Writer's Blog . . . And Another Mini Update

First off, I'm so sorry for taking so long to get all of Chapter 8 out! The current build is now 232,000 words and includes of all of Sally's scene (including the potential initiation of Nick and Sally's romance pathway). I kept second guessing the backstory creation portions, but I'm happy with what I've finally settled on because I feel it achieves that tenuous balance of player choice and plot cohesion. The rest of Chapter 8 will be uploaded as soon as I'm done fleshing out the remaining three scenes.

For now, the updated demo can be found here: https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/project-dingo/mygame/

Initially, Chapter 8 was going to bring the total wordcount up to 235k, but my rewrites have already added another 6,000 words. Your interaction on Podium now goes into much greater detail, with Button typing entire responses to old posts. (Did I use Reddit to investigate examples of what Podium rants might look like? Yes. Yes I did.)

For Sally's route, I also added a callback to how Button responded during the Chapter 3 explosion. You can double down on Button's initial reaction, or acknowledge if your feelings have changed. Please let me know if anyone feels like their relationship with Nick isn't accurately represented!

Some of the feedback I received in regards to Nick and Sally's subplot is that readers weren't feeling like Nick was romantically attached to Sally (which he isn't if Button has a crush on Sally, but is if Button and Sally are purely platonic friends). I rewrote the scene where Button can chose to begin encouraging their relationship, utilizing the odd overlap of Button's and Nick's emotions that's been starting to occur in order for Button to realize Nick's feelings. This does mean that Button will be aware that Nick has a crush on Sally even if the player doesn't desire to set the two up (this isn't an issue at all if Button is romancing Sally, of course). 

That being said, I did my best to ensure that there's absolutely no guilt should you decide not to encourage their relationship. The timing isn't optimal, and unless you pick the "jubilant" option, their romance won't progress in-game. There will be one other chance to trigger the "Snickly" variable later on, but only if you go with Glitch as your MIV in this chapter and miss the first trigger moment completely. I'm trying to be careful not to force this relationship on players--it's very much intended to be a fun romantic sideplot, initially conceived of for readers who prefer not to personally romance ROs themselves but still want a little romance in their story.

I admit to having a lot of anxiety about handling the Sally/Nick subplot since it's already been rewritten and moved from it's initial location in Chapter 3. The delay was definitely the right decision, but it adds pressure to execute the scene right this time. So your feedback would be extremely helpful! For those romancing Sally, please let me know if you feel like there's not enough acknowledgement of your new relationship.

In addition to expanding upon Chapter 8, I've been redistributing the stats throughout the entire book, beginning from Chapter 1 (this version isn't up since it'll wipe everyone's saves). There are some issues that I recently became aware of, like the ability to achieve negative numbers in some personality stats when the only stat that should break the 1-100 mold is Nick's affection. Retweaking these numbers has also let me add some more specific flavor texts throughout, which will be available when I eventually post Mind Blind's entire rework for beta reading/testing. I keep changing my mind as to when, precisely, this will happen because it will wipe everyone's savefiles . . . but I'll give advance warning before it happens, and will be adding in a quick quiz that will let you start from one of the later chapters.

I'll be posting a monthly roadmap sometime next week (once Chapter 8 is fully published, I'll be able to better predict when Chapter 9 should release). That being said, Gray's route in Cupid Calamity will finally release this month! It's very time-travelly and "what happens to true love when it's not remembered??" and GUYS I LOVE IT.