Another good day

I'm very happy with the amount of work I've gotten done so far today and I think I should be able to work on the game for a couple more hours yet. The game is starting to feel more alive with nearly all of the item, character and room descriptions completed. I'm now focusing my writing on one of the more complicated spells in the game (in terms of its variable results and alternative texts) and then I get to write on the good stuff: the sex! There is a significant amount of sex text to write (which should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever looked at my gallery on the Hypnopics Collective), with lots of alternative scenes depending on how the player approaches their target.

I'm still debating the music issue. I'm currently leaning more towards not including it since I'm not telling a strictly linear story, so there is a risk the music will actually jar with the mood. Ambiotic sound would probably be better since the music was more for the location than the story but I haven't got anything suitable.

Anyways, back to work!

Good progress today

I managed to get a decent amount of writing accomplished today as well as sharpening up a few of the image features in the game. I discovered one bug that is proving to be a bit of a head scratcher, but fortunately it is only related to a minor programming feature that I can always do without if I can't find a reasonable solution.

The file size currently sits at 15MB with 147 images. I'm toying with the idea of adding music to the game (I found a couple of tracks that I think fits the general mood) but doing so would easily add another 10MB to the file size. I know in modern times that isn't very much, especially when compared to other RAGs games, but I kind of want to show that games don't need to be 100+MB if a little thought is put into 'art' design. I'll have to think about it for a while.

Play, write, play, write

I've started on some initial alpha testing to see how the game is playing at the moment and help me find all of the descriptions, dialogue, etc. that I need to complete. This is definitely the part I find most difficult for two reasons:

1. I am very slow at writing. I struggle to find the right words and the process just drags on forever. Many a project has been killed by my inability to get my writing to flow.

2. I have a really bad tendency, and I mean really bad tendency, to expand on my ideas exponentially. I 'accidently' added 5 more rooms a couple of days ago and when I tried to stop myself from getting so carried away the game felt empty without them.

Hopefully I can find the discipline to see myself through what is going to be a very tough couple of weeks to keep this game on track. I'll keep you all posted on how that goes!

New site... again

I've moved my blog to this new address since I'm no longer focusing on just Slut Royale. I need to add a few more things into the side bar and more details on Souls of Gaia, but otherwise the new blog is up and running. Comments are enabled for anonymous users now so feel free to say hello!

Another screen from the introduction to Souls of Gaia

Todays Target

My goal for today is to get all of the mechanics finished for Chapter 1 of Souls of Gaia. Once that is finished all I'll have left to do is a few more images and fleshing out the descriptions and dialogue. I have my coffee and a location where I can concentrate for several undistrubed hours. Let's do this!

Edit: Just had a major crash due to overheat. Fortunately I didn't lose anything in the RAGs file and appeared to have only corrupted one photoshop file. I think I need to invest in a laptop fan, but it's hard to find one that fits a wide laptop (I have a full dektop keyboard on my laptop, that's how wide it is).

Edit2: Making decent progress. Most of the mechanics are done. Just working on a tricky bit right now, and then I just have to implement the parts that trigger the end of the chapter. I have to stop for a while to get some other work done, but I should be back on this tonight.

Final Edit: Thanks to a power cut, I won't be finishing all of the mechanics today. I'm going to focus on finishing the remaning images and filling in some of the text tomorrow before I get back to working on RAGs logic again.

Souls of Gaia

I decided to create a new RAGs file to experiment with art styles (ie. overlays) and some new tricks with timers and setting variables in javascript to help get my creative juices flowing while I plan out the rest of Slut Royale. It worked. Sort of.

My creative juices have definitely started to flow. What started as an experiment has turned into 106 images (and counting), several characters, a plot and several methods of completing a single goal. In short, I have a new game on my hands. At the moment I'm calling it Souls of Gaia and I'll be changing this blog to reflect the development of both games. I haven't got anything ready for release just yet, but I will be looking for some beta testers in a few weeks. If you're interested then just let me know in the comments below.

An image from the intro to Souls of Gaia

I'm not sure if I should feel ashamed for losing focus on Slut Royale, or be happy that I've achieved so much in just a couple of weeks. Considering I'm doing all of this just for fun, I think I'll focus on the latter emotions.

Creative writing

I've been experimenting with RAGs logic/javascript, graphical overlays and writing over the past couple of weeks to help the creative juices flow. Of the three parts required to make a game in RAGs (excluding the 'optional' design part), I definitely find writing to be the most difficult part. I don't know what it is, but I've always struggled to write. Whether its creative writing, technical writing or basic communication I always agonise over the choice of my words and end up being very concise, which is the antithesis of descriptive writing!

I've been reading a book on creative writing to try and improve that area. The book talks a lot about identifying themes, character traits and so on which I understand very well. Unfortunately where I fall down is converting the concept into actual prose. I agonise over the sentence structure and word choices, never feeling confident about what I do manage to write down. My perfectionism ends up paralysing me because I have no idea if I'm even close to having something 'good'. I got top grades in English at school, but I'll be damned if I know a single thing about it.