Progress Report (...?)

Hey, y'all.

Sorry it's been a hot minute since the last progress update. I've been meaning to check in, but there just hasn't been all that much progress to speak of. Like with last month, it's been kind of slow going and I've spent some time sort of soul searching and trying to work out why that might be. I don't have any conclusive answers, but I think it's at least fair to say that  Tai's Route has been in development for far, far too long at this stage. 

Diego's route took a mere five months to complete, and while I was never satisfied with the results, at least it was fast moving. Overall I'm much more satisfied with the overall results in Tai's Route, but as of the last update we've cracked the 400k words (!) milestone and tripled the length of Diego's route and we're not even done yet!

Satisfied as I may be, I'm also... kind of desperate to work on something else for a change. Completing scenes approaching the conclusion of Tai's Route just feels like ticking boxes at this point and the last thing I want is to come this far only to screw up the finale simply because I'd overworked myself getting there. I will sooner defer completion of the route to a later date than allow that to happen, and with how things are at the moment, that is very much a possibility.

Actually, I suppose it's more complicated than that. I'm still working out the final details for 18x3 which shouldn't be far from finally reaching completion and honestly... it's good. Really good. I'm actually very pleased with it. It's packed wall to wall with gags and banter, slips some crucial exposition under the radar for later on and offers some closure to a few existing plot points. It does all it needs to and manages to be throroughly entertaining all the while... but it has also taken me several weeks of forcing myself to grind away at it to achieve that and at that pace, I don't really know if it's worth it. 

I'm still trying to crack the code on exactly what is impeding my process, but I feel as though I've simply burnt out on this route and lost my passion for it somewhere along the way. It's not to say I'm not passionate about the rest of the story and wrapping things up, rather I'm just not passionate about the steps involved in doing all that. I'm writing ideas that have been planned out for months at least, if not over a year, and that's when I could be writing something I'm more actively inspired by which I suspect would see my issues with timely progress vanish entirely. Where Tai's plot is at, lots of boxes need to be ticked and the overall events must be fairly rigid to have everything happen that needs to in order for the conclusion to occur. It's hard work, and it's tiring, and being sick of that rigid process is my best guess for what's going wrong, at least at the moment.

It's difficult to say how the rest of the month will play out. If things turn around and I manage to release an amount of content I'm satisfied with then perhaps I will continue as I have been. After all, we're on the final stretch. It'd be a real shame to stop now. But if my progress continues to be hindered, I'll put these final days of the route on the backburner next month and instead make a point to exclusively pursue whatever I find most exciting and whatever reignites my passion the most. As for what that could be... who knows? Maybe I'll start working on one of the tales? Perhaps I'll lay the ground work for the remaining routes and have the beginnings of both available side by side? Or perhaps I'll decide the time is right to completely rewrite the intro section of the game to be more representative of the level of quality recent content has maintained? I guess if it comes to that, we'll find out for sure come next month.

Anyway, 18x3 must be completed today come hell or high water. I'm sick of it looming over my head! I'll finish it today, or so help me god. And as for 18x4... well, fuck. Wish me luck?