Progress Report

Howdy Patrons!

A quick update on how things are going with 0.31.

So, to recap, 0.31 was intended to contain a small chunk of story (owing to the delay of 0.30 which gave us only half a month to work with) with some technical improvements on the side to fill up any remaining time we had.

Well, it's the 30th right now, and... I'm still working on the story. Sigh. Don't worry though, I'm not expecting to have to delay, 99% sure I'll get it done on time! But as always, there's a good discussion around why it's taking so long, accompanied by good lessons to be learned. 

So the story content in 0.31 is intended to bridge the gap from the end of Day 15 to the sequence where the protagonist finally gets to give Tai his gift. Planning wise, it was mostly just transitory, events that would get the protagonist from Point A to Point B, and it was never expected to be particularly lengthy or in depth.

That last line is the problem. Perhaps as a consequence of all of the positive feedback to Day 15 which was by far our most wild and intricate drop of content yet, I've been trying to turn this transitory piece of story into something much more meaningful and profound. And while I know what I want to do, I don't necessarily know how I should do it. And to give you an idea of how that's panning out, the first sequence of the day has so far been rewritten three times over and I'm still not done with it. There's also a section later on which will require similar treatment, though I haven't even gotten back to that sequence yet, it's still in it's first draft state.

Which brings up the important consideration. Sure, I want to make Day 16's first half meaningful and intricate, but does it really need to be? The answer is no it does not. There is an idea I would like to explore as a part of it, but it doesn't need a massive and complicated sequence to achieve. Realistically, I could cut the entire thing back to something more simple and relaxed and it would work just fine. Hell, it could even be a good thing considering how dense and tight Day 15 and 16 otherwise are, you need time out from the tension and the drama. Too much of it can be exhausting, and can weigh down an otherwise fantastic plot.

So as of right now, I'm putting the final touches on the third rewrite of the introductory sequence. I've been working on this one scene for days now and I've made the commitment to myself that if the third rewrite doesn't work, I'm either scrapping the whole thing or pruning the heck out of it until it's something much more straight forward and to the point. Same goes for the rest of the content - if the next attempt to get that stuff right doesn't pan out, I'll strip out all the complexity and make it something simple and low-stakes. 

Restraint is important, and I would do well to remember that sometimes. Thankfully, a lot of what is fueling this slow grind of content is the current events in that content. By the end of Day 16, most of the complicated stuff will be out of the way, allowing for smooth(er) sailing over the remainder of the story, hopefully accompanied by an increase in the pace we're releasing content at! This is a fraction of the speed I'd like, but it's worth it if it makes these crucial days live up to everyone's expectations, my own included. If Day 17 progresses at a similar pace, I will be slapping myself and making damn sure that I take a step back and be less intricate and anal with it!

Anyway, with all that said, I'm feeling a lot better with the third intro rewrite. It's not perfect, but it manages to work a lot better than those that preceded it while still achieving the more complex goals I had for it. My hope is that I can produce a mostly completed second pass  version of the content today, giving it all a brief third pass tomorrow and sending it off to the team for review. Wish me luck!