them off with a basic commission for a piece for MVOL that I think might work well for their usual style just to see how we work together, then I might ask for another after that trying for something more "in-style" with the rest to see how that goes. I'm not ready to make any big declarations, but so far they certainly seem promising as a candidate for when we hit that milestone!

Well, that rounds out all the news for now. Things are still rather in flux, but pieces are starting to fall into place. I'll be reaching out to mid-tier supporters for suggestions on names after this, so hopefully we can finally replace these placeholder names soon as well!

Cheers!