Writer's Blog: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Next Patreon Chapter: Chapter 9 (coming 4/28)

Current Wordcount: 286k

Average Playthrough: Unknown (I need to fix all the coding bugs in order to run random test, which gives me the average playthrough length)

Chapter 9 is coming Wednesday! The entire chapter should be playable from beginning to end, although I'll probably hold off on including some of the alternative scenes. (Low-relationship Nick route, for example, needs tweaking.)

Warning: Spoilers from Chapter 8's cliffhanger ahead.

Chapter 9 is about Nick. More specifically, it's about Button and Nick, and what their relationship looks like going forward. How Button behaves in Chapter 9 (including but not limited to their immediate reaction to Rosy's revelation) will determine how Nick treats them going forth.

Other than Nick's overall relationship score, which will continue to impact flavor dialogue, there will be a new, invisible variable recorded. I don't want to say too much about this variable, because I'd rather let its impact on the story speak for itself. But I will warn those wanting to play out a reconciliation arc between low-relationship Button and Nick: this is the deciding point. Either jump on that plotline now, or you'll forever lose the opportunity.

I realize that I talk about Nick a lot in these blogs, but the relationship between him and Button, whether good or ill or six feet below, is central to Mind Blind. Yes, there are romances and those romances are also super important. But it's possible to play Mind Blind without romancing any of the ROs. Nick, however, is essential. Because at its core, Mind Blind is a game about family bonds, and whether those bonds are broken, reinforced, or reforged.

Whereas Chapter 8 was about establishing the logistics of Operation Hemera, Chapter 9 accomplishes two main tasks. First, it finally begins the Operation. Not much to detail about that, because it would require summarizing the plot when I'd rather you all read it and give feedback. The second task of Chapter 9 is equally important: it establishes Button's mental state. There have been hints of it so far, but in general things have been happening at too break neck a pace for Button to take a step back and simply react.

In Chapter 9, you get to react.

Button can scream or Button can pretend to be fine. Maybe Button compartmentalizes. Maybe they're excited by the risk. Or maybe they realize that they're trapped in a plotline so absurd that there's nothing left to do but laugh.

Currently, the intervention for “depressed Buttons” is coded to occur in this chapter, although I might bump it back to Chapter 10 depending on where my edits take me (it might be more impactful if this intervention happens after Button behaves recklessly in-mission). If your Button doesn’t trigger the intervention, there are alternative scenes with either your chosen RO or Sally/K. The routes will be different, but of equal length and importance.

I admit, some of Chapter 9’s scenes have wrung me emotionally dryer than a squeezed sponge. It’s one of writing’s most exquisite aches—pouring everything inside onto the page until I’m parched and hollow. Which sounds . . . at the very least pretentiously Byronian and at the worst ghoulish but is actually quite cathartic (albeit draining).

Thus, I’ve taken the night off teaching and am instead recharging with a book in bed (thank you Patreon so much for allowing me to do this!). Add a Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate bar, and I’ll be ready for more editing come morning.