Developer Blog: Home Sweet Home

I’m still editing and debugging this next update, but will do my best to post it before midnight PST. I realize this is down to the literal last second of my promised drop date, but this last week has been . . . not as productive as I would’ve wished.

(Explanation at the bottom of this post. But let’s talk about the positive first! Because my life, and especially my writing life, has a lot of good!)

The Positive:

I’ve started keeping track of my words written, more for my own self-satisfaction than any logistical purpose. The tally made me realize how much this Patreon has helped me meet my writing goals. Seriously, thank you so much!!

Despite having encountered some personal setbacks in February, it’s still been a really productive month. It’s only the 19th, and I’ve already wrote over 36,000 words of fiction (and that’s not even counting deleted content, like Gray’s scratched Cupid Calamity route)!

I realize that wordcounts may not come across as all that exciting to everyone, but I find it’s a helpful way to keep track of my progress when it comes to IF. In a regular novel, I’d set my goals in completed chapters . . . but a single chapter in Mind Blind can be over 40,000 words due to the divergent pathways and choices. Which is a lot of writing without feeling like I’ve really moved the plot forward. So I’ve taken a more mathy approach to measuring my progress.

Here’s a rounded breakdown of what I’ve typed in February:

8,000 words: K’s route in Cupid Calamity

4,000 words: Patreon side stories (saucy, and the upcoming short)

13,000 words: Mind Blind Chapter 7. This update will bring the total playable wordcount to 207,000 words—I’ll post average playthrough length when I update the demo, since right now there’s too many coding bugs for me to do Randomtest and get an estimate.

4,000 words: Commission stories for Hero Zeroes. (I’ll be sending out everything out all at once sometime next week, to best keep track of fulfilled tier rewards).

7,000 words: Mind Blind’s intervention scenes for depressed Buttons, tentatively set to occur in Chapter 9. I wanted to have the scene laid out so I knew what Button’s negative thoughts were building to (I do a lot of achronological writing).

If you play as a Button who is deeply depressed (constantly having thoughts of deep self-hatred, feelings of worthlessness, etc.) then there will be an intervention by the characters you have the highest stat scores with. This is unavoidable, for two reasons.

The first reason is that I believe it’s important to have a support network when you go through a hard time. Button isn’t less of a heroic protagonist if they have depression—not to trivialize something serious (although I’m irreverent towards everything), but the “tormented hero” is a trope for a reason. Someone who’s able to deal with their own turmoil and still save the world is inspiring. But I think it’s unrealistic to assume that people do it alone. Nick, Gray, Sally, K, Glitch . . . even Rosy are there to support Button and either provide them with or get them help.

Please note that this isn’t saying that all dark thoughts = bad! Morbidity and Resentment level have nothing to do with triggering the depression stat. But Mind Blind lets you fall pretty far into the abyss.

The second reason for the intervention is pure pragmatism. Mind Blind’s plot places the main character in an extremely dangerous situation. Rosy and Gray (whoops, spoilers!) will not approve Button for risky undercover work if they continually demonstrate a disregard for their own life. That particular pathway would not end well, and I am a platinum-card member of The HEA Club.

And if your Button is the most emotionally stable human being in existence, then that’s equally awesome! The emotional welfare arc is completely optional—Buttons not on that path will get alternate, more lighthearted scenes with Nick and the ROS.

Now, in regards to my semi-absence from social media . . .

Warning: Real World Shit Ahead

This week, I found out that my condo building will likely be deconverted. If, like me, you’ve never heard of this process before, it essentially amounts to this: In Chicago, investors can buy old condo buildings, without the permission of all the condo owners. Not to demolish the building, but to rent out the units as apartments and turn a profit. My building is from 1904, but it’s in a great location (within walking distance of Harold Washington Library, The Art Institute, and “Aeon”/Willis). Only 85% of owners need to agree to sell for the deconversion to happen, and with the pandemic . . . well, a lot of people want to sell their condos right now.

I get it. People are working remote and moving away from cities. The building has a coin laundry because the pipes are too old for in-unit washers and driers. The freight elevator rattles at midnight. Everything creaks.

But I love my place, haunted pipes and all. It’s my very first permanent home (having spent my twenties working abroad), and the prospect of losing it has me dejectedly doomscrolling through real estate sites looking at apartments instead of writing. Worst case scenario: I lose my home of under two years and move back with my mom until I can find a new place.

My brother’s been without power in Texas for several days, however, which is helping me keep things in perspective because at least I still have a charged laptop to write on (any readers suffering through winter storms right, please take care)! Moving so much sooner than I planned will be disappointing, and the possibility has thrown me for an emotional loop which makes writing a little harder. But it’s not, nor will it be, the end of the world. I’ll be fine, and hopefully get another Patron mini-update for Mind Blind out on February 28!