1/4 Status Update

It's a new year! And as usually happens, I'm busy with the same projects and obligations I had at the end of last year. Not that I'm complaining, I'm enjoying my current slate of games. Especially Netoria Tactics 2, that's really fun right now.

Currently, I'm with my Dad on a trip to his hometown. Exactly six years ago I was on this same new years trip, working on the first version of Naked Ambition. I'm pretty sure I was writing that first ball scene at the time. And here I am in 2026 writing scenes at the end of the game instead of the beginning. Six years is a long time to be working on a single creative project, especially for me.

When I was getting Naked Ambition up and running again, the main doubt I had about it was that long length of time. I'm a different person with different interests and sensibilities than when I first started the game. The content of my games are pretty strictly determined by what I find interesting and want to write and explore at the time. So finishing Naked Ambition is a little like finishing off someone else's project. I have to be faithful to what 2019 Apollo Seven envisioned and designed. None of this are me saying things aren't going well or trying to make an excuse for how much time it's taking. Just musings on the passage of time.

My plan of stick to one route has been a good one I think and I'm getting fairly close to having a fully fleshed out version of one route of the last few weeks of the game. As long as I keep pressing forward, it will be done at some point. Something something turtle, something something hare. Naked Ambition development is solidly on team turtle right now.

And on the hare side of things, work on Vashti's POV has been fast and furious. I'm very happy with what I've written so far. I've been trying to figure out the best pacing for the act, and I think I might end up reducing the number of levels a bit. The current plan is nine, and the way the system works it needs to be an odd number. That means the next smallest number of levels there could be is seven. The biggest reasons to reduce it are that I don't think I really need that much space to tell the story I'm going for, and I think the mechanics might not be able to sustain nine levels. While the naughty/nice system is interesting, I'm worried that by the end it might be just tedious. Nine levels are also stretching the limits of the skill system. Two more levels are another level up with a new slot and another round of things you can unlock. Right now I've written the story of the first four levels, which is why I'm pretty sure I can get the story of the Act done in seven. But we'll see, I haven't decided either way.

I think that the POV system really proves its worth in what I've been writing for Act 2. Most of this stuff wouldn't have worked in the narrative system Netoria 1 used. But now I can just write whatever I want and not have to worry about how it integrates or interacts with anything else. I can make specific events that have no narrative purpose besides showing how much of a bastard Kamaal is, or cause Vashti anxiety for what Kamaal might do to Danya. The route I thought would need the most levels to build up was the villain path for Vashti, but because I've been able to put so much of it in the levels, the scenes don't need to carry as much narrative load. This should carry over to the other POVs as well. As long as I don't mess it up, Act 2 of Netoria Tactics 2 should be pretty darn good.

That's all for this week. As always, thank you for your continued support.