(triple checking the spelling so people know i am currently lacking patience and am not, currently, stuck in a hospital)

Hi everyone! I hope you had a good February. I had a huge surge in downloads near the beginning of this month, which was really nice! I hope people enjoyed the demo. A few people said they played it multiple times, which is wild to me. I hope you also enjoy the full game!

Progress has been pretty much entirely writing. I got a little stuck with act 3 of the game, mostly because I don’t think I had a strong idea going into it of what the arc of the story should be. I wrote and rewrote two different sequences for this arc, and at one point just considered skipping it altogether, but I think I have a more solid idea of where it's going now. And then we’re in the fourth and final act, which I understand much better.

I actually would like to talk a bit about the process of SCRAPPING. By which I mean: my rule of thumb is that whenever you get stuck, you should cut out what you’re currently working on and see if the problem is a few paragraphs back. The way I do this is by disconnecting the current branch I’m working on, and then moving it over.

See the blocks that aren’t connected to anything? Those are scrapped. I keep them there so if I want to grab dialogue or description from those bits, or if I realize the scene works & I just need to put it here instead, I can do that! I highly recommend working like this. The sunk cost fallacy is a real bastard, and can make you think “I spent three days writing this! Is it all a waste?” but it’s best to remember no time is wasted, you might use that work again, and even if you don’t, think of it as good practice. I think a lot of people also get nervous about scrapping a scene they really like, and that they can’t write something that good a second time, but I think that’s silly! The work you write isn’t a stroke of divine genius, it is a skill you have cultivated. If you did it once, you can do it again! 

Anyways, after that little monologue, I also wanted to talk about how I’ve been feeling lately, which is: impatient!

(i check the spelling again)

I’m a very impulsive person. I like movement and momentum and I am very bad at waiting. That’s made this last stretch of writing kind of hellish, because writing is slow, and it’s hard to feel like it’s progress because it’s not the game, right? Like I still gotta put this shit in the damn engine, and then after it’s in the engine I gotta draw all of it, and program it, and make sure it doesn’t break the game, and then add any tweaks to the dialogue that I need, and, etc etc.

Which is to say: wow, I wish this game was out already! If someone just handed me a button that would just finish the writing for me, I can’t say it wouldn’t be tempting!

I mean, the solution is: the rest of this game is going to be fun to write. I’ve saved my dessert for last, and I’m very excited for the rest of the game to coalesce into the Big Theme. But also, I’m kicking my legs and yelling the whole time, because I want to be done. So I’m having fun, but I’m also throwing a fit. You know how it is.

CURRENT PROGRESS: God it was fucking dire but I DID manage to hit 5000 words for the month: current wordcount at 47,197! We are about one third through the third act, which is reassuring since like two different paths got scrapped. I found a way to approach the third act that I like, so hopefully writing goes a little smoother in March.

Thank you for reading! As always, if you have any questions for me or things you would like me to explain, please don’t hesitate to ask! We’re pretty firmly in the period where all my updates from now till the writing is done are just “I wrote this month”, so I’m happy if there’s anything more interesting you’d like me to discuss.

See you next month!