Another Day in Woodcrest - Part 1

Howdy, Patrons! There's no rest for the wicked, as they say, and work has begun in earnest on next months update!

I've talked before about how and why the days in Tai's Route have ended up so much longer and more detailed than those in Diego's. Day 17 of Tai's Route is literally ten times longer than the average day in Diego's, weighing in at 91k words! Diego's route in it's entirety is only 134k words! Not only that, but they're produced to a much higher standard with far more attention to detail, and contain a ton of small nuances, call backs, foreshadowing and more besides on account of considerably more extensive planning, not just for the day but for the route as a whole.

Of course, with so much detail and so much heft, new processes have needed to be developed in order to achieve the best results and ensure development proceeds as smoothly as possible. These processes are constantly changing and evolving, but this month, I'm going to pull back the curtain a little and detail the current process in practice as I begin work on Day 18!

We've been working on Day 17 for a whopping three months now with Chapters 1 and 2 releasing in October, 3 - 5 in November and finally 6 - 8 in December. Which is to say it's been a little while since I've found myself starting from step one at the beginning of a brand new day. Honestly, I'm quite excited to get dug in and to see what Day 18 will ultimately contain!

The entirety of Tai's Route has been planned out for a long long time now with the key events clearly marked along the way. The existing plan for Day 18 already spans several pages, and this only covers the core of what the day will contain.

My first task in starting development on Day 18 is to create an all new plan specifically for Day 18, replacing the existing one. The key details will be carried over while being worked in with brand new ideas, inspirations and themes. In particular, there is a particular theme I want to work into the day, as well as a couple of weird and wacky ideas that may or may not make the cut. One of them will result in a small special scene consisting of only a couple of images - check the build once it releases and see if it made it in!

One thing I want to work in especially is a key theme born from specific feedback we've received from players relating to latter events on Day 17. The key details remain entirely unchanged, but will now be accompanied by a specific theme which I'm hoping will address that feedback in-universe, albeit posthumously. 

Taking all these ideas and inspirations and combining them with the key events from the existing plan will produce a detailed blow-by-blow summary of Day 18 with every notable detail in place, divided into chapters and adjusted for flow. This will act as a birds eye view of the day as a whole which I will then present to the team and we will adjust and tweak accordingly. 

Once that's finished, the next stage will be to begin the actual writing stage using that plan as a foundation, or a sort of writing prompt almost. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First thing is first. Build a plan for Day 18 which will knock your socks off! 

Part 2 will come later in the month! Stay tuned!

PS: I will make sure Day 18 is not as long as Day 17.

PPS: Watch it be longer. Lol...